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Gobineau, the Would-be Orientalist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

ROBERT IRWIN
ROBERT IRWIN*
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of Londonirwin960@btinternet.com
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Abstract

The poet, traveller, Arabist and campaigning anti-imperialist Wilfrid Blunt, who visited Gobineau in 1871, described him in his diary as follows: “Gobineau is a man of about 55, with grey hair and moustache, dark rather prominent eyes, sallow complexion, and tall figure with brisk almost jerky gait. In temperament he is nervous, energetic in manner, observant, but distrait, passing rapidly from thought to thought, a good talker but a bad listener. He is a savant, novelist, poet, sculptor, archaeologist, a man of taste, a man of the world”.1 On December 16 1904, Marcel Proust wrote to an old friend from schooldays, “Me voici gobinien. Je ne pense qu’à lui”.2 That old friend was Robert Dreyfus, the brother of the Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus, and, together with Proust, one of the leading campaigners for Alfred's release from Devil's Island. (Alfred was only fully exonerated in 1906.) Proust, of course, skilfully worked the scandals and passions of the Dreyfus Affair into his great sequence of novels, À la recherche du temps perdu. As for Robert, he was to publish his Souvenirs sur Marcel Proust in 1926. But he had also published an admiring monograph entitled La vie et prophéties du Comte de Gobineau in 1909. All this may suggest that, though Count Joseph-Arthur de Gobineau (1816-82) was a racist, he may not have been a conventional one.

Type
Part IV: Beyond the Empire
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 26 , Issue 1-2 , January 2016 , pp. 321 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2016 

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References

1 Wilfrid Blunt's diary, quoted in Schemann, Ludwig, Quellen und Untersuchungen zum Leben Gobineaus, 2 vols (Strasburg, 1914 Google Scholar, 1919), II, p. 309.

2 Proust, Marcel, Correspondence de Marcel Proust, (ed.) Philip Kohl, IV (Paris, 1978), p. 373 Google Scholar.

3 On the fiction of Gobineau, see Rey, Pierre-Louis, L'univers Romanesque de Gobineau (Paris, 1981)Google Scholar.

4 For brief surveys of Gobineau's oriental interests, see Calmard, Jean, “Gobineau”, Encyclopedia Iranica, (ed.) Yarshater, Ehsan (London, Boston, New York and Costa Mesa, CA, 1982), XI Google Scholar, pp. 20-24; Pierre-Louis Rey, “Gobineau”, in Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française, (ed.) François Pouillon, second edition (Paris, 2012), pp. 475-476.

5 Lange, Maurice, Le Comte Arthur de Gobineau: étude biographique et critique (Strasburg, 1924), p. 19 Google Scholar; cf. Gail, Marzieh, Persia and the Victorians (London, 1951), p. 56 Google Scholar.

6 de Gobineau, Joseph-Arthur, Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines, in Gobineau, Oeuvres, (ed.) Jean Gaulmier and Jean Boissel, 3 vols (Paris, 1983)Google Scholar, II, p. 1164.

7 Gobineau, The Inequality of Human Races, tr. Adrian Collins (London, 1915), p. 59.

8 Ibid ., p. 177.

9 Ibid ., p. 178.

10 A letter of July 7, 1855 to Tocqueville in de Tocqueville, Alexis, Oeuvres complètes (Paris, 1959), IX Google Scholar, p. 232.

11 Letter to Anton von Prokesch-Osten, quoted in Biddiss, Michael, Father of Racist Ideology: The Social and Political Thought of Count Gobineau (London, 1974), p. 183 Google Scholar.

12 Gobineau, Les religions et philosophies dans l'Asie centrale, in Gobineau, Oeuvres, II, p. 476.

13 Ibid ., II, p. 405.

14 Bernal, Martin, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (London, 1987), p. 343 Google Scholar.

15 Gobineau, The Inequality of Human Races, p. 178.

16 Gobineau, Trois ans en Asie, in Oeuvres, II, pp. 255-227.

17 Ibid ., pp. 266-289.

18 Minorsky, Vladimir, “Notes sur la secte de Ahlî-Haqq”, Revue du Monde Musulman 41 (1920), pp. 21–22 Google Scholar.

19 Gobineau, Trois ans, p. 273.

20 Gobineau, Religions et philosophies, pp. 504-662.

21 Jean Gaulmier, “Appendice”, in Gobineau, Oeuvres, II, p. 1174.

22 On Browne's academic career and propensity for anti-imperialist polemic, see Irwin, Robert, For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies (London, 2006), pp. 204 Google Scholar-207.

23 Browne, E. G., A Literary History of Persia, IV (Cambridge, 1924), p. 153 Google Scholar.

24 Ibid ., pp. 430-431.

25 F. Max Müller, “Notice sur Jules Mohl”, in Jules Mohl, Vingt-sept ans d'histoire des études orientales, rapports faits à la Société Asiatique de Paris, de Paris, de 1840 à 1867 (Paris, 1879), pp. ix-xlvii; Cosroe Chaqueri, “Mohl”, in Pouillon (ed.), Dictionnaire, pp. 731-732.

26 Pedersen, Holger, The Discovery of Language: Linguistic Science in the Nineteenth Century (Bloomington, IN, 1962)Google Scholar; Friedrich, Johannes, Extinct Languages (London, 1962)Google Scholar; Kahn, David, The Code-Breakers: The Story of Secret Writing (London, 1966), pp. 912–914 Google Scholar; Pope, M. V., The Story of Decipherment (London, 1975)Google Scholar; Fontan, E., De Khorsabad à Paris:La découverte des Assyriens (Paris, 1994)Google Scholar.

27 On Gobineau's claims to have deciphered cuneiform and their hostile reception by scholars, see Gaulmier, “Introduction”, in Gobineau, Oeuvres, II, pp. xxxviii-xlvii.

28 Alexis de Tocqueville, Oeuvres complètes, IX, Correspondence d'Alexis de Tocqueville et Arthur de Gobineau, (ed.) M. Degros (Paris, 1859), pp. 300-303. On Oppert's rebuttal, see p. 301, n.; Gaulmier, “Introduction”, p. xl, n.

29 Browne, Literary History, I (London, 1902), p. 73.

30 Gobineau, Traité des écritures cunéiformes, 2 vols (Paris, 1864), II, p. 378; von Hammer, Joseph, Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained, with an Account of the Egyptian Priests, their Classes, Initiation and Sacrifice in the Arabic Language (London, 1806)Google Scholar.

31 Schemann, Quellen, p. 427.

32 Mohl, Vingt-sept ans, II, pp. 256-257.

33 Mohl, Vingt-sept ans, II, pp. 563-568.

34 Gaulmier, “Introduction”, p. xlv.

35 Browne, Literary History, I, p. 64.

36 Gobineau, Histoire des Perses d'après les auteurs Orientaux, Grecs et Latins, 2 vols (Paris, 1869).

37 Sir Malcolm, John, The History of Persia, second edition, 2 vols (London, 1829)Google Scholar, I, p. 6.

38 Ibid ., pp. 11-12, 509, 520, n.

39 Gobineau, Histoire des Perses, 2 vols (Paris, 1869), II, p. 632.

40 Schemann, Quellen, II, pp. 108-109; Gaulmier, “Introduction”, pp. xxxvii-xxxviii.

41 Safari, Kokab, Les légendes et contes Persans dans la littérature Anglaise des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles jusqu'en 1859 (Paris, 1972), p. 218 Google Scholar.

42 Bernal, Black Athena, p. 240.

43 Said, Edward, Orientalism (London, 1978), p. 99 Google Scholar.

44 Ibid., p. 150.