Benjamin Constant: A Biography`For forty years I have defended the same principle: freedom in everything, in religion, in philosophy, in literature, in industry, in politics - and by freedom I mean the triumph of the individual.' Constant thus summarized his beliefs at the end of his life. A political theorist and a passionate defender of individual liberty, he was also the author of one of the greatest French novels of psychological insight, Adolphe. In a major new biography Dennis Wood traces the development of Constant as a writer centrally preoccupied with the problematics of freedom, not only in the fields of politics and religious belief but also in his own troubled relationship with several women. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 4 | |
| 9 | |
THE CHARMS OF FRIENDSHIP 17831785 | 43 |
ISABELLE DE CHARRIERE | 64 |
ESCAPE 17871788 | 89 |
THE BRUNSWICK YEARS | 106 |
GERMAINE DE STAEL 17941800 | 152 |
ITALIAM ITALIAM 18061812 | 196 |
THE END OF AN EMPIRE | 215 |
ADOLPHE 18161819 | 230 |
APOTHEOSIS 18191830 | 241 |
EPILOGUE | 263 |
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES | 267 |
NOTES | 267 |
| 320 | |
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Adolphe Anna Lindsay Anne de Nassau April August Benjamin Constant Bibliothèque Brunswick C.P.Courtney Cécile character Charles Charlotte Charlotte’s Charrière’s Colombier Constant wrote Constant’s Coppet correspondence cousin death December Dennis Wood despite diary Edinburgh Ellénore Etienne Hofmann father February feelings felt France French friendship Geneva Germaine de Staël Germaine’s Ghislain de Diesbach Greek Harold Nicolson Ibid intellectual Isabelle de Charrière Isabelle’s January Jeunesse John Bowlby John Wilde Julie Talma June Juste de Constant Juste’s Kurt Kloocke later Lausanne letter to Isabelle literary live London Ludwig Ferdinand Huber Madame de Charrière Madame de Staël Madame Récamier March Marenholtz Marianne marriage married Mauvillon mind Minna Monsieur mother Napoleon Neuchâtel never novel November October Œuvres one’s Paris passion Paul Delbouille perhaps political published Récamier relationship religion Rosalie de Constant Rudler seems September Sévery son’s Speculative Society stay Switzerland wife Wolfenbüttel woman writing young