Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · Bilingual Edition
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English Page · Branch 48 of 94
René · p. 163
French
p. 163la saison de ta migration n’est pas encore venue ; attends que le vent de la mort se lève, alors tu déploieras ton vol vers ces régions inconnues que ton cœur demande. »
» Levez-vous vite, orages désirés, qui devez emporter René dans les espaces d’une autre vie ! Ainsi disant, je marchois à grands pas, le visage enflammé, le vent sifflant dans ma chevelure, ne sentant ni pluie ni frimas, enchanté, tourmenté, et comme possédé par le démon de mon cœur.
» La nuit, lorsque l’aquilon ébranloit ma chaumière, que les pluies tomboient en torrent sur mon toit, qu’à travers ma fenêtre je voyois la lune sillonner les nuages amoncelés, comme un pâle vaisseau qui laboure les vagues, il me sembloit que la vie redoubloit au fond de mon cœur, que j’aurois eu la puissance de créer des mondes. Ah ! si j’avois pu faire partager à une autre les transports que j’éprouvois ! O Dieu ! si tu m’avois donné une femme selon mes désirs ; si, comme à notre premier père, tu m’eusses amené par la main une Ève tirée de moi-même….. Beauté céleste ! je me serois prosterné devant toi, puis te prenant dans mes bras, j’aurois prié l’Éternel de te donner le reste de ma vie.
René
Source p. 163the season of your migration has not yet come; wait until the wind of death rises, and then you will spread your flight toward those unknown regions your heart demands.’
“Rise swiftly, longed-for storms, that are to carry René away into the spaces of another life! So saying, I strode along, my face aflame, the wind whistling in my hair, feeling neither rain nor frost, enchanted, tormented, and as if possessed by the demon of my heart.
“At night, when the north wind shook my cottage, when the rain fell in torrents on my roof, when through my window I saw the moon furrowing the heaped-up clouds like a pale ship ploughing the waves, it seemed to me that life redoubled in the depths of my heart, that I would have had the power to create worlds. Ah! if I could have made another share the raptures I felt! O God! if you had given me a woman after my desires; if, as to our first father, you had brought me by the hand an Eve drawn from myself….. Heavenly beauty! I would have prostrated myself before you; then, taking you in my arms, I would have prayed the Eternal to give you the rest of my life.
Socrates
Reading René · René · René · p. 163
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Chateaubriand’s tale of René and Amélie, with the Preface of 1805, two contemporary reviews, and the longer readings of 1802. This French–English edition preserves the 1826 printed pages, with a new English translation, author’s notes, variant readings, introduction and glossary.
Historical Text and Translation
François-René de Chateaubriand, Œuvres complètes, tome XVI (Paris: Ladvocat, 1826), pp. 1–16, 137–192 and 351–358, University of Toronto Library copy. Earlier witness: Génie du Christianisme, tome II (Paris: Migneret, 1802), pp. 158–216, Bibliothèque nationale de France copy.
About Diotimos Editions
This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.
Rights
The historical French source is in the public domain in the United States. New English translation and editorial matter © 2026 Diotimos Editions. Chateaubriand’s author notes and historical variants remain separately attributed.