“New Words” And “New Ideas”

Abstract

Henry Crabb Robinson (1775–1867) was one of the more influential “cultural tourists” of the nineteenth century, traveling widely in Europe for the explicit purpose of bringing avant-garde ideas back to his native England Yet he is not widely known; the most complete biography, published in 1935, says that “no one has ever claimed that Crabb Robinson was in the front rank as a thinker, a critic, or a writer–least of all … himself.” But his voluminous travel journals and diaries indicate a more positive assessment of his role. He offers compelling descriptions of and makes cogent judgments about many of the most important cultural figures of Germany, Italy, France, and his native England. His first continental trip as a young man gave him a vocation he did not anticipate but that he pursued all his long life: to immerse himself in complex cultures, to share his knowledge, and to encourage his countrymen and women to broaden their own awareness of the artistic heritage and cultural mores of other lands. His pursuit of “New Words” and “New Ideas” for his revolutionary age made a major contribution to the concept of “cultural tourism” through his dissemination of continental philosophy and literature to an eager English audience.