The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 1 (of 6): Mémoires d'outre-tombe, volume 1Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de
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The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 1 (of 6): Mémoires d'outre-tombe, volume 1
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de, 1768-1848
I entered Paris by the same road which I had taken the first time; I
went to the same hotel, in the Rue du Mail: I knew no other. I was
taken to a room next door to my old one, but a little larger and
overlooking the street.
My brother, whether because he felt embarrassed by my manners, or
because he took pity upon my shyness, did not take me with him into
the world, and introduced me to nobody. He lived in the Rue des
Fossés-Montmartre; I went to him at three o'clock every day for dinner;
we then parted and did not see one another till the next day. My fat
Cousin Moreau was no longer in Paris. I walked twice or thrice past
Madame de Chastenay's house, without venturing to ask the porter if she
was still there.
Autumn set in. I rose at six; went to the riding-school; breakfasted.
Luckily at that time I had a passion for Greek; I translated the
_Odyssey_ and the _Cyropædia_ until two o'clock, interspersing my
labours with the study of history. At two o'clock I dressed and went to
my brother; he asked me what I had done, what I had seen; I replied,
"Nothing." He shrugged his shoulders and turned his back upon me. One
day there was a noise outside; my brother ran to the window and called
to me: I refused to leave the arm-chair in which I lay stretched at
the back of the room. My poor brother prophesied to me that I should
die unknown, useless to myself or my family. At four o'clock I went
home and sat down at my window. Two young girls of fifteen or sixteen
used to come at that hour to sketch at the window of a house opposite,
on the other side of the street. They had noticed my punctuality, as I
had theirs. From time to time they raised their heads to look at their
neighbor; I was infinitely grateful to them for this mark of attention:
they formed my only society in Paris.
[Sidenote: My life in Paris.]
When night drew near, I went to the play. I took pleasure in the
desert of the crowd, though it always cost me a little effort to
take my ticket at the door and mix with other men. I corrected the
ideas which I had formed at the Saint-Malo theatre. I saw Madame
Saint-Huberti[203] as Armida; I felt that there had been something
lacking in the sorceress of my creating. When I did not imprison
myself in the Opera-house or at the Français, I wandered from street
to street or along the quays until ten or eleven in the evening. To
this day I cannot see the row of street-lamps from the Place Louis
XV. to the Barrière des Bons-Hommes, without remembering the agonies
which I endured when I followed that road to go to Versailles for my
presentation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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