Listen to audio

Stream (help)

128kbps M3U (Hi-Fi)

Play / Download (help)

(142.2 M)64Kbps MP3 ZIP

Resources

Jean-Jacques RousseauConfessions, volumes 1 and 2 (November 18, 2009)

Would you like to try our new video/audio player ? (beta!)

LibriVox recording of Confessions, volumes 1 and 2, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Read by Martin Geeson.

“Thus I have acted; these were my thoughts; such was I.”

Rousseau’s lengthy and sometimes anguished dossier on the Self is one of the most remarkable and courageous works of introspection ever undertaken. Some readers may be repelled by his tendency to revel in embarrassing accounts of humiliation and fiasco, as if he were striving too hard to achieve an ultimate nakedness, a nakedness of the soul perhaps. Others may recall the compulsive self-searching of the narrator of Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu, who also rather dwelt on the co-existence in the individual of the vile and the virtuous.

The two opening volumes of the Confessions, presented in this inevitably censored edition of 1903, deal with the author’s childhood and callow adolescence.

Here he is... (Summary by Martin Geeson)

For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit LibriVox.org.


This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Date: 2009-11-18
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: LIbrivox; audiobook; non-fiction; memoirs; psychology; Rousseau.

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 42,163 times Reviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: Martin Geeson - - December 7, 2010
Subject: Candidly...
My thanks to Alcmaeonid for providing that link. (The Project Gutenberg version I used also claimed to be "complete".) I would undoubtedly switch translations if I carried out my original plan of recording Books 7-12 next year.

However, the snide crack about my voice and suitability has struck to the heart of my self-confidence and made me feel disgusted with the idea. If I were a professional voice artist I would be able to take this in my stride, no doubt.

Reviewer: Alcmaeonid - - December 7, 2010
Subject: Inexplicably they chose an expurgated version for recording
Why in this modern age they chose an expurgated version of ''The Confessions'' to record is unfortunate and a mystery. And although I appreciate all the effort that went into this recording it suffers from a melodramatic reading style bogged down by a crusty British accent totally unsuited to the subject matter.

Btw, the unexpurgated edition can be found right here at IA under the title: "The confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau, now for the first time completely translated into English without expurgation (Volume 1) - Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778" - publication date, 1896. URL: http://www.archive.org/details/confessionsofjea01rousuoft

Sorry, I mean no harm but feel compelled to speak candidly.