René

novel by Chateaubriand

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Article History

René, novel by François-Auguste-René Chateaubriand, published in French as René, ou les effets de la passion in 1805 with a revised edition of Atala (1801). It tells the story of a sister who enters a convent rather than surrender to her passion for her brother. In this thinly veiled autobiographical work, Chateaubriand began the Romantic vogue for world-weary, melancholy heroes suffering from vague, unsatisfied yearnings in what has since been called the mal du siècle (“the malady of the age”).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.