Chateaubriand has 4 letters for a young man full of passions. Biography
François René de Chateaubriand(fr. François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand ; September 4, Saint-Malo - July 4, Paris) - French writer, politician and diplomat, ultra-royalist, peer of France, conservative, one of the first representatives of romanticism.
Biography
After Verona, he worked as ambassador to Berlin (), London (), and Rome (), and in -1824 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. In , after the July Revolution, which led to the fall of the senior line of Bourbons, the poet finally retired.
After his death, his memoirs were published - “Grave Notes”, one of the most significant examples of the memoir genre.
Creation
The central novel in Chateaubriand’s work is “Apology for Christianity.” “Atala" and "Rene", according to the author, were illustrations for the "Apology".
"Atala" is a novel about "the love of two lovers walking through deserted places and talking to each other." The novel uses new methods of expressiveness - the author conveys the feelings of the characters through descriptions of nature - sometimes indifferently majestic, sometimes formidable and deadly.
In parallel, in this novel, the author polemicizes with Rousseau’s theory of “natural man”: Chateaubriand’s heroes, the savages of North America, “in nature” are ferocious and cruel and turn into peaceful villagers only when faced with Christian civilization.
The asteroid (152) Atala, discovered in 1875, is named after the main character of the novel “Atala”.
In “René, or the Consequences of the Passions”, for the first time in French literature, the image of a suffering hero, the French Werther, was depicted. “A young man, full of passions, sitting by the crater of a volcano and mourning the mortals whose dwellings he can scarcely discern, ... this picture gives you an image of his character and his life; just as during my life I had before my eyes a creature that was immense and at the same time not perceptible, but next to me a yawning abyss...".
Chateaubriand's influence on French literature is enormous; it embraces content and form with equal force, determining the further literary movement in its most diverse manifestations. Romanticism in almost all its elements - from the disillusioned hero to the love of nature, from historical paintings to the vividness of language - is rooted in it; Alfred de Vigny and Victor Hugo were prepared by him.
In Russia, Chateaubriand's work was popular at the beginning of the 19th century; he was highly valued by K. N. Batyushkov and A. S. Pushkin. During the Soviet period, Chateaubriand was officially classified as “reactionary romanticism”; his works were not republished for a long time and were not studied until 1982, when excerpts from “The Genius of Christianity” were published in the collection “Aesthetics of Early French Romanticism” (translator V. A. Milchin ).
Works
- Historical, political and moral experience about revolutions old and new, considered in relation to the French Revolution ( Essai historique, politique et moral sur les révolutions anciennes et modernes, considérées dans leurs rapports avec la Révolution française, 1797)
- Atala, or Love of two savages in the desert (Atala, ou les Amours de deux sauvages dans le désert, 1801)
- Rene, or Consequences of the Passions (René, ou les Effets des passions,1802)
- Genius of Christianity (Le Génie du Christianisme, 1802)
- Martyrs, or the Triumph of the Christian Faith (Les Martyrs, ou le Triomphe de la foi chrétienne, 1809)
- Travel from Paris to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to Paris, through Greece and back through Egypt, Barbary and Spain ( Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem et de Jérusalem à Paris, en allant par la Grèce et revenant par l’Égypte, la Barbarie et l’Espagne, 1811)
- About Bonaparte, the Bourbons and the need to join our rightful princes for the sake of the happiness of France and Europe ( De Bonaparte, des Bourbons, et de la nécessité de se rallier à nos princes légitimes pour le bonheur de la France et celui de l’Europe, 1814)
- Political Reflections on Some Contemporary Works and the Interests of All French People (Réflexions politiques sur quelques écrits du jour et sur les intérêts de tous les Français, 1814)
- About the monarchy, according to the charter (De la Monarchie selon la charte, 1816)
- Memoirs, letters and original notes concerning the life and death of H. C. V. Monsieur Charles-Ferdinand d'Artois, son of France, Duke of Berry ( Mémoires, lettres et pièces authentiques touchant la vie et la mort de S. A. R. monseigneur Charles-Ferdinand d’Artois, fils de France, duc de Berry, 1820)
- The Adventures of the Last Abenceraga (Aventures du dernier Abencerage, 1826)
- Natchez (Les Natchez, 1827)
- Travel to America and Italy (Voyages en Amérique et en Italie, 1827)
- About printing (De la presse, 1828)
- An Experience on English Literature and Discourses on the Human Spirit, Times and Revolutions (Essai sur la littérature anglaise et considérations sur le génie des hommes, des temps et des révolutions, 1836)
- Sketches or historical speeches about the fall of the Roman Empire, the birth and development of Christianity and the invasion of barbarians ( Études ou discours historiques sur la chute de l'Empire romain, la naissance et les progrès du Christianisme et l'invasion des barbares, 1831)
- Verona Congress (Congrès de Verone, 1838)
- Life of Rance (Vie de Rance, 1844)
- Grave notes (Mémoires d'outre-tombe, 1848)
Image in cinema
| Francois René de Chateaubriand in Wikiquote | |
| in Wikisource | |
| Francois René de Chateaubriand on Wikimedia Commons |
- “Chateaubriand” - feature film (France, 2010), dir. Pierre Aknin, starring Frederic Diefenthal.
Awards
- Order of the Legion of Honor, officer (08/19/1823)
- Order of Saint Louis, Grand Cross (08/05/1814)
- Order of the Golden Fleece (Spain, 12/04/1823)
- Order of Carlos III, Grand Cross (Spain, 11/21/1823)
- Order of Christ, Grand Cross (Portugal, 11/13/1823)
- Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia, 12/24/1823)
- Order "Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste" (Prussia, 1842)
- Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called (Russia, 11/24/1823)
- Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (Russia, 11/24/1823)
- Supreme Order of the Holy Annunciation (Sardinian Kingdom, 02/14/1824)
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Notes
.Literature
- Gornfeld, A. G.,.// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
Links
Excerpt characterizing Chateaubriand, Francois René de
Pierre started to talk about Karataev (he had already gotten up from the table and was walking around, Natasha was watching him with her eyes) and stopped.- No, you cannot understand what I learned from this illiterate man - a fool.
“No, no, speak up,” said Natasha. - Where is he?
“He was killed almost in front of me.” - And Pierre began to tell the last time of their retreat, Karataev’s illness (his voice trembled incessantly) and his death.
Pierre told his adventures as he had never told them to anyone before, as he had never recalled them to himself. He now saw, as it were, a new meaning in everything that he had experienced. Now, when he was telling all this to Natasha, he was experiencing that rare pleasure that women give when listening to a man - not smart women who, while listening, try to either remember what they are told in order to enrich their minds and, on occasion, retell it or adapt what is being told to your own and quickly communicate your clever speeches, developed in your small mental economy; but the pleasure that real women give, gifted with the ability to select and absorb into themselves all the best that exists in the manifestations of a man. Natasha, without knowing it herself, was all attention: she did not miss a word, a hesitation in her voice, a glance, a twitch of a facial muscle, or a gesture from Pierre. She caught the unspoken word on the fly and brought it directly into her open heart, guessing the secret meaning of all Pierre’s spiritual work.
Princess Marya understood the story, sympathized with it, but she now saw something else that absorbed all her attention; she saw the possibility of love and happiness between Natasha and Pierre. And for the first time this thought came to her, filling her soul with joy.
It was three o'clock in the morning. Waiters with sad and stern faces came to change the candles, but no one noticed them.
Pierre finished his story. Natasha, with sparkling, animated eyes, continued to look persistently and attentively at Pierre, as if wanting to understand something else that he might not have expressed. Pierre, in bashful and happy embarrassment, occasionally glanced at her and thought of what to say now in order to shift the conversation to another subject. Princess Marya was silent. It didn’t occur to anyone that it was three o’clock in the morning and that it was time to sleep.
“They say: misfortune, suffering,” said Pierre. - Yes, if they told me now, this minute: do you want to remain what you were before captivity, or go through all this first? For God's sake, once again captivity and horse meat. We think how we will be thrown out of our usual path, that everything is lost; and here something new and good is just beginning. As long as there is life, there is happiness. There is a lot, a lot ahead. “I’m telling you this,” he said, turning to Natasha.
“Yes, yes,” she said, answering something completely different, “and I would like nothing more than to go through everything all over again.”
Pierre looked at her carefully.
“Yes, and nothing more,” Natasha confirmed.
“It’s not true, it’s not true,” Pierre shouted. – It’s not my fault that I’m alive and want to live; and you too.
Suddenly Natasha dropped her head into her hands and began to cry.
- What are you doing, Natasha? - said Princess Marya.
- Nothing, nothing. “She smiled through her tears at Pierre. - Goodbye, time to sleep.
Pierre stood up and said goodbye.
Princess Marya and Natasha, as always, met in the bedroom. They talked about what Pierre had told. Princess Marya did not speak her opinion about Pierre. Natasha didn't talk about him either.
“Well, goodbye, Marie,” Natasha said. – You know, I’m often afraid that we don’t talk about him (Prince Andrei), as if we are afraid to humiliate our feelings and forget.
Princess Marya sighed heavily and with this sigh acknowledged the truth of Natasha’s words; but in words she did not agree with her.
- Is it possible to forget? - she said.
“It felt so good to tell everything today; and hard, and painful, and good. “Very good,” said Natasha, “I’m sure he really loved him.” That's why I told him... nothing, what did I tell him? – suddenly blushing, she asked.
- Pierre? Oh no! How wonderful he is,” said Princess Marya.
“You know, Marie,” Natasha suddenly said with a playful smile that Princess Marya had not seen on her face for a long time. - He became somehow clean, smooth, fresh; definitely from the bathhouse, do you understand? - morally from the bathhouse. Is it true?
“Yes,” said Princess Marya, “he won a lot.”
- And a short frock coat, and cropped hair; definitely, well, definitely from the bathhouse... dad, it used to be...
“I understand that he (Prince Andrei) did not love anyone as much as he did,” said Princess Marya.
– Yes, and it’s special from him. They say that men are friends only when they are very special. It must be true. Is it true that he doesn't resemble him at all?
- Yes, and wonderful.
“Well, goodbye,” Natasha answered. And the same playful smile, as if forgotten, remained on her face for a long time.
Pierre could not fall asleep for a long time that day; He walked back and forth around the room, now frowning, pondering something difficult, suddenly shrugging his shoulders and shuddering, now smiling happily.
He thought about Prince Andrei, about Natasha, about their love, and was either jealous of her past, then reproached her, then forgave himself for it. It was already six o'clock in the morning, and he was still walking around the room.
“Well, what can we do? If you can’t do without it! What to do! So, this is how it should be,” he said to himself and, hastily undressed, went to bed, happy and excited, but without doubts and indecisions.
“We must, strange as it may be, no matter how impossible this happiness is, we must do everything in order to be husband and wife with her,” he said to himself.
Pierre, a few days before, had set Friday as the day of his departure for St. Petersburg. When he woke up on Thursday, Savelich came to him for orders about packing his things for the road.
“How about St. Petersburg? What is St. Petersburg? Who's in St. Petersburg? – he asked involuntarily, although to himself. “Yes, something like that a long, long time ago, even before this happened, I was planning to go to St. Petersburg for some reason,” he remembered. - From what? I'll go, maybe. How kind and attentive he is, how he remembers everything! - he thought, looking at Savelich’s old face. “And what a pleasant smile!” - he thought.
- Well, don’t you want to go free, Savelich? asked Pierre.
- Why do I need freedom, Your Excellency? We lived under the late count, the kingdom of heaven, and we see no resentment under you.
- Well, what about the children?
“And the children will live, your Excellency: you can live with such gentlemen.”
- Well, what about my heirs? - said Pierre. “What if I get married... It could happen,” he added with an involuntary smile.
“And I dare to report: a good deed, your Excellency.”
“How easy he thinks it is,” thought Pierre. “He doesn’t know how scary it is, how dangerous it is.” Too early or too late... Scary!
- How would you like to order? Would you like to go tomorrow? – Savelich asked.
- No; I'll put it off a little. I'll tell you then. “Excuse me for the trouble,” said Pierre and, looking at Savelich’s smile, he thought: “How strange, however, that he does not know that now there is no Petersburg and that first of all it is necessary for this to be decided. However, he probably knows, but he’s only pretending. Talk to him? What does he think? - thought Pierre. “No, someday later.”
At breakfast, Pierre told the princess that he had been to Princess Marya yesterday and found there - can you imagine who? - Natalie Rostov.
The princess pretended that she did not see anything more extraordinary in this news than in the fact that Pierre had seen Anna Semyonovna.
- Do you know her? asked Pierre.
“I saw the princess,” she answered. “I heard that they were marrying her to young Rostov.” This would be very good for the Rostovs; They say they are completely ruined.
- No, do you know Rostov?
“I only heard about this story then.” Very sorry.
“No, she doesn’t understand or is pretending,” thought Pierre. “It’s better not to tell her either.”
The princess also prepared provisions for Pierre's journey.
“How kind they all are,” thought Pierre, “that now, when they probably couldn’t be more interested in this, they are doing all this. And everything for me; That’s what’s amazing.”
On the same day, the police chief came to Pierre with a proposal to send a trustee to the Faceted Chamber to receive the things that were now being distributed to the owners.
“This one too,” thought Pierre, looking into the police chief’s face, “what a nice, handsome officer and how kind!” Now he deals with such trifles. They also say that he is not honest and takes advantage of him. What nonsense! But why shouldn’t he use it? That's how he was raised. And everyone does it. And such a pleasant, kind face, and smiles, looking at me.”
Pierre went to dinner with Princess Marya.
Driving through the streets between the burned-out houses, he was amazed at the beauty of these ruins. The chimneys of houses and fallen walls, picturesquely reminiscent of the Rhine and the Colosseum, stretched, hiding each other, along the burnt blocks. The cab drivers and riders we met, the carpenters who cut the log houses, the traders and shopkeepers, all with cheerful, beaming faces, looked at Pierre and said as if: “Ah, here he is! Let's see what comes out of this."
Upon entering the house of Princess Marya, Pierre was filled with doubt as to the justice of the fact that he was here yesterday, saw Natasha and spoke with her. “Maybe I made it up. Maybe I’ll walk in and not see anyone.” But before he had time to enter the room, in his entire being, after the instant deprivation of his freedom, he felt her presence. She was wearing the same black dress with soft folds and the same hairstyle as yesterday, but she was completely different. If she had been like this yesterday when he entered the room, he could not have failed to recognize her for a moment.
She was the same as he had known her almost as a child and then as the bride of Prince Andrei. A cheerful, questioning gleam shone in her eyes; there was a gentle and strangely playful expression on her face.
Pierre had dinner and would have sat there all evening; but Princess Marya was going to the all-night vigil, and Pierre left with them.
The next day Pierre arrived early, had dinner and sat there all evening. Despite the fact that Princess Marya and Natasha were obviously pleased with the guest; despite the fact that the whole interest of Pierre’s life was now concentrated in this house, by the evening they had talked everything over, and the conversation constantly moved from one insignificant subject to another and was often interrupted. Pierre stayed up so late that evening that Princess Marya and Natasha looked at each other, obviously waiting to see if he would leave soon. Pierre saw this and could not leave. He felt heavy and awkward, but he kept sitting because he couldn’t get up and leave.
Princess Marya, not foreseeing an end to this, was the first to get up and, complaining of a migraine, began to say goodbye.
– So you’re going to St. Petersburg tomorrow? – said oka.
“No, I’m not going,” Pierre said hastily, with surprise and as if offended. - No, to St. Petersburg? Tomorrow; I just don't say goodbye. “I’ll come for the commissions,” he said, standing in front of Princess Marya, blushing and not leaving.
Natasha gave him her hand and left. Princess Marya, on the contrary, instead of leaving, sank into a chair and looked sternly and carefully at Pierre with her radiant, deep gaze. The fatigue she had obviously shown before was now completely gone. She took a deep, long breath, as if preparing for a long conversation.
CHATAUBRIDAN, FRANCOIS RENEE DE(Chateaubriand, François René de) (1768–1848), French writer and statesman, called the "father of romanticism" in French literature. The youngest scion of an ancient family, he was born on September 4, 1768 in Saint-Malo (Brittany). He spent his childhood near the sea and in the gloomy medieval castle of Comburg.
Having abandoned the career of a naval officer and then a cleric, in 1768 Chateaubriand became a junior lieutenant of the Navarre regiment. Inspired by stories about great travelers, he sailed to America, where he spent five months - from July to December 1791. This trip subsequently inspired him to create his main works. News of the arrest of Louis XVI prompted Chateaubriand to return to France. Having advantageously married a girl of his circle, he joined the army of the princes in Koblenz and took part in the siege of Thionville. Recovering from injury, he reached England, where he spent seven years, from 1793 to 1800. There he published his first work Experience about revolutions (Essai sur les revolutions, 1797).
Returning to France in 1800 under an assumed name, Chateaubriand won public recognition the following year with his story Atala, or Love of two savages in the desert (Atala, ou les amours de deux sauvages dans le désert, 1801), which stands out for its harmonious and picturesque style, as well as its innovative depiction of passion against the backdrop of the exotic life of the indigenous inhabitants of America. Chateaubriand originally intended to include this novel in a treatise Genius of Christianity (Le Génie du christianisme, 1802), the quintessence of his work, since in his later works he either develops or comments on the subjects outlined here. The main idea of the treatise is that of all religions, Christianity is the most poetic and humane, more conducive to freedoms, art and literature than others. It is difficult to overestimate the significance of this book for the romantic movement: a whole generation of writers gained Geniuses of Christianity an inexhaustible source of literary ideas and inspiration. Tale Rene (René, 1802), designed to illustrate the “vagueness of passions,” for half a century served as a model for melancholy heroes who are tormented by an illness that was later called the “disease of the century” (“mal du siècle”).
Not content with literary fame, Chateaubriand entered the service of Napoleon, but after the assassination of the Duke of Enghien he was not afraid to refuse his position and left politics until the return of the Bourbons, for whom he rendered an important service by publishing a pamphlet a week before the surrender of the imperial troops. About Bonaparte and the Bourbons (De Buonaparte et des Bourbons, 1814; rus. translation 1814). After the Restoration, Chateaubriand was ambassador to Berlin (1821), London (1822) and Rome (1828); being Minister of Foreign Affairs (1823), he provoked a war with Spain. With the accession of Louis Philippe, he finally retired from public life.
During this period his epic was published Martyrs (Les Martyrs, 1809), which tells the story of the conflict between Christianity and paganism during the time of Diocletian. In search of "local color" for Martyrs Chateaubriand undertook a trip to Greece and the Middle East, recounting his experiences and incidents in the book Travel from Paris to Jerusalem (Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem, 1811). He reworked notes made in America into an epic Natchez (Les Natchez, 1826), which continued the story of Rene’s life among the wild Indians. For the modern reader, Chateaubriand's greatest interest is his Grave notes (Memoires d'outre tombe), created in 1814–1841, but published shortly after his death in Paris on July 4, 1848. For all their unevenness and dubious authenticity, Chateaubriand's memoirs provide a vivid picture of the Romantic era.
Francois René de Chateaubriand(Franois-Ren, vicomte de Chateaubriand; September 4, 1768, Saint-Malo - July 4, 1848, Paris) - French writer, politician and diplomat, ultra-royalist, peer of France, conservative, one of the first representatives of romanticism.
Biography
Born in 1768 into a Breton noble family. He studied in Dole, Rennes and Dinant. His youth was spent in the family castle of Combourg. After the death of his father in 1786, he left for Paris. In 1791 he traveled to North America. Returning to France at the peak of the French Revolution, he joined the ranks of the royalist troops. In 1792 he married Celeste de la Vigne-Buisson (the marriage was childless). In the same year he emigrated to England. There he wrote and published “Essay on Revolutions” (1797), in which he negatively assessed the revolutionary events in France.
Returning to France in 1800 under the Napoleonic amnesty, he published the novel “Atala, or the Love of Two Savages in the Desert” (1801), based on American impressions, the story “René, or the Consequences of the Passions” (1802) and the philosophical treatise “The Genius of Christianity” ( 1802). The latter was an inspired apology for Christianity, not dogmatic or theological, but a poetic attempt to show “that of all existing religions, Christian is the most poetic, the most humane, the most favorable to freedom, the arts and sciences; the modern world owes everything to her, from agriculture to abstract sciences, from hospitals for the poor to the temples erected by Michelangelo and decorated by Raphael; ... it patronizes genius, purifies taste, develops noble passions, gives strength to thought, gives the writer beautiful forms and the artist perfect models.”
In 1803, Chateaubriand, at the invitation of Napoleon, became a French diplomat in Rome. However, a year later, after the murder of the Duke of Enghien, the poet defiantly retired. In 1811 he was elected a member of the French Academy.
In 1809, his novel “Martyrs” was published, continuing to develop the ideas of the “Genius of Christianity” and telling about the first Christians. To write the novel, Chateaubriand traveled through Greece and the Middle East.
After the Bourbon restoration, in 1815, Chateaubriand became a peer of France. Collaborated with the newspaper Conservateur. Chateaubriand was one of the few ultra-royalists (extreme supporters of the monarchy) who sincerely accepted the charter of 1814, based on the impossibility of restoring pre-revolutionary orders. In 1820, he was sent to a congress in Verona, where he insisted on the joint suppression of Jacobin and anarchist unrest in Spain. On this issue, he met stubborn resistance from British representatives. It was Chateaubriand, and in this connection, who called Britain Perfidious Albion.
After Verona, he worked as ambassador to Berlin (1821), London (1822), and Rome (1829), and in 1823-1824 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1830, after the July Revolution, which led to the fall of the senior Bourbon line, the poet finally retired.
After his death, his memoirs were published - “Grave Notes”, one of the most significant examples of the memoir genre.
Creation
The central novel in Chateaubriand’s work is “Apology for Christianity.” “Atala” and “Rene”, according to the author’s plan, were illustrations for the “Apology”.
"Atala" is a novel about "the love of two lovers walking through deserted places and talking to each other." The novel uses new methods of expressiveness - the author conveys the feelings of the characters through descriptions of nature - sometimes indifferently majestic, sometimes formidable and deadly.
In parallel, in this novel, the author polemicizes with the theory of “natural man” by Rousseau: Chateaubriand’s heroes, the savages of North America, are “in nature” ferocious and cruel and turn into peaceful villagers only when faced with Christian civilization.
The asteroid (152) Atala, discovered in 1875, is named after the main character of the novel “Atala”.
In “René, or the Consequences of the Passions”, for the first time in French literature, the image of a suffering hero, the French Werther, was depicted. “A young man, full of passions, sitting by the crater of a volcano and mourning the mortals whose dwellings he can scarcely discern, ... this picture gives you an image of his character and his life; just as during my life I had before my eyes an immense and yet not tangible creature, but next to me a yawning abyss...”
Eighteenth-century philosophical materialism reached its highest practical application in the atheistic excesses of the great French Revolution. Therefore, it was quite natural that after the end of the revolution there was a desire to reawaken religious feelings among the people and to heal through Christianity the wounds inflicted by the philosophy at war with the church. Already Madame de Stael pointed out the need for religious revival and, during the consulate, exchanged thoughts with the founder of Christian romance in France, Viscount Chateaubriand. Napoleon Bonaparte and his brothers and sisters supported this literary trend, which contributed to the restoration of order in public and state life.
Francois-René de Chateaubriand. Portrait by A. L. Girodet
The beginning of Chateaubriand's creativity
François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) was born in Brittany into a noble family attached to ancient beliefs and superstitions, and grew up in a not very rich home environment. His proud father gave him a harsh upbringing, which forced him to become secretive; his pious mother and exalted beloved sister spoiled him; Therefore, Chateaubriand early began to live by imagination, which overly excited his mental and physical powers - he began to love solitude, fell into melancholy, shunned people, began to indulge in dreams of love, the object of which were ghostly creatures, and in this painful state of mind began to think about suicide .
Like many other nobles of Brittany, François-René Chateaubriand went to America as soon as the revolution broke out. The horrors of the revolution outraged his tender heart. Chateaubriand retired across the Atlantic Ocean, and after his return to Europe he joined the emigrants living in London. Tormented by worries and doubts, he listened to the dying admonitions of his mother, who died in extreme need, and believed in what his ancestors believed. Returning to France, after the coup of the 18th Brumaire, together with Fontaine (1757-1821), that skillful rhetorician and orator of the convention (“Washington’s Panegyric”), he began to take part in the publication of the very widespread magazine “Mercure de France”. Influenced by the impressions gained from reading the works of Rousseau and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Chateaubriand described the religious contemplation of nature in two stories “Atala” and “Rene”, and his great work “The Spirit of Christianity”, so rich in poetic ideas, aroused such warm praise that he was showered with honors and favors. Chateaubriand soon became the soul of circles of gifted people who gathered with Fontagne, who extolled Napoleon's rule with pompous speeches in the Senate and in the legislative body, with the critic and aesthetician Joubert (Recueil de pensées), with Portalis, an experienced lawyer who helped Napoleon in drawing up the code and in concluding Concordat, and from some ladies, especially Madame Recamier.
Chateaubriand's stories "Atala" and "Rene"
While still living in America, Rene Chateaubriand drew up a plan for a great heroic poem, in which he intended to portray man as the son of nature, as opposed to civilized man. The content was supposed to be the tragic fate of the Natchez tribe in Louisiana, where in 1729 both local natives and French colonists died. According to his assumption, "Atala" and "Rene" were supposed to constitute fragments or episodes of the great heroic poem about the Natchez. Those ideas about the religious contemplation of nature, which gave the first works of Chateaubriand a special attractiveness, developed in the mind of the author among the French colonists, who still preserved in America the old customs, folk songs, forms of language and religious ideas of the sixteenth century, and among the savages who lived in the forests and on the steppes . Sincerity and novelty in the description of nature and feelings are what gave Chateaubriand’s novels “Atala” and “Rene” special value and attractiveness in the eyes of the French people and all those who wanted to warm their hearts with religion and Christian feelings. In their originality, in their mixture of Christian feelings with descriptions of wild nature, these works seemed like saving oases in the midst of a literary desert.
Chateaubriand – “The Genius of Christianity”
Both the novel "Atala", in which Chateaubriand described the customs and way of life of one of the North American tribes, among whom he lived for two years, and the similar novel "Rene" soon reached the widest distribution even before they were attached in the form of episodes to the main work “The Genius of Christianity” (Génie du Christianisme), which Chateaubriand wrote during Napoleon’s negotiations with the Pope about the Concordat, in the country house of his friend and admirer, Madame Beaumont. This famous work, which completely transfers Christian ideas into the realm of the elegant and makes religion an object of aesthetic pleasure, depicts in stories, in paintings and in pious dreams the poetic religion of Chateaubriand and his Catholic philosophy. “The genius of Christianity” became a sacred scripture for those salon gentlemen and ladies to whom the biblical religion seemed too ungraceful and dry. This work by Chateaubriand became a poetic justification of those Christian legends and mysteries, those sacred legends and tales that were intended for people with elegant taste and developed imagination. The brilliant style, the description of landscapes, the soft tone of the picturesque poetic prose and the perfection of presentation evoked no less ardent praise than the Christian content. But for Chateaubriand, the prevailing mood of mind at that time turned out to be especially beneficial, since as a result of the conclusion of the concordat, “all pious people were confident in the salvation of their souls, and even sensible people, not without joyful emotional excitement, returned to unforgettable religious feelings and customs.”
Brief summary of Chateaubriand's works
The daughter of the steppes Atala, Chaktas and Father Aubry, whose hands were cut off by the Indians long ago and who is trying to instill sentimental Christian feelings in the two lovers in order to give them consolation in earthly hardships - these are the main characters of Chateaubriand’s novel “The Genius of Christianity”, who amazed with their originality in such a time. time when concordat founded a new papist-Bonapartist church in France to replace the old Gallican-Bourbon one. Thus, this novelty appeared both in real life and in the novel under old forms. In René, Chateaubriand portrayed both his own personality and the demon of his time with a terrifying, but at the same time fascinating fidelity. "René" has been compared to Goethe's Werther; both of them are grief-stricken people and the first types of that painful sensitivity that young poets loved to describe under the name of world grief. In Chateaubriand's description, Rene's heart is filled with a wild, gloomy ardor that only devours it and does not warm it. There is no faith or hope in this heart; it is not able to drown out in itself that demonic desire to destroy everything, which makes the hero Chateaubriand think that his life is just as empty as his soul. Wandering melancholy as a homeless wanderer, Rene feels deep heartfelt sorrow. His sister Amelia has a passionate love for her brother and seeks peace of mind and oblivion in the monastery. He leaves for America, joins the army of an Indian tribe, marries an Indian girl, Celuta, and takes part in hunting expeditions and in the Natchez wars, as told in the novel of that name. He dies while this tribe was exterminated. Before his death, he learned about the death of his sister in the monastery and expressed his feelings and his desperate grief in a letter to Celuta, which Chateaubriand recalled with pride even in his old age. This novel is an epic written Ossianovskaya prose.
Both stories, “Atala” and “Rene,” presented by Chateaubriand in the form of autobiographies, are remarkable for their poetic descriptions of nature and an abundance of apt characteristics and comparisons. In “The Genius of Christianity,” Chateaubriand extols the essence of the Christian religion, the pomp of worship, symbolism, ceremonies and legends of the medieval church, and in support of these fantastic dreams, replacing scholastic church teaching, he constantly calls on the feelings and imagination to his aid. In the same spirit as “The Genius of Christianity”, Chateaubriand wrote a short novel, the content of which dates back to the times of the rule of the Moors in Grenada - “The Adventures of the Last Abenceragh”; this elegy about vanished chivalry is a harmonious work of art that speaks to both the imagination and the heart and contributed greatly to the revival of romanticism.
Creative style of Chateaubriand
“In all the works of René Chateaubriand,” says Schlosser, “we find well-chosen pictures and expressions, freshness, originality and poetic inspiration; but we should not expect that the views expressed by the author can withstand calm, sensible criticism or that they, at least, agree with one another; the expectation of harmonious wholeness would be even more vain. As soon as he ceases to expound small ideas and moves on to larger views, we cannot rely on his arguments. We would look in vain to Chateaubriand for a calm verification of the results of his observations; on the contrary, we everywhere find in him the flavor of an experienced and inventive painter. His style is often distinguished by its loftiness, but in some places it falls very low. This most often happens when Chateaubriand goes too far in his efforts to imitate ancient writers and as a result loses the ardor of his feelings. And with all his efforts to imitate the tastes of noble society, he reveals a certain independence, which he retained under the influence of the impressions he gained from visiting the wild countries of America in his youth.”
Chateaubriand's life after his break with Napoleon
After assassination of the Duke of Enghien Chateaubriand did not want to be a servant of the Napoleonic dynasty. He refused the diplomatic posts entrusted to him by the emperor in Rome and Switzerland and, deeply upset by the death of his sister Lucille, who served as the prototype for Amelia in the novel Rene, took a long trip to Greece, Egypt, Jerusalem and on the way back stopped at Spain (1806). The fruit of this journey should be considered not only "Itinéraire" ("Itineraire", "Travel Diary"), but also the poem "Martyrs", in which Chateaubriand tried to explain the superiority of Christianity over Greek paganism with the help of brilliant sketches, but also with the help of erroneous exaggerations and biased judgments. In the story of his pious journey to Jerusalem, Chateaubriand correctly and attractively described the impressions and religious feelings of the poet at the sight of the Holy Places and eastern nature, sanctified by great historical memories.
Chateaubriand reflects on the ruins of Rome. Artist A. L. Girodet. After 1808
The religious and political views of René Chateaubriand became dominant during the restoration: then a golden age began for the poet. But even in those critical days, when the Bourbon restoration was not yet consolidated, Chateaubriand’s essay “On Bonaparte and the Bourbons,” despite the fact that it was filled with abusive and exaggerated accusations of Napoleon, had such a strong influence on the mood of minds in France that what's in the eyes LouisXVIII cost an entire army. Then Chateaubriand at one time held the position of minister, was an envoy to several European courts, participated in the Congress of Verona, and in several political writings defended the principle of a legitimate monarchy; however, his changeable, elastic nature more than once pushed him to the side of the opposition. This ultra-royalist, who approved of the conclusion of the Holy Alliance, at times shared the beliefs of the liberals.
As an adherent and champion of legitimism, Chateaubriand, after the July Revolution of 1830, renounced the title of peerage and began to defend in his pamphlets the rights of the senior line of Bourbons, showering him with harsh abuse and Louis Philippe and his followers, until the pitiful fate which befell the Duchess of Berry at the Vendée weakened his romantic royalism. His “Grave Notes” (Mémoires d`outre tombe) reveal the influence of old age with their chatty self-praise. Reading them, you come to the conviction that Chateaubriand repeatedly changed his views, in accordance with the circumstances and with the prevailing opinions at the moment, that his inspiration was often more artificial than sincere and truthful. He constantly moved from poetic dreams to real life, which had nothing in common with those dreams.
Chateaubriand introduced a new element into French literature, which soon received widespread development - romanticism and the poetry of Catholic Christianity. It cannot be said that French writers began to consciously imitate German ones in this regard, but the aspirations that prevailed in that “era of reaction” led writers of both countries to the same paths and views. Since then in France romanticism began to play a significant role in poetic works, although he did not dominate other literary movements as unconditionally as in Germany. Chateaubriand's influence greatly contributed to this.
CHATEAUBRIAND, Francois Rene de
(4.IX.1768, Saint-Malo, - 4.VII.1848, Paris, buried in Saint-Malo)
French writer. Born into an aristocratic family. He studied at the colleges of Dole and Rennes. He made his debut with the poetic idyll "Rural Love" ("L"amour de la campaigne", 1790). Passively contemplated the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. An attentive reader of J. J. Rousseau and Voltaire, Sh. was aware that before his eyes absolutism was dying and the birth of new France. He was attracted and frightened by the revolutionary energy of the people, republican ideas. He avoided the battle of “the past with the future" and sailed to America in 1791. Having learned about the Varennes flight of Louis XVI, Charles returned to France in early January 1792. Without faith in Shch's success opposed the republic in the army of the royalists, defeated at Thionville. In 1793 Shch emigrated to England and began to create the free-thinking work “Historical, political and moral experience about revolutions" ("Essai historique, politique et moral sur les revolutions.. ., 1797). The Great French Revolution is considered by Sh. as an inevitable consequence of the vices of absolutism and its institutions. This Voltaireanism was not forgiven by the militant reaction, in the eyes of which he forever remained a dubious Catholic and a suspicious royalist. Although it is precisely in “An Essay on Revolutions” that Sh. seeks to discredit the very idea of revolution and social progress. Here the spiritual crisis of Sh., who converted to Catholicism in 1798, was clearly manifested.
In Sh.’s consciousness, along with religious exaltation, individualistic disappointment in social activity, egocentric focus on one’s own experiences, melancholy, and skepticism prevailed - that state of internal emptiness of the individual, detached from popular aspirations and societies, practices, which in French literature of the 19th century was defined as mal du siècle (“disease of the century”). Fear of the revolutionary activity of the people prompted Sh. to conclude a compromise with the Bonaparte regime; after the assassination of the Duke of Enghien and the proclamation of the empire (1804), he went into opposition. An adherent of legitimism, Sh. loyally served the Bourbons during the restoration. In 1802 he published an apology for religion, “The Genius of Christianity” (“Genie du christianisme”). This book attempts to defend Christian theology against scientific criticism. "The Genius of Christianity" is an aesthetic and artistic manifesto of conservative romanticism. Sh. Developed his concept of art in sharp polemics with Enlightenment realism, the legacy of Voltaire, D. Diderot and Rousseau. He contrasted the educational appeal to the reason of social man with the mystical miraculous, intuition and fantasy; in contrast to the idea of improving the individual, his moral and social emancipation, Sh. put forward the principle of religious curbing of man; He contrasted the depiction of reality itself with the preaching of Christian humility and asceticism; affirmation of the meaningfulness of earthly existence - the ecstasy of death, death, non-existence in the name of afterlife bliss. The "Genius of Christianity" included the stories "Atala, or the Love of Two Savages" ("Atala, ou les Amours des deux sauvages", separate edition 1801) and "Rene, or the Consequences of the Passions" ("Rene, ou les Effets de la passion", departmental edition 1802). Here the idea is clearly expressed about the power of faith, healing troubled souls, about the benefits of monasteries, where sufferers consumed by criminal passion find peace, about the civilizing role of the church and the asceticism of its missionaries, showing the path to salvation for both the savage peoples of the New World and the worthless wanderers of the Old World. But the content of the stories does not boil down to protective pathos, and sometimes contradicts it. The inner world of Atala and the Indian Shaktas is inspired by an all-conquering feeling of earthly love. The sublime and selfless love of these heroes is perceived objectively as the antithesis of religious asceticism, church dogma and Amelie’s unnatural passion for her brother Rene. Rene’s refusal to strive to take a position in class society, his vague anxiety and egocentrism turned him into the forerunner of the “superfluous people” of world literature, into a “type of individualist” (Gorky M. , Collection cit., vol. 26, p. 307). The psychological depth in the depiction of contradictions in the minds of the heroes, the subtlety of the analysis of their mental movements, the aphoristic style and its poetic pathos have earned Sh.'s prose worldwide fame. In 1809, Sh. published a “Christian epic,” a prose poem “The Martyrs” (“Les martyrs”). In the genre and composition of the poem there is a noticeable connection with the poetics of classicism. But in its historical and philosophical concept, the poem belongs to conservative romanticism, affirming from the standpoint of Catholicism the role of transitional eras in the destinies of mankind, the moral superiority of Christianity over paganism.
Sh. spoke about the death of Napoleon’s empire in the pamphlet “About Bonaparte. About the Bourbons” (“De Buonaparte. De Bourbons”, 1814). In 1826, “The History of the Last of the Abencerages” (“Les aventures du dernier Abencerage”, created in 1810) was published - a story about the chivalrous love of an Arab for a Spanish woman, who are shared by faith, honor, and the long-standing enmity of their ancestors. The image of Rene appears again in "Natchez" ("Les Natchez", 1826) - a novel about the life and customs of the "natural peoples", the tribes of the North. America, conceived during a trip to America. Sh.'s opinions about W. Shakespeare, J. Milton, and J. G. Byron were included in his “Essayi sur la litterature anglaise” (1836). In his final creation of a memoir in nature - “Grave Notes” (“Les Memoires d”outre-tombe”, posthumously, 1848-50) Sh. elegiacally mourns the inevitable dying of aristocratic society, rushes fruitlessly between the Catholic faith and hopeless despair and only sometimes, contradicting his reactionary political views, he rises to a sober assessment of reality, social changes in the world: “Europe is rushing towards democracy... From monarchy it is moving to a republic. The era of peoples has come..." ("Les Memoires d"outre-tombe", t.2, R., 1952, pp. 1048, 1050). Sh. had a direct impact on B. Constant, A. de Vigny, A. Lamartine, A. de Musset, George Sand. E. Zola believed that Sh. was “the gravedigger of the monarchy and the last troubadour of Catholicism.” K. Marx saw in the work of Sh. a combination of “... aristocratic skepticism and Voltairianism of the 18th century with aristocratic sentimentalism and romanticism of the 19th century. Of course, in France this combination in relation to LITERARY STYLE was supposed to become an event, although And in the style itself, despite for all artistic tricks, falsehood often catches the eye" (K. Marx and F. Engels, On Art, vol. 1, 1967, p. 391). In Russia, Sh. was valued by K. N. Batyushkov. A. S. Pushkin called Chateaubriand “the first of the French writers,” “the first master of his craft.” The judgments of V. G. Belinsky and N. G. Chernyshevsky indicated a critical approach to the legacy of Sh. This line was continued by M. Gorky and A. V. Lunacharsky, who emphasized the fundamental difference between the revolutionary romantic J. Byron and Sh. - “representative disappointed aristocracy" (see Collected works, vol. 8, M., 1967, p. 312). M. Gorky identified Sh.’s place as one of “...the ideologists of the reaction that came after the revolution of 1789-1793...” (Collected works, vol. 27, 1953, p. 503): he placed Sh. in the rank writers who ". ..told the whole dramatic process of the gradual bankruptcy of individualism..." (ibid., vol. 26, 1953, p. 164). According to M. Gorky's plan, the serial publication "The History of a Young Man of the 19th Century" began with the story Sh, "Rene". .
