SOURCE: Redman, Jr., Harry. “Chateaubriand and his Memoirs' ‘Louisianaise.’” Nineteenth-Century French Studies 19, no. 1 (fall 1990): 22-35.

In the following essay, Redman examines the relationship between Chateaubriand and the “Louisianaise” woman referred to as Célestine in Memoirs.Redman provides biographical information for this Célestine and considers her influence on and presence in Chateaubriand's writings.

Chateaubriand may or may not have seen Louisiana when he visited North America in 1791. Whether he did or did not, Louisiana, or the idea of Louisiana, made a deep impression upon him. His Voyage en Amérique and his Mémoires d'outre-tombe describe in detail this exotic land, and two of his best stories, Atala and René along with his prose epic Les Natchez, are laid in north Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, that vast area that used to be included in Louisiana and “les Florides.” Whether a given episode took place in Florida...