Excerpt from Extraits De Chateaubriand: Les Aventures Du Dernier Abencerage; Passages Tires Du Voyage En Amerique; D'atala; Et Des Melanges LitterairesFrancois rene DE chateaubriand was born at Saint Malo, in Brittany, September 4, 1768. His childhood and part of his youth were spent in the ancestral manor of Combourg, between a morose and gloomy father and an affectionate but scolding mother. Left a great deal to himself, he indulged his dreamy and contempla tive nature, his sole diversion being the listening to the wonderful ghost-stories and knight-legends that the folklore of Brittany is so rich in. He found, however, a companion in his sister, the sweet and graceful Lucile, of the same melancholy nature as her brother, and who first divined in him the poet.After having intended to enter the navy, then the Church, Chateaubriand went into the army, joining the regiment of Navarre as sub-lieutenant. Previous to this, he seems to have conceived a disgust for life, this being probably the result of his long solitary medita tions; although he tells us himself that he believes that he felt the wearisomeness of life from his mother's womb, He was not yet twenty when be resolved to end his existence; and already the barrel of his gun was turned towards his breast, when the arrival of a gamekeeper stopped him in his rash act.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.

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