François-René de Chateaubriand

François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who influenced French literature of the nineteenth century. He came from an old aristocratic family of Brittany and remained a royalist. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1822 to 1824 and as French ambassador to Sweden, Prussia, the United Kingdom and the Papal States. At a time when many intellectuals turned against the Church he wrote Génie du christianisme (The Genius of Christianity) in defence of Catholic faith. His autobiography Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe (Memoirs from Beyond the Grave), published after his death in 1849 and 1850, is widely regarded as one of the most important works in French literature. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1811, and the historian Peter Gay said he dominated the literary scene in France in the first half of the century.