René

Name: René
Author: François-René de Chateaubriand

With the Preface of 1805 and two reviews reprinted by the author

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René · p. 139

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p. 139

[Headpiece: a band of foliage and rosettes with a medallion head at the centre and a head in profile at either end.]

RENÉ.

En arrivant chez les Natchez, René avoit été obligé de prendre une épouse, pour se conformer aux mœurs des Indiens ; mais il ne vivoit point avec elle. Un penchant mélancolique l’entraînoit au fond des bois ; il y passoit seul des journées entières, et sembloit sauvage parmi des sauvages. Hors Chactas, son père adoptif, et le père Souël, missionnaire au fort Rosalie, il avoit renoncé au commerce des hommes. Ces deux vieillards avoient pris beaucoup d’empire

René

Source p. 139

René

On arriving among the Natchez, René had been obliged to take a wife, to conform to the customs of the Indians; but he did not live with her. A melancholy inclination drew him into the depths of the woods; there he would spend whole days alone, and seemed a savage among savages. Apart from Chactas, his adoptive father, and Father Souël, missionary at Fort Rosalie, he had renounced the society of men. These two old men had gained a great ascendancy

1.A people of the lower Mississippi. Their villages lay near Fort Rosalie, the post the French built in 1716 on the bluffs where the city of Natchez now stands. The prologue to Atala dates René’s arrival among them to 1725, and tells how Chactas adopted him and gave him an Indian wife, Céluta (p. 25 of this volume).

a.Source editor’s annotation1802. 1802 adds a note of its own here: Voyez Atala, à la fin du troisième tome, ‘See Atala, at the end of the third volume’. In the Génie of 1802 Atala stood at the end of volume III.

b.Source editor’s annotation1802. au fond des forêts, ‘into the depths of the forests’.

2.sauvage is Chateaubriand’s ordinary word for the Indians and also means ‘wild’; the phrase plays on both. It is rendered ‘savage’ throughout (see Key Terms).

*.Source editor’s annotationChateaubriand’s note: ‘French colony among the Natchez.’

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.