Chateaubriand et l’Écosse À l’ombre des landes ossianiques

Even though Chateaubriand never went to Caledonia, Ossian played a decisive role in influencing his work. Ossianic nature is omnipresent in his American novels—in motifs connected to the moon, for example, as the melancholic attitudes of the characters testify. They are also present in René and Les Mémoires d’Outre tombe, where Brittany itself is depicted in Ossianic terms. Ossian is reincarnated as Chactas and Chateaubriand himself.