ROUSSEAU'S WORKS

The Complete Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau are currently available in five volumes in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade . This edition, published under the patronage of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Society and with the support of the Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research and the Republic and Canton of Geneva, is presented as follows (we indicate after each title the name of the person responsible for establishing and annotating the text):

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Volume I  (1959)

The Confessions - Other autobiographical texts

The volume contains  Confessions  (Bernard Gagnebin and Marcel Raymond),  Rousseau judge of Jean-Jacques  (Robert Osmont)  The Reveries of the Solitary Walker  (Marcel Raymond), and fragments and autobiographical documents.

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Volume II (1964)

La Nouvelle Héloïse - Theater - Poems - Literary essays

The volume contains  The New Heloise  (text drawn up by Henri Coulet and annotated by Bernard Guyon), Rousseau's theater (Jacques Scherer), a set comprising  Ballets, Pastoral, Poetry, Tales and apologues  as well as  Mixtures of literature and morals  (Charly Guyot).

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Volume III (1964)

On the Social Contract - Political Writings

The volume contains the  Discourse on the sciences and the arts  (Francois Bouchardy), the  Discourse on the origin and foundations of inequality  (Jean Starobinski), the  Discourse on Political Economy ,  Of the social contract  and the political fragments (Robert Derathé), the  Writings on the Abbé de Saint-Pierre  (Sven Stelling-Michaud), the  Letters written from the mountain  (Jean-Daniel Candaux), the  Draft constitution for Corsica  (Sven Stelling-Michaud), the  Considerations on the government of Poland  (Jean Fabre), the  Dispatches from Venice  (Jean-Daniel Candaux), and these three texts which are the  Fragment on Liberty , the  Parallel of Socrates and Cato  and  War and state of war  (Bernard Gagnebin).

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Volume IV (1969)

Émile – Education – Ethics – Botany

The volume contains the  Memoir presented to M. de Mably on the education of his son  (John S. Spink),  Émile , Favre manuscript (John S. Spink),  Emile or education  and  Emile and Sophie  (texts drawn up by Charles Wirz and annotated by Pierre Burgelin), the  Letter to Christophe de Beaumont , the  Fragments on God and on Revelation , the  Letter to Voltaire , the  Moral Letters , The  Notes on Of the Spirit , the  Letter to Franquières  (Henri Gouhier), and finally the  Letters on Botany  and the  Fragments for a dictionary of terms used in botany  (Roger de Vilmorin).

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Volume V (1995)

Writings on music, language and theater

The volume contains  To M. D'Alembert  (better known as the title  Letter to D'Alembert on the spectacles , drawn up by Bernard Gagnebin and annotated by Jean Rousset), the  Project concerning new signs for music  and the  modern music essay  (texts established by Bernard Gagnebin and annotated by Sidney Kleinman), the  Letter on Italian and French Opera , the  Letter to Mr. Grimm regarding remarks added to his letter on Omphale , the  Letter from a symphonist of the Royal Academy of Music to his comrades in the orchestra and the Letter on French music  (Olivier Pot)  The origin of the melody  (Marie-Élisabeth Duchez), Examination of two principles put forward by M. Rameau  (Olivier Pot), Essay on the origin of languages  (Jean Starobinski), the  Letter to Mr. Burney  and the Extract from a response from the little maker on Gluck's Orpheus  (Olivier Pot), two fragments ( On the riches  and  On taste ) as well as historical texts (Bernard Gagnebin), scientific texts (Pierre Speziali) and, of course, the  music dictionary  (text established and presented by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, with the collaboration of Samuel Baud-Bovy, Brenno Boccadoro and Xavier Bouvier).

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Note that a new critical edition, chronological this time, of the Complete Works of Rousseau is being published by Éditions Classiques Garnier with the support of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Society.