Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 22 of 94
Preface · 1805 · p. 16
French
p. 16quel vice non encore attaqué j’ai voulu combattre. J’ajouterai que, quant au style, René a été revu avec autant de soin qu’Atala, et qu’il a reçu le degré de perfection que je suis capable de lui donner.
[Tailpiece: a winged hourglass standing on a closed book, with a scythe, beneath a burst of rays and an arc of stars; at the right, a vessel from which smoke or cloud rises.]
René: Preface · 1805
Source p. 16Socrates
Reading René · Preface · 1805 · Preface · 1805 · p. 16
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.