Atala (novella)

Atala, ou Les Amours de deux sauvages dans le désert (English: Atala, or The Loves of two Indian savages in the desert) is an early novella by French author François-René de Chateaubriand, first published on 12 germinal IX (2 April 1801). The story is told from the point of view of the 73-year-old hero, Chactas, whose story is preserved by an oral tradition among the Seminoles. The work, at least partially inspired by his travels in North America, reflects the eighteenth-century French Romanticism and exoticism of its time and went through five editions in its first year. It was adapted frequently for stage, and translated into many languages.

Along with René, Atala began as a discarded fragment from a long prose epic the author had composed between 1793 and 1799, Les Natchez, which would not be made public until 1826. In 1802, both Atala and René were published as part of Chateaubriand's Génie du christianisme.