Liberal Culture: Sensibilité and Sociability

Constant exited the Tribunat as a liberal politician who had found his vocation, but there was no public arena for active politics until the fall of the Empire in 1814. He turned to other areas of writing, especially his ongoing scholarship on religion, as well as literature. He also continued to think and write about politics, which is the focus of chapter 5. This chapter gives attention to the nonpolitical writings of these years, especially Constant’s novel Adolphe and its relationship to the wider culture of sensibilite. It begins, however, with a brief discussion of Constant’s stormy separation from Germaine de Stael and his marriage to Charlotte von Hardenberg.