Benjamin Constant
1767–1830
Biography
Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque, known simply as Benjamin Constant, was a Swiss-born writer and politician who became one of the leading voices of French liberalism. He lived through the Revolution, the Directory, the rule of Napoleon and the Bourbon Restoration, and his views shifted with the times. He was a republican in the 1790s and an opponent of Napoleon's autocracy, yet he later helped to draft the Charter of 1815. He entered the Chamber of Deputies in 1818 and sat there until his death in 1830, speaking for the parliamentary opposition.
He wrote widely on politics and religion. His reflections on liberty are his most lasting contribution, since he argued that liberty is a condition in which individuals are free from interference by the state or by society. He also wrote on the place of faith in public life and, in more personal writing, on love and the self.
Adolphe, published in 1816, is on this site. It is a short novel about a young man who becomes the lover of an older woman, Ellénore, who has given up a great deal for him, and who then cannot bring himself to commit fully. The affair slowly sours, and the story is a close study of a divided will. Constant drew on his own stormy relationship with Madame de Staël in writing it, and the book remains a classic of its kind.
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Books
Adolphe
by Benjamin Constant
Adolphe is a classic French novel by Benjamin Constant, first published in 1816. It tells the story of an alienated young man, Adolphe, who falls in love with an older woman, Ellénore, the Polish mistress of the Comte de P. Their illicit relationship serves to isolate them from…
Summary from Wikipedia: Adolphe (CC BY-SA 4.0)