Editing Arthur de Gobineau (section)

===Minister to Sweden===
In May 1872, Gobineau was appointed the French minister to Sweden.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=225}} After arriving in [[Stockholm]], he wrote to his sister Caroline: "This is the pure race of the North—that of the masters", calling the Swedes "the purest branch of the Germanic race".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=225}} In contrast to France, Gobineau was impressed with the lack of social conflict in Sweden, writing to Dragoumis: "There is no class hatred. The nobility lives on friendly terms with the middle class and with the people at large".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=225}} Gobineau argued that because of Sweden's remote location in Scandinavia, Aryan blood had been better preserved as compared to France. Writing about the accession of [[Oscar II of Sweden|Oscar II]] to the Swedish throne in 1872 he said: "This country is unique ... I have just seen one king die and another ascend the throne without anyone doubling the guard or alerting a soldier".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=226}} The essential conservatism of Swedish society also impressed Gobineau as he wrote to Pedro II: "The conservative feeling is amongst the most powerful in the national spirit and these people relinquish the past only step by step and with extreme caution".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=226}}

Sweden presented a problem for Gobineau between reconciling his belief in an Aryan master race with his insistence that only the upper classes were Aryans. He eventually resolved this by denouncing the Swedes as debased Aryans after all.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=228}} He used the fact King Oscar allowed Swedish democracy to exist and did not try to rule as an absolute monarch as evidence the House of Bernadotte were all weak and cowardly kings.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=228}} By 1875, Gobineau was writing, "Sweden horrifies me" and wrote with disgust about "Swedish vulgarity and contemptibility".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=228}}

In 1874, Gobineau met the [[homosexual]] German diplomat [[Philipp, Prince of Eulenburg]], in Stockholm and became very close to him.{{sfn|Domeier|2015|p=171}} Eulenburg was later to recall fondly how he and Gobineau had spent hours during their time in Sweden under the "Nordic sky, where the old world of the gods lived on in the customs and habits of the people as well in their hearts."{{sfn|Domeier|2015|p=171}} Gobineau later wrote that only two people in the entire world had ever properly understood his racist philosophy, namely [[Richard Wagner]] and Eulenburg.{{sfn|Domeier|2015|p=171}}
[[File:Becque - Nouvelles asiatiques p 217.jpeg|alt=From a 1924 edition – illustration by Maurice Becque|thumb|252x252px|An illustration from Gobineau's novel ''Nouvelle Asiatiques'', published while he was in Sweden. The book reflected his long-standing interest in Persia and the Orient.]]

Gobineau encouraged Eulenburg to promote his theory of an Aryan master-race, telling him: "In this way you will help many people understand things sooner."{{sfn|Domeier|2015|p=171}} Later, Eulenburg was to complain all of his letters to Gobineau had to be destroyed because "They contain too much of an intimately personal nature".{{sfn|Röhl|1994|p=54}} During his time in Sweden, Gobineau became obsessed with the [[Vikings]] and became intent on proving he was descended from the [[Norsemen|Norse]].{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=229}} His time in Stockholm was a very productive period from a literary viewpoint. He wrote ''Les Pléiades'' ("The Pleiades"), ''Les Nouvelles Asiatiques'' ("The New Asians"), ''La Renaissance'', most of ''Histoire de Ottar Jarl, pirate norvégien conquérant du pays de Bray en Normandie et de sa descendance'' ("History of Ottar Jarl, Norwegian Pirate and Conqueror of Normandy and his Descendants") and completed the first half of his epic poem ''Amadis'' while serving as minister to Sweden.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=229}} ''Amadis'' is a 12,000 verse epic poem published posthumously in 1887 which concludes with its protagonists drowning in the blood of the Chinese they have killed.<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last=Crean |first=Jeffrey |title=The Fear of Chinese Power: an International History |date=2024 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |isbn=978-1-350-23394-2 |edition= |series=New Approaches to International History series |location=London |page=13}}</ref>

In 1879, Gobineau attempted to prove his own racial superiority over the rest of the French with his pseudo-family history ''Histoire de Ottar Jarl''. It begins with the line "I descend from Odin", and traces his supposed descent from the Viking [[Ottar Jarl]].{{sfn|Rowbotham|1939|p=154}} As the de Gobineau family first appeared in history in late 15th century Bordeaux, and Ottar Jarl—who may or may not have been a real person—is said to have lived in the 10th century, Gobineau had to resort to a great deal of invention to make his genealogy work.{{sfn|Rowbotham|1939|p=154}} For him, the ''Essai'', the ''Histoire des Perses'' and ''Histoire de Ottar Jarl'' comprised a trilogy, what the French critic Jean Caulmier called "a poetic vision of the human adventure", covering the universal history of all races in the ''Essai'', to the history of the Aryan branch in Persia in ''Histoire des Perses'' to his own family's history in ''Histoire de Ottar Jarl''.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=230}}

During his time in Sweden, although remaining outwardly faithful to the Catholic Church, Gobineau privately abandoned his belief in [[Christianity]]. He was very interested in the pagan religion of the Vikings, which seemed more authentically Aryan to him.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=232}} For him, maintaining his Catholicism was a symbol of his reactionary politics and rejection of [[liberalism]], and it was for these reasons he continued to nominally observe Catholicism.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=232}} Gobineau told his friend the Comte de Basterot that he wanted a Catholic burial only because the de Gobineaus had always been buried in Catholic ceremonies, not because of any belief in Catholicism.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=233}}

For leaving his post in Stockholm without permission to join the Emperor Pedro II on his European visit, Gobineau was told in January 1877 to either resign from the Quai d'Orsay or be fired; he chose the former.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dreher|first=Robert Edward|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uw5uAAAAMAAJ&q=arthur+de+gobineau+biography|title=Arthur de Gobineau: An Intellectual Portrait|date=1970|publisher=University of Wisconsin|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Arthur de Gobineau {{!}} French diplomat, writer, and ethnologist|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-de-Gobineau|access-date=2020-09-15|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>

Gobineau spent his last years living in [[Rome]], a lonely and embittered man whose principal friends were the Wagners and Eulenburg.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=151}} He saw himself as a great sculptor and attempted to support himself by selling his sculpture.{{sfn|Budil|2008|p=151}}