Adolphe

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Adolphe
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Benjamin Constant
Translated by Leonard Tancock
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:128
Dimensions(mm): Height 199,Width 133
Category/GenreClassic fiction (pre c 1945)
ISBN/Barcode 9780140441345
ClassificationsDewey:843.6
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publication Date 31 July 1980
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Adolphe is a privileged and refined young man, bored by the stupidity he perceives in the world around him. After a number of meaningless conquests, he at last encounters Ellenore, a beautiful and passionate older woman. Adolphe is enraptured and gradually wears down her resistance to his declarations of love. But as they embark on an intense and tortured affair, Ellenore gives way to a flood of emotion that only serves to repel her younger lover - yet he cannot bring himself to leave her and his procrastination can only bring tragedy. Partly inspired by Constant's own stormy affair with Madame de Stael, Adolphe (1816) is a penetrating psychological depiction of love that plumbs the depths of the passions, motives and inconsistencies of the human character.