Atala & René
| Title | Atala & René |
|---|---|
| Original title | Atala, ou Les Amours de deux sauvages dans le desert; |
| Author | François-René de Chateaubriand; a new transl. w. a foreword by Walter J. Cobb |
| Publication | New American Library |
| Size | 126p |
| Language |  ENG |
| ISBN | |
| Topics |
French fiction--Translated into English French fiction--19th century French fiction--18th century French fiction--Love French fiction--Travel Romanticism in literature French fiction--Short stories and novellas Books adapted into a film or play |
| Notes | ATALA -- Contrasting the cruelty and warfare of the Indians with the saintliness of the missionary, it is intended as a condemnation of the philosophes' praise of the "noble savage"; the author insisted that the Natchez Indian Chactas was "more than half civilised", and positive values are considered more or less synonymous with Christianity and Europeanisation. Nevertheless the decision to portray at least two Indians sympathetically irked later generations of readers whose attitudes had been shaped by "scientific racism", and even today it is often assumed by casual readers (who do not read the prefaces) that Chateaubriand was a promulgator rather than a denouncer of the "noble savage" concept. While the book's accuracy on the subject of the North American flora is a controversial matter, it seems to be agreed that Chateaubriand never saw much of the southern territories he describes, and his descriptions are based on naturalists' books. The story is told from the point of view of the 73-year-old hero, Chactas, whose story is preserved by an oral tradition among the Seminoles. RENE -- first appeared in 1802. The work had an immense impact on early Romanticism, comparable to that of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. Like the German novel, it deals with a sensitive and passionate young man who finds himself at odds with contemporary society. [wikipedia] |
823
CHAT 1
42511
Withdrawn
© Auroville Library |
2014-2025