Jean Jacques Rousseau was born in 1712 and was considered one of the best writers and philosophers of his time. He was known for his hectic lifestyle of traveling back and forth between Paris and his homeland of Geneva from the age of 16, when he suddenly found himself an orphan. His literary career did not take off until he was in his forties, with essays such as Discours sur les Sciences at les arts and the well-known work of art Emile, ou l"education. In English translation it reads Emile: or, On Education.
Emile was published in the year 1762, and was proclaimed by Rousseau himself as both the best as well as the most important writing he ever penned. Emile is a philosophical outlook on man himself. The book looks at both political and philosophical questions concerning man's relationship to the rest of society. The book focuses largely on how one can keep their self naturally good while being inundated by a society that can be both evil and corrupt. Emile takes pieces from Rousseau's" book The Social Contract, such as his description of the natural man. With this thought he attempts to outline a type of education and learning that will allow the natural man to live and function within the boundaries of a corrupt and immoral society. .
The story of Emile is based on a character named Emile and his tutor, so that Rousseau could direct his feelings about how someone could educate the ideal citizen through an abstract character. While Emile is not a parenting guide of any sorts, Rousseau did include his thoughts and ideas on how to educate and raise children. Emile is known as the forerunner of the philosophy of education. The book is dived into five sections. Within the first three, the character of Emile is examined in childhood; the second explores the teenaged years of Emile, and the final section examines Emile's civil and domestic life with his partner Sophie.
Although Emile became banned and subsequently burned in both Paris and Geneva as soon as it came out in print, it quickly became a bestseller in Europe.