Mont Saint Michel and Chartres

Mont Saint Michel and Chartres is a book written by the American historian and scholar Henry Adams (1838–1918). Adams wrote this book, a meditative reflection on medieval culture, well after his historical masterpiece, The History of the United States of America (1801–1817). Whereas the latter is a serious academic work of history, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres is far more whimsical, a playful meditative reflection on medieval culture. It was published privately in 1904, originally intended simply for his nieces; in 1913, it was made more widely available when published with the support of the American Institute of Architects. Despite having a far less serious intent than his earlier historical writings, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres has garnered high praise: for example, Maurice le Briton said, “Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres is undoubtedly Adams's greatest work; though not apparently related to his earlier writings, this inspired work of poetry is the crowning achievement of his severe and somber historical oeuvre.” A few years after Adams published Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, he published his most famous work, the Education of Henry Adams in 1907. Raymond Carney has said of this pair of works: “Taken together they may be read as Adams’ spiritual autobiography—two monumental volumes in which he attempts to bring together in a vast synthesis all of his knowledge of politics, economics, psychology, science, philosophy, art, and literature in order to attempt to understand the individual’s place in history and society.”

Superficially, the book is framed as a travel journal. “Preceding the title page of the first edition of Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, Henry Adams placed the heading ‘TRAVELS—FRANCE.” ... But it would be hard to imagine a more misleading description than to call it a tour guide.” Adams uses the metaphor of tour throughout the book, and refers to the readers as “tourists,” but the tour is less one of a landscape and more one of a worldview. While Adams clearly knows a great deal of history of the period, his aim is not further historical investigation, but rather an almost poetic understanding of that worldview. He wrote: “All these school had individual character, and all have charm; but we have set out to go from Mont Saint Michel to Chartres in three centuries, the eleventh, the twelfth, and the thirteen, trying to get, on the way, not technical knowledge; not correct views on either history, art, or religion; not anything that can possibly be useful or instructive; but only a sense of those centuries had to say, and a sympathy with their ways of saying it.”

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