François René de Chateaubriand

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768–1848) was a French writer, diplomat, and politician whose work helped shape early French Romanticism. Born in Saint-Malo, he traveled in North America before the French Revolution and later lived in exile in England. His novellas *Atala* (1801) and *René* (1802) brought a new lyrical intensity and introspective sensibility to French prose. Chateaubriand also wrote the influential Christian apologetic *Génie du christianisme* (1802). He served under Napoleon and, after the Bourbon Restoration, held diplomatic posts including ambassador to the United Kingdom. His posthumously published *Mémoires d’outre-tombe* remains his major autobiographical work.