The work, at least partially inspired by his travels in North America,[2] reflects the eighteenth-century French Romanticism and exoticism of its time[3] and went through five editions in its first year.

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.

[4] Contrasting the cruelty and warfare of the natives with the saintliness of the missionary, it is intended as a condemnation of the philosophes' praise of the "noble savage"; the author insisted that the Natchez man Chactas was "more than half civilised", and positive values are considered more or less synonymous with Christianity and Europeanisation.

In later writings on native peoples, Chateaubriand conceded a surprising amount of ground to Rousseau, but continued to insist on the primacy of Christianity over all other religions and forms of spirituality.

[5] In the prologue, Chateaubriand starts the novella with a vividly detailed description of the natural environment of formerly French North America more than two pages long.

[9] Some critics, however, argue that this is a deliberate decision, intended to relate the landscape of America to that of biblical and Miltonesque Eden, creating an extended metaphor of a paradise both post and pre-fall, symbolizing the internal conflict of the character's hearts.

[23] In his memoirs, Chateaubriand mentions roadside inns being decorated with images of Alata, Chactas, and Aubry and wax figurines of the characters being sold at fairs.

[24] Among the artists inspired to create works of art based on Atala were Léon Cogniet, Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Pierre-Jérôme Lordon [fr], Eugène Delacroix, Natale Carta, Andrea Gastaldi, and Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.