Voices and Enlightenment from the Furthermost Bounds of Europe: Nerval and Towianski Cover Image

Voix et lumières des confins : Nerval et Towianski
Voices and Enlightenment from the Furthermost Bounds of Europe: Nerval and Towianski

Author(s): Michel Brix
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Vytauto Didžiojo Universitetas
Keywords: Nerval; Towianski; Mickiewicz; Napoléon; illuminism; Nerval; Towianski; Mickiewicz; Napoléon; illuminisme

Summary/Abstract: The Lithuanian illuminated André Towianski (1799-1878) claimed he was sent by God to take mankind in a new era. Towianski had a lot of influence with Adam Mickiewicz and particularly with the lectures of Mickiewicz at the Collège de France, from 1840 to 1844. So, in December 1843, Mickiewicz gave courses on Towianski’s Banquet, which caused a scandal that the French writer Gérard de Nerval evoked on several times: in the magazine L’Artiste (july 1844), in the daily La Presse (June 1845) and finally in the almanac Le Diable rouge, at the end of 1849. The present paper analyzes these recallings, made by Nerval in a semiironic semi-serious tone.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 183-198
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: French