Memoirs from Beyond the Grave: 18151830

The third part of the epic autobiography of Chateaubriand, the aristocratic Frenchman who lived through the beginning of the French Revolution and who would become the founder of the Romantic movement in Europe, now in a new, unabridged English translation--the first in a century.

In 1815--with the Napoleonic era at an end and royalty restored--François-René de Chateaubriand seemed poised, along with the Bourbon family he’d long supported, to wield unprecedented power. Already one of France’s most celebrated writers, he now became an ambassador and statesman of the French kingdom. Yet as passionate about royalty as Chateaubriand was in principle, in reality he was a recalcitrant subject. A defender of the constitution and of freedom of the press, he quarreled constantly with Louis XVIII and Charles X and eventually tendered his resignation--just in time for the July Revolution, which put an end to Bourbon rule and allowed Chateaubriand to go back to praising the family, now safely exiled to the realm of the ideal.
In the third volume of Alex Andriesse’s new translation of Memoirs from Beyond the Grave, Chateaubriand writes about international politics, a papal conclave, and the revolutionary strife of 1830 with undiminished flair. And he remains one of the great masters--perhaps unequaled in this--of literary digression. Readers will gladly accompany him on walks around Paris and Rome, as he reflects on storms and ruins, moonlight and mortality.

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) was born in Saint-Malo, on the northern coast of Brittany, the youngest son of an aristocratic family. Long recognized as one of the first French Romantics, Chateaubriand was also a historian, diplomat, and staunch defender of the freedom of the press. He is best remembered for his posthumously published Memoirs from Beyond the Grave.

Alex Andriesse’s essays and poems have appeared in Granta, Review of Contemporary Fiction, and Literary Imagination. His translations include Roberto Bazlen’s Notes Without a Text and Other Writings and François-René de Chateaubriand’s Memoirs from Beyond the Grave: 1768-1800 and 1800-15, both of which are also available from NYRB Classics. He lives in the Netherlands.