Chateaubriand, the writer who saw far… Middle East

It is true that romanticism gives mythical dimensions to great creators and wraps them with generosity. For example, François-Réné de Chateaubriand faces the waves with his hair flying in the wind.  In reality, this noble Breton was far from this image as he knew the exile and misery of the French Revolution. Later he travelled the world like no other writer of his time and became one of the great travellers of literature. 

The Midday Meal in Cairo, painted by John Frederick Lewis in 1875

Thanks to him a romantic trend that bordered on the exotic developed, as best evidenced in his book An Itinerary from Paris to Jerusalem, which is full of the aromas of Greece and the Orient, described with sensitivity and perfect observation in such a way that the readers of the early nineteenth century, not only came into contact with such exotic environments but began to take an interest in History in a new way.  It is at that time that the French began to be curious about foreign literature and read Byron, Walter Scott and Goethe.

To us, it seems natural to travel virtually with documentaries, but at that time our high tech world was unimaginable.

Travel with my Books in English