Benjamin Constant

works and correspondence may yet fill (at the time I am writing only one volume of each
has so far gone to press), as well as subsequent volumes of the systematic Chronologie of
Constant’s life and works, of which only the first, covering the years 1767–1805, has so
far appeared. It seems useful nevertheless to faire le point: to take stock and attempt to
summarize the present state of our knowledge about Constant’s life. If there is any other
claim to originality in this book, besides its giving as many of the ascertainable facts as
possible, it is to be found in a tentative reinterpretation of Constant’s personality in the
light of modern clinical studies of attachment and bereavement by John Bowlby (1907–
90) and others—a study which, incidentally, I began long before Bowlby’s compelling
life of Darwin appeared in 1990. Madame de Charrière once called Constant ‘a true
chameleon’, and changeability—violent swings of mood from energetic elation to the
most profound and overwhelming melancholy and fatalistic despair—was a central
feature of his character. There is a mystère Constant which the first four chapters of the
book in particular seek to identify and understand.
Two articles which I wrote for the journal French Studies in the early 1980s provided
the starting point for Chapter 2 of this book: I recall the kindness and generosity of the
then editor, Professor Malcolm Bowie, with deep gratitude. My colleagues on the team
editing Constant’s complete works and correspondence have offered encouragement and
stimulus on many occasions, particularly Simone Balayé, Dr C.P.Courtney, Professor
Paul Delbouille, Professor Alison Fairlie and Dr Kurt Kloocke, as well as my friends and
colleagues in Birmingham, Dr Ceri Crossley, Dr David Hill, Dr Alex Hughes, the late
Professor Derek Lomax, Professor R.E.F.Smith and Dr Marcus Walsh. My Head of
Department, Professor Jennifer Birkett, Professor Michael Butler of the School of
Modern Languages, and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor Leon Pompa have also
greatly facilitated my work.
I should like to thank the many librarians, archivists and owners of private collections
who have helped me over the years in my research, particularly Jacques Rychner,
Director of the Bibliothèque publique et universitaire, Neuchâtel; Jean-Daniel Candaux
and other members of the staff of the Bibliothèque publique et universitaire, Geneva; the
staff of the Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire, Lausanne; Etienne Hofmann,
Christian Viredaz and the staff of the Institut Benjamin Constant, University of
Lausanne; Dr Alain Rivier of Vevey and his family for permission to consult the Rivier
archives at Le Désert, Lausanne; Professor Claude Reymond; Annie Angremy of the
Département des manuscrits, Bibliothèque nationale, Paris; Dr Matthes, the staff of the
Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, Wolfenbüttel, and the Von Marenholtz family for access
to the Von Marenholtz family papers; Professor Dr Paul Raabe, Director of the Herzog
August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel and his staff, especially Dr Gillian Bepler; the
university libraries of Göttingen and Erlangen, and the Stadtarchiv Erlangen; the
Bodleian Library, Oxford, and university libraries of Cambridge and Edinburgh; the
Harrowby Mss Trust, Sandon Hall, Stafford; the National Library of Scotland and the
Secretary and members of the Speculative Society, Edinburgh; Peter Fox, Librarian of
Trinity College, Dublin; and Dr Ben Benedikz, Rare Books Librarian, University of
Birmingham.
I am grateful to the Leverhulme Foundation for a Fellowship in 1986 which enabled
me to make a number of discoveries in Germany, and to the British Academy, Pro
Helvetia Foundation and the University of Birmingham for their generous support of my