Rousseau's treatise on raising a child according to nature rather than corrupt society. His influential philosophy of education, told through a fictional pupil.
Books mentioned in Emile (12)
De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero: “Conscience is the most enlightened philosopher; to be an honest man we need not read Cicero's De Officiis, and the most virtuous woman in the world is probably she who knows least about virtue.”
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: “What is this wonderful book? Is it Aristotle? Pliny? Buffon? No; it is Robinson Crusoe.”
Telemachus by François Fénelon: “Her mother took the book and opened it; it was The Adventures of Telemachus.”
The Odyssey by Homer: “But Emile knew the Odyssey and he had not read Telemachus, so he knew nothing of Eucharis.”
Essay on the Origin of Languages by Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “This is demonstrated in an "Essay on the Origin of Languages" which will be found in my collected works.”
Julie, or the New Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “A man who recently wrote a number of silly criticisms on the "Nouvelle Heloise" added to his signature the title "Citizen of Paimboeuf,"”
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “I have already analysed the example of the animal world in my Discourse on Inequality, and on further consideration I think I may refer my readers to that analysis as sufficiently thorough.”
The Spirit of the Laws by Montesquieu: “The necessary relations between character and government have been so clearly pointed out in the book of L'Esprit des Lois, that one cannot do better than have recourse to that work for the study of those relations.”
Symposium (The Banquet) by Plato: “reading the fourth book of the Aeneid, or Tibollus, or the Banquet of Plato: what a difference between them!”
Cléopâtre by La Calprenède: “Have you ever read Cleopatra or Cassandra or any books of the kind? The author selects some well-known event, he then adapts it to his purpose”
Cassandre by La Calprenède: “Have you ever read Cleopatra or Cassandra or any books of the kind? The author selects some well-known event, he then adapts it to his purpose”
Monsieur de Pourceaugnac by Molière: “The role, like that of Sbrigani in Pourceaugnac, required an intelligent actor, and it was played to perfection.”