Darnton, 2001

 
Darnton, Robert. "Readers Respond to Rousseau: The Fabrication of Romantic Sensitivity." The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. London: Penguin Books, 2001. 215-256.
Summary
 
Darnton's project is to examine how people read in eighteenth-century France. He is particularly interested in the processes by which the philosophes of the time, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, were able to "imprint their world view on the minds of their readers" (215), first creating then catering to an emotive and sensitive readership. Noting that reading is "an active construal of meaning within a system of communication" (216), Darnton must first explore the cultural climate to fully appreciate the eighteenth-century reading audience.  
Darnton has drawn upon two rich examples to illustrate the making of meaning and readership in the eighteenth-century. Firstly, he examines the correspondence of Jean Ranson, a well-read Protestant merchant in provincial France. Ranson's letters to his favorite publisher demonstrate how Rousseauism penetrated into the everyday matters of a provincial bourgeois. Secondly, Darnton explores the notion that Rousseau's novel La Nouvelle Héloïse, paired with his cultivation of a public literary persona, had a singular influence on French society's reading habits.  
Ranson composed forty-seven letters to the Société Typographique de Neuchâtel (STN), writing a great deal about his literary interests and family life - in particular his love of Rousseau's writing, and the philosopher's influence on his family life. His interest in Rousseau is manifold: he adores his writings, and wishes to collect as much authentic work as he can; he attempts to emulate the virtues described by Rousseau in his everyday provincial life; he thinks of Rousseau as a trusted friend, and always refers to him as l'Ami Jean-Jacques though the two never actually meet. Ranson's passion for Rousseau's writing and person is in fact representative of what the majority of readers felt at that time.  
Darnton touches briefly on Ranson's library, as well as how readers of that time viewed the book itself as an object. In contemporary times the book is an ubiquitous technology, quite taken for granted (at least in privileged countries). However, Darnton notes that in the eighteenth-century the material and aesthetic qualities of a volume were of utmost importance, equal to the intellectual content. When publishing or buying a text, detailed attention was paid to the typography, binding, and weight of the paper: "Books themselves were individuals, each copy possessing its own character" (224).  
A survey of Ranson's library reveals a surprising collection of Children's literature and pedagogical works. He was among the first generation of bourgeois readers that learned about parenting techniques through the printed word. He also relied heavily on Rousseau's writings in his parental role, stating in a letter "everything that l'Ami Jean-Jacques has written about the duties of husbands and wives, of mothers and fathers, has had a profound effect on me… it will serve me as a rule" (236). Ranson was so committed to the moralistic education endorsed by Rousseau and others, that he named his second son after Rousseau's Emile, a text that focused on the education of a young man. In particular, Rousseau disliked all methods or pedagogy: "Any method will do for him" (226). Rousseau was against learning to read by "artificial exercises"; he was self-taught, having learned by reading novels and philosophy at night with his father.  
Rousseau throws himself completely into texts, and with his epistolary novel La Nouvelle Héloïse hopes to create a mise-en-abyme of readership: the characters throw themselves into reading with the same abandon as their author, while the readers immerse themselves in the novel with the same abandon as the characters. In this intense blurring of literature and life, "living cannot be distinguished from reading, nor loving from the writing of love letters" (227). In creating this layered experience of reading, Rousseau transformed the relationship of writer and reader, of reader and text, and opened the way to Romanticism.  
In his dual prefaces to the novel, Rousseau directs the reader in how to approach and fully appreciate his text. To curb possible criticism for writing a novel, which at the time was considered morally suspect -- not to mention a hypocritical move for one who disparaged high society and the "corruptive nature of contemporary culture" -- he stated that "this novel is not a novel" (229) but a collection of edited letters. He wrote for an ideal reader that could shun the conventions of literature and high society in favor of an unsophisticated and " truthful" representation of provincial life. Rousseau felt he conveyed pure emotion bordering on divine truth with his fictional letters: "They are no longer letters; they are hymns" (232). Indeed, readers overcame the paradox of reading a morally questionable novel and instead hailed it as absolute truth.  
So truthful did his writing seem, that he became modern history's first literary superstar, with thousands of readers sending him fan-mail. Readers of all ranks confessed similar sentiments: passionate emotions, tales of sobbing with heartache. Many vowed to live their lives virtuously, modeled on Rousseau's characters and himself. They read his novel the way he had asked it to be read: "Your book produced in me the effects that you had foreseen in your preface" (248). Rousseau had created a new rhetorical situation in which the reader and the writer communicated across the printed page.  
Darnton comments on the proposed "reading revolution" that took place in Europe at the close of the eighteenth-century, concerning the split between intensive and extensive reading. He finds this theory flawed, and demonstrates that Ranson's reading habits easily encompass both extremes. He shows that with the influence of Rousseauism, Ranson and other French readers apply the intensive style of reading usually reserved for religious texts to the reading of secular works.  
Critique
 
In our discussion of Darnton's article, the class began by engaging in a lengthy discussion on the book as an object. Darnton asserted that the aesthetic and material qualities of books were of the utmost importance in eighteenth century France, and indeed Europe. This statement begged the question: does the appearance of a text influence the reader's response? Prof. Miall thought that the physicality of a text had little influence. He posited that whether one reads a text on a computer screen, or bound in a book, provided that the text is long enough for the reader to immerse themself in the images, the effect on the reader is the same. However, the majority of the class felt the opposite, that presentation and physicality are in fact key components in one's experience of a text, be it novel, poem or essay!  
Our discussion then turned to the issue of authenticity as it pertains to characters and readers. How do readers reconcile the paradox of having authentic feelings for imaginary characters? This relates to Rousseau's careful maneuvering in the two prefaces. He is very clearly constructing both his position as an author, and the position of the implied reader. In fact, he goes so far as to describe the type of reader who should not read the novel -- namely young virgins. Rousseau is also making a clever move in which he skirts the question of whether or not the characters are real, finally making the point that even though they are not, their experiences are worthy of our attention. He authorizes readers to feel authentic feelings towards fictional characters.  
The class wondered why Rousseau's novel was such an overwhelming success, both commercially and emotionally. Was it the first novel of its kind, with the central themes of passion and sensibility? There had been epistolary novels for many years preceding the publication of La Nouvelle Héloïse (Pamela, Emily Montague, among others). The reading public would have been familiar with the form. We came to the conclusion that the strong public response had to do with Rousseau's positioning of the reader, and the authenticity of feelings he is able to create in his readership. I attributed a large part of his success to his cultivation of a public persona, in which his readers know him as a real person, an authentic character in their imagined world of Julie and St Preux. I also remarked that he published the novel under his name, which was uncommon at the time, especially for works of questionable morals (novels). Thus, he added another aspect to his creation of an authentic identity by being present in the book like a character (perhaps the novel begins at the preface?). If he is adequately authentic, so are the feelings of his characters, and in due course, the readers feel permitted to have feelings for both the author and the characters.  
While focusing on my abstract, Miall pointed to a paragraph in which I seem to be making two opposite points. On one hand, I am saying that the author, characters and readers are involved in a multi-layered relationship in which they throw themselves into literature with the same abandon, where literature becomes life. I then follow with a quote that says "living cannot be distinguished from reading". In this blurring of literature and life, I have conflated the two positions without being clear. The readers add to the immersive mise-en-abyme through their letter-writing efforts. They put the layered effect into practice by writing letters to Rousseau, thus continuing the cycle by bringing it into real life, throwing themselves into their own texts and continuing the story.  
In our final discussion questions we again pondered the popularity of the text. It was proposed that due to the educational climate of post-Reformation Europe, the growing bourgeoisie no longer need an interpreter for texts (i.e. priest, teacher, father). Perhaps Rousseau's novel was so successful because it was one of the first in which a mediator is not needed. We thought of comparable successful contemporary novels, and the example of Harry Potter arose. We considered the possibility of how to conduct an empirical study in contemporary times that examines a transformative reading experience (like the experience en masse of Héloïse readers).  
Lastly, we broached the question of alien "mentalité", which positions historical people as "Others". The class generally felt that apart from the dictates of class, gender, and geographical location, we probably experience a text in a manner similar to an historical person.  
Reference  
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Eloisa, or a series of original letters. London: Vernor and Hood, etc., 1803. Facsimile, Oxford: Woodstock Books, 1989. (First publication in French, 1761.)

Document created September 30th 2005