This subtle intellectual biography juxtaposes Ralph Waldo Emerson's revolutionary spiritual thinking with his elitist ideas of race and property--a contrast so sharp as to make his personality seem almost incoherent." Writing in (he great modern tradition of French anglicisles, Maurice Gonnaud compares Emerson's taste for solitude and the lyric ardor it awakened in him to his efforts to confront the social pressures of his times.

Originally published in 1987.

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Maurice Gonnaud

• FrontMatter,
• Contents,
• Foreword,
• Translator's Preface,
• Author's Preface to the French Edition,
• Abbreviations,
• 1. The Family Milieu,
• 2. Harvard: An Apprenticeship in Solitude,
• 3. The Schoolteacher Feels His Way,
• 4. The Ministry, or, An Attempt at the Safe Middle Way,
• 5. The Road to Concord,
• 6. Prophecies and Epiphany,
• 7. Organizing Victory,
• 8. From Affirmation to Challenge,
• 9. Malaise,
• 10. Exploring the Problems,
• 11. Equilibrium Regained,
• 12. The Thorn in the Flesh,
• 13. A Surrogate Optimism,
• 14. The Last Struggle,
• Bibliography of Emerson's Writings,
• Index,