Benjamin Constant

Paul Rowe (University of Leeds)

Ed. by Jennifer Yee, University of Oxford
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

Born 25 Oct 1767
Died 8 Dec 1830
Activity 1816-1830

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Philosopher

Other

Autobiographer
Letter-writer/ Diarist
Political writer
Religious writer

Resources

Constant de Rebecque's Works

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Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 25 October 1767, and died in Paris on 8 December 1830. Venerated, in the aftermath of the July 1830 Revolution, for his role as a figurehead of the liberal opposition to the often reactionary governments of the Restoration, he was given a state funeral and was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery, where his modest tomb is now surrounded by the much grander ones of his political allies. He is remembered as the author of the short novel

Adolphe

(1816), for his relationship with Germaine de Staël, and as one of the leading lights of the Coppet Group, as a political theorist and historian of religion, and for a political career whose vicissitudes left him open to accusations of opportunism, against which he defended…

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3129 words

Citation: Rowe, Paul. "Benjamin Constant". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 September 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=993, accessed 22 November 2024.]