François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) is a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian.

He is considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature.

Descended from an old Breton aristocratic family, Chateaubriand is a royalist by political disposition and in an age when a significant part of the intelligentsia is turning against the Church, authors the Génie du christianisme in defense of the Catholic faith.

It is his autobiography Mémoires d'outre-tombe ("Memoirs from Beyond the Grave'", published posthumously 1848–1850), however, which is nowadays generally considered his most accomplished work.