François-René de Chateaubriand

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768–1848) was a French writer and politician, usually regarded as the founder of French Romanticism. Born in Saint-Malo to an old Breton family, he traveled in America in 1791, fought in the émigré army and spent seven poor years in London. Atala (1801), René and The Genius of Christianity made him famous under Napoleon, whom he broke with over the execution of the Duc d'Enghien. Under the Restoration he was a peer, ambassador to Berlin, London and Rome and briefly foreign minister. His Memoirs from Beyond the Grave, written over thirty years and published after his death, are his masterpiece.