BIOGRAPHIES

Gladwyn, Cynthia. “Madame Recamier: A Romantic French Salon.” In Affairs of the Mind: The Salon in Europe and America from the 18th to the 20th Century, edited by Peter Quennell, pp. 57-88. Washington, D.C.: New Republic Books, 1980.

Provides an examination of Chateaubriand's involvement with Juliette Recamier, both personally and professionally, and with her literary salon.

Moore, Fabienne. “Chateaubriand's Alter Egos: Napoleon, Madame de Staël and the ‘Indian Savage.’” European Romantic Review 9, no. 2 (spring 1998): 187-200.

Explores the ambivalent relationship between Chateaubriand and de Staël. Focuses on their reputations, their different aesthetics and religious beliefs, and their similar attitudes toward Napoleon.

Niess, Robert J. “Three French Travelers to the Middle East.” American Society Legion of Honor Magazine 45, no. 1 (1974): 9-28.

Relates the travels of Chateaubriand, Lamartine, and Flaubert to the Middle East. Speculates on travel motives and emphasizes the written works that emerged from these travels.

Redman, Jr., Harry. “An Unpublished Letter of Chateaubriand, Ambassador to Rome.” American Notes and Queries 17, no. 1 (September 1978): 4-8.

Provides background information and the complete text of a note Chateaubriand wrote to M. Denois while serving as the French ambassador to Rome.

———. “Chateaubriand and Washington, Chateaubriand and Napoleon: Some New Perspectives.” French Literature Series 8 (1981): 53-64.

Examines and offers a biographical perspective on Chateaubriand's shifting perceptions of Washington and Napoleon that are reflected in his writings on America, memoir, and letters.

CRITICISM

Aubert, Jacques. “From History to Memories: Joyce's Chateaubriand as Celtic Palampcestor.” In Joyce Studies Annual 1991, edited by Thomas F. Staley, pp. 177-200. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.

Discusses, in part, the influence that Chateaubriand's life and especially writings had on James Joyce. Concentrates on the theme of exile and the use of memoir as history.

Aynesworth, Donald. “Autobiography and Anonymity.” The French Review 52, no. 3 (February 1978): 401-9.

Examines Memoirs through Les Natchez to consider how Chateaubriand constructs himself as a solitary and self-alienated figure.

Bede, Jean-Albert. “Chateaubriand: Or, the Love of Genius and the Genius of Love.” American Society Legion of Honor Magazine 33, no. 3 (1962): 141-58.

Examines the concept of love for Chateaubriand personally and artistically, but focuses on the concept's manifestations in Chateaubriand's works rather than for the purposes of sensationalized biography.

Betz, Dorothy M. “Chateaubriand's Itinéraire and the Profits of Tourism.” Romance Notes 34, no. 1 (fall 1993): 13-21.

Asserts Chateaubriand's travel writings reveal his interest in the past and provide subjective experiences that help articulate his idealized visions of these lands and of history.

Bishop, Lloyd. The Romantic Hero and his Heirs in French Literature. New York: Peter Lang, 1984, 287 p.

Defines and examines the romantic hero in nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature. The second chapter considers René as a prototype from which subsequent heroic models develop.

Bouvier, Luke. “Death and the Scene of Inception: Autobiographical Impropriety and the Birth of Romanticism in Chateaubriand's Mémoires d'outre‐tombe.” French Forum 23, no. 1 (January 1998): 23-46.

Analyzes death as a major element in Chateaubriand's memoir. Claims death is both necessary and disruptive for autobiography, and that this paradox becomes Chateaubriand's central concern.

Call, Michael J. “Chateaubriand, Arboriste: Time, Text, and Trees.” Romance Notes 37, no. 3 (spring 1997): 311-8.

Examines the relationship between Memoirs, Chateaubriand's gardening interests, and his withdrawal from Napoleonic France as overlapping attempts to control and recreate the past.

Cancongi, Annapaola. “‘My Sister, Do You Still Recall?’: Chateaubriand/Nabokov.” Comparative Literature 35, no. 2 (spring 1983): 140-66.

Explores the intertextual use of Chateaubriand in Vladimir Nabokov's Ada, and focuses on the relationship between that novel's hero, Van Veen, and his sister.

Clayton, Vista. “A Contemporary Source for the Description of Heaven in Les Martyrs.” Romantic Review 25, no. 2 (April-June 1934): 136-40.

Contends Chateaubriand's description of heaven in part draws from “D'un monde heareux, songe,” an essay by Chateaubriand's contemporary, Louis Sébastian Mercier.

Delaney, Susan J. “Atala in the Arts.” In The Wolf and the Lamb: Popular Culture in France from the Old Regime to the Twentieth Century, edited by Jacques Beauroy, Marc Bertrand, and Edward T. Gargan, pp. 209-31. Sacramento, Calif.: ANMA Libri, 1977.

Examines Atala's presence in the arts and popular culture. Discusses specific works using three broad themes: Christian martyrdom; the Nobel Savage and exotic America; and eroticism.

Fairlie, Alison. “Framework as a Suggestive Art in Constant's Adolphe (with Remarks on Its Relation to Chateaubriand's René).” Australian Journal of French Studies 16, no. 1-2 (January-April) 1979: 6-16.

Presents evidence from Constant's letters to establish Chateaubriand's influence over the framing device and narrator of Constant's work.

Fey, John. “Irving, Chateaubriand, and the Historical Romance of Granada.” In The Old and New World Romanticism of Washington Irving, edited by Stanley Brodwin, pp. 91-104. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986.

Analyzes the presence of Spanish motifs in The Adventures of the Last Abencer-raje and of Granada in Itinerary.

Gans, Eric. “Maistre and Chateaubriand: Counter-Revolution and Anthropology.” Studies in Romanticism 38, no. 4 (winter 1989): 559-75.

Asserts Chateaubriand and Joseph de Maistre were shaped by the French Revolution and were innovators in early anthropological writing.

Grimsley, Ronald. “Romantic Melancholy in Chateaubriand and Kierkegaard.” Comparative Literature 8, no. 3 (summary 1956): 227-44.

Compares the role of romantic melancholy as an aesthetic position in Chateaubriand's Atala and René with that of Kierkegaard's Either/Or.

Hamilton, James F. “The Anxious Hero in Chateaubriand's René.” Romance Quarterly 34, no. 4 (November 1987): 415-24.

Claims René offers a figure of alienation that addresses the Romantic question about human existence by examining Chateaubriand's work through a psychological and philosophical stance.

———. “The Ideology of Exoticism in Chateaubriand's Atala, an Eighteenth-Century Perspective. French Literature Series 13 (1986): 28-37.

Considers the exoticism in Chateaubriand's work as evidence of both his aesthetic decisions and his subtle argument for Christianity, one that invites the reader's own spiritual reexamination.

———. “Ritual Passage in Chateaubriand's Atala.” Nineteenth-Century French Studies 15, no. 4 (summer 1987): 385-93.

Focuses on the central action of Atala, the flight of the Indian lovers, as a mythic rite of passage.

———. “Connecting Atala and René: The Senex and Puer Archetypes.” Romance Quarterly 48, no. 4 (fall 2001): 239-49.

Looks at the relationship between Chateaubriand's protagonists, René and Chactas, as archetypal opposites.

Hart, Charles Randall. Chateaubriand and Homer. Baltimore, M.D.: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1928, 166 p.

Examines the influence of Homer, as well as Greece and other Greek writers, on Chateaubriand, with chapters dedicated to some of Chateaubriand's major writings.

Hout, Syrine C. “Secularism, Satire, and Scapegoatism in Chateaubriand's Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem.” In Christian Encounters with the Other, edited by John C. Hawley, pp. 90-102. New York: New York University Press, 1998.

Argues that Chateaubriand's work is a subtle satire that targets French and European culture by contrasting the Self and the Other.

Irlam, Shaun. “Gerrymandered Geographies: Exoticism in Thomson and Chateaubriand.” MLN 108, no. 5 (December 1993): 891-912.

Considers geographical descriptions by Chateaubriand and James Thomson as indicative of images of nationhood and imperialism.

Jackson, Robert Louis. “Chateaubriand and Dostoevsky: A Posing of the Problem.” Scando-Slavica 12 (1966): 28-37.

Asserts Chateaubriand's The Genius of Christianity influenced Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and its religious-philosophical outlook.

Kadish, Doris Y. “Symbolism of Exile: The Opening Description in Atala.” French Review: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of French 55, no. 3 (February 1982): 358-66.

Closely considers the opening description of Atala and claims that it establishes the theme of exile which develops in the narrative.

Knight, Diana. “The Readability of René's Secret.” French Studies: A Quarterly Review 37, no. 1 (January 1983): 35-46.

Argues that the incestuous plot device in René contributes to the ambiguity of Chateaubriand's work.

McFarlan, I. D. “A Note on the Presence of Montaigne in the Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe.” In Balzac and the Nineteenth Century: Studies in French Literature presented to Herbert J. Hunt by Pupils, Colleagues, and Friends, edited by D. G. Charlton, J. Gaudon, and Anthony R. Pugh, pp. 225-37. Edinburgh: Leicester University Press, 1973.

Considers the references to and the influence of Montaigne in Chateaubriand's Memoirs.

Mein, Margaret. “Chateaubriand, a Precursor of Proust.” French Review: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of French 45, no. 2 (December 1971): 388-400.

Claims Proust was influenced by Chateaubriand, particularly by his Memoir and its presentation of history and memory.

Mercken-Spaas, Godelieve. “Death and the Romantic Heroine: Chateaubriand and De Staël.” In Pre-Text/Text/Context: Essays on Nineteenth-Century French Literature edited by Robert L. Mitchell, pp. 79-86. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1980.

Considers the narrative function of the death of female romantic characters in four works by Chateaubriand and Mme. De Staël. Concentrates on Chateaubriand's Atala and René.

Naylor, Louis Hastings. Chateaubriand and Virgil. Baltimore, M.D.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1930, 212 pp.

Examines the constant presence of Virgil in Chateaubriand's life and writings.

O'Neil, Mary Anne. “Phèdre: Model for Chateaubriand's Atala.” Romance Notes 28, no. 2 (winter 1987): 93-100.

Examines Atala along with The Genius of Christianity and Racine's Phèdre to emphasize Chateaubriand's interest in classicism.

Porter, Charles A. Chateaubriand: Composition, Imagination, and Poetry. Saratoga, Calif.: ANMA Libri, 1978, 145 pp.

Examines Chateaubriand's composition style and poetics.

Porter, Laurence M. “Chateaubriand's Revenge on History in the Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe.” Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures 35, no. 3 (fall 1981): 267-80.

Asserts Chateaubriand attempts to escape the evaluation of history, particularly his personal participation in history, through a writer’s ability to alter and recreate events.

Pratt, T. M. “Chateaubriand's Atala and Le Suire's America.” Nineteenth-Century French Studies 21, no. 1-2 (fall-winter 1993-94): 42-59.

Claims Robert-Martin Le Suire's work directly influenced Chateaubriand's writing, especially its descriptions and concepts of nature and humanity.

Riffarterre, Michael. “Virgil's Romantic Muse: Rewrites of a Classic in Chateaubriand and Hugo.” MLN 110, no. 5 (December 1995): 165-87.

Provides a semiotic analysis of Virgil's persona and literary influence in French Romantic writing. Uses Chateaubriand's Itinerary as a subject for this analysis.

Rollo, David. “The Phryné and the Muse: Onanism and Creativity in Chateaubriand's Mémoires d'Outre Tombe and René.” Nineteenth-Century French Studies 18, no. 1-2 (fall-winter 1989-90): 25-40.

Looks at the sexual symbolism in Chateaubriand's writing and its relationship to his depictions of childhood. Compares Memoirs and René.

Switzer, Richard. “Chateaubriand and the Welsh Indians.” Nineteenth-Century French Studies 3, no. 1-2 (fall-winter 1974-75): 6-17.

Considers Chateaubriand's interest in the Welsh Indian legend, demonstrated in his writings on America, as a possible explanation for the Ohio Indian mounds.

Wang, Ban. “Inscribed Wilderness in Chateaubriand's Atala.” Romance Notes 33, no. 3 (spring 1993): 279-87.

Analyzes Chateaubriand's attitude toward the Other in Atala. Develops his examination from a perspective informed by Edward Said's theory of Orientalism and Gilbert Chinard's definition of exoticism.

Weil, Kari. “Romantic Exile and the Melancholia of Identification.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 7, no. 2 (summer 1995): 111-26.

Compares Chateaubriand's René with Mme. De Duras' Ourika to consider how the theme of exile reflects issues of gender, race, and nationhood.

Williams, Timothy J. “The Chalice as a Key Symbol in the Death Scene of Atala.” Romance Notes 38, no. 1 (fall 1997): 37-43.

Offers a rereading of Atala that focuses on Christian symbolism. Claims this symbolism would have been obvious to Chateaubriand's contemporaries.

Additional coverage of Chateaubriand's life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 119; European Writers, Vol. 5; Guide to French Literature, 1789-present; Literature Resource Center; Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Vol. 3; Reference Guide to World Literature, Eds. 2, 3; Twayne’s World Authors.