(Note: according to the version in Les Natchez, the action of the story takes place in the 1720s.) The novella concludes by revealing shortly after René told his tale, he was killed in a battle between the Natchez and the French. After spending some time with the Indians, he receives a letter announcing his sister's death. Devastated by this confession, René decides to leave Europe forever and travel to America. René goes to witness her initiation ceremony where she reveals she has joined the convent because she wants to overcome her incestuous love for him. One day, René finds she has gone, leaving a letter saying she wants to become a nun but giving no explanation why. René decides to kill himself, but when his sister learns of his plan, the two are joyfully reunited. Soon my heart no longer provided food for my mind, and the only thing I felt in my existence was a deep ennui." The disgust for life I had felt since childhood came back with renewed force. A secret languor was taking hold of my body. He decides to move to the countryside but he finds no happiness there: "Alas, I was alone, alone on the earth. But this reclusive life soon bores him too. My only task was to shrink my soul and bring it down to society's level."ĭisgusted, René withdraws from society and lives in an obscure part of the city. It was not elevated language or deep feelings that were asked of me. My soul, not yet worn out by any passion, sought an object to which it might be attached but I realised I was giving more than I received. For a while I wanted to fling myself into a world which said nothing to me and which did not understand me. "I soon found myself more isolated in my own land, than I had been in a foreign country. His sister Amélie inexplicably seems to avoid him too. Nothing satisfies him: "The ancient world had no certainty, the modern world had no beauty." He returns to France and finds society corrupt and irreligious. He travels to Scotland to view the places mentioned by the bard Ossian and to the famous sights of Italy. He visits the ruins of ancient Greece and Rome which inspire him with melancholy reflections. When René's father dies and his brother inherits the family home, he decides to travel. His mother died giving birth to him and since his father is a remote, forbidding figure, René takes refuge in an intense friendship with his sister Amélie and in long, solitary walks in the countryside around the castle. He tells of his lonely childhood in his father's castle in Brittany. It is a long time before he is persuaded to reveal the cause of his melancholy. René, a desperately unhappy young Frenchman, seeks refuge among the Natchez people of Louisiana.
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