Abstract
The American writings of Chateaubriand have nearly been forgotten. Despite the beauty of their poetic prose and the power of their descriptions, historians now consider them obsolete. In 1968 the bicentennial year of his birth was celebrated in other parts of the world with special conferences and impressive publications, but in the United States no periodical commemorated the event, and no paper re-evaluating Chateaubriand’s contribution was read in any of the numerous historical meetings. And yet, Chateaubriand was not just another author. During the first half of the nineteenth century his writings played a great part in shaping French, if not European ideas about America. In the Parisian literary salons, eager young intellectuals tried to satisfy their insatiable curiosity about the New World by listening to his exotic tales. Among them was Alexis de Tocqueville, Chateaubriand’s distance cousin. And long after Chateaubriand’s death in 1848, Europeans who visited this country still carried with them preconceptions and cliches derived from his writings.
Recommended Citation
Panagopoulos, E. P.
(1970)
"Chateaubriand's Florida and His Journey to America,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 49:
No.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol49/iss2/5
