Memoires d'Outre-Tombe

The masterpiece of Chateaubriand is the epitome of romanticism: describing his whole life from his birth to his grave (the book was supposed to be published after his death), he speaks of litterature, religion, politic, love, architecture, he embraces everything and lets nothing in dark. Of course he has peremptory opinions on everything, his studied humility hardly hides a tremendous pride, and many aspects of his toughts and opinions now seem out of date or prejudicied. But many things remain very interesting even now, from his general thoughts on the French revolution to his funny little anecdotes (for example, he met in the deepest forests of Canada a former ballet dancer from Versailles who now dedicated his life to politely teach court dances to the Hurons).And there's the style. The wonderful, shamelessly romantic style of the author, precise when needed, marvellously lyrical all the time, a style so impressive that the young Victor Hugo was to say : "I'll be Chateaubriand or nothing".Iritating at time, but always fascinating, one of the greatest books of the 19th century.