Paris

Use in the book

Paris is anticipated as a threat well before the 1834 arrival: two days in its open air, Guérin fears, would exhaust his religious resolutions. Once there, the crowd prompts a prayer for inward images of Le Cayla and Le Val. Later he contrasts green solitary paths with noisy streets and their oppressive current of human breath. These passages describe his own susceptibility and preferred relation to society, not a disinterested portrait of the capital. The small garden in the rue d’Anjou-Saint-Honoré complicates the opposition. A lilac becomes a bodily support and seeming interlocutor during a moment of discouragement, while Rousseau’s song joins the encounter. Nature is restricted but still present in the city. Paris also means work: newspaper articles and the daily effort of teaching expose the difficulty of making a livelihood without surrendering inward time. The urban passages gradually make the practical question more exact: how can one participate in common life while preserving the forms of attention on which one depends?

Places to read

1. 1 February 1834 · ¶1The first Paris heading places the prayer for remembered natural forms in direct contact with the crowd.
2. 7 May 1834 · ¶2The exact street setting anchors the lilac episode in a small urban garden.
3. 20 August 1834 · ¶1The return from country freedom intensifies a wish to live on society’s edges rather than wholly outside it.
4. 30 April 1835 · ¶3Earning a living through Latin lessons consumes hours needed for thought.

Translation in this edition

The garden is described as near the rue de la Pépinière. These are the historical street names printed in the journal; this article makes no claim about present-day addresses.