"René" is a short novella by François-René de Chateaubriand, which first appeared in 1802. The work had an immense impact on early Romanticism, dealing with a sensitive and passionate young man who finds himself at odds with contemporary society.
René, a desperately unhappy young Frenchman, seeks refuge among the Natchez people of Louisiana. He tells of his lonely childhood in his father's castle in Brittany. His mother died giving birth to him and since his father is a remote, forbidding figure, René takes refuge in an intense friendship with his sister Amélie and in long, solitary walks in the countryside around the castle. When his father dies, he travels the world where he finds no beauty, only melancholy reflections. His sister enters a convent after divulging incestuous feeling for René, after which René dies in a battle between the Natchez and the French.
ISBN 978-1-58977-076-8
Molière & Co. #16