Remembrance of the Tomb (Volume 1, 2, 3) -- Illustrated Treasure Edition

Author: (French) Chateaubriand, translated by Cheng Yirong, Guan Xiaoming, etc.
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-06-01
Features: An epitaph can refer to the poetic or prose inscriptions on a tombstone, or any commemorative text similar to an epitaph. This Memoirs from Beyond the Grave can also be considered as a kind of epitaph written by the author for himself. When a bird is about to die, its name evokes sorrow; when a person is about to die, their words are full of kindness. Two years before his death, the author completed this monumental work, truly expressing the reality of his inner thoughts. The theme of this reality is grief for the departed, lamenting the brevity of life, and mourning the swift passage of time. With words and the pen in his hand, he struggled against the relentless march of time. He tried to hold onto the past, the present, and the future, and in reminiscing about the flowing years, he longed to climb back up the slopes of his beautiful past.
Romanticism literature enthusiasts or opponents, memoir scholars or lovers, biography literature scholars or lovers, death culture scholars or haters, middle and high school students—these are the struggles of an old man against time. In his seventies, he chose a plot of land on a solitary island named Granville, outside the port of Saint-Malo, for his own grave. Ten years later, he was laid to rest there—without a tombstone, no inscriptions, no decorations, only an anonymous square stone with a thick cross standing atop it. Solitary, proud, and silently facing the sea.
The epitaph for this grave is long, and its name is Memoirs from Beyond the Grave. It contains words like: "Life is not suitable for me, but perhaps death is more so." Greek and Roman cemeteries are often located on the roadside in the suburbs; Egyptian cemeteries are often by the banks of the Nile. But only the author's grave is chosen amidst the roaring waves of the sea.