„A romlottság a bűn karjára támaszkodva …” (Chateaubriand Saint-Denis-ben)
“…Vice Leaning on the Arm of Crime…” Chateaubriand in Saint-Denis

Summary/Abstract: On the night of 6th of July 1815 in Saint-Denis one of the greatest French writers, Cha-teaubriand, watched helplessly as two of the most ill-famed ex-ministers of Napoleon, Tal-leyrand and Fouché entered before him the room of the new king, Louis XVIII. Later he stigmatized them in his memoires as „vice leaning on the arm of crime.” In this study the author examines the time and place of this famous scene. Why was Chateaubriand oddly frustrated in those days and especially in that moment when he set eyes on these person-alities? What were their relationships in the years of the first French Empire? What was Saint-Denis in the eyes of the writer in 1815? Whom did Chateaubriand remember when he tried to enter the room of the king? And last but not least: why was his phrase quoted again and again in the last two centuries by so many historians, politicians and writers? These are the questions the author attempts to answer in this study.

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