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Les Grands Textes
En 1900, il est le géographe le plus célèbre au monde et une gloire nationale. Grand voyageur, anarchiste militant venu du calvinisme, admirable écrivain que l’on compara à Buffon ou à Michelet, végétarien et sensuel, communard et taulard, féministe et défenseur de l’union libre, intellectuel autodidacte sans œillères ni frontières trois fois parti en exil, Élisée Reclus (1830-1905) est, enfin, en passe de devenir un classique.
Le lecteur d’aujourd’hui s’empare d’Élisée Reclus pour jouir de la beauté de sa langue et mieux comprendre les enjeux de notre époque. Le chantre de la libre association des individus selon leur « bon vouloir », d’une mondialisation égalitaire, d’une fraternité humaine d’échelle planétaire, qui a toujours refusé d’appartenir au « monde banal des classes gouvernementales », ne s’impose pas à nous comme un maître. Il fait bien mieux : son tact et sa passion nous éclairent et nous inspirent. Il demeure aujourd’hui ce « phare dans le lointain » évoqué par son neveu, l’historien de l’art Élie Faure.
Cet ouvrage est ce que l’on nommait au XVIIIe siècle un « esprit », une distillation de l’ensemble des écrits d’Élisée Reclus.
Il invite à goûter la qualité exceptionnelle d’une œuvre et celle de l’encyclopédiste lumineux qui la composa.
Le lecteur d’aujourd’hui s’empare d’Élisée Reclus pour jouir de la beauté de sa langue et mieux comprendre les enjeux de notre époque. Le chantre de la libre association des individus selon leur « bon vouloir », d’une mondialisation égalitaire, d’une fraternité humaine d’échelle planétaire, qui a toujours refusé d’appartenir au « monde banal des classes gouvernementales », ne s’impose pas à nous comme un maître. Il fait bien mieux : son tact et sa passion nous éclairent et nous inspirent. Il demeure aujourd’hui ce « phare dans le lointain » évoqué par son neveu, l’historien de l’art Élie Faure.
Cet ouvrage est ce que l’on nommait au XVIIIe siècle un « esprit », une distillation de l’ensemble des écrits d’Élisée Reclus.
Il invite à goûter la qualité exceptionnelle d’une œuvre et celle de l’encyclopédiste lumineux qui la composa.
379 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 9, 2014
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About the author
Élisée Reclus
910 books55 followersÉlisée Reclus, also known as Jacques Élisée Reclus, was a renowned French geographer, writer and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes ("Universal Geography"), over a period of nearly 20 years (1875 - 1894). In 1892 he was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal of the Paris Geographical Society for this work, despite his having been banished from France because of his political activism.
Reclus was the second son of a Protestant pastor and his wife. From the family of fourteen children, several, including his brother and fellow geographer Onésime Reclus, went on to achieve renown either as men of letters, politicians or members of the learned professions.
Reclus began his education in Rhenish Prussia, and continued higher studies at the Protestant college of Montauban. He completed his studies at University of Berlin, where he followed a long course of geography under Carl Ritter.
Withdrawing from France because of political events of December 1851, he spent the next six years (1852 - 1857) traveling and working in Great Britain, the United States, Central America, and Colombia. Arriving in Louisiana in 1853, Reclus worked for about two and a half years as a tutor to the children of Septime and Félicité Fortier at their plantation Félicité, located about 50 miles upriver from New Orleans. He recounted his passage through the Mississippi river delta and impressions of antebellum New Orleans and the state in Fragment d'un voyage á Louisiane, published in 1855.
On his return to Paris, Reclus contributed to the Revue des deux mondes, the Tour du monde and other periodicals, a large number of articles embodying the results of his geographical work. Among other works of this period was the short book Histoire d’un ruisseau, in which he traced the development of a great river from source to mouth. From 1867 - 1868 he published La Terre; description des phénomènes de la vie du globe in two volumes.
During the 1870 siege of Paris, Reclus shared in the aerostatic operations conducted by Félix Nadar, and also served in the National Guard. As a member of the Association Nationale des Travailleurs, he published a hostile manifesto against the government of Versailles in support of the Paris Commune of 1871 in the Cri du Peuple.
Continuing to serve in the National Guard, now in open revolt, Reclus was taken prisoner on April 5, and on November 16 was sentenced to deportation for life. Because of intervention by supporters from England, the sentence was commuted in January 1872 to perpetual banishment from France.
After a short visit to Italy, Reclus settled at Clarens, Switzerland, where he resumed his literary labours and produced Histoire d’une montagne, a companion to Histoire d’un ruisseau. There he wrote nearly the whole of his work, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes, "an examination of every continent and country in terms of the effects that geographic features like rivers and mountains had on human populations—and vice versa," This compilation was profusely illustrated with maps, plans, and engravings. It was awarded the gold medal of the Paris Geographical Society in 1892. An English edition appeared simultaneously, also in 19 volumes, the first four by E. G. Ravenstein, the rest by A.H. Keane. Reclus's writings were characterized by extreme accuracy and brilliant exposition, which gave them permanent literary and scientific value.
Reclus was the second son of a Protestant pastor and his wife. From the family of fourteen children, several, including his brother and fellow geographer Onésime Reclus, went on to achieve renown either as men of letters, politicians or members of the learned professions.
Reclus began his education in Rhenish Prussia, and continued higher studies at the Protestant college of Montauban. He completed his studies at University of Berlin, where he followed a long course of geography under Carl Ritter.
Withdrawing from France because of political events of December 1851, he spent the next six years (1852 - 1857) traveling and working in Great Britain, the United States, Central America, and Colombia. Arriving in Louisiana in 1853, Reclus worked for about two and a half years as a tutor to the children of Septime and Félicité Fortier at their plantation Félicité, located about 50 miles upriver from New Orleans. He recounted his passage through the Mississippi river delta and impressions of antebellum New Orleans and the state in Fragment d'un voyage á Louisiane, published in 1855.
On his return to Paris, Reclus contributed to the Revue des deux mondes, the Tour du monde and other periodicals, a large number of articles embodying the results of his geographical work. Among other works of this period was the short book Histoire d’un ruisseau, in which he traced the development of a great river from source to mouth. From 1867 - 1868 he published La Terre; description des phénomènes de la vie du globe in two volumes.
During the 1870 siege of Paris, Reclus shared in the aerostatic operations conducted by Félix Nadar, and also served in the National Guard. As a member of the Association Nationale des Travailleurs, he published a hostile manifesto against the government of Versailles in support of the Paris Commune of 1871 in the Cri du Peuple.
Continuing to serve in the National Guard, now in open revolt, Reclus was taken prisoner on April 5, and on November 16 was sentenced to deportation for life. Because of intervention by supporters from England, the sentence was commuted in January 1872 to perpetual banishment from France.
After a short visit to Italy, Reclus settled at Clarens, Switzerland, where he resumed his literary labours and produced Histoire d’une montagne, a companion to Histoire d’un ruisseau. There he wrote nearly the whole of his work, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes, "an examination of every continent and country in terms of the effects that geographic features like rivers and mountains had on human populations—and vice versa," This compilation was profusely illustrated with maps, plans, and engravings. It was awarded the gold medal of the Paris Geographical Society in 1892. An English edition appeared simultaneously, also in 19 volumes, the first four by E. G. Ravenstein, the rest by A.H. Keane. Reclus's writings were characterized by extreme accuracy and brilliant exposition, which gave them permanent literary and scientific value.
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May 8, 2022
Recueil de texte du communard géographe anarchiste français Élisée Reclus. Divers sujet y sont traités : sexisme , racisme , végétarisme , naturisme , amour libre ,anarchisme, écologie, ses voyages autour de la planète, la commune de Paris, ses rapports avec la nature, la paternité , l’enseignement et la pédagogie , etc. Œuvre interessante mais qui nous laisse sur notre faim , l’écriture de reclus de style poétique avec des envolées lyrique passionnée donne la plupart du temps une dimension étouffante au propos de l’auteur. Plusieurs positions politiques et sujets traités sont très visionnaire et avant-gardiste pour l’époque à laquelle Reclus a vécu.
Displaying 1 of 1 review