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XII.—Chateaubriand's America
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
One or two generations ago, when every novel was in two volumes and serious works filled a shelf or so, our fathers or grandfathers may have read Chateaubriand. To-day the Americans who read French works usually confine themselves to writers earlier or later than he. Yet Chateaubriand was the first European author to make America the scene, and the Indian the subject of his romances. Moreover, he claims to have seen a large part of the territory east of the Mississippi; he asserts that he lived in the huts of the savages; and he describes the aborigines, flora, and fauna of the country from Niagara to Natchez.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1907
References
page 345 note 1 The following works of Chateaubriand have been examined in connection with this article: Atala, René, Les Natchez (Ouvres complètes de Chateaubriand, Paris, 1859–1862, Furne, Jouvet et Cie, vol. v: Romans et Poésies diverses); Voyage en Amérique (Ouvres, vol. ix: Voyages et Mélanges littéraires); Mémoires d'Outre-tombe (Paris, 6 vols., LeGrand, Troussel et Pomey).
page 345 note 2 Preface to first edition of Atala.
page 345 note 3 P. 534.
page 345 note 1 December, 1827, p. 460.
page 345 note 2 Études critiques, Paris, 1903, pp. 127–294.
page 345 note 3 François Xavier de Charlevoix, Histoire et Déscription générale de la Nouvelle-France, Paris, 1774; Wm. Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida and the Cherokee Country, Philadelphia, 1791, London, 1792, etc.; Jonathan Carver, Travels to the Interior Parts of North America, London, 1778; Le Page du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, Paris, 1758; J. E. Bonnet, Les États-Unis d'Amérique à la fin du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1795.
page 345 note 4 Chateaubriand et l'Amérique, Grenoble, 1905.
page 345 note 1 Revue d'Histoire littéraire, 1906, pp. 228–245.
page 345 note 2 J. C. Beltrami, La Découverte des Sources du Mississippi, New Orleans, 1824; Sir Alexander MacKenzie, History of the Fur Trade, London, 1801.
page 345 note 3 The Voyage was published in 1827.
page 345 note 4 He inherited the title of viscount a short time later on the death of his elder brother, who was executed during the French Revolution.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, vol. i, p. 388.
page 345 note 2 Pp. 19–20. The author of this life, which was written in France, is. not given. I am indebted for this extract to the Reverend A. Boyer.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, i, p. 357.
page 345 note 2 Mémoires, i, p. 370; Voyage, p. 48.
page 345 note 3 Mémoires, i, p. 370; Voyage, p. 48. The Baltimore newspapers of 1791, beyond noting the arrival of the Saint-Pierre, have no record touching the presence of Chateaubriand in the city.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, i, p. 375.
page 345 note 2 Mémoires, i, p. 375; Voyage, p. 48.
page 345 note 3 Mémoires, i, p. 375; Voyage, p. 49.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, i, p. 377; Voyage, p. 50.
page 345 note 2 P. 50.
page 345 note 3 i, p. 377.
page 345 note 4 He entered the American army as a colonel but was afterward made brigadier-general.
page 345 note 1 Department of Manuscripts: Letters to Washington, vol. 76 (1790), p. 210. This is the last of a number of letters from the Marquis preserved among Washington's papers, where it was found in April, 1905. Thanks are due Mr. Worthington Ford, of the Library of Congress, for his kind help in locating it.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, i, p. 378.
page 345 note 2 Mémoires, i, p. 390.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, i, p. 388.
page 345 note 2 Mémoires, i, p. 392; Voyage, p. 55.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, i, p. 394.
page 345 note 1 Mr. Stathers is in error when he comments that the hunter's horn is not used in the United States. It was and is still used for calling the pack in Maryland and Virginia.
page 345 note 2 Mémoires, i, p. 397.
page 345 note 3 i, p. 394.
page 345 note 4 P. 56.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, i, p. 400.
page 345 note 2 On the communal system prevailing among the Indians, see Fisk, The Discovery of America, vol. i, pp. 61–78.
page 345 note 3 Beltrami gives an account of a visit to the chief of the Onandagas; see Dick, l. c., p. 240.
page 345 note 4 P. 60.
page 345 note 5 i, p. 403.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, i, p. 415. Mention of this custom may be found in Charlevoix.
page 345 note 2 Voyage, p. 65.
page 345 note 1 Voyage, p. 67.
page 345 note 2 Mémoires, i, p. 433.
page 345 note 3 Voyage, p. 67.
page 345 note 4 Unpublished material in the Bibliothèque Nationale; see Bédier, p. 151.
page 345 note 5 P. 77.
page 345 note 1 P. 88.
page 345 note 2 i, p. 436.
page 345 note 3 P. 89.
page 345 note 1 Mr. Bédier does not think this task so difficult.
page 345 note 2 i, p. 437.
page 345 note 3 Mr. Stathers is evidently unfamiliar with the small tree or shrub called pawpaw in Maryland and Virginia. See Stathers, l. c., p. 111, note.
page 345 note 1 The Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles belonged to the Muskhogean family.
page 345 note 2 Mémoires, i, p. 441.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, i, pp. 441–449.
page 345 note 2 i, p. 450.
page 345 note 3 i, p. 436.
page 345 note 1 See Kercheval's History of the Valley, and Macauley's History of Roanoke County.
page 345 note 2 Mémoires, i, p. 445.
page 345 note 1 Mémoires, i, p. 475.
page 345 note 2 No one has called this date into question, but we have only Chateaubriand's unsupported statement that his return-sailing was even this late.
page 345 note 3 Mémoires, i, p. 476.
page 345 note 4 L. c., p. 136.
page 345 note 5 Voyage, p. 199.
page 345 note 6 P. 519.
page 345 note 1 Les Natchez, p. 322.
page 345 note 2 Les Natchez, p. 345.
page 345 note 3 P. 279.
page 345 note 1 Atala, p. 69.
page 345 note 2 Les Natchez, p. 430.
page 345 note 3 Les Natchez, p. 394.
page 345 note 4 Les Natchez, p. 162.
page 345 note 5 Les Natchez, p. 356.
page 345 note 6 Les Natchez, p. 420.
page 345 note 1 Pioneers of France in the New World, p. 399.
page 345 note 2 Les Natchez, p. 164.
page 345 note 3 Les Natchez, p. 192.
page 345 note 4 Mémoires, i, p. 458.
page 345 note 5 P. 207.
page 345 note 6 i, p. 421.
page 345 note 1 Atala, pp. 20, 21, 109; Les Natchez, p. 423; Voyage, p. 81, etc.
page 345 note 2 Voyage, p. 151.
page 345 note 3 P. 107; Carver had already introduced the former. Mr. Bédier sought long and eagerly for the two-headed snake and at last discovered him in Bonnet; see Bédier, l. c., p. 226.
page 345 note 1 L. c., p. 136.
page 345 note 2 Atala, p. 30; Les Natchez, p. 421; Mémoires, i, p. 455, etc.
page 345 note 3 Voyage, p. 92; Atala, p. 38, etc.
page 345 note 4 Les Natchez, p. 430.
page 345 note 5 Les Natchez, p. 282.
page 345 note 6 Mémoires, i, p. 455.
page 345 note 7 Les Natchez, p. 162.
page 345 note 8 Voyage, p. 88.