La beauté de Louise Éléonore de Warens et les Rameaux d’Annecy Conversions et conversations autobiographiques au deuxième Livre des Confessions

This article concerns the diptych constituted by the two liminal scenes of Book II, in which Jean-Jacques has just left Geneva : dinner with the abbé Pontverre and his meeting with Madame de Warens. Based on the connection between « conversion » and « conversation », this article studies different forms of conversation : false, between Jean-Jacques and the abbé ; almost mute and autobiographical with Madame de Warens ; and, finally, intertextual for the reader.