Again and again, in this first volume of Memoirs from beyond the Grave , a character is introduced only for their death to be immediately announced. One might expect the writer of these words to be a gregarious fellow for ever denied company. Not at all. Of the ten children they produced, the first four died shortly after childbirth. Then came Jean-Baptiste, the ill-fated brother, followed by four daughters. The Chateaubriands of the previous generation had fallen into semi-poverty and he dedicated his life to restoring them to their former prestige, eventually making a fortune in the slave trade in the West Indies.
Throughout the Memoirs , waves, birds, trees and hills are all personified as companions, while the parts of nature, always adoringly described, are imagined keeping one another company. A procession of stars accompanies her. As she descends to the skyline of my native shore, her silence deepens and spreads over the sea; she sinks to the horizon, hovers upon it, and then, showing only half her face, drowses, bows her head, and disappears in the soft intumescence of the water.
Chateaubriand, in unhappy contrast, did retire alone. Eventually, torn between ideal imaginings and barren reality, he attempted to kill himself. But the gun in his mouth would not fire. It was time to begin a career. Overwhelmed by emotion on seeing the French fleet return home from battle, he decided to return home himself, where he was astonished to find his parents glad to see him. His mother now tried to push him towards the priesthood, but the boy feared he had no religious vocation; he would go to India and serve a foreign prince instead.
Shortly afterwards his father died. The Memoirs were written over four decades, with Chateaubriand making his last corrections in , aged Elsewhere he draws our attention to political events that are taking place while he writes.
Did you hear the Empire fall? To add to this mingling of past and present โ an old man speaking of a young, a rich man of a poor โ Chateaubriand frequently compares himself or his characters to historical figures or literary characters. He would go to America and discover the North-West Passage.
