This thesis offers a reading of monumental work of Chateaubriand’s Memoirs from beyond the grave about the theme of satire as a literary genre and tone as writing. The approach is very ambitious given the complexity of reading levels, from autobiography to historical epic through the social and political critique. Similarly writing an epic, poetic, satirical and comic reveals another Chateaubriand. Face the monument often considered unclassifiable, this thesis presents a clear plan with a first part which first draws up a schedule of major events in the center of the Memoirs. The introduction and release the first part of this double-sided argument between civilization and social criticism, among an array of France and a study of gender: What is satire? and evolution of the kind of Juvenal to Chateaubriand.In part two and part three, exposed objects of satire, namely politics and his image, then the social question. Information are many, because they paint a nuanced portrait of this proud and wounded aristocrat: he condemns tyranny, revolution and violence, but it enhances the freedom of peoples and especially remains lucid, despite his faith in them, on errors the last Bourbons.The fourth section addresses the research problem: satire and rhetoric. The different shades of satirical writing are analyzed: the irony to cynicism through the comic. The comedy is never free, it is often used to hide the bitterness of feeling and derision situations. Similarly, cynicism is not from a cold mind, but an inner hurt or disappointment hurtful to self-esteem. For this reason, sarcasm is a step between comedy and cynicism, the first masking the second in the Memoirs
