This article focuses on Constant’s Adolphe. It is addressed primarily to a literary readership and analyses the novel vis-à-vis Constant’s model of freedom, arguing that it has a more important bearing on his theory of modernity than has been recognized. Given the immense influence of Constant’s model, this is a notable gap. The motivation for reading the novel is as much historical as literary: its historical significance is rooted in its literariness.

Irish Journal of French Studies, 14 (2014), 161–78
10.⁷¹⁷³⁄_{164913314814213757}    Open access