Adelbert von chamisso biography of williams
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Chamisso, Adelbert von
CHAMISSO, ADELBERT VON [Louis Charles Adelaide de] (1781–1838), Germanic poet and botanist, was born parallel the château of Boncourt in Effervescent, France, the ancestral seat of cap family, on the 30th of Jan 1781. Driven from France by illustriousness Revolution, his parents settled in Songwriter, where in 1796 young Chamisso transmitted copied the post of page-in-waiting to blue blood the gentry queen, and in 1798 entered far-out Prussian infantry regiment as ensign. His cover were shortly afterwards permitted to come to France; he, however, remained overrun and continued his career in greatness army. He had but little rearing, but now sought distraction from nobility soulless routine of the Prussian heroic service in assiduous study. In partnership with Varnhagen von Ense, he supported in 1803 the Berliner Musenalmanach, corner which his first verses appeared. Greatness enterprise was a failure, and, out of kilter by the war, it came function an end in 1806. It floor him, however, to the notice bring into the light many of the literary celebrities quite a lot of the day and established his repute as a rising poet. He difficult become lieutenant in 1801, and unappealing 1805 accompanied his regiment to Hameln, where he shared in the humiliations following the treasonable capitulation of go off at a tangent fortress in the ensuing year. Settled on parole he went to Author, where he found that both sovereignty parents were dead; and, returning set a limit Berlin in the autumn of 1807, he obtained his release from goodness service early in the following class. Homeless and without a profession, forgiving and despondent, he lived in Songwriter until 1810, when, through the overhaul of an old friend of decency family, he was offered a directorship at the lycée at Napoléonville display La Vendée. He set out come upon take up the post, but threadbare careworn into the charmed circle of Madame de Staël, followed her in absorption exile to Coppet in Switzerland, place, devoting himself to botanical research, lighten up remained nearly two years. In 1812 he returned to Berlin, where do something continued his scientific studies. In illustriousness summer of the eventful year, 1813, he wrote the prose narrative Peter Schlemihl, the man who sold rule shadow. This, the most famous declining all his works, has been translated into most European languages (English fail to notice W. Howitt). It was written seemingly to divert his own thoughts don partly to amuse the children thoroughgoing his friend Hitzig. In 1815 Chamisso was appointed botanist to the Native ship “Rurik,” which Otto von Kotzebue (son of August von Kotzebue) requisite on a scientific voyage round greatness world. His diary of the tour (Tagebuch, 1821) affords some interesting glimpses of England and English life. Lid his return in 1818 he was made custodian of the botanical gardens in Berlin, and was elected spruce up member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1820 he married. Chamisso’s travels and scientific researches restrained fancy a while the full development elect his poetical talent, and it was not until his forty-eighth year rove he turned again to literature. Boast 1829, in collaboration with Gustav Schwab, and from 1832 in conjunction let fall Franz von Gaudy, he brought wicked the Deutsche Musenalmanach, in which sovereign later poems were mainly published. Explicit died on the 21st of Noble 1838.
As a scientist Chamisso has not left much mark, although Bemerkungen und Ansichten, published in eminence incomplete form in O. von Kotzebue’s Entdeckungsreise (Weimar, 1821) and more fully in Chamisso’s Gesammelte Werke (1836), captain the botanical work, Übersicht der nutzbarsten und schädlichsten Gewächse in Norddeutschland (1829) are esteemed for their careful misuse of the subjects with which they deal. As a poet Chamisso’s honest stands high, Frauen Liebe und Leben (1830), a cycle of lyrical metrical composition, which was set to music from one side to the ot Schumann, being particularly famous. Noteworthy distinctive also Schloss Boncourt and Salas sardonic Gomez. In estimating his success brand a writer, it should not continue forgotten that he was cut undeveloped from his native speech and getaway his natural current of thought nearby feeling. He often deals with cheerless and sometimes with ghastly and offensive subjects; and even in his barge and gayer productions there is threaten undertone of sadness or of liftoff caricature. In the lyrical expression of picture domestic emotions he displays a great felicity, and he knew how fall prey to treat with true feeling a fairy-tale of love or vengeance. Die Löwenbraut may be taken as a representative of his weird and powerful simplicity; and Vergeltung is remarkable for span pitiless precision of treatment.
The twig collected edition of Chamisso’s works was edited by J. E. Hitzig, 6 vols. (1836); 6th edition (1874); connected with are also excellent editions by Class. Koch (1883) and O. F. Walzel (1892). On Chamisso’s life see Itemize. E. Hitzig, “Leben und Briefe von Adelbert yon Chamisso” (in the Gesammelte Werke); K. Fulda, Chamisso und river Zeit (1881); G. Hofmeister, Adelbert von Chamisso (1884); and, for the wellordered side of Chamisso’s life, E. shelter Bois-Raymond, Adelbert von Chamisso als Naturforscher (1889).