Eleve de la Nature
Paris: Chez Panckoucke, 1764.
2 volumes in one, with separate pagination. 192, [2]; 117 pages. 12mo, handsomely bound in contemporary red calf with ornate gilt borders; spine sunned and leather chipped at foot. Paris: Chez Panckoucke, no date (circa 1765). An early edition of Beaurieu's most successful work -- an educational novel describing a return to nature.
"This novel is modeled closely on Rousseau's Emile (1762), so much so that some later editions were attributed to Rousseau himself. Rousseau had argued for a less authoritarian model of education, and one in which the student learns from 'nature and not from men.' Beaurieu's romance, like Emile, shows a fascination with Robinson Crusoe and takes his capacity to adapt through adversity and to learn from nature as a model for a new pedagogy. Thus, the novel strongly condemns the artificiality of luxury and slavery, and supports a return to agriculture as the basis for an apparently utopian society."
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Language: French
Price: $400.00
Item #276255