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58-874: First serialised as part of Les Confidences beginning in 1849, Graziella received popular acclaim. An operatic adaptation had been completed by the end of the year, and the work influenced paintings, poems, novels, and films. The American literary critic Charles Henry Conrad Wright considered it one of the three most important emotionalist French novels, the others being Bernardin de Saint-Pierre 's novel Paul et Virginie (1788) and Chateaubriand 's novella Atala (1801). Three English translations have been published: one by James Runnion in 1875, one by Ralph Wright in 1929, and one by Raymond N. MacKenzie in 2018. The eighteen-year-old narrator travels from his home in Mâcon , Burgundy , to Italy, staying first in Rome , then Naples . There he meets

116-586: A "homological relationship" between Graziella and Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie (1788). She suggests that the texts both resolve around tensions of island paradises and societal hell as well as a "professed pure, brotherly love", ending with the death of a character. She notes describes Paul et Virginie as appearing en abyme within Lamartine's novel, as it is Saint-Pierre's romance which, "awakens Graziella's passion". The American literary critic Charles Henry Conrad Wright, writing in 1912, considered Graziella

174-414: A husband—you are already the husband of my soul". The narrator replies in kind, and they spend the night together, discussing their romance. When Graziella's family comes to get her, they decide that she need not marry Cecco. For three months, they enjoy their love, unknown to Graziella's family. However, she is pained at the thought of the narrator returning to France and by her social station, much beneath

232-649: A particular interest in Lebanon and the Middle East. He travelled to Lebanon, Syria and the Holy Land in 1832–33. During that trip, while he and his wife, the painter and sculptor Elisa de Lamartine , were in Beirut , on 6 December 1832, [1] their only remaining child, Julia, died at ten years of age. It was, however, considered a journey of recovery and immersion in specific Christian icons, symbols, and terrain with his view that

290-713: A philosophy of sentiment to oppose the materializing tendencies of the Encyclopaedists . His masterpiece, Paul et Virginie , appeared in 1789 in a supplementary volume of the Études , and his second great success, less sentimental and showing some humour, the Chaudière indienne , not until 1790. In 1795 he was elected to the Institut de France , in 1797 became manager of the Botanical Gardens (Jardin des plantes) in Paris and in 1803

348-541: A poem titled "Le fils de Lamartine et Graziella" ('The Son of Lamartine and Graziella'). The poem, published in Corbière's 1873 collection Les amours jaunes , has been interpreted by André Le Milinaire as condemning the falsity of family life. Graziella 's title character was depicted by the French artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre in an 1878 oil painting on canvas. Commissioned by the art collector Catharine Lorillard Wolfe ,

406-511: A poem, "Le Premier Regret" ("The First Regret"), dedicated to her memory. Graziella was written by Alphonse de Lamartine , a French poet and novelist. As a young man, in 1812 Lamartine had visited Italy, travelling from his home near Mâcon to an abbey in Cluny , then onwards to Naples and Rome. During his time in Naples, Lamartine stayed with Darest de la Chavanne, who owned a cigar factory. There, he met

464-570: A republican in the monarchy's last years. Lamartine denounced the French government's decision to back down during the Oriental Crisis of 1840 , forcing France's ally Muhammad Ali to surrender Crete , Syria , and Hejaz to the Ottoman Empire , calling it "the Waterloo of French diplomacy" A follower of Lamennais , Lamartine advocated the separation of church and state believing it allowed

522-465: A sister. He accompanies her to church and teaches her to read and write, and she insists that he spend more time with her, talking and learning to carve coral than futilely writing poetry. However, he realizes the extent of his affection for her when, days before Christmas, Graziella is arranged to be married to her cousin Cecco: "My life without her presence was nothing". The imminent loss of Graziella drives

580-533: A tobacco-leaf folder] would suggest". He would, however, later regret this change. Graziella's story in Les Confidences , which consisted of half its length, was collected and published in a separate edition beginning in 1852. The novel was a popular hit upon its release. By 1853 a Spanish-language edition was being advertised; several other translations in that language were published before 1919. By 1875 James Runnion had translated it into English; this translation

638-404: A young man named Aymon de Virieu, and the two decide to apprentice themselves to Andrea, a local fisherman. Although the first few months pass in contemplative tranquility and beauty, they are forced to take refuge at Andrea's home on Procida during a surging September storm, where they spend the night. Here the narrator first meets the fisherman's granddaughter, Graziella. The following morning,

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696-511: A young woman from Procida, a tobacco-leaf folder with whom he began a relationship, and with whom he may have been intimate. The young woman died after Lamartine's return to France; the writer Agide Pirazzini suggests that he truly loved her only after her death and that thenceforth her image never left him. His experiences with the young tobacco-leaf folder were a potent inspiration for Lamartine; Pirazzini suggests that several works, including "Le Passé" ('The Past') and "L'Hymne au soleil" ('Hymn to

754-546: Is Graziella's fascination with the tale that she abandons all reserve and sits near the narrator, her breath on his hand, and her hair brushing his forehead. When it is over, she begs the narrator to reread the tale. The poor weather breaks on the ninth day, and Andrea takes the young men and his family to Naples. Virieu is recalled to France, and the narrator falls ill from sorrow over his friend's departure. He sends for Andrea, and Graziella rushes to his lodging, where she treats him. Their conversation, and Graziella's care, revives

812-404: Is a man in every parish, having no family, but belonging to a family is worldwide; who is called in as a witness and adviser in all the important affairs of human life. No one comes into the world or goes out of it without his ministrations. He takes the child from its mother’s arms, and parts with him only at the grave. He blesses and consecrates the cradle, the bridal chamber, the bed of death, and

870-415: Is composed only of various conditions, professions, functions, and ways of life, among those who form what we call a Nation; of proprietors of the soil, and proprietors of houses; of investments, of handicrafts, of merchants, of manufacturers, of formers; of day-laborers becoming farmers, manufacturers, merchants, or possessors of houses or capital, in their turn; of the rich, of those in easy circumstances, of

928-606: Is said to be the cedar under which Lamartine had sat 200 years ago. Lamartine was so influenced by his trip that he staged his 1838 epic poem La Chute d'un ange ( The Fall of an Angel ) in Lebanon. Raised by his mother to respect animal life, he found the eating of meat repugnant, saying 'One does not have one heart for Man and one for animals. One has a heart or one does not'. His writings in La chute d’un Ange (1838) and Les confidences (1849) would be taken up by supporters of vegetarianism in

986-521: The Encyclopædia Britannica finds Les Confidences to mix reality and imagination, and the writer Terence Cave has described the work as only "remotely autobiographical". The beauty of Southern Italy was often shown in Lamartine's works, such as in Graziella . Pirazzini describes Lamartine's descriptions as "splendid ... like a hymn, though the form is prose". The writer Nathalie Léger finds

1044-551: The Voyage en Orient , a brilliant and bold account of the journey he had just made, in royal luxury, to the countries of the Orient, and in the course of which he had lost his only daughter. Lamartine was masterly in his use of French poetic forms but from then on he confined himself to prose. Raised a devout Catholic , Lamartine became a pantheist , writing Jocelyn and La Chute d'un ange and in 1847, Histoire des Girondins, in praise of

1102-560: The Girondists . In his older years Lamartine returned to the Church. Initially a monarchist, Lamartine came to embrace democratic ideals and opposed militaristic nationalism. Around 1830, Lamartine's opinions shifted in the direction of liberalism. His first run for Parliament was an unsuccessful attempt in 1831 as a "board and moderate royalist". When elected in 1833 to the Chamber of Deputies , he

1160-456: The Seven Years' War against Prussia and England, but was dismissed for insubordination. After travels around Europe he returned to Paris in 1765. He received a small inheritance on his father's death, and in 1768 he traveled to Mauritius where he served as engineer and studied plants. On his return in 1771 he became friendly with and a pupil of Jean-Jacques Rousseau . Together they studied

1218-778: The Virgin Mary is also recorded. Graziella has been thrice adapted to film. The first production, in 1917, was directed by Mario Gargiulo. The second, in 1926 , was made by Marcel Vandal . The third was completed in 1954 by Giorgio Bianchi . This last production, which starred Maria Fiore in the title role and Jean-Pierre Mocky as the Frenchman Alphonse, was distributed by CEI Incom. Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (also called Bernardin de St. Pierre ) (19 January 1737, in Le Havre – 21 January 1814, in Éragny , Val-d'Oise )

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1276-454: The right to work and the short-lived national workshop programs. A political idealist who supported democracy and pacifism , his moderate stance on most issues caused many of his followers to desert him. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 1848 presidential election , receiving fewer than 19,000 votes and losing to Louis Napoléon Bonaparte . He subsequently retired from politics and dedicated himself to literature. He published volumes on

1334-426: The "sole deviation from fact" in Graziella . Four years later, Runnion described the novel as "a leaf torn from [the author's] personal memoires". Pirazzini, writing in 1917, noted inaccuracies, such as Lamartine's age during the trip to Italy (eighteen in the novel, early twenties in reality), but considered them of little relevance, as his memories were "surrounded with light and poetry". Since then, Henri Guillemin of

1392-501: The Sun'), were written in her memory. Lamartine's experiences also formed the basis of his poem "Le Premier Regret", a mournful elegy focusing on an overgrown tomb of an unnamed yet still beloved Italian woman. First published in his Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (1830), it was later included in the novel Graziella . Lamartine later wrote a journal describing his experiences in Italy, completing

1450-561: The Tricolour Flag: "I spoke to you as a citizen earlier, well! Now listen to me, your Foreign Minister. If you take the tricolor flag away from me, know it, you will remove from me half the external force of France! Because Europe only knows the flag of its defeats and of our victories in the flag of the Republic and of the Empire. By seeing the red flag, they will believe that they are only seeing

1508-459: The best of the episodes presented in Les Confidences . He thought it one of three novels that must be read to understand the development of emotionalism in French literature, together with Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie and François-René de Chateaubriand 's novella Atala (1801). Graziella quickly became a part of the French popular culture. On 20 January 1849, librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré debuted their one-act adaptation of

1566-403: The bier. He is one whom innocent children instinctively venerate and reverence, and to whom men of venerable age come to seek for wisdom, and call him father; at whose feet men fall down and lay bare the innermost thoughts of their souls, and weep their most sacred tears. He is one whose mission is to console the afflicted, and soften the pains of body and soul; to whose door come alike the rich and

1624-414: The church to better fulfill its diving mission. By the end of the 30s the radical opposition considered Lamartine their leading spokesman against King Louis-Phillipe and François Guizot . Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins was an instant success to the point that he styled himself the "Minister of Public Opinion" and considered one of the causes of the 1848 revolution. He was briefly in charge of

1682-489: The family estate. In his youth he read Fénelon , Voltaire , Parny , Bernardin de Saint-Pierre , Racine , Tasso , Dante , Petrarch , Mme de Staël , Shakespeare , Chateaubriand , and Ossian . Lamartine made his entrance into the field of poetry with a masterpiece, Les Méditations Poétiques (1820) and awoke to find himself famous. One of the notable poems in this collection was his partly autobiographical poem Le Lac ("The Lake"), which he dedicated to Julie Charles,

1740-505: The financially troubled author at first refused, when faced with selling his family home Lamartine agreed to publish. Les Confidences , based on Lamartine's journal, was serialized beginning on 2 January 1849 in La Presse . The girl with whom Lamartine was smitten in Italy was presented through the character of Graziella. The author depicted as working in coral, hoping to "avoid the degrading association which an open avowal of her employment [as

1798-624: The fisherman. When they return, Andrea and his family are sleeping, but are soon awoken and brought to the beach, joyously accepting the new vessel. Over the next several days, the narrator and Virieu enjoy an idyllic life, reading, walking, and enjoying the beauty, music, and dance of Procida. Graziella expresses interest in their reading, and thus the men read works by Ugo Foscolo and Tacitus to her and her family. Though these fall flat, all are interested in Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre 's romantic novel Paul et Virginie . Such

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1856-457: The flag of a party! This is the flag of France, it is the flag of our victorious armies, it is the flag of our triumphs that must be raised before Europe. France and the tricolor are one same thought, one same prestige, one same terror, if necessary, for our enemies! Imagine how much blood would be necessary for you to get another flag renamed! Citizens, for me, the red flag, I will never adopt it, and I am going to tell you why I'm against it with all

1914-531: The government during the turbulence of 1848 . He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 24 February 1848 to 11 May 1848. Due to his great age, Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure , Chairman of the Provisional Government, effectively delegated many of his duties to Lamartine. He was then a member of the Executive Commission , the political body which served as France's joint Head of State. Lamartine

1972-539: The most varied subjects (history, criticism, personal confidences, literary conversations) especially during the Empire, when, having retired to private life and having become the prey of his creditors, he condemned himself to what he calls "literary hard-labor to exist and pay his debts". Lamartine ended his life in poverty, publishing monthly installments of the Cours familier de littérature to support himself. He died in Paris in 1869. Nobel prize winner Frédéric Mistral 's fame

2030-429: The narrator overhears Andrea's wife, criticising him for taking on the two "pagan" Frenchmen. However, Graziella comes to their defense, silencing her grandmother by pointing out the two young men's compassion and religious acts. The family and their apprentices go to recover the remnants of the destroyed boat. Soon afterwards, the narrator and Virieu go to the village, where they purchase a new boat and fishing supplies for

2088-491: The narrator to abandon Naples and wander the surrounding area, returning only after the new year. Though Graziella accepts the proposed marriage on the day the narrator returns, she later escapes into the night, intent on joining a convent. The following day the family search for her in vain. Eventually, the narrator realizes that she must have returned to Procida and hurries there. In Andrea's home, he finds Graziella, who confesses her love for him, stating, "They wished me to take

2146-408: The narrator's own. When the narrator is recalled to France, Graziella collapses on the doorstep, and the narrator – though downhearted – cannot stay. Although they continue to exchange letters, once in French society, the narrator feels ashamed of his love for the poor fisherman's granddaughter. He only realizes his folly after learning of Graziella's death at age sixteen. The novel closes with

2204-528: The narrator's spirits. Reinvigorated, the next day, he goes to Andrea's Neapolitan lodgings in Mergellina . Since coming to the city, he learns of their fortunes: Andrea and his wife are enjoying bountiful catches, while Graziella has taken up coral carving to earn extra money. When the narrator appears unhappy to leave, they ask him to lodge with them. Months pass, and the narrator considers Andrea's family to be his own. The narrator attempts to treat Graziella as

2262-420: The plants in and around Paris, and Rousseau helped form his character and style. His Voyage à l'Île de France (2 vols., 1773) gained him a reputation as a champion of innocence and religion, and in consequence, through the exertions of the bishop of Aix , a pension of 1000 livres a year. The Études de la nature (3 vols., 1784) was an attempt to prove the existence of God from the wonders of nature; he set up

2320-427: The poor, of workmen with their hands, workmen with their minds; of day-laborers, of those in need, of a small number of men enjoying considerable acquired or inherited wealth, of others of a smaller fortune painfully increased and improved, of others with property only sufficient for their needs; there are some, finally, without any personal possession but their hands, and gleaning for themselves and for their families, in

2378-460: The region could bring about the rebirth of a new Christianity and spirituality that could save Europe from destruction. During his trip to Lebanon he had met prince Bashir Shihab II and prince Simon Karam, who were enthusiasts of poetry. A valley in Lebanon is still called the Valley of Lamartine as a commemoration of that visit, and the Lebanon cedar forest still harbors the "Lamartine Cedar", which

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2436-428: The revolutionary year of 1848 he served as Foreign Minister and frequently worked to ease tensions between the government and the working class. He was a candidate in the 1848 French presidential election but lost to Louis Napoleon Bonaparte . After the election he retired from political life. Born in Mâcon , Burgundy , on 21 October 1790, into a family of the French provincial nobility, Lamartine spent his youth at

2494-554: The same time), and was acknowledged by Paul Verlaine and the Symbolists as an important influence. Leo Tolstoy also admired Lamartine, who was the subject of some discourses in his notebooks. Alphonse de Lamartine was also an Orientalist . He used themes and materials of the Levant and the Bible to create plotlines, heroes, and landscapes that resemble an exotic Oriental world. He also had

2552-574: The story at the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris. A reference to the ill-fated Graziella can be found in Jules-Romain Tardieu 's 1857 novel Mignon, légende , which features a sculptor's daughter named Graziella. The novel states that her father, Marx, took "his cue from one of Lamartine's most poetic stories" in naming her. The French poet Tristan Corbière , having met a man who claimed to be the son of Lamartine and Graziella while in Italy in 1869, wrote

2610-523: The strength of my patriotism. It's that the tricolor has toured the world with the Republic and the Empire, with your freedoms and your glories, and the red flag has only toured the Champ-de-Mars , dragged in the blood of the people." During his term as a politician of the Second Republic , he led efforts that culminated in the abolition of slavery and the death penalty, as well as the enshrinement of

2668-484: The tale in 1843, and was considering telling the tale of Graziella as commentary to "Le Premier Regret". In the early 1840s, Lamartine's friend Eugène Pelletan visited the author in Ischia and was read several pages of the journal. Touched by the story, when Pelletan returned to Paris, he recommended that a French company publish the recollections, which he was certain would find popularity. The publisher agreed, and although

2726-635: The twentieth century. Thanks to the increase of general reason, to the light of philosophy, to the inspiration of Christianity, to the progress of the idea of justice, of charity, and of fraternity, in laws, manners, and religion, society in America, in Europe, and in France, especially since the Revolution, has broken down all these barriers, all these denominations of caste, all these injurious distinctions among men. Society

2784-518: The wife of a celebrated physician. In it he describes in retrospect the fervent love shared by a couple from the point of view of the bereaved man. He was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1825. He worked for the French embassy in Italy from 1825 to 1828. In 1829, he was elected a member of the Académie française . He was elected as a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1833. In 1835 he published

2842-516: The work depicts Graziella sitting on a rock, fishing net in hand, gazing over her shoulders at a smoking Mount Vesuvius. The painting is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New York . Another painting, Graziella di Lamartine , was completed by Neapolitan artist Ferdinando Ruggieri and a sculpture by Cesare Aureli , depicting a scene where Graziella cuts her hair as a sacrifice to

2900-458: The workshop, or the field, and at the threshold of the homes of others on the earth, the asylum, the wages, the bread, the instruction, the tools, the daily pay, all those means of existence which they have neither inherited, saved, nor acquired. These last are what have been improperly called the People . Alphonse de Lamartine as quoted in "A Priest" by Robert Nash (1943) on Catholic priests: "There

2958-538: Was a French author, poet, and statesman. Initially a moderate royalist Lamartine became one of the leading critics of the July Monarchy of Louis-Phillipe aligning more with the Republican Left and Social Catholicism . He was a leading figure in the 1848 French Revolution and was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic along with the continuation of the tricolore as the flag of France . During

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3016-513: Was a French writer and botanist . He is best known for his 1788 novel, Paul et Virginie , a very popular 18th-century classic of French literature . At the age of twelve he had read Robinson Crusoe and went with his uncle, a skipper, to the West-Indies. After returning from this trip he was educated as an engineer at the École des Ponts . Then he joined the French Army and was involved in

3074-606: Was asked what side of the chamber he was going to sit on, he responded "on the ceiling". Throughout his time in the Chamber, Lamartine always sat in the opposition. He quickly founded his own "Social Party" with some influence from Saint-Simonian ideas and established himself as a prominent critic of the July Monarchy . Initially critical of both the Bourgeois Monarchy and the Republican agitators, Lamartine becoming more and more of

3132-424: Was elected a member of the Académie française . Saint-Pierre was an avid advocate and practitioner of vegetarianism , and although he was a devout Christian was also heavily influenced by Enlightenment-era intellectuals like Voltaire and his mentor Rousseau . In 1792 he married a very young girl, Félicité Didot, who brought him a considerable dowry . After his first wife's death he married in 1800, when he

3190-406: Was in part due to the praise of Alphonse de Lamartine in the fortieth edition of his periodical Cours familier de littérature , following the publication of Mistral's long poem Mirèio . Mistral is the most revered writer in modern Occitan literature . Lamartine is considered to be the first French romantic poet (though Charles-Julien Lioult de Chênedollé was working on similar innovations at

3248-616: Was instrumental in the founding of the Second Republic , having met with republican deputies and journalists in the Hôtel de Ville to agree on the makeup of its provisional government. Lamartine himself was chosen to declare the Republic in traditional form in the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville, and ensured the continuation of the Tricolour as the flag of the nation. On 25 February 1848, Lamartine said about

3306-518: Was published by the Chicago-based A. C. McClurg and Company under the title Graziella: A Story of Italian Love . Another edition, titled simply Graziella , was translated by Ralph Wright and published by Nonesuch Press of London in 1929. This version included 30 illustrations. In 1871, a writer in the Westminster Review described the change from the tobacco-leaf folder to coral carver as

3364-453: Was sixty-three, another young girl, Desirée Pelleport. Alexander von Humboldt , next to Charles Darwin the best known naturalist of the nineteenth century, belonged to the admirers of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and cherished the novel Paul et Virginie . Alphonse de Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine ( French: [alfɔ̃s maʁi lwi dəpʁa də lamaʁtin] ; 21 October 1790 – 28 February 1869)

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