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CHAMISSO, ADELBERT VON [Louis CHARLES...

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 826 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHAMISSO, ADELBERT VON [See also:Louis See also:CHARLES See also:ADELAIDE DE] (1781–1838) , See also:German poet and botanist, was See also:born at the See also:chateau of Boncourt in See also:Champagne, See also:France, the ancestral seat of his See also:family, on the 3oth of See also:January 1781. Driven from France by the Revolution, his parents settled in See also:Berlin, where in 1796 youpg Chamisso obtained the See also:post of See also:page-in-waiting to the See also:queen, and in 1798 entered a Prussian See also:infantry See also:regiment as See also:ensign. His family were shortly afterwards permitted to return to France; he, however, remained behind and continued his career in the See also:army. He had but little See also:education, but now sought See also:distraction from the soulless routine of the Prussian military service in assiduous study. In` collaboration with Varnhagen von Ense, he founded in 1803 the Berliner Musenalmanach, in which his first verses appeared. The enterprise was a failure, and, interrupted by the See also:war, it came to an end in 1806. It brought him, however, to the See also:notice of many of the See also:literary celebrities of the See also:day and established his reputation as a rising poet. He had become See also:lieutenant in 18or, and in 1805 accompanied his regiment to See also:Hameln, where he shared in the humiliations following the treasonable See also:capitulation of that fortress in the ensuing See also:year. Placed on See also:parole he went to France, where he found that both his parents were dead; and, returning to Berlin in the autumn of 1807, he obtained his See also:release from the service See also:early in the following year. Homeless and without a profession, disillusioned and despondent, he lived in Berlin until 18ro, when, through the services of an old friend of the family, he was offered a professorship at the lycee at Napoleonville in La See also:Vendee. He set out to take up the post, but See also:drawn into the charmed circle of Madame de See also:Stael, followed her in her See also:exile to Coppet in See also:Switzerland, where, devoting himself to botanical See also:research, he remained nearly two years. In 1812 he returned to Berlin, where he continued his scientific studies.

In the summer of the eventful year, 1813, he wrote the See also:

prose narrative See also:Peter Schlemihl, the See also:man who sold his See also:shadow. This, the most famous of all his See also:works, has been translated into most See also:European See also:languages (See also:English by W. Howitt). It was written partly to divert his own thoughts and partly to amuse the See also:children of his friend See also:Hitzig. In 1815 Chamisso was appointed botanist to the See also:Russian See also:ship " Rurik," which See also:Otto von See also:Kotzebue (son of See also:August von Kotzebue) commanded on a scientific voyage See also:round the See also:world. His See also:diary of the expedition (Tagebuch, 1821) affords some interesting glimpses of See also:England and English See also:life. On his return in 1818 he was made custodian of the botanical gardens in Berlin, and. was elected a member of the See also:Academy of Sciences, and in 1820 he married. Chamisso's travels and scientific researches re-strained for a while the full development of his poetical See also:talent, and it was not until his See also:forty-eighth year that he turned again to literature. In 1829, in collaboration with Gustav Schwab, and from 1832 in See also:conjunction with See also:Franz von See also:Gaudy, he brought out the Deutsche Musenalmanach, in which his later poems were mainly published. He died on the 21st of August 1838. As a scientist Chamisso has not See also:left much See also:mark, although his Bemerkungen and Ansichten, published in an incomplete See also:form in O. von Kotzebue's Entdeckungsreise (See also:Weimar, 1821) and more completely in Chamisso's Gesammelte Werke (1836), and the botanical See also:work, Ubersicht der nutzbarsten and schiidlichsten Gewdchse in Norddeutschland (1829) are esteemed for their careful treatment of the subjects with which they See also:deal. As a poet Chamisso's reputation stands high, Frauen Liebe and Leben (1830), a See also:cycle of lyrical poems, which was set to See also:music by See also:Schumann, being particularly famous.

Noteworthy are also Schloss Boncourt and See also:

Salas y See also:Gomez. In estimating his success as a writer, it should not be forgotten that he was cut off from his native speech and from his natural current of thought and feeling. He often deals with gloomy and some-times with ghastly and repulsive subjects; and even in his lighter and gayer proudctions there is an undertone of sadness or of See also:satire. In the lyrical expression of the domestic emotions he displays a See also:fine felicity, and he knew how to treat with true feeling a See also:tale of love or vengeance. See also:Die Lowenbraut may be taken as a See also:sample of his weird and powerful simplicity; and Vergeltung is remarkable for a pitiless precision of treatment. The first collected edition of Chamisso's works-was edited by J. E. Hitzig, 6 vols. (1836); 6th edition (1894); there are also excellent See also:editions by M. See also:Koch (1883) and O. F. Walzel (1892).

On Chamisso's life see J. E. Hitzig, " Leben and Briefe von Adelbert von Chamisso (in the Gesammelte Werke) ; K. See also:

Fulda, Chamisso and See also:seine Zeit (1881) ; G. See also:Hofmeister, Adelbert von Chamisso (1884); and, for the scientific See also:side of Chamisso's life, E. du Bois-See also:Raymond, Adelbert von Chamisso als Naturforscher (1889).

End of Article: CHAMISSO, ADELBERT VON [Louis CHARLES ADELAIDE DE] (1781–1838)

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