Bücher der Reihe Troisieme Periode (1814-1820)

The volume of the "OEuvres Complètes de Benjamin Constant", which marks the starting point of this important publication, contains all the material relating to "The Hundred Days", the most controversial episode in the career of Benjamin Constant, the politician. After having cricised Napoleon very severely in the press during the march on Paris, Constant rallied to the support of the Emperor on his return to power. He then agreed to work on the publication of the "Acte Additionnel aux Constitutions de l'Empire". Following the battle of Waterloo, Constant felt bound to offer an explanation for his conduct and he prepared the volume which appeared, between 1820 and 1822, under the title "Mémoires sur les Cent-Jours". Volume 14 of the "OEuvres Complètes de Benjamin Constant", which has been carefully edited by Kurt Kloocke of the University of Tübingen and André Cabanis of the University of Toulouse, includes all the texts which relate to the "Mémoires", together with all the drafts left by Constant.

The 8th volume in this edition contains the works written by Benjamin Constant between March 1813 and April 1814. The texts are different in nature. Alongside a work of fiction, »Florestan or the Siege of Soissons«, the reader will find »The Spirit of Conquest and Usurpation« (the publication that did most to cement Constant's reputation as a political author), various propagandistic writings penned in the service of the Prince-Royal of Sweden, and finally »Reflections on Constitutions and Guarantees«, a work of political theory. All these texts are precursors of the works from the period of the First Restoration and the Cent-Jours assembled in Volume 9, so that these two volumes are closely interrelated.

This volume contains the political works and the personal texts written by Benjamin Constant between June 1814 and July 1815. The collection is arranged into five thematic sections and placed in the order best suited to reflect their actual chronology. It comprises Constant's articles on the freedom of the press, his texts on the Kingdom of Naples affair, the two versions of the "Mémoires de Juliette", political texts written during the last few months of the Première Restauration, and writings published during the Cent Jours. The most important texts in the volume are the treatise "De la Responsabilité des Ministres" (On the Responsibility of Ministers), the "Acte additionnel aux constitutions de l'Empire" (Supplementary Act on the Constitution of the Empire), in which Constant was closely associated, and above all the 1815 version of the "Principes de politique applicables à tous les gouvernements représentatifs" (Political Principles Applicable to all Representative Governments), one of his major political works. The volume rounds out with a chronology, annexes, a bibliography and an index of proper names.

This volume contains the definitive version of the second of the five volumes of Benjamin Constant's major study entitled "De la Religion, considérée dans sa source ...". Its unusually extensive annexes assemble a selection of manuscripts illustrating the working methods and strategies employed by the author. Further, the volume contains a general introduction, a chronology and a detailed critical apparatus comprising explanatory notes, biographical details of the persons referred to, a bibliography, and an index of proper names. As such it gives a graphic idea of the astounding originality displayed by Constant in his approach to research on religion.