![]() No attempt is made to create suspense with the many turns of fortune that befell his family: ‘My brother perished on the scaffold,’ we are told almost at once ‘my two sisters departed their painful lives after many years spent languishing in prison, and my two uncles didn’t leave enough to pay for the four planks of their coffins.’ But if such forewarnings draw our attention to the great political upheaval that would shape Chateaubriand’s life, this wry mannerism cannot be entirely attributed to the French Revolution. ‘President Le Pelletier de Rosambo, who later died with such courage, was, when I arrived in Paris, a model of frivolity.’ And again: ‘The Bishop of Dol was … a friend of my family and a prelate of quite moderate political views who, on his knees, crucifix in hand, was shot with his brother.’ Again and again, in this first volume of Memoirs from beyond the Grave, a character is introduced only for their death to be immediately announced. T he Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. ![]()
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