    franÃ§ois-renÃ©, vicomte de chateaubriand (; 4 september 17684 july 1848) was a french writer, politician, diplomat and historian. he is considered the founder of romanticism in french literature. descended from an old aristocratic family from brittany, chateaubriand was a royalist by political disposition and in an age when a significant part of the intelligentsia was turning against the church, authored the gÃ©nie du christianisme in defence of the catholic faith. it is his autobiography mÃ©moires d'outre-tombe ("memoirs from beyond the grave'", published posthumously 1848â1850), however, that is nowadays generally considered his most accomplished work. == biography == === early years and exile === born in saint-malo, the last of ten children, chateaubriand grew up in his family's castle in combourg, brittany. his father, renÃ© de chateaubriand (1718â86), was a former sea captain turned ship owner and slave trader. his mother's maiden name was apolline de bedÃ©e. chateaubriand's father was a morose, uncommunicative man and the young chateaubriand grew up in an atmosphere of gloomy solitude, only broken by long walks in the breton countryside and an intense friendship with his sister lucile. chateaubriand was educated in dol, rennes and dinan. for a time he could not make up his mind whether he wanted to be a naval officer or a priest, but at the age of seventeen, he decided on a military career and gained a commission as a second lieutenant in the french army based at navarre. within two years, he had been promoted to the rank of captain. he visited paris in 1788 where he made the acquaintance of jean-franÃ§ois de la harpe, andrÃ© chÃ©nier, louis-marcelin de fontanes and other leading writers of the time. when the french revolution broke out, chateaubriand was initially sympathetic, but as events in paris became more
1768_births 1848_deaths 18th-century_French_writers 19th-century_French_novelists 19th-century_French_politicians 19th-century_French_writers Breton_writers Christian_apologists Conservatism_in_France French_Foreign_Ministers French_Roman_Catholics French_Ultra-royalists French_counter-revolutionaries French_diplomats French_essayists French_historians French_journalists French_literary_critics French_memoirists French_monarchists French_people_of_Breton_descent French_philhellenes French_political_writers French_travel_writers Historians_of_the_French_Revolution Knights_of_Malta Members_of_the_AcadA(c)mie_franASSaise Peers_of_France People_from_Saint-Malo People_of_the_Bourbon_Restoration People_of_the_First_French_Empire Recipients_of_the_Pour_le_MA(c)rite_(civil_class) Roman_Catholic_writers Romantic_poets Viscounts_of_France Writers_from_Brittany