Return to Paris

From 1815 to 1819, Manzoni often thought of returning to Paris. He wrote to Fauriel that he missed his company and the room at the Maisonnette at Meulan. Moreover, his desire to overcome a depression that was making his neurotic symptoms worse encouraged him to move. One plan came to nothing because of the Austrian police, who had little trust in this intellectual with Romantic and liberal friends and so did not grant the necessary passports. This, however, was more acceptable to Henriette: unlike her mother-in-law Giulia, she was reluctant to return to Paris<. Above all, it pleased Canon Luigi Tosi, who was particularly concerned that Manzoni’s original religious enthusiasm had cooled off, and was against a trip that he considered “an enormous mistake”. Returning to the French cultural circles could aggravate what was proving to be – according to Tosi – a real crisis in faith on the part of his spiritual protegé. To dissuade him from the trip and from other work, Canon Tosi urged him to complete his work on the Morale Cattolica. Finally, in September 1819, the journey took place, and the large Manzoni family (the birth of Enrico in July brought the number of children to five) moved first to Meulan and then to Paris<, with the vague idea of settling there permanently. Apart from Fauriel’s company, however, the stay in Paris< did not bring the restless Manzoni the peace he had hoped for. From Paris< he wrote to Grossi expressing a need to see him and his Milanese friends again. He also wrote a first draft of the Lettre to Chauvet, took an interest in Thierry’s historiography (which influenced his Adelchi), and had his first experience of Walter Scott’s historical novels through listening to his mother read Ivanhoe to him while he was ill. At then end of July 1820, the family set out to return to Milan<. In Turin<, Manzoni saw Ludovico di Breme, the Romantic intellectual who had written for the Conciliatore.