Le Censeur européen : un journal industrieux et utile Réflexions sur le statut de l’homme de lettres dans une société moderne et libérale

Le Censeur Européen (1817-1819), which proved to be a true incubator for French liberal thought, as evidenced by the contributions of Augustin Thierry, Charles Dunoyer and Charles Comte, testifies to a decline in the status of the man of letters, who is readily equated with a parasite. The article examines the modalities of this degradation, which makes it possible a contrario to understand Charles Nodier’s claims and his defense of the imagination in La Fée aux Miettes.