The serious in the nineteenth century: A suspect virtue

An image of a nineteenth century whose culture is defined by joking and derision is prevalent today. The image is not a false one, but a partial one, and it constitutes a counterpoint with another equally incontestable reality: that of elites who, liberated from the grip of the Napoleonic, fervently commit to intellectual cogitation. But is this an instance of “seriousness”? Seriousness is not only an antonym of gaiety; it also implies a form of sincerity and respect for accepted rules. It falls not only under the purview of the Bourgeois, who is intrinsically ridiculous, but even more so, the professor and scholar, who, over the course of a secular narrative, comes gradually to rival the author’s free play of fantasy.