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Adolphe (riverrun editions)

`One of the undisputed masterpieces of early nineteenth-century French prose fiction.`From Richard Sieburth`s preface to AdolphePublished simultaneously in London and Paris in 1816, Adolphe is the story of a tragic love affair between its narrator and his lover Ellenore, two characters locked into a fatal dance of self-destruction. In what is one of the earliest examples of autofiction, from a period when all creative endeavour was permeated by autobiography. Constant`s aim was to create an exemplary fiction of high moral purpose which would also function as an act of intimate self-vindication and revenge on his former lover, the formidable Madame de Stael. The result is a tautly-strung Racinian tragedy in prose.Soon after publication, Constant was defending himself from charges that he had written a novel based on real people, which he strenuously denied. The work was translated into English by Alexander Walker, and overseen by the author, resulting in what Richard Sieburth describes as `an eccentrically bevelled jewel of Regency prose`.This riverrun edition publishes Walker`s translation and Constant`s preface in a new edition here for the first time since 1817.

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