WorkJean-Jacques Rousseau
Les Confessions [Confessions] (written c. 1765–1770; published posthumously 1782–1789) Inferred
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) · written 1765-70; published posthumously 1782-89
InferredFuller's characterization of Rousseau's method of self-analysis as "self-brooding, subtle analysis" clearly refers to the Confessions, Rousseau's autobiography. Though not explicitly named, the Confessions is the work overwhelmingly associated with this method.
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Documented 1826–1845
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Letters • Books • Journals
Selected engagements, in chronological order.
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had this 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.
“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.
“That truth which Rousseau sought so painfully and vainly by self-brooding, subtle analysis, they attained without an effort.”
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p97
Inferred Fuller's characterization of Rousseau's method of self-analysis as "self-brooding, subtle analysis" clearly refers to the Confessions, Rousseau's autobiography. Though not explicitly named, the Confessions is the work overwhelmingly associated with this method.
“December 17, 1829. — The following instance of beautiful credulity, in Rousseau, has taken my mind greatly. [...] 'Tasso,' says Rousseau, 'has predicted my misfortunes.”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.
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.