A great writer during his lifetime, François-René de Chateaubriand lies today facing the sea.
Retrospective. Back to 1800. François-René de Chateaubriand turns the century at the age of 32, his fingers still freshly stained from the trials of the 'Genius of Christianity'. The masterpiece, published in 1802, has the effect of a revolution in minds. Napoleon wanted the author to join the Institute, but his reception speech moved the Emperor, who finally forbade its reading.
Chateaubriand rests today, a stone's throw from his childhood home. Sure and conscious of what he is: 'I was born a gentleman. In my opinion, I took advantage of the chance of my cradle, I kept this firmer love of freedom which belongs mainly to the aristocracy whose last hour has come. The aristocracy has three successive ages: that of superiority, followed by that of privilege and finally that of vanity. Leaving the first, it degenerates in the second and dies out in the last.
The Man of the Matter
Diplomat, officer, thinker, traveler, often exiled, minister sometimes, arrested one day, academician the next, peer of France, permanent speaker and writer: Chateaubriand had a considerable influence on 19th century literature.
His legacy, which consists of 31 volumes in the Ladvocat edition, opens the way to Romanticism. This is evidenced by the young Lamartine in 1810. Bewildered by his own audacity, perched on a tree to get a better glimpse of the master, he glimpses a small man dressed in black and with strong shoulders, a noble head, walking around followed by a cat: "That was enough for our poetic superstition. We returned to Paris with a dazzle of poetic glory in our eyes".
Such a great writer during a lifetime, Chateaubriand is still alive, today, in all the bookshops and libraries of the world, he who rests facing the sea and the wind, after having made his brothers dream so much.
