C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
François-René vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768–1848)
Chateaubriand, François René Auguste, Vicomte de (shä-tō-brē-o
‘). A great French statesman, traveler, novelist, and historical writer; born at St. Malo, Sept. 1768; died at Paris, July 4, 1848. He made a voyage in search of the Northwest Passage in 1791; but on touching the American continent abandoned that quest, and proposed to himself a study of the life of the American Indians. He lived for some time among the aborigines, and the fruits of his observations were the three novels ‘Atala,’ ‘René,’ and ‘The Natchez,’ which by the charms of the literary style and the interesting poetical descriptions of life remote from civilization, won instant and great popularity. Perhaps his greatest and certainly his most ambitious work is ‘The Genius of Christianity’ (5 vols., 1856–57), in which the dogmas, practices, etc., of Catholic Christianity are defended against infidel attack. Other writings of his in the direction of Christian apologetic are: ‘The Martyrs, or Triumph of the Christian Religion’ (2 vols., 1809); ‘A Journey from Paris to Jerusalem’ (3 vols., 1811). Of works connected with literature and its history, he wrote ‘An Essay on English Literature’ and translated Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost.’ (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).