Châteaubriand, Fran

ÇOIS AUGUSTE, VICOMTE DE, a celebrated French statesman, poet, and historian, B. at St. Malo, 1768. He was in youth intended for the navy, but evincing a disinclination for the profe ion of arms, he, in 1791, set out for America, inspired with the idea of discovering the N.W. pa age. Becoming acquainted with Gen. Washington, the latter di uaded him from his project; and the outbreak of the French Revolution happening at the same time, induced C. to return to France. During the Reign of Terror he escaped to London, where he employed himself in a scholastic capacity, and occasionally lived in great poverty. In 1798 appeared his great work, Génie du Christian is me, which produced a profound effect upon the world at large. In 1800 he returned to France, and advanced his literary fame still further by the production of the fine poems Atala and Réné. In 1803 he was appointed French minister to Switzerland, and in 1806 made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Afterwards, having succe ively represented his country at Berlin and London, C. was sent to the Congre of Verona, and subsequently amba ador to Rome. On the acce ion of Louis Philippe, C. refused to take the oath of allegiance, resigned even his pension as a peer, and occupied himself thenceforth with literary labors. These were now nece ary for his support, his whole property having been spent. Most of his writings during this period of declining age, such as his Sketches of English Literature, are of small value. His chief employment was the composition or completion of his voluminous Memoirs from beyond the Tomb (Mémoires d'Outre Tombe); and the right of publishing them after his death was sold by him for a large life annuity. They exhibit an amount of vanity and egotism almost unparalleled; but are full of interesting details, and have Fig. 574. - тоMB OF CHATEAUBRIAND, (near St. Malo.) very much of his peculiar kind of eloquence. C. died at Paris in the summer of 1848, when he had almost completed his eightieth year. He rests in the tomb carved for him, according to his wishes, some ten years previously, on a romantic rock near St. Malo, twice a day encircled by the sea. (See Fig. 574.) C. and Victor Hugo are unquestionably the two greatest figures in the French literature of the 19th century; and, as in genius, so they seemed to be rivals in childish vanity - the one with his tomb carved, while living, on the summit of the desert rock of St. Malo; the other, a voluntary exile, liv Jersey-two pedestals! Besides the above-mentioned works, C. is the author of Natchez ; Historical Studies, or Fall of the Roman Empire ; The Congre of Verona; A translation of Paradise Lost in blank verse; Itin erary.from Paris to Jerusalem ; The Murtyrs; Travels in America , .