Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 1. The Emigrant Literature

In Short

Georg Brandes traces the intellectual awakening of early nineteenth-century European literature by examining writers who broke away from eighteenth-century conventions. Driven into physical exile or mental isolation by revolutions and wars, these authors forged a new consciousness centered on personal passion, nature, and comparative culture. From the wilderness of North America to the salons of Switzerland and England, emigrant writers broke down rigid national boundaries. Brandes presents their journey as the essential prologue to European Romanticism, showing how their restless individual spirit gradually gave birth to modern literary expression.

The Story

The book opens with an investigation into the grand intellectual movement that followed the French Revolution. Brandes introduces a comparative scientific method, comparing national literatures to a telescope that adjusts historical perspective. Rather than viewing French, German, and English literary traditions in isolation, he frames them as interconnected parts of a single European drama. The narrative begins with François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand, whose travels across America and exile in London yielded works born amidst military conflict and personal bereavement. Returning to France under Bonaparte, Chateaubriand used his prose to spark a rebirth of religious and emotional fervor, merging wild wilderness imagery with an intense Catholic melancholy.

From Chateaubriand’s romanticized forests, the focus turns to the broader European struggle between individual passion and social law. Brandes analyzes Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Werther, demonstrating how the protagonist's tragic love story represents a full-scale collision between personal freedom and bourgeois conventions. The analysis progresses to Charles Nodier, whose early works combined revolutionary revolt with pious ecstasy, showing how early nineteenth-century writers frequently blended political radicalism with romantic devotion.

The arc deepens as Brandes examines Étienne Pivert de Sénancour's Obermann, a text where the emotional gaze turns inward toward nature and hyper-sensitive introspection. Sénancour introduces a heightened appreciation for the senses, finding romantic expression in the sounds and fragrances of the Swiss Alps rather than rigid social structures. This psychological evolution reaches a climax in Benjamin Constant’s Adolphe, which shifts the tragic burden of love onto the female protagonist, dissecting how social expectations poison unrecognised passion.

Through the life and writings of Madame de Staël, the narrative reaches its intellectual peak. Escaping Napoleon’s tyranny, Staël traveled across Russia, Sweden, and England, using her exile to introduce a comparative view of European culture. Her works argued against rigid legalistic traditions, defending divorce and personal autonomy while bridging French, German, and English ideas. Finally, Brandes contrasts this northern romantic movement with classic Southern art and the Danish renaissance of antiquity, demonstrating how medieval myths and fairy tales eventually replaced eighteenth-century rationalism. The journey concludes with the historical perspective of Guillaume-Prosper de Barante, who framed literature as an inevitable reflection of society, sealing the emigrant generation's legacy as the foundational prologue to modern Romanticism.

How It Unfolds

The telescope of comparative literature Brandes outlines his scientific approach to literary history, arguing that national traditions must be studied side by side to overcome cultural insularity and track the return of progress.

Chateaubriand's exile and revival The narrative follows Chateaubriand from the wilderness of America to his London exile, detailing how his manuscripts survived battlefield wounds to ignite a new wave of religious sentiment in post-revolutionary France.

Werther and the revolt against convention Brandes explores Goethe’s Werther as the ultimate expression of individual longing clashing against rigid social structures, where unrequited love and societal rejection drive the hero to an inevitable doom.

Obermann's sensory solitude The focus shifts to Sénancour's Obermann, where romantic feeling retreats into nature, elevating sound, fragrance, and melancholy self-reflection above the noise of civilised life.

Adolphe and psychical analysis Constant's Adolphe is presented as a groundbreaking psychological study of affection, showing how society's cold disapproval systematically destroys passion and leaves the liberated individual empty.

Madame de Staël's European horizon Madame de Staël's exile across Europe becomes the catalyst for comparative culture, using her novels and essays to defend emotional freedom and introduce foreign literature to a insular French audience.

The shift toward fairy tale and history Brandes examines how artists retreated from insipid rationalism into medieval myths and historical fatalism, setting the stage for the full emergence of the Romantic school.

The People

• François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand: A exiled French writer who seeks renewal in the American wilderness and London. Driven by personal tragedy and political chaos, he turns his traumatic experiences into brilliant, melancholy tales that revive religious enthusiasm in France.
• Werther: The passionate protagonist of Goethe's novel who desires absolute emotional freedom. Stymied by social conventions and an impossible love, his intense inner life collapses under the weight of society's hypocritical rules, leading to his suicide.
• René: A brooding, melancholy figure created by Chateaubriand. Bound by an unnatural and tragic past, he seeks escape in remote lands, driven by an insatiable inner fire that renders him incapable of ordinary human love.
• Sénancour (Obermann): An introspective nature lover who longs for absolute harmony. Hindered by reality and society, he retreats into the Swiss wilderness, developing an ultra-refined sensory appreciation for sounds and fragrances.
• Adolphe: A young man torn between his desire for personal independence and his duty to an overbearing society. His inability to sustain love or completely break free causes the destruction of the woman he loves and leaves him morally paralyzed.
• Eléonore: The passionate woman in Constant's Adolphe who sacrifices her social standing for love. Blocked by society's harsh judgment and her lover's growing detachment, she perishes from despair.
• Madame de Staël: A brilliant, courageous author and thinker who resists Napoleon's autocracy. Exiled from France, she travels across Europe to promote comparative literature, intellectual freedom, and social reform.

In Its Own Voice

"The scientific view of literature provides us with a telescope of which the one end magnifies and the other diminishes; it must be so focussed as to remedy the illusions of unassisted eyesight."

Brandes introduces his comparative methodology, explaining how broad European perspectives correct national biases.

"The strongest passion cannot survive the struggle with the established order of things."

Benjamin Constant summarizes the central tragedy of Adolphe, highlighting the destructive force of societal conventions over private affection.

"To me the Emigrant Literature seemed the natural starting-point indicated by history itself."

Brandes reflects on his historical framework, positioning this exiled generation as the essential foundation for nineteenth-century culture.

What It's Really About

Beneath its literary analysis, the book is an inquiry into how human freedom survives historical trauma. Brandes argues that the great movements of literature are not isolated accidents but part of a continuous ebb and flow between social reaction and progress. The emigrant writers embody a profound crisis of belief: stripped of eighteenth-century rationalism by the violence of revolution, they turned inward to construct a new reality out of personal passion, nature, and religious nostalgia. By comparing developments across France, Germany, and England, Brandes demonstrates that Romanticism was fundamentally an exile's art—born from physical displacement and an acute longing for an ideal world that society could no longer provide.

Why Read It Today

This work offers a remarkably fresh, comparative approach to literary criticism that feels entirely contemporary. Readers who enjoy European history, cultural analysis, or the origins of Romanticism will appreciate Brandes's lucid style and sweeping perspective. He writes with the authority of a scholar and the narrative drive of an essayist, seamlessly weaving author biographies together with deep thematic critiques.

The reader must navigate a dense landscape filled with nineteenth-century intellectual references, French and German textual histories, and period-specific philosophical debates. Brandes assumes a general familiarity with classic European texts and historical events like the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Yet despite these demanding historical contexts, the book remains vividly accessible. It captures the reader by showing how deeply art is tied to human migration, social change, and the search for identity. What stays with you is Brandes's compelling conviction that literature is a living, global conversation—one where exiled voices often speak the most enduring truths.