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Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe
The only available edition in English of the greatest of all French autobiographies
By the time he came to write his extraordinary, highly entertaining memoirs, Chateaubriand had witnessed some of the iconic figures and events of French history—from the court of Louis XVI, to the reign of Napoleon, to the disaster of Waterloo, to life under the Restoration. Written across different times and places, Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb tells of exotic adventures to the farthest points of the globe, of heroic battles and political struggles, and of the loneliness of a restless soul. And its startling candor—because it would be published only “from beyond the tomb”—makes it almost ridiculously enjoyable.
For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
By the time he came to write his extraordinary, highly entertaining memoirs, Chateaubriand had witnessed some of the iconic figures and events of French history—from the court of Louis XVI, to the reign of Napoleon, to the disaster of Waterloo, to life under the Restoration. Written across different times and places, Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb tells of exotic adventures to the farthest points of the globe, of heroic battles and political struggles, and of the loneliness of a restless soul. And its startling candor—because it would be published only “from beyond the tomb”—makes it almost ridiculously enjoyable.
For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
1504 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1849
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About the author
François-René de Chateaubriand
2,204 books246 followersFrançois-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a French writer, politician and diplomat. He is considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature.
He has also been mistakenly given the forename François-Auguste in an 1811 edition, but signed all his worked as just Chateaubriand or M. le vicomte de Chateaubriand.
He has also been mistakenly given the forename François-Auguste in an 1811 edition, but signed all his worked as just Chateaubriand or M. le vicomte de Chateaubriand.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
November 15, 2023
Self aggrandizing and egotistical, but very well written.
Wonderful is the book's ability to completely immerse you in a vanished world. A world in which all the idiocies of the present day do not pertain. So in that sense like all worthwhile books it's an escape. Its description of landscape in particular reminds me of the works of Patrick Leigh Fermor, especially A Time of Gifts and the other volumes of his Danube trilogy.
It's not for everyone, however. The prose is highly allusive, often citing myth, literature, world history, etc. All of this is dutifully footnoted, but that hardly makes it a light beach read. But perfect for someone like me who reads slowly, not missing a thing.
He's extraordinarily Catholic and a longstanding virgin. (Check that: Peter Gay has written about his incredibly rakish ways. That's something of a relief, for no one can be that chaste. But it makes paragraph number 7 below rather hypocritical, does it not?)
He prides himself on his Christian humility, but also loves to speak of his extraordinary intelligence. His boyish escapades are delightful, as when he fights a monk at school who was intent on punishing him for climbing a tree, which had been expressly forbidden. His fits of vomiting when an Italian sought to cure him of tertian fever, for his father was a fool for quacks.
I'm particularly pleased when he quotes Montaigne, whose essays I admire. Chateaubriand writes "suffering is prayer," which reminds me of a sentiment expressed in Bellow: "The forgiveness of sin is perpetual and righteousness first is not required." (Martin Luther)
"If it were true that I had prostituted myself to the courtesans of Paris, I would not consider myself obliged to enlighten posterity; but I was too timid on the one hand, and too idealistic on the other, to let myself be seduced by the filles de joie. When I shouldered my way through packs of these unhappy women, who grabbed at the arms of passersby to pull them up to their quarters like Saint-Cloud cabmen trying to make travelers climb into their carriages, I was overcome by disgust and horror." (p. 155)
N.B.: Well, he did, and so he does not consider himself obliged.
The surprise of Chateaubrand is that despite his nobility he despised social climbing. His brother tried to introduce him at court, but he was unable to withstand it. In his young adulthood, he was a solitary and incredibly shy. After a single hunt with the King, he rushed back to Brittany. Though impressed by the opulence of Versailles, he hated Paris and all cosmopolitan doings, only his brother and beloved sister's presence there made it briefly tolerable.
About 35,000 people were killed during the French revolution for political reasons. That number is considered conservative. Yet Châteaubriand writes of the normality in Paris during the Revolution's early days. In short, people didn't anticipate the slaughter.
"In every corner of Paris, there were literary gatherings, political meetings, and theater shows; future celebrities wandered in the crowd unknown . . . I saw Marshal Gouvion-Saint-Cyr play a part in Beaumarchais's La Mère Coupable at the Théâtre du Marais. People went from the Club des Feuillants to the Club des Jacobins, from balls and gambling houses to the crowds at the Palais-Royal, from the gallery of the National Assembly to the gallery of the open air. Popular delegations, cavalry pickets, and infantry patrols marched every which way in the streets. Beside a man in French dress, with powdered hair, a sword at his side, a hat under his arm, leather shoes, and silk stockings, walked a man with unpowdered hair cropped close to his skull, dressed in an English frock coat and an American cravat. In the theaters, actors announced the latest news, and the pit burst into patriotic song. Topical plays drew the crowds: a priest would appear on stage, and the people would shout, Calotin! Calotin! and the priest would reply: Messieurs, Vive la Nation! Everybody hastened to hear Mandini and his wife, Viganoni, sing with Rovedino at the Opéra-Buffa, only minutes after hearing "Ça ira" howled in the street. . . ." (p. 226)
N.B. Chateaubriand is a better writer than the clap-ridden Giacomo Casanova, whose twelve-volume memoir I have yet to finish. It's not that Casanova is such a poor memoirist really, just that Chateaubriand is such a very good one.
His writings about contact with the "savages," his unfortunate word, gives insight to Indian culture in the early 1790's. He sees, already then, how it's been warped by exposure to the colonizers, and this is something he laments. Factually he is often incorrect, but his impressions of the newly expropriated nation can be riveting.
The chapter "Dangers for the United States" reminds me of de Touqueville. I wonder to what extent it was influenced by that famous book, the first volume of which appeared in 1835? The US chapter is the weakest part of the book because, as the author emphasizes, there's nothing in the US at this particular time. No art, no literature. . . Just commerce, brothels and Indian genocide. When he returns to France and the Revolution things rapidly become more interesting.
The author's claims at the volume's close that Lord Byron imitated him ferociously bears some looking into.
Wonderful is the book's ability to completely immerse you in a vanished world. A world in which all the idiocies of the present day do not pertain. So in that sense like all worthwhile books it's an escape. Its description of landscape in particular reminds me of the works of Patrick Leigh Fermor, especially A Time of Gifts and the other volumes of his Danube trilogy.
It's not for everyone, however. The prose is highly allusive, often citing myth, literature, world history, etc. All of this is dutifully footnoted, but that hardly makes it a light beach read. But perfect for someone like me who reads slowly, not missing a thing.
He's extraordinarily Catholic and a longstanding virgin. (Check that: Peter Gay has written about his incredibly rakish ways. That's something of a relief, for no one can be that chaste. But it makes paragraph number 7 below rather hypocritical, does it not?)
He prides himself on his Christian humility, but also loves to speak of his extraordinary intelligence. His boyish escapades are delightful, as when he fights a monk at school who was intent on punishing him for climbing a tree, which had been expressly forbidden. His fits of vomiting when an Italian sought to cure him of tertian fever, for his father was a fool for quacks.
I'm particularly pleased when he quotes Montaigne, whose essays I admire. Chateaubriand writes "suffering is prayer," which reminds me of a sentiment expressed in Bellow: "The forgiveness of sin is perpetual and righteousness first is not required." (Martin Luther)
"If it were true that I had prostituted myself to the courtesans of Paris, I would not consider myself obliged to enlighten posterity; but I was too timid on the one hand, and too idealistic on the other, to let myself be seduced by the filles de joie. When I shouldered my way through packs of these unhappy women, who grabbed at the arms of passersby to pull them up to their quarters like Saint-Cloud cabmen trying to make travelers climb into their carriages, I was overcome by disgust and horror." (p. 155)
N.B.: Well, he did, and so he does not consider himself obliged.
The surprise of Chateaubrand is that despite his nobility he despised social climbing. His brother tried to introduce him at court, but he was unable to withstand it. In his young adulthood, he was a solitary and incredibly shy. After a single hunt with the King, he rushed back to Brittany. Though impressed by the opulence of Versailles, he hated Paris and all cosmopolitan doings, only his brother and beloved sister's presence there made it briefly tolerable.
About 35,000 people were killed during the French revolution for political reasons. That number is considered conservative. Yet Châteaubriand writes of the normality in Paris during the Revolution's early days. In short, people didn't anticipate the slaughter.
"In every corner of Paris, there were literary gatherings, political meetings, and theater shows; future celebrities wandered in the crowd unknown . . . I saw Marshal Gouvion-Saint-Cyr play a part in Beaumarchais's La Mère Coupable at the Théâtre du Marais. People went from the Club des Feuillants to the Club des Jacobins, from balls and gambling houses to the crowds at the Palais-Royal, from the gallery of the National Assembly to the gallery of the open air. Popular delegations, cavalry pickets, and infantry patrols marched every which way in the streets. Beside a man in French dress, with powdered hair, a sword at his side, a hat under his arm, leather shoes, and silk stockings, walked a man with unpowdered hair cropped close to his skull, dressed in an English frock coat and an American cravat. In the theaters, actors announced the latest news, and the pit burst into patriotic song. Topical plays drew the crowds: a priest would appear on stage, and the people would shout, Calotin! Calotin! and the priest would reply: Messieurs, Vive la Nation! Everybody hastened to hear Mandini and his wife, Viganoni, sing with Rovedino at the Opéra-Buffa, only minutes after hearing "Ça ira" howled in the street. . . ." (p. 226)
N.B. Chateaubriand is a better writer than the clap-ridden Giacomo Casanova, whose twelve-volume memoir I have yet to finish. It's not that Casanova is such a poor memoirist really, just that Chateaubriand is such a very good one.
His writings about contact with the "savages," his unfortunate word, gives insight to Indian culture in the early 1790's. He sees, already then, how it's been warped by exposure to the colonizers, and this is something he laments. Factually he is often incorrect, but his impressions of the newly expropriated nation can be riveting.
The chapter "Dangers for the United States" reminds me of de Touqueville. I wonder to what extent it was influenced by that famous book, the first volume of which appeared in 1835? The US chapter is the weakest part of the book because, as the author emphasizes, there's nothing in the US at this particular time. No art, no literature. . . Just commerce, brothels and Indian genocide. When he returns to France and the Revolution things rapidly become more interesting.
The author's claims at the volume's close that Lord Byron imitated him ferociously bears some looking into.
September 19, 2022
I finished Rezzori’s The Snows of Yesteryear last week with the wish to keep reading nothing but lyrical memories and historical vistas in a tight, dense weave. Preferably something with a tone of émigré pride and melancholy. So, back to this mordant classic of the form. (My previous reading was of Baldick's severe abridgement for Penguin). Deep apologies to Herzen, whose My Past and Thoughts I'm Currently Reading but reached past; and to Nabokov, as it has been too long since my last reading of Speak, Memory, in which, coincidentally, Nabokov mentions Herzen as one of his father’s favorite writers. Baudelaire has a wonderful image of Chateaubriand in the 1830s, during the "prolific crisis" of his Romantic successors, quietly correcting and adding to these memoirs, "still full of creative strength, but as though prostrate on the horizon...like an Athos, contemplating with nonchalance the stirrings on the plain." In two weeks NYRB will release 1800-1815, a further 800 pages between me and Herzen.
June 15, 2017
I read this book in French (because I'm french!). But I comment it in English, beacause I'd like you, English readers who would like to discover French state of mind from the late 18th and early 19th century and also the great History he really lived. It's not really fun, but it's Chateaubriand! So it's clever, pretentious (he could be!), historically very interesting and so many things more!
March 9, 2018
Fascinating stuff; it's easy to see the influence Chateaubriand has had on later French writing; it's also just damn enjoyable to spend time in his company. I read this too quickly, but I'm very excited to re-read with pencil in hand, because the bon mots come thick and fast. His description of listening to shovelsful of dirt being dropped on a coffin might be the most affecting thing I've read this year. It would be wonderful to have the rest of the Memoirs translated in a modern edition, but I suspect that's not really a good business proposition.
June 14, 2018
- Saint-Malo, as seen from the Petit Bé, near Chateaubriand's tomb
- The bulwarks of Saint-Malo
- The maritime fort
June 11, 2018
No he leído propiamente las "Memorias de ultratumba". He leído una antología o selección de las mismas. ¿Por qué? Porque soy cobarde.
December 5, 2017
The first half was INCREDIBLE.
Second half was really good too, focuses on Napoleon a lot, almost a mini biography of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Francois Chateaubriand was a cool guy. I like him. We would have been friends. We have a similar haircut.
Second half was really good too, focuses on Napoleon a lot, almost a mini biography of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Francois Chateaubriand was a cool guy. I like him. We would have been friends. We have a similar haircut.
August 13, 2020
Ho un debole per le biografie e le autobiografie, come per i trattati storici e le digressioni romantiche. Memorie d'oltretomba racchiude tutte le mie predilezioni, non potevo non leggerlo, dopo averlo guardato e scansato per molto tempo, ma infine arriva il tempo per ogni cosa.
Un libro affascinante, ricco di sfaccettature, forse non per tutti ma certo per gli amanti dei resoconti storici e gli affreschi d'epoca. Chi fosse spaventato dal cofanetto di oltre 2000 pagine sbaglierebbe, moltissime sono note, e il resto è una lettura molto godibile, lo stile di Chateaubriand è elegante e ironico, tranne quando indulge in una pompa autocelebrativa che sa un po', ebbene sì, pardon, di trombone.
I suoi dispacci di ambasciatore, i suoi discorsi alla Camera dei Pari, le sue lettere a vari personaggi hanno spesso il tratto della pompa e dell'autocelebrazione, inoltre i frequenti riferimenti al Cristianesimo pongono molti veli sulla sua vita di galante gentiluomo ammogliato (ebbe infinite amanti, relazioni contemporannee durate anni, la povera Madame de Chateaubriand doveva sopportare la presenza di queste Madames come le chiamava, perfino nella residenza della famiglia alla Vallée aux Loups, nelle Memorie di queste donne non si fa alcun cenno).
Del resto ogni autobiografia lavora di taglio e di cesello, non ci si aspetta la Verità, ma la sua rilettura, l'autoritratto che l'autore regala al mondo e le vicende autobiografiche qui sono anche le meno interessanti, per nostra fortuna le pagine di pompa autocelebrativa sono abbastanza limitate come numero, il resto è una delizia di affresco storico della Francia tra due secoli e due mondi. Chateaubriand ebbe la fortuna di vivere in anni ricchi di cambiamenti ed il meglio di sé, a mio avviso, lo dà come memorialista descrivendo gli eventi storici e i suoi personaggi (La Rivoluzione Francese, Vita di Napoleone) e poi l 'infanzia e la giovinezza, i suoi viaggi, il suo esilio a Londra – esilio politico a seguito della Rivlouzione Francese, come sostenitore della monarchia – . Nella descrizione dell'amatissima Bretagna e dei suio boschi di Comburg si scorge chiarissimo il Romaticismo di cui in Francia fu l'iniziatore, lasciando la residenza della Vallée aux Loups, che dovette vendere per dissesti economici, amatissimo luogo dove aveva piantato personalmente ogni albero, ogni pianta, romanticamente, mestamente sospirava quale Adamo esiliato dal suo Paradiso “Tutti i miei giorni sono degli addii”.
Tra le pagine migliori io annovero anche il viaggio in America, il ritorno e il naufragio, le peripezie come soldato realista in lotta contro le forze rivoluzionarie, la caduta in una vita piena di stenti a Londra, (con gran parte della famiglia uccisa o incarcerata durante la Rivoluzione) e a seguire la risalita ai vertici della società dopo il ritorno dell'Impero e della monarchia Borbonica, traversie che ne fanno l'emblema del vero eroe romantico, di cui ha tutto l'ardore del pensiero e dell'azione.
Memorabili le sue invettive contro Napoleone, dopo l'assassinio del duca d'Enghien, Chateaubriand fu un oppositore feroce e palese dell'imperatore, non si fece intimorire dalla possibilità che Napoleone lo facesse “far fuori a sciabolate sulle scale delle Tuileries”, come gli aveva preannunciato, né fece sconti dopo la caduta, la morte e l'esilio dell'amato/odiato corso (più odiato, in verità). Chateaubriand non perde occasione per dire quanto Napoleone fosse poca cosa dal punto di vista umano – egoista, maniaco, arrogante oltre misura, privo di gratitudine e feroce, ambiziosissimo e senza pietà – e politico, ma ne riconosce la grandezza militare, almeno fino alla campagnia di Russia. La cosa che io trovo ammirevole è che glielo dicesse in faccia o in pubblico, senza sconti né mezze misure, già per questo Chateaubriand mi sta simpatico, tra i suoi difetti non si può certo annoverare l'ipocrisia o il calcolo opportunista. Né opportunista e né ipocrita e come mostra il suo atteggiamento quando, a seguito della Rivoluzione del 1830, ci fu un ribaltamento nella successione al trono di Francia, nemmeno voltagabbana: si schierò sempre con la legittimità Borbonica contro il ramo cadetto “usurpatore” degli Orleans, malgardo le lusinghe e i prospettati favori.
Le Memorie dovevano essere pubblicate dopo la morte dell'autore, in realtà già nel 1836 ne cedette i diritti all'editore, con questi soldi Chauteaubraind, di nuovo la fortuna economica gli aveva voltato le spalle, visse dignitosamente per altri 12 anni. E' seppellito davanti al mare a Saint-Malo, nella sua Bretagna. Luogo non sarebbe stato più adatto a lui che del mare e della Bretagna ha fatto i protagonisti di alcune delle più belle pagine delle sue Memorie.
Un libro affascinante, ricco di sfaccettature, forse non per tutti ma certo per gli amanti dei resoconti storici e gli affreschi d'epoca. Chi fosse spaventato dal cofanetto di oltre 2000 pagine sbaglierebbe, moltissime sono note, e il resto è una lettura molto godibile, lo stile di Chateaubriand è elegante e ironico, tranne quando indulge in una pompa autocelebrativa che sa un po', ebbene sì, pardon, di trombone.
I suoi dispacci di ambasciatore, i suoi discorsi alla Camera dei Pari, le sue lettere a vari personaggi hanno spesso il tratto della pompa e dell'autocelebrazione, inoltre i frequenti riferimenti al Cristianesimo pongono molti veli sulla sua vita di galante gentiluomo ammogliato (ebbe infinite amanti, relazioni contemporannee durate anni, la povera Madame de Chateaubriand doveva sopportare la presenza di queste Madames come le chiamava, perfino nella residenza della famiglia alla Vallée aux Loups, nelle Memorie di queste donne non si fa alcun cenno).
Del resto ogni autobiografia lavora di taglio e di cesello, non ci si aspetta la Verità, ma la sua rilettura, l'autoritratto che l'autore regala al mondo e le vicende autobiografiche qui sono anche le meno interessanti, per nostra fortuna le pagine di pompa autocelebrativa sono abbastanza limitate come numero, il resto è una delizia di affresco storico della Francia tra due secoli e due mondi. Chateaubriand ebbe la fortuna di vivere in anni ricchi di cambiamenti ed il meglio di sé, a mio avviso, lo dà come memorialista descrivendo gli eventi storici e i suoi personaggi (La Rivoluzione Francese, Vita di Napoleone) e poi l 'infanzia e la giovinezza, i suoi viaggi, il suo esilio a Londra – esilio politico a seguito della Rivlouzione Francese, come sostenitore della monarchia – . Nella descrizione dell'amatissima Bretagna e dei suio boschi di Comburg si scorge chiarissimo il Romaticismo di cui in Francia fu l'iniziatore, lasciando la residenza della Vallée aux Loups, che dovette vendere per dissesti economici, amatissimo luogo dove aveva piantato personalmente ogni albero, ogni pianta, romanticamente, mestamente sospirava quale Adamo esiliato dal suo Paradiso “Tutti i miei giorni sono degli addii”.
Tra le pagine migliori io annovero anche il viaggio in America, il ritorno e il naufragio, le peripezie come soldato realista in lotta contro le forze rivoluzionarie, la caduta in una vita piena di stenti a Londra, (con gran parte della famiglia uccisa o incarcerata durante la Rivoluzione) e a seguire la risalita ai vertici della società dopo il ritorno dell'Impero e della monarchia Borbonica, traversie che ne fanno l'emblema del vero eroe romantico, di cui ha tutto l'ardore del pensiero e dell'azione.
Memorabili le sue invettive contro Napoleone, dopo l'assassinio del duca d'Enghien, Chateaubriand fu un oppositore feroce e palese dell'imperatore, non si fece intimorire dalla possibilità che Napoleone lo facesse “far fuori a sciabolate sulle scale delle Tuileries”, come gli aveva preannunciato, né fece sconti dopo la caduta, la morte e l'esilio dell'amato/odiato corso (più odiato, in verità). Chateaubriand non perde occasione per dire quanto Napoleone fosse poca cosa dal punto di vista umano – egoista, maniaco, arrogante oltre misura, privo di gratitudine e feroce, ambiziosissimo e senza pietà – e politico, ma ne riconosce la grandezza militare, almeno fino alla campagnia di Russia. La cosa che io trovo ammirevole è che glielo dicesse in faccia o in pubblico, senza sconti né mezze misure, già per questo Chateaubriand mi sta simpatico, tra i suoi difetti non si può certo annoverare l'ipocrisia o il calcolo opportunista. Né opportunista e né ipocrita e come mostra il suo atteggiamento quando, a seguito della Rivoluzione del 1830, ci fu un ribaltamento nella successione al trono di Francia, nemmeno voltagabbana: si schierò sempre con la legittimità Borbonica contro il ramo cadetto “usurpatore” degli Orleans, malgardo le lusinghe e i prospettati favori.
Le Memorie dovevano essere pubblicate dopo la morte dell'autore, in realtà già nel 1836 ne cedette i diritti all'editore, con questi soldi Chauteaubraind, di nuovo la fortuna economica gli aveva voltato le spalle, visse dignitosamente per altri 12 anni. E' seppellito davanti al mare a Saint-Malo, nella sua Bretagna. Luogo non sarebbe stato più adatto a lui che del mare e della Bretagna ha fatto i protagonisti di alcune delle più belle pagine delle sue Memorie.
April 9, 2020
Un tombeur de femmes notoire, Chateaubriand a choisi de publier ces mémoires à titre posthume afin d’éviter des défis aux duels. Le lecteur y trouve bien des belles descriptions d’amour; seulement sa femme l’a déçu. Néanmoins ce livre est surtout un chronique de malheurs :
« Trois catastrophes ont marqué les trois parties précédentes de ma vie : j’ai vu mourir Louis XVI pendant ma carrière de voyageur et de soldat; au bout de ma carrière littéraire, Bonaparte a disparu; Charles X en tombant, a fermé ma carrière politique. »
La seule déception pour le lecteur est la quatrième et ultime partie où Chateaubriand raconte l’histoire de ses flatteries interminables effectués auprès du roi Charles X en exil à Prague dans de but de l’influer. Ses efforts étaient en vaines parce que Charles X le détestait de longue date comme Madame la duchesse d’Orleans, (femme du Roi Louis-Philippe) lui a bien expliqué : « Madame la duchesse d’Orléans eut la bonté de me rappeler ce qu’elle nommait ma puissance sur l’opinion, les sacrifices que j’avais faits, l’aversion que Charles X et sa famille m’avaient toujours montrée malgré mes services. »
Il faut reconnaitre que Chateaubriand détestait le roi Charles X autant que Charles X. Pourtant, Chateaubriand était un homme de principe. Il préférait essayer de s’immiscer dans les grâces d’un roi légitime en exil que faire une belle carrière sous un roi illégitime en pouvoir.
La première partie du livre qui raconte son enfance et ses débuts dans le service militaire fait penser aux mémoires de Rousseau. Notamment il y a un choc d’une tentative de suicide : « Me voici arrivé à un moment où j’ai besoin de quelque force pour confesser ma faiblesse. L’homme qui attente à ses jours montre moins la vigueur de son âme que la défaillance de sa nature. Je possédais un fusil de chasse dont la détente usée partait souvent au repos. Je chargeai ce fusil de trois balles, … J’armai le fusil, introduisis le bout de canon dans ma bouche, je frappai la crosse contre terre; je réitérai plusieurs fois l’épreuve; le coup ne partit pas; l’apparition d’un garde suspendit ma résolution. Fataliste sans le vouloir et sans le savoir je supposai que mon heure n’était pas arrivée et je remis à un autre jour l’exécution de mon projet. »
Après la première partie, le ton Rousseauesque disparait. Dans les trois dernières parties Chateaubriand défend ses actes en tant que politicien, auteur et amant d’une manière conventionnelle. Cependant, son style est superbe et ses anecdotes sont tout à fait remarquables. Mon favori est le passage où comme ambassadeur Français auprès du Vatican, il décide sans consulter le roi Charles X de poser le véto français à la candidature du Cardinal Albani dans le conclave qui irait choisir Francesco Castiglioni (Pius VIII comme pape.
« Cette lettre d’exclusion, confiée à un cardinal par un ambassadeur qui n’y est pas autorisé formellement est une témérité en diplomatie : il y a de quoi faire frémir tous les hommes d’État, »
Dans un autre passage remarquable, Chateaubriand décrit sa fureur quand Charles X décide de céder son trône à son cousin Louis-Phillipe plutôt que de déclencher une guerre civile.
« Un peuple s’est souvent retrempé et régénéré dans les discordes intestines. Il n’a jamais péri par une guerre civile, il a souvent disparu dans des guerres étrangères. »
Les mémoires ont aussi des passages croustillants où il invective la Fayette le grand champion de la liberté et de la monarchie constitutionnelle.
« Dans le Nouveau Monde, M. de la Fayette a contribué à la formation d’une société nouvelle; dans le monde ancien, à la destruction d’une vieille société : la liberté invoquée à Washington, l’anarchie à Paris. »
Les Mémoires d’Outre-Tombe sont très longues et il y a beaucoup de passages ennuyants. Néanmoins, elles m’ont fourni un divertissement superbe pour la période de confinement Covid-19.
November 11, 2020
Antes de abandonar Saint-Denis fui recibido por el rey y tuve con él la siguiente conversación.
—¡Bien! —me dijo Luis XVIII, iniciando el diálogo con esta exclamación.
—Bien, Sire, ¿aceptáis al duque de Otranto?
—No ha habido más remedio: desde mi hermano hasta el bailío de Crussol [y éste no era sospechoso], todos decían que no podíamos hacer otra cosa: ¿qué piensa usted?
—Sire, la cosa está hecha: pido permiso a Vuestra Majestad para no pronunciarme.
—No, no, diga: ya sabe lo mucho que me he resistido desde Gante.
—Sire, yo no hago sino obedecer vuestras órdenes; disculpad mi franqueza: creo que la monarquía está acabada.
El rey guardó silencio; yo comenzaba a temblar por mi osadía, cuando Su Majestad prosiguió:
—Pues bien, monsieur de Chateaubriand, soy de su misma opinión.
Memorias de ultratumba; François-René de Chateaubriand
Traducción de José Ramón Monreal para Acantilado.
La verdad es que hay mucho, mucho Chauteaubriand en sus memorias... demasiado a veces. Lo que más he disfrutado es la contraposición de lo que cuenta sobre Napoleón, sin duda los mejores pasajes de las Memorias, con lo que cuenta Tolstoi en Guerra y paz.
Cada vez estoy más alejado de la realidad, más decimonónico en mis gustos, más viejo.
February 11, 2021
Typical the work of a man with a large 'ego', looking for justification; more than any other this book has strong Romantic traits. Chateaubriand is a liberal in his principles (freedom is central), but clearly conservative in politics (his option for monarchism); perhaps that explains his marginal relevance as a historical person. But this certainly is a remarkable historical document, presenting an enchanting introspection into a turbulent mind. The most interesting pages treat about Napoleon, the passages on his own public actions are less captivating. And oh, I almost forgot: what a succinct, eloquent French he wrote!
Shelved as 'wish-list'
August 3, 2016"I want to be Chateaubriand, or nothing"
- Victor Hugo
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-...
To hunt down...
July 6, 2020
Wenn man heute an Chateaubriand denkt, so denkt man in erster Linie an ein Stück Rinderfilet. Vor 200 Jahren war das Anders. Chateaubriand zählte neben Byron, Scott und Goethe zu den meistgelesenen Autoren des ausgehenden 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhunderts, bevor er die Literatur aufgab und zum Diplomaten wurde. Aus dieser Warte kann er eine Vielzahl von interessanten Einblicken in das Exilleben nach der Revolution und die Regierung der Restauration geben. Das meiste an Hofintrige ist aber aus heutiger Sicht nicht mehr wirklich interessant, da sich Chateaubriand vor allen Dingen für dynastische Fragen interessiert und spätestens ab Louis-Phillippe völlig im Abseits steht.
Diese Autobiographie zeichnet sich durch einen vorzüglichen Stil aus, Ihr Inhalt kann heute kaum noch jemanden hinter dem Ofen hervorlocken. Die Übersetzung ist vorzüglich. Die Ausgabe ist es leider nicht. Mich haben die beiden misanthropischen Nachworte - die Herausgeberinnen können wenig mit dem Autor anfangen und sind vor allen Dingen bemüht, Chateaubriand Tatsachenfälschungen nachzuweisen - gestört und ich vermisse ca. 100 Seiten an Fußnoten, da man wirklich viel Nachschlagen muß und die Fußnoten sich oft auf Zitatnachweise beschränken und man alle historischen Hintergründe anderenorts nachschlagen muß.
Diese Autobiographie zeichnet sich durch einen vorzüglichen Stil aus, Ihr Inhalt kann heute kaum noch jemanden hinter dem Ofen hervorlocken. Die Übersetzung ist vorzüglich. Die Ausgabe ist es leider nicht. Mich haben die beiden misanthropischen Nachworte - die Herausgeberinnen können wenig mit dem Autor anfangen und sind vor allen Dingen bemüht, Chateaubriand Tatsachenfälschungen nachzuweisen - gestört und ich vermisse ca. 100 Seiten an Fußnoten, da man wirklich viel Nachschlagen muß und die Fußnoten sich oft auf Zitatnachweise beschränken und man alle historischen Hintergründe anderenorts nachschlagen muß.
August 1, 2023
As I write these last words, on 16 November 1841, my window, which looks west over the gardens of the Foreign Missions, is open: it is six o'clock in the morning: I can see the pale and swollen moon; it is sinking over the spire of the Invalides scarcely touched by the first golden ray from the east: one might imagine that the old world was ending and the new beginning. I behold the light of a dawn whose sunrise I shall never see. It only remains for me to sit down at the edge of my grave: then I shall descend boldly, crucifix in hand, into eternity.
This is an excellent memoir, but it is also much more than a mere retelling of one man’s life. François-René de Chateaubriand is witness to a world in the midst of change. He observes as France goes from an old monarchy to constitutional, after the Republic follows Napoleon and finally a return to monarchy again. Melancholic musings on his childhood and youth convey the slow but sure decay of old rites and customs—ultimately finding its climax in the violence of the French Revolution. Tragedy is on every page, as his family members and acquaintances are sent to the guillotine, or when his sister and childhood companion dies. There is a sombre beauty in the manner in which he dualizes some events of the past, showing them as they appeared to him at the time but equipped with future knowledge. The smile of Marie-Antoinette is paired with the memory of him identifying her jaw-bone in a mass grave.
The memoir stands as a witness to history and a witness to a dying world and it catches a glimpse of what new order is to come. It is also a portrait of personal tragedy, of the melancholy of one man and his attempts to grasp life at its core. The writing is hauntingly beautiful at times, with Romantic renderings of nature and a tender understanding of the human soul.
This is an excellent memoir, but it is also much more than a mere retelling of one man’s life. François-René de Chateaubriand is witness to a world in the midst of change. He observes as France goes from an old monarchy to constitutional, after the Republic follows Napoleon and finally a return to monarchy again. Melancholic musings on his childhood and youth convey the slow but sure decay of old rites and customs—ultimately finding its climax in the violence of the French Revolution. Tragedy is on every page, as his family members and acquaintances are sent to the guillotine, or when his sister and childhood companion dies. There is a sombre beauty in the manner in which he dualizes some events of the past, showing them as they appeared to him at the time but equipped with future knowledge. The smile of Marie-Antoinette is paired with the memory of him identifying her jaw-bone in a mass grave.
The memoir stands as a witness to history and a witness to a dying world and it catches a glimpse of what new order is to come. It is also a portrait of personal tragedy, of the melancholy of one man and his attempts to grasp life at its core. The writing is hauntingly beautiful at times, with Romantic renderings of nature and a tender understanding of the human soul.
August 27, 2015
For an understanding of the romantic temperament that shaped so much mid-19th century European literature, art and music, Chateaubriand's "Memoirs from beyond the Tomb" is a good place to start. The title itself envisions a writer, now nothing more than dust, speaking from beyond the grave--a reminder to us, I suppose, of where we will soon enough be (in case we need a reminder!). A common enough perspective, I suppose, but the living author who has become a dead author, in this case Chateaubriand, repeatedly contemplates his future death as preferable to his melancholy, unhappy life. In his construction of things, despite all the good moments--he loved food, took as a lover Madame Récamier, a woman of stunning beauty (see the Francois Gerard portrait), spent time in positions of political importance in London and Rome, traveled to the United States where he claims to have met George Washington, became famous as a writer during his lifetime, etc.--he insists his life was exceedingly bleak. No number of good moments, it seems compensates for the general melancholy of mortality, at least in the eyes of the genuine romantic. This all might seem quite passé, but it remains instructive for those of us who want to understand the past--for some of us not just the 19th century but an earlier time in our own lives when we might, alas, have cherished just such ideas. But this book is much more than just a monument to the Romantic Movement. Chateaubriand, born only twenty days after Napoleon and seeing himself as somehow linked to the complex conqueror, writes of the march to Moscow and back, as well as many other Napoleonic adventures, with great shrewdness and real ambivalence. His account becomes a rich history of his own age; a history told from the perspective of a royalist with, I am sure he would insist, genuine democratic tendencies. A rewarding, important, and at times beautifully written book.
June 14, 2020
Chateaubriand's Memoirs are nothing short of sublime. Oh, what a life. Who would say that the fatherly figure of French Romanticism had also been, besides an acclaimed writer, a child full of hopes and expectations; a charismatic soldier with a very vivid military career on the wrong side of history; a cool-headed politician loyal to the crown; a forcefully exiled traveler (and probably a food enthusiast as well, isn't there a steak dish bearing his name?), all of this during what was arguably one of the most interesting time periods of French history. This man lived through the great late 18th century revolution, through the rise to power and downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte, through the uncertainties of the July revolution of 1830. He also met George Washington, hunted with Native Americans, worked as a French ambassador in England, among many other equally fascinanting adventures. Yes, as you can deduce, Chateaubriand led a life filled with excitement. His incredibly poetic autobiography, where the thoughts of Chateaubriand the youthful character freely mingle with those of Chateaubriand the aged memoirist, is an ageless testament to his years on Earth.
By the end of book ten, the author questions the validity of his genius:
Is it even certain that I have real talent: a talent worth all the sacrifices of my life? Will I survive my tomb? And if I do live beyond the grave, given the transformations that are now taking place, in a world changed and occupied by entirely different things, will there be a public to hear me? Will I not be a man of another time, unintelligible to the new generations? Will my ideas, my feelings, my very style not seem boring and old-fashioned to a sneering posterity? Will my shade be able to say, as Virgil's did to Dante: Poeta fui e cantai?
If only in death I could console you, dearest friend.
By the end of book ten, the author questions the validity of his genius:
Is it even certain that I have real talent: a talent worth all the sacrifices of my life? Will I survive my tomb? And if I do live beyond the grave, given the transformations that are now taking place, in a world changed and occupied by entirely different things, will there be a public to hear me? Will I not be a man of another time, unintelligible to the new generations? Will my ideas, my feelings, my very style not seem boring and old-fashioned to a sneering posterity? Will my shade be able to say, as Virgil's did to Dante: Poeta fui e cantai?
If only in death I could console you, dearest friend.
August 24, 2017
simply loved this. One of those books that you internalise and stays with you. His childhood! His forbidding father pacing the room from the fire to the end plunged in darkness, in silence! Those encounters with Napoleon. That occasion when the Napoleonic army crosses the river into Russia and he hears music, like in Antony and Cleopatra, the god of war whom he loved now leaving him. Heaven.
Want to read
June 22, 2018Whoops, turns out I don’t know French. But someday I might. I’m keeping this little book around for that day.
December 31, 2018
One of the all time great autobiographical memoirs. Up there with Samuel Pepys. This is just the first volume in an excellent new translations. One of my most enjoyable reads in years.
November 19, 2021
This is one of the more remarkable books I have read in many a year!
The author was born into royalty towards the end of the 18th century, witnessed firsthand the outbreak and evolution of the French Revolution in 1789, traveled to the very young United States in the early 1790s where he had several adventures with French trappers and Native peoples, returned to Europe to fight in the losing Royalist cause, and then -- following the Restoration of the monarchy in
1815 after Napoleon's final defeat and the imposition of a peace by the Congress of Vienna that lasted until the outbreak of the First World War in the early 20th century -- becoming an ambassador for the new monarchy in the 1820s.
There is NOTHING dry about this book.
Chateaubriand is a true poet in his use of language: one reading his words will hear, smell, and see what he experienced, from the terrors of the Revolution to the incredible wooded beauty of the very young United States.
Beautiful and touching incidents abound. To give but one example: he has a charming story about a warm afternoon when he fell asleep under a tree by a murmuring brook with and Native young woman on either side of him. (He had come across their camp of mixed French trappers and Native families that very day.) When he awoke, each of the two young women had also fallen asleep with their heads on his shoulders! He evokes the calm contentment of that moment so well that one can envision sitting nearby with them!
But he is also intensely introspective and often harsh about his own motivations as well as the choices made and not made.
Reading him is an adventure through time and to spaces that in fact no longer exist, a reminder that beautiful, insightful people have always lived among us, as well as the fact that brutes and idiots have, too.
An unusual read, but one worth your time (especially if you have an ounce of historical curiosity and/or romantic nature).
The author was born into royalty towards the end of the 18th century, witnessed firsthand the outbreak and evolution of the French Revolution in 1789, traveled to the very young United States in the early 1790s where he had several adventures with French trappers and Native peoples, returned to Europe to fight in the losing Royalist cause, and then -- following the Restoration of the monarchy in
1815 after Napoleon's final defeat and the imposition of a peace by the Congress of Vienna that lasted until the outbreak of the First World War in the early 20th century -- becoming an ambassador for the new monarchy in the 1820s.
There is NOTHING dry about this book.
Chateaubriand is a true poet in his use of language: one reading his words will hear, smell, and see what he experienced, from the terrors of the Revolution to the incredible wooded beauty of the very young United States.
Beautiful and touching incidents abound. To give but one example: he has a charming story about a warm afternoon when he fell asleep under a tree by a murmuring brook with and Native young woman on either side of him. (He had come across their camp of mixed French trappers and Native families that very day.) When he awoke, each of the two young women had also fallen asleep with their heads on his shoulders! He evokes the calm contentment of that moment so well that one can envision sitting nearby with them!
But he is also intensely introspective and often harsh about his own motivations as well as the choices made and not made.
Reading him is an adventure through time and to spaces that in fact no longer exist, a reminder that beautiful, insightful people have always lived among us, as well as the fact that brutes and idiots have, too.
An unusual read, but one worth your time (especially if you have an ounce of historical curiosity and/or romantic nature).
September 15, 2022
Sometimes you almost wish the old viscount would let the stream of pulchritudinous aphorisms relent so that a dull fragment or two could wait before us, maybe let us catch our breath while resisting the urge to frantically turn around and re-read the preceding pages with that vague but ardent hope of pressing them to memory. He has the voice of a Romantic master, a proto-Proust, proto-Gautier. The best autobiography ever written in French, to be sure. Ten lifetimes worth of life jammed into one spiralling, crescendoing narrative. The rich soil of French existentialism was fertilized by the corpora of Villon, Rimbaud, and this Chateaubriand
Read
June 2, 2020Has anyone read Penguin edition, Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb, which includes selections from across C's complete memoirs. I'm trying to decide where to start, and if NYRB edition has "must-read" passages omitted in Penguin ed.? (sure, I could get both, but book budget is constrained these days, alas ....)
November 28, 2019
In realtà non è questa l'edizione che ho trovato in biblioteca, ma su Goodreads è troppo lungo far passare l'elenco di tutte le edizioni in tutte le lingue del mondo (preferivo Anobii in questo: se volevi vedere le edizioni in una lingua, te le estraeva).
La mia è una selezione dei passi tradotti e valutati più interessanti da Vitaliano Brancati, ed essendo del 1942-45 circa soffre di una certa polverosità.
Prima o poi, sono certa, mi capiterà in mano qualcosa di più recente, magari addirittura un'edizione integrale in francese, ma ora come ora - considerando che Brancati si vanta di aver sfrondato le memorie del loro lato più autocelebrativo, lagnoso e narcisista lasciando solo le parti più descrittive di personaggi e caratteri, mi posso accontentare di questo assaggio.
Autocelebrativo, alla sua maniera, Chateaubriand lo è di sicuro: e tuttavia lo si sente sincero quando sabota la sua carriera perché troppo pigro, introverso, timido e orgoglioso di fronte ai potenti; per cui non stupisce neanche un po' che rifiuti una carica diplomatica importante offerta da Napoleone perché gli fa orrore che questi abbia appena fatto assassinare il duca di Enghien, e che dopo la caduta dell'imperatore ne rivaluti lo spessore politico e quasi anche umano, confrontato con certe miserie e limiti oggettivi di Luigi XVIII e della Restaurazione in genere, il tutto rimanendo sempre legittimista e realista.
Ma incantano, divertono, fanno sorridere le sue frasi sorvegliate, cesellate con amore di fabbro più che di scrittore, i suoi ritratti fulminanti di regine, nobili, papi, e soprattutto quell'atmosfera da dopo il diluvio che è proprio il sapore unico di questo libro: il libro di un Noè privilegiato che, nobile di provincia, per caso, per calcolo e per poca ambizione scampa alla ghigliottina e vede tutto intorno a lui crollare, persone vive fino a ieri decapitate domani.
Torna dagli Usa nel 1789, vede i giacobini, i girondini, Mirabeau, la convenzione, Varenne, il Direttorio, il Consolato, l'Impero, tutte le guerre intraprese o subite dalla Francia; e poi la caduta del semidio, il ritorno di Talleyrand e compagni, i Cento Giorni, il congresso di Vienna...
Un uomo di straordinaria lucidità: che capisce le ragioni spirituali e spesso anche politiche (quelle economiche mai) della rivoluzione; un provinciale che vorrebbe rimanere ancorato alle sue idee, che sono quelle dell'ancien régime ma in realtà assistendo ai cambiamenti del popolo, della borghesia, della nobilità nelle loro varie componenti, passando da benestante a povero in canna, tornando in auge, e poi in disgrazia un altro paio di volte, non senza qualche successo letterario prima e diplomatico poi, non può fare a meno di cambiare anche lui, di disgustarsi della Reazione senza per questo convincersi mai della bontà della democrazia, che non gli era dispiaciuta in America ma non trovava adatta al suo Paese.
La mia è una selezione dei passi tradotti e valutati più interessanti da Vitaliano Brancati, ed essendo del 1942-45 circa soffre di una certa polverosità.
Prima o poi, sono certa, mi capiterà in mano qualcosa di più recente, magari addirittura un'edizione integrale in francese, ma ora come ora - considerando che Brancati si vanta di aver sfrondato le memorie del loro lato più autocelebrativo, lagnoso e narcisista lasciando solo le parti più descrittive di personaggi e caratteri, mi posso accontentare di questo assaggio.
Autocelebrativo, alla sua maniera, Chateaubriand lo è di sicuro: e tuttavia lo si sente sincero quando sabota la sua carriera perché troppo pigro, introverso, timido e orgoglioso di fronte ai potenti; per cui non stupisce neanche un po' che rifiuti una carica diplomatica importante offerta da Napoleone perché gli fa orrore che questi abbia appena fatto assassinare il duca di Enghien, e che dopo la caduta dell'imperatore ne rivaluti lo spessore politico e quasi anche umano, confrontato con certe miserie e limiti oggettivi di Luigi XVIII e della Restaurazione in genere, il tutto rimanendo sempre legittimista e realista.
Ma incantano, divertono, fanno sorridere le sue frasi sorvegliate, cesellate con amore di fabbro più che di scrittore, i suoi ritratti fulminanti di regine, nobili, papi, e soprattutto quell'atmosfera da dopo il diluvio che è proprio il sapore unico di questo libro: il libro di un Noè privilegiato che, nobile di provincia, per caso, per calcolo e per poca ambizione scampa alla ghigliottina e vede tutto intorno a lui crollare, persone vive fino a ieri decapitate domani.
Torna dagli Usa nel 1789, vede i giacobini, i girondini, Mirabeau, la convenzione, Varenne, il Direttorio, il Consolato, l'Impero, tutte le guerre intraprese o subite dalla Francia; e poi la caduta del semidio, il ritorno di Talleyrand e compagni, i Cento Giorni, il congresso di Vienna...
Un uomo di straordinaria lucidità: che capisce le ragioni spirituali e spesso anche politiche (quelle economiche mai) della rivoluzione; un provinciale che vorrebbe rimanere ancorato alle sue idee, che sono quelle dell'ancien régime ma in realtà assistendo ai cambiamenti del popolo, della borghesia, della nobilità nelle loro varie componenti, passando da benestante a povero in canna, tornando in auge, e poi in disgrazia un altro paio di volte, non senza qualche successo letterario prima e diplomatico poi, non può fare a meno di cambiare anche lui, di disgustarsi della Reazione senza per questo convincersi mai della bontà della democrazia, che non gli era dispiaciuta in America ma non trovava adatta al suo Paese.
January 18, 2018
J'avais choisi de découvrir ce monument de la littérature française en version abrégée, parce que l’œuvre m'intimidait beaucoup (et je ne dois pas être la seule ^^).
Mais au final je me suis fait avoir, car ce que j'ai lu m'a tellement plu que je n'ai qu'une envie : m'attaquer à la version intégrale !!!
Ne passez pas à côté de ce chef d’œuvre, quitte à tremper vos pieds dans le petit bain pour commencer, grâce à cette très bonne édition abrégée...
Mais au final je me suis fait avoir, car ce que j'ai lu m'a tellement plu que je n'ai qu'une envie : m'attaquer à la version intégrale !!!
Ne passez pas à côté de ce chef d’œuvre, quitte à tremper vos pieds dans le petit bain pour commencer, grâce à cette très bonne édition abrégée...
June 18, 2024
Life, without the misfortunes that give it weight, is nothing but a baby’s rattle.
January 7, 2019
Memórias de vida do grande autor e político francês René dê Chateaubriand. Homem de gênio que viveu um dos períodos mais conturbados e decisivos da história humana entre a Revolução Francesa, a ascensão de Napoleão e o período das restaurações monárquicas.
O que mais me aproximou do autor foram as suas descrições do belo, de seus amores platônicos, sua apreciação crítica sobre as certas imposturas e intolerâncias dos radicais da Revolução Francesa, bem como suas previsões muito certas sobre o futuro (perigos da pasteurização das civilizações feita pela globalização por exemplo). Livro que narra grandes fatos, sem ser datado, pois fala sobre temas intrínsecos à natureza humana.
O que mais me aproximou do autor foram as suas descrições do belo, de seus amores platônicos, sua apreciação crítica sobre as certas imposturas e intolerâncias dos radicais da Revolução Francesa, bem como suas previsões muito certas sobre o futuro (perigos da pasteurização das civilizações feita pela globalização por exemplo). Livro que narra grandes fatos, sem ser datado, pois fala sobre temas intrínsecos à natureza humana.
July 23, 2021
An absorbing memoir of a man who led a most intriguing life. Moving from his early childhood through the various phases of his life, this autobiography reveals many of his personal characteristics and aspirations during a very interesting period of French history.
November 30, 2022
Such a great book!!
October 17, 2024
Imprescindible. Tremendo texto, abre muchas puertas y ventanas al ser y a la mente.
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