Book Review: Constant's 'Adolphe'

The only novel by a French political thinker

This time, I would like to introduce 'Adolphe,' the only novel by Benjamin Constant, a political thinker who was active in 19th-century France.

As a brief aside, although the Kobunsha Classic New Translation Library is among the latest entrants in the field of publishing foreign classic literature, I believe it has become an indispensable series for fans of foreign literature. This is due to the perfect synergy between its primary strategy of offering classic works in innovative new translations and its secondary strategy of selecting titles that make one slap their knee and think, 'That hits the spot!' from the perspective of the translation world.

The 'Adolphe' I am introducing this time is surely a typical example of the latter.

Now, about this work.

The protagonist, Adolphe, is a young man of the excellent type who is clever and capable in everything, both in his studies and in life.
However, he had an unknown area of experience: love.

Perhaps because his father held relatively open-minded views on relationships with women, he may have felt impatient about his lack of experience with love, something that should not have been a high hurdle to clear.
He could be described as an adolescent youth in love with the idea of love.

Then, he has an encounter.

Madame Ellénore is a lady ten years his senior.
Although she lacked authority in her birth or background, she had been taken as the second wife of a baron and had only just begun to be accepted by high society by leading a chaste life.

Adolphe, as if to say she is the perfect candidate for his first love, devises a plan to woo Ellénore.
However, Ellénore, who cannot discard the protection of the baron and her position in high society, initially rejects Adolphe's advances.

Because of this, Adolphe's feelings become a mixture of 'love for love' and 'yearning for Ellénore.'

Such unconscious changes in his feelings bring restlessness to their owner.
Once it reached this point, Adolphe could not help but try to win Ellénore over at any cost, and after desperate approaches, he finally succeeded in getting her to accept his love.

However, from that moment on, the two began to drift apart.

Although Ellénore had lived chastely under the baron, she was a woman whose purpose in life was essentially to love and be loved.
She cherishes the time spent with Adolphe and finds happiness in expressing their mutual love.

On the other hand, Adolphe is exactly the kind of immature adolescent youth who is in love with love.
Once he has obtained a romantic relationship with Ellénore, he begins to dislike her excessive possessiveness and craves freedom.
Yet, he continues the relationship with her indefinitely, fearing that choosing to end it would hurt her—which he might call kindness, but is essentially 'self-love' because he does not want to become the kind of person who hurts Ellénore.

Ellénore is fully aware of Adolphe's psychology.
However, all she desires is a simple expression of love from Adolphe.
She cannot bring herself to believe that desiring this is too much to ask, and she simply tries to continue loving him with all her heart.

But this state of being out of sync eventually begins to erode Ellénore's spirit.

Coupled with external influences, such as the baron's suspicions of their trysts and Adolphe's father's demands that he focus on his studies, the disconnect between the two finally leads to Ellénore's definitive breakdown.

The work concludes with a letter that Ellénore wrote to Adolphe but never delivered.
The feelings expressed therein sharply pierce the nature of a young man with a narcissistic romantic temperament like Adolphe.

'The imagination that I might suffer torments you, but the sight of me actually suffering cannot restrain you!'

Is there such a thing as purity in love or romance?
Is it possible for humans, who cannot be freed from their egos?
This may be one of the eternal themes in romantic literature.

It was a work of extremely high perfection.

Reading Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆
Universality of Romantic Theme: ★★★★☆
Tragedy Level: ★★★☆☆
Total Recommendation Level: ★★★★☆

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