The influences behind A Sentimental Education (L'Éducation sentimentale)

Following one thread, 3 works from A Sentimental Education (L'Éducation sentimentale) to The Works of Ossian. Back to all 33 works

1. 

   1765

   The Works of Ossian

   James Macpherson

   Scottish Enlightenment. Scotland. Written in English.

   Prose poems presented as translations of an ancient Gaelic bard, widely read across Europe as primitive epic.

   What it handed down

   To René (1802)

   Direct source, well documented.

   René tells of travelling to Scotland and hearing a bard sing in the hills where Ossian's heroes once fought. The misty landscapes and elegiac tone of Macpherson's poems colour the whole narrative.

   To The Sorrows of Young Werther

   Direct source, well documented.

   In the climactic scene Werther reads to Lotte his own translation of the 'Songs of Selma' from Ossian, and the passage is quoted at length. Werther's turn from Homer to Ossian marks his descent into despair.

   Where it came from

   The line stops here: macpherson's sources are Scottish Gaelic ballads and oral tradition, largely unrecorded in published form.

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