Book 5, Book 5 : Chapter 1, Sophy Summary and Analysis

This chapter is the first of three artificial subdivisions of what in the original translation is simply "Book 5." At the tail end of the preceding chapter, readers were shown the grave dangers of the corruption of young grown men when they leave home and how this is typically done through an abuse of the youth's desires to have friends, by undermining the young man's ties to his parents and trustworthy guides, and by his relatively unprotected position.

The author has gone to great lengths to create some form of education that will help the young man to resist at least some of this. Part of this is to cultivate in Emile's mind the image of Sophy—or the woman he really loves.

Readers would do well to be warned that the presentation of Sophy...