Rousseau's dog : two great thinkers at war in the Age of Enlightenment / David Edmonds and John Eidinow.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [315]-324) and index.

Fear and flight -- Simple soul -- Always a qualified success -- Plots, alarums, and excursions -- Exile with the "friendly ones" -- The lion and le coq -- He would always have Paris -- Stormy passage -- A London sensation -- Down by the riverside -- Together-and worlds apart -- An evening at Lisle Street -- The fashionable Mr. Walpole -- Flight from reason -- Three slaps -- Twelve lies -- Willing to wound -- Love me, love my dog -- Friends in Arcadia -- Where has my wild philosopher fled? -- After the storm -- The truth will out.

In 1766 Jean-Jacques Rousseau--philosopher, novelist, composer, educational and political provocateur--was on the run from intolerance, persecution, and enemies who decried him as a danger to society. David Hume, the foremost philosopher in the English language, was universally lauded as a paragon of decency. Putting himself under Hume's protection, Rousseau, with his beloved dog, Sultan, took refuge in England. Yet within months, the exile had accused Hume of plotting to dishonor him. The violence of Hume's response was totally out of character; the resulting furor involved leading figures in British and French society, and became the talk of intellectual Europe. Here, journalists Edmonds and Eidinow probe the bitter and very public quarrel that turned the most influential thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment into the deadliest of foes. The result is a story of celebrity and its price, of shameless spin, of destroyed reputations and shattered friendships.--From publisher description.