SOURCE: Jaffe, Adrian H. “Chateaubriand's Use of Ossianic Language.” Comparative Literature Studies 5, no. 2 (June 1968): 157-66.

In the following essay, Jaffe examines the influence of Ossianic poems, both in terms of language and their inclusion of the idealized noble savage, on Chateaubriand's work.

The curious, and ironic, relationship between Chateaubriand and the poems of Ossian is interesting not only in itself but also as an excellent example of the important distinction, in comparative literature studies, between success and influence. It may have not been sufficiently recognized that while success may be accompanied by influence, it often is not, and that it is therefore important not to assume the presence of the one from the presence of the other. The distinction between the two is more than technical: it involves a distinction in kind and quality between two modes in which literature has within it the potentiality of impinging upon...