Xavier de Maistre
Xavier de Maistre | |
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Voyage autour de ma chambre | |
| Relatives | Joseph de Maistre |
Xavier de Maistre (French pronunciation:
Life
Xavier shared the political sympathies of his brother Joseph, and after a French revolutionary army annexed
In 1803, Joseph de Maistre was appointed as Piedmont-Sardinia's ambassador to the court of Alexander I, Tsar of Russia. On his brother's arrival in St. Petersburg, Xavier de Maistre was introduced to the Minister of the Navy, and was appointed to several posts including director of the Library, and of the Museum of Admiralty. He also joined active service, and was wounded in the Caucasus, attaining the rank of major-general. In 1812 he married a Russian lady, related to the Tsars, Mrs. Zagriatsky. He remained in Russia even after the overthrow of Napoleon and the consequent restoration of the Piedmontese dynasty.[2]
Literary work
His
Most of his other works are of modest dimensions; these include
- Le Lépreux de la Cité d'Aoste ("The Leper from Aosta", 1811), a touching humane story in a simple style, involving a dialogue between a leper who reminisces with a soldier about his lost youth and his sequestered life in a tower with a view of the Alps,
- Les Prisonniers du Caucase ("The Prisoners of the Caucasus", 1825), a powerful sketch of Russian character,
- La Jeune Sibérienne ("The Young Siberian", 1825), a true story of Praskovia Lupolova who left on foot from Ishim in the depth of Siberia to go to Saint Petersburg to ask Tsar Alexander I for the grace of her father, and
- Expédition Nocturne Autour de ma Chambre ("Night Voyage Around My Room", 1825), a sequel to Voyage Autour de ma Chambre.
In 1839, after the publication of a French edition of La Jeune Sibérienne (1825), Maistre went on a long journey to Paris and Savoy. He was surprised to find himself well-known in literary circles. Alphonse de Lamartine dedicated a poem to him (Retour, 1826) praising his genius: "the future sons will say ... it is your heart, which through your mellifluous writings you have passed to us". He met Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, who has left some pleasant reminiscences of him.[2]
For a time, he lived at Naples, but eventually he returned to St. Petersburg and died there in 1852.[2]
Allusions in other works
- The title of de Maistre's book "Voyage Autour de Ma Chambre" is cited in a verse by Carlos Argentino Daneri, a character in Jorge Luis Borges's short story "The Aleph".
- Voyage autour de ma chambre is mentioned in the second sentence of the short story "Honolulu", collected in The Trembling of a Leaf (1921) by W. Somerset Maugham: "The wise traveller travels only in imagination. An old Frenchman (he was really a Savoyard) once wrote a book called Voyage autour de ma Chambre."
- "Voyage Autour de ma Chambre" is mentioned in British author ISBN 0-375-42082-7).
- "Voyage Autour de ma Chambre" is mentioned in Danish author ISBN 978-87-02-21152-8).
- "Voyage Autour de ma Chambre" is mentioned in British author Lucy Huskinson's book Architecture and the Mimetic Self (2018, ISBN 978-0415693042)
- The poem "Hai luli" from Les Prisonniers du Caucase was set to music by French composer Pauline Viardot.
- Alphonse de Lamartine writes the poem Le Retour when De Maistre returns to Paris.
- Voyage Autour de ma Chambre inspired Portuguese writer Almeida Garrett to write Viagens na Minha Terra (Travels in my Homeland).
- Xavier de Maistre and his Voyage Autour de ma Chambre are said by the character Brás Cubas to be one of his influences in writing his memoirs, in the novel Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas by Brazilian writer Machado de Assis.
- Voyage Autour de ma Chambre is mentioned in D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers: "...She wanted to learn, thinking that if she could read, as Paul said he could read, 'Colomba', or the 'Voyage autour de ma Chambre', the world would have a different face for her and a deepened respect." (Part 2, Chapter 7)
- The short story by Wilkie Collins, "A Terribly Strange Bed," which was first published in Household Words by Charles Dickens in 1852, contains a reference to "Voyage Autour de ma Chambre." During a bout of insomnia, the narrator says that he will inspect the strange room that he is spending the night in.
- The title is echoed in John Mortimer's 1963 autobiographical play A Voyage Round My Father.
- Heavily inspired Gustaw Herling-Grudziński's work "Wieża" or "Tower".
Theatre
The novel "Voyage Around My Room" was first performed in Zürich in 2013.[3]
References
- ^ ISBN 0-09-178274-0.
- ^ a b c d e One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Maistre, Xavier de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 446.
- ^ "keller62 - theater ins leben - spielplan". Retrieved 6 October 2014.
External links
- Works by Xavier de Maistre in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
- Works by Xavier de Maistre at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Xavier de Maistre at Internet Archive
- Works by Xavier de Maistre at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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