Abstract: What kind of image did Jean-Jacques hope to give of himself when, in 1766, at the height of his glory, he wrote the first part of the Confessions ? Instead of portraying the period ending in 1742 as one in which he was patiently and heroically preparing his literary success, he chose to present it as a time before literature, a time of dissipation and happiness, but also of failures which were, of course, providential for the work to come.
