Girardin

Summary

Dominique Pagani mentions Girardin mainly as the master of Ermenonville, who welcomes Rousseau and at whose estate Rousseau dies1. He comes back to him in several sessions from 2014 to 2021, often in connection with Nerval, especially in the reading of Angélique. What he retains is that Girardin transplants a Swiss landscape to Ermenonville2 and lays out the park according to Rousseau's ideas. He turns it into a political Arcadia, with entertainments meant for the common people, which Pagani describes as a political lost paradise3. He also presents him as the probable author of the verses inscribed on the fountain and as a good man4. In a 2021 session, he adds that Girardin applies the Social Contract naively, citing the children at the greasy pole and the fountain inscription5. Girardin thus serves him as a link between Rousseau and Nerval, who was himself tied to the Valois, and as an example of an attempt to put Rousseau's political thought into concrete practice.

1. 1#3 The myth of the noble savage in Rousseau23 Sept 2014 · 19:25
2. 2#4.5 Angélique (by Nerval)12 Feb 2018 · 1:21:05
3. 3#4.7 Angélique (by Nerval)12 Apr 2018 · 30:52
4. 4#4.6 Angélique (by Nerval)15 Mar 2018 · 59:41
5. 5#9.24 “Ruled like music paper!” Nerval, Baudelaire (part 2)30 Jun 2021 · 1:06:04

Summary produced automatically from 9 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.