Constant de Rebecque, Benjamin

(1767-1830)

   writer, political figure

   Of Swiss origin, Benjamin Constant de Rebecque was born in Lausanne and educated at British and German universities. Hostile to Napoléon Bonaparte (see napoléon i), he spent most of the period of the Napoléon regime in exile in Germany and Switzerland, during which time he maintained an intense relationship with Mme germaine de staël. She would influence his famous semiautobiographical novels Adolphe (1816) and his unfinished Cécile, which was discovered only in the 20th century. As an important contributor to the development of romanticism and the psychological novel, Benjamin Constant, as he is known, in these early works reflected the romantic spirit and probed the psyche of his protagonists. He also wrote the tragic poem Wallenstein (1809), several journals, and a treatise on religion. After the restoration of the monarchy, he lived in Paris, where he served in the Chamber of Deputies (1819-22, 1824-30) and founded two liberal periodicals.