Chateaubriand’s Memoirs

Chateaubriand, François-René de (1768–1848), translated by Kline, A. S. (contact-email)

Chateaubriand’s Mémoires d'outre-tombe serves as an intricate literary tapestry, blending history, autobiography, and Romantic ideology. As a cornerstone in European Romanticism, his writings garnered a transcontinental readership. He navigated multiple roles: soldier, writer, statesman, and diplomat, all the while retaining a deeply humane perspective. His autobiography provides nuanced insights into a volatile epoch, stretching from the first French Revolution to the February Revolution of 1848. While advocating constitutional monarchy, he revealed republican leanings and a lack of narrow-mindedness. His narrative extends beyond Europe, marking him as an early intellectual traveller with diverse interests in arts and nature. His influence pervades the work of later writers like Baudelaire and Proust, who explore themes of mortality, memory, and ethics. Despite its length and past neglect, partly due to translation gaps, the Memoirs hold significant literary and historical value.

Author Details

François-René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, was born at Saint-Malo in Brittany in 1768. Sympathetic to republican ideals but antipathetic to the excesses of the French Revolution, he travelled to North America in 1791. Two later works derived from that period, “René”, and “Atala”, evidenced the new sensibility and greatly influenced the development of the Romantic Movement in France. On his return to France in 1792 he married; he subsequently fought for the monarchy, was wounded at Thionville, and subsequently lived in exile in England. He returned to France in 1800, and it was a substantial literary defence of Christianity which attracted Napoleon’s notice and led to his employment by the Emperor at Rome and in Switzerland. Ultimately however Napoleon’s actions led to Chateaubriand’s resignation in 1804, after the execution of the Duc d’Enghien, an action which he found abhorrent.

He travelled widely from 1806, in Europe and the Middle East, creating a vivid genre of travel writing, and becoming in many respects the first true cultural tourist. Highly critical of Napoleon, he followed the King into exile in 1815 in Ghent during the Hundred Days. Raised to the peerage at the Restoration, he entered into a complex relationship with the monarchy which led to him supporting the future Charles X. He subsequently served as ambassador to Prussia and the United Kingdom, and was Minister of Foreign affairs from 1822 to 1824.

After the July Revolution of 1830, his refusal to swear the oath of allegiance to Louis-Philippe ended his political career. He continued to work on his Memoirs, and, viewed as a member of the political opposition, a great literary figure, and a champion of freedom, was celebrated at the Revolution of 1848, during which period of turmoil he died. His enduring memorial is his extensive autobiography written over many years, entitled “Mémoires d’outre-tombe”.

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Kline, A. S.

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