(1767–1830). Franco-Swiss novelist and political figure Benjamin Constant was the author of Adolphe (1816), a forerunner of the modern psychological novel. Written in a lucid and classical style, this novel describes in minute analytical detail a young man’s passion for a woman older than himself. Constant had several such liaisons in his lifetime, most notably with French novelist Madame de Staël.
The son of a Swiss officer in the Dutch service whose family was of French origin, he was born Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque on Oct. 25, 1767, in Lausanne, Switzerland. He studied at Erlangen (Germany), briefly at the University of Oxford, and at Edinburgh. In 1787 he formed, in Paris, his first liaison, with Madame de Charrière, 27 years his senior.
Constant’s republican opinions in no way suited him to the office of chamberlain to the duke of Brunswick, which he held for several years. In 1794 he chose the side of the rebels in the French Revolution, abandoning his office and divorcing his wife, a lady of the court. Madame de Staël had much to do with his decision. Their tumultuous and passionate relationship, which began in 1794, lasted until 1806. After the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire (1799) that brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power, Constant quickly became an opponent of the Bonapartist regime. He followed Madame de Staël into exile in 1803. Thereafter he spent his time either at Madame de Staël’s salon at Coppet, near Geneva, or in Germany, chiefly at Weimar, where he met German writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. Constant was also an associate of the brothers Friedrich and August von Schlegel, the pioneers of the Romantic idea, and with them he inspired Madame de Staël’s book De l’Allemagne (On Germany).
During his exile, Constant worked on his five-volume De la religion considérée dans sa source, ses formes et ses développements (1824–31; On Religion Considered in Its Source, Its Forms, and Its Developments), a historical analysis of religious feeling. In it he revealed his inner self, as he also did in his intimate diaries; in his correspondence, particularly with his cousin Rosalie; and, not least, in Adolphe, the barely disguised account of his break with Madame de Staël in 1806.
In 1808 Constant secretly married Charlotte von Hardenberg, but his intellectual relationship with Madame de Staël and the group at Coppet remained unbroken. As a liberal he was disappointed by the restoration in 1814 of the Bourbon monarchy in France, and he reconciled himself with the subsequent Napoleonic empire of the Hundred Days under the influence of Madame Récamier, the other great love of his life.
On his return to Paris, Constant became one of the leaders of liberal journalism. He was elected a deputy in 1819. After the revolution of July 1830, he was appointed president of the council of state but died on December 8 of that year in Paris.
Nearly 150 years after the publication of Adolphe, another of Constant’s autobiographical novels, Cécile, dealing with events between 1793 and 1808, was discovered. The first edition of Cécile appeared in 1951, with an English translation the next year. Constant’s Journaux intimes (Intimate Journals) were first published in their entirety in 1952, adding to the autobiographical picture of Constant provided by his Cahier rouge (1907; The Red Notebook). His complete works were published in 1957.