Fool's Wisdom or Death and Transfiguration of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Fool's Wisdom or Death and Transfiguration of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a historical novel by Lion Feuchtwanger published in 1952 . The time frame spanned from the last months of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's life in 1778 to the ceremonial transfer of his body to the Paris Panthéon in 1794.

action

The Marquis René Louis de Girardin found out through a letter that the philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whom he admired, was going to accept his invitation to spend his retirement years with him on the Ermenonville estate . From then on, Rousseau lived with his wife Thérèse and their mother in a summer house, located in the park laid out according to Rousseau's ideas of the Marquis . In this, the philosopher had a brief encounter with the student Maximilien Robespierre . Thérèse is described as simple-minded, dull and sensual, she gets involved in an affair with Nicolas, an English servant of the Marquis. Fernand, the son of the Marquis and as ardent admirer of the philosopher as his father, cannot escape the erotic charisma of Thérèse either.

Thérèse Levasseur, Rousseau's widow, with Muff, in the background his tomb on the poplar island in the park of Ermenonville . After a sepia by Caroline Naudet

One day Jean-Jacques lies dead in his house, a bloody wound on his right temple. Although everything points to a murder by Nicolas, his wife's lover, a stroke is recorded as the cause of death. Jean-Jacques Rousseau is buried on an island in the park. When doubts about the cause of death arise again, Marie Antoinette personally visits the tomb of Jean-Jacques, which silences these rumors.

Nicolas tries to appropriate Rousseau's handwriting, but can be kept at a distance for the time being by Madame Levasseur, the mother of Thérèse . Fernand, plagued by his guilty conscience, decides to go to America on his own and join the independence fighters under George Washington in the name of Jean-Jacques .

Rousseau's final resting place becomes a place of pilgrimage for important scholars and aristocrats. After seven years Fernand returns with war injuries and acquired estates in the West Indian Territories. He immediately began to get involved in the movement that eventually led to the French Revolution . Fernand becomes a member of the National Assembly and tries to enforce the teachings of Rousseau according to his understanding. However, Rousseau's ideas are increasingly radicalized by individual groups.

In the course of time, the Girardins, as "former" nobles, were met with increasing distrust. Robespierre takes over and sets up his terror regime. Finally, the Girardins are also suspected of being enemies of the Republic. The old marquis is placed under house arrest and has to watch an angry mob damage the park and Rousseau's grave. Fernand, defying all warnings out of conviction, is sent to La Bourbe prison . Despite the risk of being guillotined , he continues to stand firm in defending the teachings of Rousseau. At the behest of his old friend enemy , the Jacobin Martin Catrou, the Girardin family is rehabilitated.

The novel ends with the solemn transfer of Rousseau's remains to the Panthéon .

backgrounds

The novel ties in with the uncertain circumstances of Rousseau's death. The thesis that Rousseau committed suicide is also explicitly addressed by Madame de Staël . But Rousseau could also have fallen victim to the jealousy and greed of his wife's lover.

Feuchtwanger assumes this, but shifts his assumption into the fictional by opting for the historical novel. Part of the plot serves to make understandable why none of the participants had an interest in making the truth about this shameful end of the equally great and controversial philosopher, composer and author public. Feuchtwanger shows how the veneration of Rousseau leads to completely different political consequences in the different layers of society - Fernand de Girardin, the hero of the book, is just as ardent a Rousseauist as Vincent Huret, who puts him in prison, yes, even Marie- Antoinette, the queen pays homage to the prophet of naturalness and is guillotined by the Jacobins on his behalf.

At the same time, Feuchtwanger, in his endeavor to develop understanding for the Jacobin terror, is working through his own internal confrontation with the Stalinist terror. The description of life in La Bourbe prison during the revolution is one of the strongest passages in the novel. Alejo Carpentier's El siglo de las luces is preparing the inclusion of the Caribbean region during the revolution .

characters

Historical

Fictitious

  • Fernand de Girardin, Count Brégy (merging of the four historical sons of the Marquis Girardin)
  • Monsieur Robinet, general tax farmer and businessman
  • Gilberte Robinet de LaTour, Monsieur Robinet's granddaughter, Fernand's fiancée
  • Mathieu de Courcelles, Gilbert's husband
  • Marie-Sidonia, daughter of Gilberte and Mathieu
  • Eugénie Maillart, actress, performer of "Reason", lover of Le Peletier
  • François Remont, sergeant, half-brother of Thérèse Levasseur
  • Martin Catrou, Jacobin, friend and adversary of Fernand
  • Vincent Huret, Jacobin, Mayor of Senlis
  • Maître Gibert, lawyer in Senlis

criticism

Iring Fetscher (1977): Lion Feuchtwanger's Rousseau novel does not lay claim to the writing of scientific history, and yet it is better able than many specialist books to bring Rousseau's life to life in his social environment during the last years of his life as a guest of the Marquis de Girardin. Certainly, the novelist has allowed himself some liberties, but he has reproduced the basic facts correctly, as far as we can do that today. Far more important than the reconstruction of the life, suffering and death of the lonely philosopher is the extremely successful illustration of the history of the thinker's impact, which Lion Feuchtwanger has woven into his novel.

expenditure

  • First edition: Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt am Main 1952, bound in red linen, 484 pp.
  • Goverts, Frankfurt am Main 1978, with an afterword by Iring Fetscher , ISBN 3-7740-0478-1 .
  • Collected Works in Individual Volumes Vol. 14: Aufbau, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-351-02215-8 .
  • Paperback: Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-7466-5015-1 .
  • Library of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, vol. 88. Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-86615-538-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adrian Lobe: Stroke or Murder? In: Stories - Wiener Zeitung Online . ( wienerzeitung.at [accessed on November 8, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Lettres sur le caractère et les écrits de Jean-Jacques Rousseau p. 123.