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

Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature is a work in six volumes, and the first of them is titled The Emigrant Literature. The introduction says the author intends to trace the outlines of a psychology of the first half of the nineteenth century by means of the study of certain main groups and movements in European literature. The stormy year 1848 is called a historical turning-point and hence a break, and the limit to which the author purposes following the process of development.

Voltaire is said to influence minds in general, while Rousseau has a special power over productive talents, over authors. The text says the great literary movements in all the principal countries of Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century were influenced by Rousseau, and lists among others Chateaubriand, Mme. de Staël, Tieck and Byron as influenced by him. A speaker who approves of divorce says that the indissolubility of unhappy marriages makes life one long succession of hopeless miseries.