The Confessions

The Confessions is an autobiographical book written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and originally published posthumously in 1782.

The book covers the first hundred and three years of the philosopher's life, up to 1765, and although Rousseau read some passages at different meetings, it was not published as a book until four years after the writer's death.

In this autobiography, Rousseau tells us about the events and experiences that originated his ideas and philosophy. It is one of the first relevant and best-known autobiographies. In it, Rousseau wrote his daily experiences and personal feelings, as a diary, instead of focusing on religious experience as other authors had done in their autobiographies.

This digital edition of the book The Confessions is based on Samuel William Orson's translation.

"I have entered upon a performance which is without example, whose accomplishment will have no imitator. I mean to present my fellow-mortals with a man in all the integrity of nature; and this man shall be myself..."