"Rene" seems to me very superior to
"Atala.'" Both the stories show a talent of the first rank, but of the
two the beauty of "Atala" is of the more transitory kind. The attempt to
render in the style of Versailles the loves of a Natchez and a Seminole,
and to describe the manners of the adorers of the Manitous in the tone
of Catholic sentiment, was an attempt too violent to succeed. But the
work is a _tour de force_ of style, and it was only by the polished
classicism of the form, that the romantic matter of the sentiments and
the descriptions could have been imported into the colorless literature
of the empire. "Atala" is already old-fashioned and theatrical in all
the parts which are not descriptive or European--that is to say,
throughout all the sentimental savagery.
"Rene" is infinitely more durable. Its theme, which is the malady of a
whole generation--distaste for life brought about by idle reverie and
the ravages of a vague and unmeasured ambition--is true to reality.
Without knowing or wishing it, Chateaubriand has been sincere, for Rene
is himself. This little sketch is in every respect a masterpiece. It is
not, like "Atala," spoilt artistically by intentions alien to the
subject, by being made the means of expression of a particular tendency.
Instead of taking a passion for Rene, indeed, future generations will
scorn and wonder at him; instead of a hero they will see in him a
pathological case; but the work itself, like the Sphinx, will endure.
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