Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebecque, Cécile

Ian Morrison (Independent Scholar - Europe)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error
Cécile

is

a first-person narrative which Constant left unfinished, and which was not published until 1951. Why he did not complete his project is unclear. He had certainly meant

Cécile

for the public – not simply for himself or his acquaintances – as witness the explanations offered to readers, e. g. about the narrator’s religious sentiments (Roulin: 173). Constant may have written most of the text between 1809 and 1811, but it probably derives in part, like his major novel

Adolphe,

from a draft begun in 1806.

Cécile

and

Adolphe

certainly seem to arise from the same phase in his life (Roulin: 1436-1438; Wood: 191-192). Parallels with his private

Journaux intimes

[Personal Diaries]

suggest that the nameless first-person narrator in

Cécile

is based on Constant himself, and that…

1623 words

Citation: Morrison, Ian. "Cécile". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 December 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6148, accessed 29 March 2024.]

6148 Cécile 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.