Letters from France and Italy (1847-1852)

These letters are impressions captured on the spur of the moment and fixed in haste, of a time not yet very distant, but whose traditions are already difficult to believe in. Perhaps this is why they have a very particular value in my eyes.

It is my first encounter with Europe, a joyful encounter at first; how could one not be joyful after having escaped the Russia of Nicholas, after two exiles and police surveillance? The cheerful tone of the letters darkens; ominous doubt and pathological analysis replace it. The motley scenery of constitutional France could not hide for long the inner illness that was deeply undermining it.
· The more I examined, the more I saw that a complete economic revolution, the 1793 of socialism, alone could resurrect France. But where are the forces, where are the men? And above all, where is the brain? With bitter doubt and unresolved questions, I left France and fell directly into Italy in the first days of its awakening. I went from one victory to another; I saw