Rousseau's tomb sits on the Isle of Poplars in its lake, Ermenonville vs Panthéon, Paris, France. CONFESSIONS by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1782)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau died in Ermenonville, France on this day in 1778 (aged 66).


"I know nothing which exercises a more powerful influence upon my heart than an act of courage, performed at an opportune moment, on behalf of the weak who are unjustly oppressed."
--from CONFESSIONS (1782)




Jean-Jacques Rousseau/Place of burial




Panthéon, Paris, France

Ermenonville

Location within Picardy region

Ermenonville is a commune in the Oise department in northern France.

Ermenonville is notable for its park named for Jean-Jacques Rousseau by René Louis de Girardin. Rousseau's tomb was designed by the painter Hubert Robert, and sits on the Isle of Poplars in its lake.

The tomb of Rousseau in the Isle of Poplars. - NYPL Digital .

The tomb of Rousseau in the Isle of Poplars.







The tomb of Rousseau in the Isle of Poplars.

"Nothing shows a man’s true inclinations better than the character of those whom he loves."
-- from CONFESSIONS by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1782)

Rousseau's ideas have influenced almost every major political development of the last two hundred years, and are crucial to an understanding of phenomena as diverse as the French Revolution, modern educational theory, and the contemporary environmental movement. This is reason enough to draw attention to his startlingly alive autobiography. But the Confessions is also among the greatest self-portraits in world literature -which suggests, even more than the impact of Rousseau's thought, the extent to which the very high opinion he had of himself was ultimately justified.