We are such volatile creatures that we finally feel the sentiments we feign.

First published in 1816, Adolphe is the story of a young man with all the privileges and advantages of a noble birth, bt who's still haunted by the meaninglessness of life. He seeks distraction in the pursuit of the beautiful, but older and married Ellenore, a fictionalized version of Madame de Stael. The young Adolphe, inexperienced in love, falls for her unexpectedly and falters under the burden of the illicit love.

The Art of The Novella Series

Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.

邦雅曼·贡斯当（Benjamin Constant，1767-1830），法国文学家、政治家、古典自由主义思想先驱。作为自由主义者，他对波旁王朝的复辟不满，又与百日政变的拿破仑和解。他主张一种制约和平衡机制，支持出版自由等制度，相信宗教是社会中的积极因素。他一生著述颇丰，既有政治著作，也有文学作品。最著名的政治论著是《政治原则》（1815）和《古代人的自由与现代人的自由》（1829），较早提出了“消极自由”与“积极自由”的概念；其文学作品主要为《阿道尔夫》、《塞茜尔》和《红色笔记本》。