Katrina Furr
ENGL 3650
COVE Assignment 1
For my first COVE assignment, I’ve decided to focus on Mont Blanc and how it affected the romantic era. Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe. The mountain borders Italy and France as well as being the second most prominent mountain in Europe. One of the first people to reach the summit of Mont Blanc is the scientist Horace Bénédict de Saussure when he summited in 1787. He later wrote a series of books about his journey to the mountain which kicked off a bunch of other romantic writings about Alpine Travel Writing. His novel was later translated for British readers to enjoy which would further its popularity. These types of “Alpine Travel” writings became fairly popular in the romantic era as more and more people began exploring mountains.
The idea of “mountaineering” became more popular among writers as time went on due to the fact that writers wanted and enjoyed the experience of being up in the mountains/ in nature. In an article titled “Mont Blanc” from the European Romanticisms in Associations website, it says, “In his famous account of elevation in La Nouvelle Héloïse, Rousseau had drawn attention to the ‘purity of the air … upon the tops of mountains’ and its effects upon respiration (3)” (Bainbridge 3). In this example, Rousseau is using his experience of the thin, clean air in the mountains in order to better create the image for his readers. This is just one of many examples that shows how the journey of hiking the mountain affected the content of writing for many authors.
Not only is Mont Blanc the name of a mountain, but it is also the name of a prominent poem written by Percy Shelly. In this poem, Shelly explores the idea that the mountain has a sort of “power” which is a higher power showing pieces of itself. On the British Literature Wiki website in an article titled “Mont Blanc,” it says, “The poem begins with a depiction of the spiritual world that makes use of physical descriptions to allow the reader to conceptualize the spiritual.” Shelly did an amazing job of captivating the subtle power that one feels looking at or being on top of a mighty mountain such as Mont Blanc. This kind of literature became very popular at the time period and mountaineering had a lot to do with it.
Most of Shelly’s poem talks about the physical attributes of the mountain that hint at the spiritual, but the last line of the poem gives another broader message. The poem says, “And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea, / If to the human mind’s imaginings / Silence and solitude were vacancy?” (Shelly 142-144). This last line is pretty much pointing out that in order to feel that spiritual power that comes from nature, humans need to use their imagination. If we can use that imagination we might be able to see more than just a big “vacant” rock. Instead we can see the mighty mountain that is Mont Blanc.
Mont Blanc, both the actual mountain and the poem written, are key factors in the view of nature in the romantic time period. Once people started exploring mountains and going on hikes, it opened up a whole new section of the world to be used as inspiration for writers. These days, there are many who embrace the “granola” lifestyle in order to feel closer to and appreciate nature which is exactly what the writers of that time period wanted their readers to experience.

Works Cited
“Mont Blanc” by British Literature Wiki.
https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/mont-blanc/
“Mont Blanc” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. 1816.
“Mont Blanc” by Simon Bainbridge. European Romanticisms Association, 2021.
http://www.euromanticism.org/mont-blanc/