François-René de Chateaubriand was a French writer, diplomat, and romantic whose work greatly influenced the French literary world of the early 19th century. Born in 1768 to a wealthy family, Chateaubriand joined the royalist army in 1793 as the French Revolution reached its apex. After being wounded at the siege of Thionville, he was forced to exile himself to London until 1800, when he finally returned to Paris. It was there that Chateaubriand, disturbed by the nihilistic and anti-Christian sentiments brought on by the revolution, penned The Genius of Christianity. In this prodigious work of apologetics, Chateaubriand defends Christianity against Enlightenment attacks, focusing particularly on the ways in which it nurtures and enriches art, literature, architecture, and culture. Although greatly influential in its time, The Genius of Christianity has been out of print for decades, and it is the pleasure of Angelico Press to make this landmark of European cultural history available once again.
