François René Chateaubriand, was a founder of romanticism in French literature. He was the writer of The book The Genius of Christianity ,which made Chateaubriand the most important author of his time in France. Two tragic love stories included in this volume, “Atala” (1801) and “René” (1802), exemplify the melancholy, exotic description of nature and the evocative language that became a trademark of romantic fiction.

From the moment of its publication, Atala, or the Loves of Two Savages in the Desert was a huge success. Set in 18th-century Louisiana , tells the tragic story of two American Indians, the Christian Indian maiden Atala, who frees the Indian brave Chactas from his enemies.

Atala was a Muscogee Indian from Florida . Her father, Simagan, the tribal Chief, took as his prisoner, Chactas, son of the Chief of a rival tribe, during a battle with their traditional enemy, the Natchez indians. Chactas was condemned to be burned at the stake after having been tortured for many days.

Atala admired the courage and beauty of the young brave warrior, and she fell in love with him and freed him from the cruel sentence.

Girodet. The Burial of Atala , 1813. Musée Girodet, Montargis.

Both scaped and lived a dramatic history, that figures among the most beautiful and nobelpages of human passion