François-René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'outre-tombe [Memoirs from Beyond the Grave]

Ian Morrison (Independent Scholar - Europe)

Ed. by David Evans, University of St Andrews
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1849 - 1850

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)

Resources

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Chateaubriand’s

Mémoires d’outre-tombe

[Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb]*, sometimes said to be his best work, are a miscellany of memoirs and other material in 42 Books totalling over 2,400 pages in one modern edition. Though dauntingly complex at first sight, the text is in practice simpler than it appears. Chateaubriand composed and revised it intermittently from an uncertain date (1809?) until final revision in 1846. Composition and revisions were interspersed with pauses, often for travel, other writing, or politics. By 1817, he had completed three Books

on his origins and youth. Initially united under the title

Mémoires de ma vie

[Memoirs of my Life], they were later recast as the first three Books of the

Mémoires d’outre-tombe,

and here we consider them only in this latter…

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3127 words

Citation: Morrison, Ian. "Mémoires d'outre-tombe". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 June 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11160, accessed 27 July 2024.]

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