Adolphe; Author: Constant, Benjamin; Author: Translator Mauldon, Margaret; Paperback

Author: Constant, Benjamin; Author: Translator Mauldon, Margaret
Oxford World's Classics (Paperback); Paperback
120 pages
Published: April 2001
Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192839276

Adolphe enjoys all the advantages of a noble birth and an intellectual ability, yet he is haunted by the meaninglessness of life. Thus, he seeks distraction in the pursuit of the beautiful,but older and married Ellenore. The young Adolphe, inexperienced in the language of love, falls for her unexpectedly and falters under the burden of an illicit love that is destructive to his public career. Unable to commit himself fully to Ellenore, and yet unwilling to face the pain he would cause by leaving her, Adolphe finds himself incapable of resolving an increasingly tragic situation.Written in a clear and thoughtful style, Adolphe (1816) reveals Constant's own experiences in love, while reflecting his anxieties for the possibility of any authentic commitment to someone other than oThe text is based on the 1824 third edition, the last supervised by Constant himself. Written in an analytic style, Adolphe writes about love, his own experiences in love, but he also reflects his anxieties about the prospects for any kind of authentic commitment, political or religious as well as emotional, in a disenchanted world.