Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Book 7, 1747-1749 Summary

  • It's crunch time for Rousseau. He needs to find a livelihood for himself and Therese.
  • In 1747, Rousseau and Therese go to hang out at a royal mansion as the guests of M. Dupin. You know, as you do.
  • While Rousseau is getting fat off the good food, Therese is gaining weight of a slightly different kind. Yes, Therese is pregnant. And yes, Rousseau cracks this exact off-color joke about how both of them are gaining weight.
  • The baby is born without incident. Rousseau's thrilled to be a father.
  • Around this time, Rousseau starts meeting up again with his pals Diderot and M. Roguin.
  • Diderot is hard at work writing The Encyclopaedic Dictionary. That's a huge project, FYI.
  • Diderot lands in the slammer after publishing some blasphemous works.
  • Rousseau is particularly upset about Diderot's imprisonment.
  • His imagination runs wild thinking about how awful jail must be.