'An intelligent and clearly written introduction ... It will be of great use to beginners who wish to orient themselves in the corpus of a writer who produced a large number of works of great diversity. It provides all the essential background information ... those familiar with Rousseau will also read it with profit.' - Christopher Kelly, Boston College 'This is a very fine piece of work indeed. In fact, I think it is the best general introduction to Rousseau's life and thought in English and succeeds brilliantly in conveying Rousseau's ideas in a sympathetic yet critical manner. The work is well paced and accessible to the person who knows nothing about Rousseau but wants to find out, whilst still managing to be stimulating to the specialist. I would be very happy to recommend this work to students and to others.' - Chris Bertram, University of Bristol