"To reign by opinion, begin by trampling it under your feet." -Jean-Baptiste Rousseau
 
Available here, we can present you a great collection of the works of Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, expanded with an historical and literary commentary about his life.
Jean-Baptiste Rousseau was known as the greatest french lyricist of his time (peak around 1710); he developed the first french cantatas and they were set to music by some of the greatest componists. 
An unusual fact about him, is that he sabotaged himself (because of a so said mania) by writing insulting and denigrating epigrams about his colleagues. Even Voltaire wrote about him. 
He was indeed a very contradictory character: at the beginning of his career, he wrote texts on the basis of psalms, which brought him to the court around Louis XIV., but then changed his writing and added obscene, erotic texts, which were religiously and morally questionable at the time. 
Nevertheless, after this episode, he came to great fame by writing cantatas and odes about religious themes (again) and also greek mythology, that were written artfully and highly rhetorical, what brought him the name "prince de poétes" ("poet prince") . But his character was always getting in the way of his undeniable talent. He rejected offers for highly paid jobs and as he was denied access to the académie francaise (because of writing more and more insulting epigrams about his colleagues, because of paranoia, so said), he freaked out and was then exiled from France.
He resided in Switzerland, Vienna and Brussels and even was offered a pardon, achieved by one of his last supporters; but he wanted it to be a full rehabilitation, which nobody was willing to encourage for, for him. He kept rejecting everyone, who was still on good terms with him, he even got to meet Voltaire and they separated in anger.
After receiving some more praise for his lyrical pieces, which he republished, the general trend of the time changed to the new rococo style, which kind of replaced the baroque style of Rousseau's work.
He wanted to return to Paris, but the access was denied again and he spent his last years in Brussels. The new generation of representatives of the enlightenment did not take him seriously anymore, but future generations until today, acknowledge(d) his great talent in lyric and in satire too. If it is true, that his talent was big enough to balance out his lack of character, you can now decide for yourself, by acquiring these beautiful volumes of the collection of his works, including some of his epigrams.. and a frontispiece of Rousseau, engraved by Delvaux after Aved. Still in the original, historical binding in red/maroon half-maroquin, decorated with gold coloured imprints and a ripped spine, the pages printed on Büttenpapier by Crapelet. This beautiful collection was published in Paris by Lefèvre in 1820, consisting of 5 books. The condition is good, light bumps on the edges and scratches on the front and the back and foxing on the pages.