Charles Victor de Bonstetten
Charles Victor de Bonstetten | |
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| Born | 3 September 1745 Bern, Swiss Confederacy |
| Died | 3 February 1832 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | Writer |
Charles Victor de Bonstetten (German: Karl Viktor von Bonstetten; 3 September 1745 – 3 February 1832) was a Swiss liberal writer.
Life
Charles Victor was born at
Yverdon.[1] He studied at Geneva from 1763 to 1766 at Geneva, where he came under the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles Bonnet and imbibed liberal sentiments.[3] His father, intending to fit him for a career as a Bernese senator of the traditional type, was alarmed at the tone of his letters from Geneva and recalled his son to Bern.[1] He obeyed but his distaste for Bernese life led him to attempt suicide by pistol. Supposedly, he was distracted by a moonbeam at the moment of discharge and survived to be sent by his father to Leiden to continue his studies.[1]
As the climate of Leiden disagreed with him, he was permitted to travel to
Italy, where he reached as far south as Naples.[4] No longer a revolutionary but still a liberal, he returned to Bern in 1774 and entered its political life.[3]
He began his political career as a member of the
The
Madame de Staël.[3] His most celebrated book—Men of the South and of the North (L'Homme du midi et l'homme du nord)—was published during this era, arguing that climate was responsible for the superiority of northern Europe over the south,[3] but his own writing generally fell into low esteem.[5] Instead, he is principally remembered for his social character—as a conversationalist, and as the friend, often the intimate companion of many of the more celebrated leaders of thought and action during his long life.[3]
Works
- Briefe über ein schweizerisches Hirtenland, 1782
- The Hermit (L'Hermite; 1792)
- Lesser Writings (Kleine Schriften, 1799–1801)
- On National Education (Über Nationalbildung, 1802)
- Trip to the Scene of the Last 6 Books of the Aeneid, with Some Observations on Modern Latium (Voyage sur la scène des six derniers livres de l’Enéide, suivi de quelques observations sur le Latium moderne, 1805)
- Research on the Nature and Laws of the Imagination (Recherches sur la nature et les lois de l’imagination, 1807)
- Thoughts on the Diverse Objects of Public Goods (Pensées sur divers objets de bien public, 1815)
- Studies on Man, or, Research on the Faculties of Thought and Thinking (Études sur l’homme ou recherches sur les facultés de sentir et de penser, 1821)
- Man of the South and Man of the North, or, The Influence of Climates (L’Homme du midi et l’homme du nord ou l'influence des climats, 1824)
- Scandinavia and the Alps (La Scandinavie et les Alpes, 1826)
- Recollections Written in 1831 (Souvenirs écrits en 1831, 1831)
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Baynes 1878, p. 36.
- ^ a b The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, ed. (30 August 2022). "Karl Viktor von Bonstetten". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 4 August 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
{{cite encyclopedia}}:|editor=has generic name (help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Coolidge 1911, p. 214.
- ^ Baynes 1878, pp. 36–37.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Baynes 1878, p. 37.
References
- Baynes, T. S., ed. (1878), , Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4 (9th ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 36–37
- Coolidge, William Augustus Brevoort (1911), , in Chisholm, Hugh (ed.), Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 213
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