René

Name: René
Author: François-René de Chateaubriand

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

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RenéRené · p. 174

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Facing Pages · Branch 59 of 94

René · p. 174

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French

p. 174

je, si tu avois été à ma place, si, comme moi, tu avois été perdue dans le vide de tes jours, ah ! tu n’aurois pas été abandonnée de ton frère. »

» Cependant, quand je relisois la lettre, j’y trouvois je ne sais quoi de si triste et de si tendre, que tout mon cœur se fondoit. Tout à coup il me vint une idée qui me donna quelque espérance : je m’imaginai qu’Amélie avoit peut-être conçu une passion pour un homme qu’elle n’osoit avouer. Ce soupçon sembla m’expliquer sa mélancolie, sa correspondance mystérieuse, et le ton passionné qui respiroit dans sa lettre. Je lui écrivis aussitôt pour la supplier de m’ouvrir son cœur.

» Elle ne tarda pas à me répondre, mais sans me découvrir son secret : elle me mandoit seulement qu’elle avoit obtenu les dispenses du noviciat, et qu’elle alloit prononcer ses vœux.

» Je fus révolté de l’obstination d’Amélie, du mystère de ses paroles, et de son peu de confiance en mon amitié.

» Après avoir hésité un moment sur le parti que j’avois à prendre, je résolus d’aller à B…. pour faire un dernier effort auprès de ma sœur.

a.Source editor’s annotation1802. tu eusses été accablée du vide de tes jours, ‘you had been overwhelmed by the emptiness of your days’.

b.Source editor’s annotation1802. va, an interjection, ‘believe me’.

c.Source editor’s annotation1802. un homme d’un rang inférieur, et qu’elle n’osoit avouer à cause de l’orgueil de notre famille, ‘a man of inferior rank, and whom she dared not avow because of the pride of our family’.

d.Source editor’s annotation1802. Je lui écrivis aussitôt pour lui faire les plus tendres reproches, pour la supplier de m’ouvrir son cœur, et de ne pas sacrifier le bonheur de sa vie à des parens qui lui étoient presque étrangers, ‘I wrote to her at once to reproach her most tenderly, to beg her to open her heart to me, and not to sacrifice the happiness of her life to relations who were almost strangers to her.’

e.Source editor’s annotation1802. 1802 has a different paragraph here: Amélie writes that she is determined and will take her vows immediately, and ends with a sentence confessing that she has loved René alone. Given in full in Appendix I, no. 3.

f.Source editor’s annotation1802. 1802 begins: Ce billet me donna un mouvement de rage, je fus révolté…, ‘This note put me in a fit of rage; I was revolted…’.

g.Source editor’s annotation1802. je me résolus d’aller à B…. dans le dessein de retarder au moins le sacrifice, si je ne pouvois l’empêcher de s’accomplir, ‘I resolved to go to B…. with the intention of at least delaying the sacrifice, if I could not prevent its being accomplished.’

René

Source p. 174

‘if you had been in my place, if, like me, you had been lost in the emptiness of your days, ah! you would not have been abandoned by your brother.’

“Yet when I reread the letter, I found in it something so sad and so tender that my whole heart melted. All at once an idea came to me that gave me some hope: I imagined that Amélie had perhaps conceived a passion for a man she dared not avow. This suspicion seemed to explain her melancholy, her mysterious correspondence, and the passionate tone that breathed in her letter. I wrote to her at once to beg her to open her heart to me.

“She was not slow to answer me, but without revealing her secret: she sent word only that she had obtained a dispensation from the novitiate, and that she was about to pronounce her vows.

“I was revolted by Amélie’s obstinacy, by the mystery of her words, and by her want of trust in my friendship.

“After hesitating a moment over the course I should take, I resolved to go to B…. to make a last attempt with my sister.

a.Source editor’s annotation1802. tu eusses été accablée du vide de tes jours, ‘you had been overwhelmed by the emptiness of your days’.

b.Source editor’s annotation1802. va, an interjection, ‘believe me’.

1.Since the Council of Trent a full year of novitiate had been required before vows; a dispensation shortened it.

f.Source editor’s annotation1802. 1802 begins: Ce billet me donna un mouvement de rage, je fus révolté…, ‘This note put me in a fit of rage; I was revolted…’.

2.Chateaubriand leaves the town unnamed, as he does the convent (p. 171) and the young man lost at sea (p. 172).

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.