Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · Bilingual Edition
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English Page · Branch 70 of 94
René · p. 185
French
p. 185» Je ne sais comment toutes ces choses qui auroient dû nourrir mes peines, en émoussoient au contraire l’aiguillon. Mes larmes avoient moins d’amertume, lorsque je les répandois sur les rochers et parmi les vents. Mon chagrin même, par sa nature extraordinaire, portoit avec lui quelque remède : on jouit de ce qui n’est pas commun, même quand cette chose est un malheur. J’en conçus presque l’espérance que ma sœur deviendroit à son tour moins misérable.
» Une lettre que je reçus d’elle avant mon départ sembla me confirmer dans ces idées. Amélie se plaignoit tendrement de ma douleur, et m’assuroit que le temps diminuoit la sienne. « Je ne désespère pas de mon bonheur, me disoit-elle. L’excès même du sacrifice, à présent que le sacrifice est consommé, sert à me rendre quelque paix. La simplicité de mes compagnes, la pureté de leurs vœux, la régularité de leur vie, tout répand du baume sur mes jours. Quand j’entends gronder les orages, et que l’oiseau de mer vient battre des ailes à ma fenêtre, moi, pauvre colombe du ciel, je songe au bonheur que j’ai eu de trouver un abri contre la tempête. C’est ici la sainte montagne ; le sommet élevé d’où l’on entend les derniers bruits de la terre et
René
Source p. 185“I do not know how all these things, which ought to have fed my pains, blunted their sting instead. My tears had less bitterness when I shed them upon the rocks and among the winds. My very grief, by its extraordinary nature, carried some remedy with it: one takes pleasure in what is not common, even when that thing is a misfortune. I almost conceived from it the hope that my sister in her turn would become less wretched.
“A letter I received from her before my departure seemed to confirm me in these ideas. Amélie tenderly lamented my grief, and assured me that time was lessening her own. ‘I do not despair of my happiness,’ she told me. ’The very excess of the sacrifice, now that the sacrifice is consummated, serves to give me some peace. The simplicity of my companions, the purity of their vows, the regularity of their life, all spreads balm upon my days. When I hear the storms growl, and the sea-bird comes to beat its wings at my window, I, poor dove of heaven, think of the happiness I have had in finding a shelter from the tempest. Here is the holy mountain, the lofty summit from which one hears the last sounds of the earth and
Socrates
Reading René · René · René · p. 185
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.