Natchez, Les

Natchez, Les,
romance by Chateaubriand, included in the manuscript containing Atala and René, written 1797–1800 but lost and not published until 1826.

A poetic novel, concerning an older and more despairing René, who, following the massacre of the French colony of the Natchez (1727), is adopted by the Indians and weds one of them. His wife Celuta is torn between love and duty when she thinks he has betrayed the tribe. When the true traitor, Ondouré, is discovered, the tale ends in a catastrophe of violence, suicide, and murder.