Quiz: The Confessions

15 questions drawn at random. Score 80% for a silver medal.

1. 1. What did Rousseau do when M. Le Maître collapsed in a fit in a street in Lyon?

   He took him to Father Cato’s convent He fetched a doctor and stayed by his side He carried him back to their inn He slipped away and abandoned him
2. 2. Why did Rousseau hesitate before taking refuge at Môtiers in Neuchâtel?

   He feared the Calvinist clergy of the Val de Travers He had shown aversion to the King of Prussia He had promised Thérèse to settle in Paris The house offered to him there was unfurnished
3. 3. Whom did Rousseau name as the author of the anonymous libel accusing him of abandoning his children?

   His old acquaintance the Abbé de Mably The pastor Vernes D'Alembert M. de Montmollin, the pastor of Môtiers
4. 4. Who did Rousseau discover was taking the fruit from M. d’Épinay’s garden at the Hermitage?

   The gardener, who sold it in Paris Dormice, as the gardener had claimed Mme le Vasseur’s grandchildren from Paris Servants from the château of La Chevrette
5. 5. What finally made Rousseau leave Geneva and his apprenticeship?

   He ran away with his cousin Bernard to seek work in Turin His father sent for him to Nyon His master dismissed him for engraving counterfeit medals Finding the city gates shut on him a third time
6. 6. On what condition did Rousseau give the laces he made to young women at their marriages?

   That they never wear French fashions That they read Emile aloud to their husbands That they nurse their own children That they attend church every Sunday
7. 7. What was Rousseau wrongly punished for at Bossey?

   Diverting water from the pastor’s walnut tree Breaking Mlle Lambercier’s comb Stealing asparagus from the gardener’s beds Telling lies about his cousin Bernard
8. 8. Why, according to Rousseau, could he get no redress in Paris for his treatment by the ambassador?

   Madame de Beuzenval persuaded the minister against him There was no written evidence against the ambassador As a Genevan, he had no claim on French protection He had signed away his salary before leaving Venice
9. 9. How did Rousseau learn of the intimacy between Claude Anet and Mme de Warens?

   Anet took laudanum after a quarrel, and she confessed Anet told him himself while they were out botanising together He found letters between them hidden in her writing desk A servant gossiped about it in the kitchen
10. 10. Which flower, glimpsed on the first day at Les Charmettes, did Rousseau recognise with rapture nearly thirty years later?

    Primroses Periwinkle Lily of the valley Violets
11. 11. What was the Encyclopédie at first intended to be?

    A periodical called le Persifleur A translation of Chambers’s Cyclopaedia A dictionary of music edited by Rousseau A sequel to James’s Medical Dictionary
12. 12. Why did the peasant on the road to Lyons first offer Rousseau only skimmed milk and barley bread?

    He had nothing else in the house to offer He feared tax officials would ruin him if he seemed prosperous He suspected Rousseau of being a thief or a spy It was a fast day, and the Church forbade meat and wine
13. 13. What post did Mme de Warens obtain for Rousseau at Chambéry at the end of Book IV?

    Secretary in the land survey Tutor to the intendant’s children Clerk to the judge major, M. Simon Music master at the cathedral of Chambéry
14. 14. How does Rousseau say he thought of himself when he sent his children to the Foundling Hospital?

    As a member of Plato’s republic As a disciple of Locke’s method of education As a Christian obeying the custom of the Church As a Genevan citizen following his country’s laws
15. 15. Why did Rousseau avoid being presented to the king after the Devin du village?

    The Duke d’Aumont withdrew the invitation at the last moment He feared his infirmity, and a pension would cost his independence Diderot advised him that accepting would offend the philosophes He had already left Paris for Geneva