François-René de CHATEAUBRIAND. L.A.S., Paris September 5, 1 - Lot 179

François-René de CHATEAUBRIAND. L.A.S., Paris September 5, 1824, [to Prosper de BARANTE]; 3 pages in-4. About his pamphlet De la censure qu'on vient d'établir (On the censorship that has just been established): "Personally I would not have dared offer you this slim opuscule, which has no other merit than its aptness, but if someone wanted to give you an idea of the value I attach to your suffrage, an indiscreet friendship has served me well. It would be very unfortunate, Monsieur, if men of merit did not agree on the general interests of France. I am more confident than you, and I hope that at the next session the Chamber of Peers will retain that independence of opinion which has done it so much honor this year. The politics of the day, and an errand I was obliged to run in Switzerland, have prevented me, Monsieur, from attending to your fine work [this concerns the first 4 volumes of the Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne]: I would not be surprised if the honor of the 14th century were put on the index like the liberty of the 19th". Despite the fear of censorship, "I will try to overcome my repugnance to prove to you the extreme desire I have to do what may be pleasing to you" [Chateaubriand would devote a laudatory article to this work in the Journal des Débats of December 20, 1824]. Correspondance générale, t. VII, n° 41.