Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb

François-René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, was a brilliant representative of the reaction against the ideas of the French Revolution, and the most conspicuous figure in French literature during the First Empire. He was born in St Malo in 1768, and received a commission in the army in 1786. While living in Paris, he met the men of letters of whom he left remarkable portraits in his memoirs. Though not opposed to the Revolution in its first stages, Chateaubriand was disturbed by its excesses, and his restlessness caused him to depart for America in the spring of 1791. In 1792, after news of the arrest of Louis XVI brought him back to France, he married Céleste Buisson de Lavigne, who brought him a small fortune. His first publication, Essai historique, politique et moral sur les révolutions in 1797, was written during his exile in England. His next work, Atala, ou les amours de deux sauvages dans le desert, appeared in 1801, and immediately made his reputation, thanks to its exquisite style, impassioned eloquence and glowing descriptions of nature. His Génie du christianisme, a defence of the Catholic faith, then appeared in 1802, on the eve of Napoleon's re-establishment of the Catholic religion in France. His influence in French literature, on authors such as Alfred de Vigny, Alphonse de Lamartine and Victor Hugo, was incalculable. Chateaubriand died on the 4th of July 1848, after spending the last fifteen years of his life writing his controversial and celebrated Mémoires d'outre-tombe, which were published shortly after his death.