Andre chenier biography

Ch�nier was born in Constantinople (Istanbul) to a French father who occupied the position of Consul and a mother of Franco Greek origin. He was taken, at an early age, to France, however, to live in Carcassonne whilst his father took the position of Consul General of France in Morocco.

Andrea chénier

He later studied classics in Paris.

After a brief period in the army, he returned to Paris and devoted himself to poetry particularly inspired by a Grand Tour of Italy and the vogue for neoclassicism. He was offered the position of secretary to the French ambassador to Britain which he filled without enthusiasm for the country from 1787 until 1790 returning to France shortly after the outbreak of the revolution.

His works expressed sympathy for the royalist cause, however, placing him in danger of arrest. After a period of mainly nocturnal excursions when he took refuge in Versailles, he was arrested in error for the aristocrat being sought; and was imprisoned at th