...Rousseau, a figure even closer to himself in their shared vocations as writers. He presents us with . . . the self-torturing sophist, wild Rousseau The apostle...Enchantment over passion, and from woe Wrung overwhelming eloquence.55 Again, this description could easily apply to Harold and Byron, particularly when Byron...

...in its passion, a strange and stormy life. For many interpreters, Rousseau always remained Byron's self-torturing sophist, wild Rousseau, The apostle...Enchantment over passion, and from woe Wrung overwhelming eloquence.33 Nothing was easier than to reduce the ideas of the "apostle of affliction" to a mere reflection...