The Physiology of Taste by Anthelme Jean Brillat-Savarin Read Free Book Online

unmarried sisters) for two months in the autumn for the shooting season. Almost without exception, this remains the pattern for the rest of BS’s life. Publishes
Vues et projets d’économie politique
, suggesting improvements in many areas of public life – civil service, roads, commerce and industry, agriculture, the law, the army and finance.
    LITERARY CONTEXT: First documented use of the word gastronomy in
La Gastronomie ou l’homme des champs à table
, a poem by Joseph Berchoux.
Anthelme Richerand (BS’s godson):
Eléments de la physiologie
.
Chateaubriand:
Atala
.
    HISTORICAL EVENTS: Treaty of Lunéville: Austria makes peace with France (February), recognizing her conquests. French army in Egypt capitulates (August). Jacquard invents mechanical loom. German chemist Franz Karl Achard opens first sugar beet refinery in Konary, Silesia.
    DATE: 1802
    AUTHOR’S LIFE: The
Tribunal de cassation
is involved in consultations over the projected Civil Code. Out of curiosity, BS attends a service in Notre Dame cathedral to celebrate the Peace of Amiens, at which Napoleon and his fellow-Consuls are present (18 April). It is the first time he has been to Mass for many years.
    LITERARY CONTEXT: Cabanis:
Rapports de physique et du moral de l’homme
.
Chateaubriand:
Le Génie de Christianisme
.
Mme de Genlis:
Mademoiselle de Clermont
.
Mme de Stael:
Delphine
.
Florian:
Fables
.
Birth of Hugo and Dumas
père
.
    HISTORICAL EVENTS: Napoleon negotiates Peace of Amiens with Great Britain on terms favourable to France (March). Concordat with Roman Catholic Church announced (April). Amnesty for all but around 1000 é
migrés
(April). Napoleon is confirmed by plebiscite as First Consul for life (May). Decree announcing new education system; 30
lycées
set up (May).
Légion d’honneur
created. Slavery in the colonies reinstated (abolished since 1794). Work begins on La Grande Corniche along the Mediterranean coast. Under Napoleon’s rule over 20,000 miles of imperial roads and 12,000 miles of regional roads are constructed, including the Simplon and Mont Cenis Alpine passes.
Café Anglais opens in Boulevard des italiens, named in honour of the recent peace treaty. Orginally a humble coffee-house it becomes a well-known restaurant in the 1820s, but gains its gastronomic repuation when the great chef Adolph Dugléré arrives in 1866.
    DATE: 1803
    AUTHOR’S LIFE: Has his “arms” carved on on his pew in the village church at Vieu.
    LITERARY CONTEXT: Grimod de La Reynière:
L’Almanach des gourmands
(to 1813).
Goethe:
The Natural Daughter
.
    HISTORICAL EVENTS: France sells Louisiana to the United States. France and Great Britain resume war.
La Reynière comments that the Revolution has turned humble cooks – by depriving them of employment in aristocratic households – into flourishing restaurateurs, estimating that the latter had increased from roughly 100 to 500 since 1789.
Birth of Berlioz.
    DATE: 1804
    AUTHOR’S LIFE: Briefly incurs the displeasure of Napoleon by arranging for his cousin’s wife, society beauty Juliette Récamier, to attend the trial of General Moreau and other monarchist plotters at which BS is one of the judges. As a consequence he finds himself a regular guest at the Récamiers, who entertain lavishly. Becomes passionately devoted to Mme Récamier. Along with his colleagues on the bench, he is awarded the
Légion d’honneur
(14 July). Throws a ball at his country estate at Vieu. The
Tribunal de cassation
becomes the
Cour de cassation
on Napoleon’s elevation to emperor (December), and BS becomes a Counsellor.
    LITERARY CONTEXT: Schiller:
William Tell
.
    HISTORICAL EVENTS: Second Cadoudal conspiracy to assassinate Napoleon. Civil Code promulgated (March); during next seven years further codes are added – Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Commercial and Penal. Execution of the duc d’Enghien as an é
migré
in foreign service (March). Proclamation of Empire (May). French forces gather at Boulogne for an