Henry Brougham and the Invention of Cannes

This chapter traces the origin of Cannes as a resort, particularly for English visitors, to a chance visit in 1834 by Lord Brougham, ex-Lord Chancellor in Lord Grey’s reforming parliament of 1830 to 1834. It charts the progress and prosperity of Cannes through Brougham’s adoption of the place and his attracting members of the British political and social elite. Brougham’s relations with French politics and culture are a little-known element of his extraordinarily busy career as a politician, lawyer, educational reformer and inventor. The progress of both Brougham and Cannes is discussed by means of memoirs, letters and diaries written by Brougham himself, and by some of the many observers of his career and personality – as well as numerous Punch cartoons, poems and articles of the 1840s and 1850s.

THE TEMPLE OF ACMEISM. FRAGMENTS OF A DIALOGUE BETWEEN NIKOLAY GUMILEV AND OSIP MANDELSTAM

In the article numerous allusions and direct citations that reciprocally reveal an intensive dialogue between the two Acmeist poets are pointed out and examined. The data are extracted from O. Mandestam’s and N. Gumilev’s poems and articles, as well as the latter’s narrative poems and plays: mostly texts with references to temples, with which Acmeists strongly identified their creative work on poetic as well as thematic levels. Since the erection of a temple is a recurrent image in Gumilev’s works throughout his lifetime, it is easy to assume that Mandelstam’s poems like Notre Dame, Hagia Sophia [Aya-Sofiya], and others can be seen as responses to the leader of Acmeists from his loyal disciple. Mandelstam tends to follow Gumilev’s lead in this dialogue, developing and detailing his ‘architectural philologism’. However, he also sympathizes with the idea of rebuilding a temple, the topic becoming even more pronounced after Gumilev’s untimely death.