Saint-René Taillandier (16 December 1817 - 22 February 1879) was a French writer and critic.

He was born Rene Gaspard Ernest Taillandier, at Paris. He completed his studies at Heidelberg, and then became professor of literature successively at Strassburg, Montpellier and the Sorbonne, where he was nominated to the chair of French eloquence in 1868. Most of the articles included in his published volumes first appeared in the Revue des deux mondes.

In January 1870 he became general secretary of the ministry of education, and continued in this office after the fall of the Empire. He became officer of the Legion of Honour in 1870, and was elected to the French Academy in 1873. He died in Paris.

His works include Allemagne et Russie, etudes historiques et litteraires (1856), Le Poete du Caucase, Michel Lermontoff (1856), Maurice de Saxe' (2 vols. 1865), Tcheques et Magyars (1869), Le General Philippe de Segur (1815).