SOURCE: Call, Michael J. “René in the Garden.” In Back to the Garden: Chateaubriand, Senacour and Constant, pp. 15-56. Saratoga, Calif.: ANMA Libri & Co., 1988.

In the following excerpt, Call critiques Chateaubriand's depiction of the American wilderness via the myth of Eden, in René and Atala which represent America as a place for escape and isolation. Call further claims that Chateaubriand countered the expectations of paradisiacal settings as regenerative and portrayed René as a Cain figure.

The opening lines of René present the image of a young European nobleman living in the wilds of the New World. Upon his arrival there, he has been obligated to take an Indian wife, but the narrative informs us, “il ne vivait point avec elle.”¹ René, with his “penchant mélancolique,” spends entire days hidden away alone in the forest; he appears to be “sauvage parmi les sauvages.” He has sworn off any...