Lamartine's Journey to the Orient: A Spiritual Quest

Extract

[...] Alphonse de Lamartine is astonished by the physical and mental vivacity of this elderly person. He notes in this person the way in which inner serenity, wisdom, and goodness radiate outward in some way. The passage of this text almost takes on an apologetic dimension in that the writer wants to show in some way how faith can have repercussions on the physical and mental well-being of people who believe in God. Alphonse de Lamartine continues his observation of the evening and the people present: \"Father Poussous, his companion, two merchants from Baghdad, and a great Persian lord who is going to Mecca, completed the peaceful gathering of the evening, on the divans of M. [...]

[...] « On the west side, the eye is first arrested by light sand dunes like the glow of a fire, and from which rises a mist of a pinkish white, similar to the reflection of a lit furnace; then, following the line of the horizon, it passes over this desert, and arrives at the dark blue line of the sea, which ends it, and blends into the distance, with the sky, in a haze that leaves their limit indistinct. And it is then that Lamartine allows himself to a lyrical description. Better than any writer, Lamartine has the ability to express the beauty of nature. But this description of nature is not gratuitous. [...]

[...] Visits from Mr. Truqui every week. Only good hearts have a virtue that consoles. God has given them the only dictum that there is for the incurable wounds of the heart, sympathy. Thus, the writer describes a solitary life. This does not prevent him from deploying a thought that is not worth for him alone. In fact, we note the following phrase: 'Only good hearts have a virtue that consoles'27 ». [...]

[...] This is what we can observe in the section titled 'Damas' and more precisely in these lines that he writes on April 1833: « Departed from Damascus at eight o'clock in the morning; crossed the city and the bazaars crowded with people; heard a few murmurs and a few insulting apostrophes: they take us for reinforcements for Ibrahim. Left the city through a different gate from the one by which we arrived; followed delightful gardens along a road on the edge of a torrent, shaded by superb trees; climbed the mountain where we had such a beautiful apparition of Damascus; stopped to contemplate it again, and to carry away its eternal image1 ». One can speak here of paratactic construction in the sense that one finds propositions simply juxtaposed. One indeed finds here a kind of journalistic style. [...]

[...] A quest that echoes the existential concerns of the reader Indeed, it is the full force of Lamartine to express notions, thoughts, feelings in which each of us can project himself, reader of his time as the reader of our time and perhaps the readers of future generations. The strength of a masterpiece is indeed to be able to last over time. This is what we can see in the lines that follow: « The disposition of soul in which I found myself unfortunately renders me unable to express what these places and ceremonies should inspire; everything for me was reduced to a deep and painful sentimentalism. An Arab woman, who came to baptize her newborn on the altar of the Nativity, added to my emotion. [...]