ABSTRACT
Chateaubriand, who in 1802, long before the Restoration brought him to high office, published The Genius of Christianity, a wistful evocation of the ages of faith and order. Or consider the novels of Sir Walter Scott, with their brave and generous knights, sturdy yeomen and faithful servants. Scott's middle ages had their villains, evil individuals of all ranks, but its hierarchical social structure was portrayed as healthy and comforting. Whether it seemed so to medieval people may be debated; but there can be no question, judging from Scott's immense popularity, that he was giving a large segment of the early nineteenth-century reading public the kind of escape it wanted.
