As
an imposing literary and political figure of the nineteenth-century first
half, having inspired the Romantic writers, Chateaubriand (1768-1848) could
only impress Alexandre Dumas : his career as a diplomat and minister, his
social status of member of the Académie française and peer
of France. Always looking for acknowledgement and fond of connections with
the high society, Dumas declared his most intense admiration for the author
of Les Mémoires d'Outre-tombe, even
though he hardly agreed with Chateaubriand's monarchist and religious beliefs.
To be true, their relationships were only occasionnal. They first met in
1832, in Switzerland, where Chateaubriand had taken refuge after the 1830's
revolution. Thereafter, Dumas managed to get his illustrious elder to be
his witness at his wedding with Ida Ferrier, in 1840. |