“Henriette”

This chapter looks at Jean-Jacques Rousseau's letter to “Henriette” on May 7, 1764. The identity of “Henriette” is not known. She wrote to Rousseau using this pseudonym, describing her anguish and arguing that she was an exception to Rousseau's condemnation of learning. As Rousseau indicates in his second letter to her, he had mistakenly thought he knew her identity; he had suspected that “Henriette's” letter had been written by Suzanne Curchod, who later married the financier Jacques Necker. In this letter, he talks about reflection and the pursuit of happiness, saying that “there is no friendship without equality, and equality is never acknowledged among pretentious people.” Rousseau also tells “Henriette” that “under the pretext of laboring for independence, you are still laboring for domination.”