Novel
Julie, or the New Heloise
Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse
Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1761
Opening lines
Il faut vous fuir, mademoiselle, je le sens bien : j’aurais dû beaucoup moins attendre ; ou plutôt il fallait ne vous voir jamais.
I must flee you, mademoiselle, I know it well: I should not have waited so long; or rather, I ought never to have seen you.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from fr.wikisource.org
Synopsis
In the Pays de Vaud, Saint-Preux, a young commoner tutor, falls in love with his pupil, Julie d'Étange, who shares his love and, at first supported by her cousin Claire, resists him before yielding. Julie's father, a baron attached to his rank, refuses this union, and Lord Edward, an English friend, separates the lovers. Sent away to Paris, Saint-Preux continues to write to Julie, who refuses to betray her father.
Context
The novel was written at the Ermitage, near Montmorency, north of Paris, and appeared in 1761 in Amsterdam from Marc-Michel Rey. It is composed of letters, divided into six parts, exchanged by Julie, her tutor Saint-Preux, her cousin Claire, Milord Édouard and a few other characters. Its readers, deeply moved, wrote in crowds to the author to tell him what they had felt.
Who it is for
A very long epistolary novel, sentimental in tone, which demands patience but reads like an intimate correspondence.
Prizes and reception
Perhaps the best-selling novel of the eighteenth century, welcomed from its publication with considerable enthusiasm.