CHATEAUBRIAND (de), François René. Génie du Christianisme ou Beautés de la Religion chrétienne.
Paris, Chez Migneret, An X-1802.

In-8 (198 x 133 mm), 5 volumes, T1 - X-396 pp., T2 - (2) ff., 342 pp., T3 - (2) ff., 304 pp., T4 - (2) ff., 344 pp., T5 - (2) ff., 85 pp., 14 pp., (1) f., 14 pp., 75 pp., (1) f.
Full marbled calf, smooth spine decorated with irons in the centre of the caissons, red morocco title page, green morocco endpaper, scrollwork around the edges, red edges (contemporary binding).

Rare first edition in its strict contemporary binding, estimated by Sainte-Beuve at 4,000 copies.
Copy of 1st issue with pagination errors in volume I, which jumps from page 274 to page 279, and indicates the final page as 396 for 296 (error not reported by bibliographers) and in volume IV, the two pages of tables numbered from [341] to 344.

An exceptional work, full of an autograph letter signed by Chateaubriand, 3 pages, dated Paris, Friday 15 October 1802, to Monsieur Saint-Martin fils in Viré (Calvados).
This intimate letter sheds a striking light on the author's life at a time when his Génie du christianisme was a resounding success. In it, Chateaubriand mentions an imminent trip to Avignon to try to have a counterfeit of the Génie du christianisme seized, his plans to return via Brittany, and above all his preparations for a diplomatic post in Italy - a position he would actually hold shortly afterwards, as attaché to the legation to the Holy See. In it, he urges his friend to join him in Paris, in a prose full of autumnal images and romantic melancholy: ‘You see the leaves falling, you hear the autumn wind in the woods - I envy your fate...’

Le Génie exerted a major influence on the new century: on Lamartine, then Vigny and Hugo, who developed meditative philosophical and religious poetry, and on French historians in general by drawing attention to the Middle Ages, arousing extraordinary interest in the Gothic period during the first half of the century, and restoring to religion an appeal it had lost before the Revolution.

"The jolt that the Génie du christianisme gave to the minds of men brought the eighteenth century out of its rut, and threw it forever off course. [...] The Génie du christianisme will remain my great work, because it produced or determined a revolution, and began the new era of the literary century" (Mémoires d'outre-tombe).this apology appeared opportunely on 14 April 1802, six days after the Concordat had been ratified: Chateaubriand had in fact delayed the publication of his essay in order to make the two events coincide. Rome and Bonaparte having settled their dispute, Chateaubriand could now celebrate the beauties of Christianity: the Génie came at just the right time in a society weary of the disorder and violence of the Revolution. (Bibliothèque nationale, En français dans le texte, 1990, no. 206.)

The works were usually modestly bound when the Génie du christianisme was published, and their condition in contemporary bindings is sought-after (Carteret).

Some scuff marks and a few browned leaves, otherwise a pleasant copy accompanied by an autograph letter of rare intensity.
Vicaire, II, 281 ; Talvart, III, 5 ; Clouzot, 62 ; Carteret, I, 162 ("à rechercher en reliure du temps") ; En français dans le texte, 206.