Abstract: In the Essai sur la littérature anglaise, Chateaubriand gives in to his taste for compilation and digression. What might seem to be a fault of the work emerges instead as its secret organising principle : through a process of constructive digression, Chateaubriand takes leave of his subjects in order to better emphasise them. In this rhapsodic work, the valorisation of “génies-mères” reaches its grand finale in relation to the author himself.
