Adolphe is just past the his coming-of-age, but has a much more room to grow. As the son of a government official, Adolphe has a privilege of comfortable wealth and access to a good education, however, he feels trapped in routine, boredom, and a bleak world. Shaped by his childhood, Adolphe has a melancholy outlook on life, turning him into an introverted young man. After he graduates from college, Adolphe struggles to find fulfillment, so he travels to Germany for an adventure. There, he feels overwhelmed and displeased by the stupidity he perceives from society, earning him a reputation for an unpleasant wit. While he is just looking for fun, Adolphe meets Ellenore, a thirty-two-year-old polish refugee. Though she has a husband and two kids, Adolphe is enamored by her. As if it were a game, Adolphe is dedicated to seducing Ellenore, but soon finds himself deeply in love with her. They engage in an illicit affair, riddled with jealousy, secrets, and lust. Despite these qualities, and that Ellenore is ten years older than Adolphe and married, they share a significant love for each other. However, they are quickly shunned from society when their affair is made public, causing Adolphe to worry that their relationship could affect his future endeavors. When Ellenore makes the sacrifice of leaving her family behind to fully commit to him, Adolphe must decide if he is willy to do the same for her. When Adolphe was first released in 1816, it invited controversy due to the resemblance to Benjamin Constant's own romantic affairs. Since then, Benjamin Constant's Adolphe piques readers interests with its passionate romance and complicated protagonist. Adolphe's indecisive immaturity invokes strong emotions from audiences, both sympathetic and critical. With elements of a coming-of-age story and philosophical observations, this romantic novel appeals to a wide range of audiences, engaging readers with its eclectic genre and themes that prove to still be relatable to a contemporary audience. This edition of Benjamin Constant's Adolphe is perfect for a modern reader. With an eye-catching cover design and a stylish font, Adolphe by Benjamin Constant has been restored for the 21st century.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) was born in Switzerland and became one of France's leading writers, as well as a journalist, philosopher, and politician. His colourful life included a formative stay at the University of Edinburgh; service at the court of Brunswick, Germany; election to the French Tribunate; and initial opposition and subsequent support for Napoleon, even the drafting of a constitution for the Hundred Days. Constant wrote many books, essays, and pamphlets. His deepest conviction was that reform is hugely superior to revolution, both morally and politically. While Constant's fluid, dynamic style and lofty eloquence do not always make for easy reading, his text forms a coherent whole, and in his translation Dennis O'Keeffe has focused on retaining the 'general elegance and subtle rhetoric' of the original. Sir Isaiah Berlin called Constant 'the most eloquent of all defenders of freedom and privacy' and believed to him we owe the notion of 'negative liberty', that is, what Biancamaria Fontana describes as "the protection of individual experience and choices from external interferences and constraints." To Constant it was relatively unimportant whether liberty was ultimately grounded in religion or metaphysics -- what mattered were the practical guarantees of practical freedom -- "autonomy in all those aspects of life that could cause no harm to others or to society as a whole." This translation is based on Etienne Hofmann's critical edition of Principes de politique (1980), complete with Constant's additions to the original work.

Cette uvre (edition relie) fait partie de la serie TREDITION CLASSICS. La maison d'edition tredition, basee a Hambourg, a publie dans la serie TREDITION CLASSICS des ouvrages anciens de plus de deux millenaires. Ils etaient pour la plupart epuises ou uniquement disponible chez les bouquinistes. La serie est destinee a preserver la litterature et a promouvoir la culture. Avec sa serie TREDITION CLASSICS, tredition a comme but de mettre a disposition des milliers de classiques de la litterature mondiale dans differentes langues et de les diffuser dans le monde entier.

The first English translation of the major political works of Benjamin Constant (1767-1830), one of the most important of the French political figures in the aftermath of the revolution of 1789, and a leading member of the liberal opposition to Napoleon and later to the restored Bourbon monarchy. The texts included in this volume are widely regarded as one of the classic formulations of modern liberal doctrine.