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…
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 20 April 2024.]
