Author
Jean-Jacques Rousseau is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, published essays, journals, and manuscripts (1826–1847). 4 distinct works are named, most often in The Dial, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “analyzed”.
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
“December 17, 1829.—The following instance of beautiful credulity, in Rousseau, has taken my mind greatly”
Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli · December 17, 1829
Dated journal entry (Dec 17, 1829) with explicit first-person engagement, 'has taken my mind greatly,' about a specific passage in Rousseau.
“the Librarian of the Chamber of Deputies to show her the manuscripts of Rousseau, which she found just as he has celebrated them”
Mem-4 Margaret Fuller by Julia Ward Howe · her Paris visit, winter 1846-47
Specific, dated (Paris winter 1846-47) episode of Fuller being shown and examining Rousseau's manuscripts firsthand.
“Blessed be the early days when I sat at the feet of Rousseau, sad & stately as any of Jewry Prophet. Every onward movement of the age, every downward step into the solemn depths of my own soul, recals thy oracles, oh Jean Jacques.”
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
“I met with a parallel the other day between Byron and Rousseau, and had a mind to send it to you, it was so excellent.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Inferred Hudspeth identified the Rousseau reference may well be to his Confessions, though no specific text is named in the letter itself.
“The following instance of beautiful credulity in Rousseau has taken my mind greatly.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Journal Entry December 1829." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086.
Inferred Fuller names Rousseau as the source of the anecdote but does not name the Confessions by title. Title inferred. Fuller attributes the anecdote explicitly to Rousseau by surname and quotes his words at length.
Fuller attributes the anecdote explicitly to Rousseau by surname and quotes his words at length. Rousseau elsewhere discusses Tasso's personal tragedy (Tasso's own persecution and imprisonment), which deepened his identification with the poet.
“The following instance of beautiful credulity, in Rousseau, has taken my mind greatly... 'Tasso,' says Rousseau, 'had predicted my misfortunes.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
“He is making himself as completely responsible for his children as Rousseau would have been for his Emilias for he and his coadjutor Miss R.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Inferred She names Rousseau explicitly; the title is inferred through the character names from Émile (1762), as as Hudspeth identified.
“Blessed be the early days when I sat at the feet of Rousseau, sad & stately as any of Jewry Prophet.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notes on Balzac, George Sand, De Vigny, and Béranger." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
“Its sad changes should be written out in Godwin's best manner: such are the themes he loved, as did also Rousseau.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
“Rousseau his position With regard to us. I would fain do my very best here / An excellent chapter in Villemain on Rousseau”
Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1840." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (85); Box 5 (85).
“Not Werther, not the Nouvelle Heloise, have been assailed with such a storm of indignation as the first-named of these works [Elective Affinities], on the score of gross immorality.”
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p48
“A girl, such as I was, with a head full of Hamlet, and Rousseau, and the ballads of chivalry, is not inclined to idealize lawyers and members of Congress and father's friends”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.
Inferred Though she read widely in Rousseau—including Confessions, Nouvelle Héloïse, and Émile—no specific title is identified here.
“That truth which Rousseau sought so painfully and vainly by self-brooding, subtle analysis, they attained without an effort.”
Also reprinted in Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Counted once, at its first appearance.
Fuller, Margaret. "Italy." New-York Daily Tribune, 13 November 1845. · 13 November 1845
“This is her chief charm, and, next to it, is one in which we know no French writer that resembles her, except Rousseau, though he, indeed, is vastly her superior in it.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Review." New-York Daily Tribune, 1 February 1845. · 1 February 1845
“there was yet no distracted jargon of ‘abolishing Capital Punishments,’ of Jean-Jacques Philanthropy, and universal rose-water in this world still so full of sin.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches . . ." New-York Daily Tribune, 19 December 1845. · 19 December 1845
Passages surviving only in the posthumous Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, compiled by Emerson, Channing, and Clarke.
“In a passionate love-struggle she wrestled thus with the genius of De Staël, of Rousseau, of Alfieri, of Petrarch.”
Inferred Margaret Fuller engaged with the revolutionary thought and emotive intensity of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose works Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse and Les Confessions profoundly shaped the romantic and philosophical landscape. Rousseau" signifies a deep, personal wrestling with his ideas, echoing the confessional and sentimental traditions prevalent in her Cambridge studies.
“while she knew Molière, and Rousseau, and any quantity of French letters, memoirs, and novels”
Inferred Among the French literary figures Margaret Fuller knew well, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is explicitly named, appearing alongside "French letters, memoirs, and novels" in biographical accounts. Fuller's own extensive engagement with Rousseau's Confessions demonstrates her familiarity with his work.
“December 17, 1829. — The following instance of beautiful credulity, in Rousseau, has taken my mind greatly. [...] 'Tasso,' says Rousseau, 'has predicted my misfortunes.”
Inferred Margaret Fuller engaging with Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Les Confessions in December 1829 found a passage regarding Torquato Tasso particularly striking, noting that Rousseau declared Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata possessed a singular organic unity.
“Blessed be the early days when I sat at the feet of Rousseau, prophet sad and stately as any of Jewry!”
Inferred Though she names the author, no specific work is identified, suggesting a general engagement with his philosophy rather than a singular text.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.