3 h 31 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 3 h 31 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the fear of hurting someone becomes the very thing that hurts them most?
Adolphe wants to be loved, but he also wants to be free. At the Count de P's house, the clever, lonely young man meets Ellénore, a proud Polish woman with two children. What begins as a game of seduction becomes a bond neither can easily escape.
In Benjamin Constant's short novel, Adolphe tells his own story of desire, pity, and guilt. As Ellénore's love deepens, his feelings begin to change. He cannot love her as she loves him, yet he cannot bear her unhappiness. Every unspoken truth makes their relationship harder to leave.
What you’ll discover
- A heart divided Follow a young man who longs for affection while resisting the claims it makes.
- Ellénore's fierce devotion Meet a proud woman who gives up her place in society for love.
- The harm of hesitation See how pity and sincere regret can wound when plain words remain unspoken.
- Freedom at a cost Explore the conflict between wanting independence and needing to be loved and respected.
- An intimate confession Enter a first-person account where the deepest struggles unfold within and between two people.
Who will love it
Readers who love sharp portraits of the heart, short novels about love gone wrong, and narrators who judge themselves with fierce honesty will find a close companion here.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A shy son learns to hide his feelings
- Vanity pushes him toward a woman
- Love is won and begins to feel like a tie
- One sacrifice after another binds them tighter
- Exile in Bohemia and Poland brings no peace
- A wise old baron names the obstacle
- Two people held by one weak will
Who’s who
- AdolpheA clever, shy young man who wants to be free and to be loved, and cannot manage both.
- EllénoreA proud Polish woman who gives up her place, her fortune and her children for the love she needs.
- Count of PEllénore's protector of ten years, who leans on her devotion and still treats her as socially beneath him.
- Adolphe's fatherA minister whose cold manner hides deep shyness, and who wants his son to take a proper career.
- Baron TA shrewd diplomat and old friend of Adolphe's father, who pushes the young man to break with Ellénore.
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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25 languages, side by side
Adolphe in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Adolphe
by Benjamin Constant · 1816
A bored young man wins a woman he does not love, and cannot find the words to let her go.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What happens when a man wins a love he does not truly feel, and then cannot bring himself to say so? You will meet the shy young man whose story begins just after his studies at Göttingen.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A shy son learns to hide his feelings
The story opens with Adolphe, twenty-two, fresh from his studies at Göttingen. His father, a minister to a German elector, is generous but distant, and the two never talk freely. Each is shy, and each mistakes the other's silence for coldness.
From this home Adolphe takes a habit of hiding his thoughts behind jokes. He also learns a love of independence and a fear of any tie. At the small court of D he mocks the pompous people around him and soon earns a name for malice, though he feels only boredom.
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What is Adolphe about?
It tells of a young man who wins the love of an older woman, Ellénore, and then slowly stops loving her. Unable to leave her kindly, he drags both of them into years of guilt and quarrels.
Is Adolphe a true story?
Constant says in his prefaces that no character portrays a real person, though readers hunted for hidden portraits. He wrote it to show that a novel with only two characters and one unchanging situation could hold interest.
Who is Ellénore?
She is a Polish woman, once the mistress of the Count of P, with two children by him. Her strong pride, her faith and her wish for respect make her one of the most vivid figures in the book.
The author
Benjamin Constant
1767–1830 · French-Swiss novelist and political thinker
Benjamin Constant (1767–1830) was a French-Swiss writer and politician. He was born in Lausanne and died in Paris. He lived in Switzerland, Germany, and France. He wrote about politics and religion and published the novel Adolphe in 1816. He served in the French Chamber of Deputies from 1819 to 1830.
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