Background
He was descended from French Protestant refugees, a fact which he used to obtain French citizenship in 1796. Extremely precocious, he was submitted to a succession of eccentric tutors and then was sent to the universities of Oxford, Erlangen, and Edinburgh. After serving as court chamberlain to the Duke of Brunswick from 1788 to 1793, he went to Switzerland, where he began his fateful liaison with Mme. de Staël.Stael. In 1795 he moved to Paris, where he published various political tracts and was appointed, in 1799, a member of the Tribunate. Ousted in 1802 for his opposition to Napoleon's seizure of power, he followed Mme. de StaëlStael into exile. In 1806, Constant wrote in two weeks a first draft of the psychological novel Adolphe (published in 1816) upon which his literary fame principally rests. It is a poignant analysis of the course of Adolphe's passion for Ellénore,Ellenore, Adolphe representing Constant, and EllénoreEllenore being a composite portrait of Mme. de StaëlStael and others. During the Hundred Days he supported Napoleon, and under the Restoration he became the leader of the liberal opposition in the Chamber of Deputies. Besides Adolphe and numerous political works, Constant left the extremely interesting Journal intime, his diary from 1804 to 1816, and the monumental treatise De la religion (1824-1831). He died in Paris, Dec. 8, 1830.