The Author of "Adolphe
7 9 Benjamin Constant. By Harold Nicolson. (Constable. 18s.) BENJAMIN CONSTANT is immortal as the author of Adolphe. Adolphe is a unique masterpiece in that it describes admirably how a man can fall out of love, whereas most novels are concerned with the opposite phenomenon. - The greatness of Adolphe being thus proclaimed, I feel at liberty to state that I have never succeeded—in spite of many attempts—in reading it all at one stretch; yet it is short. But an overwhelming sense of boredom descens upon me after a few pages. It must be a matter of temperament. I only state this to give moral support to many English people who, I know, feel as I do.
Yet Benjamin Constant's life, as told by Mr. Harold Nicolson, is most entertaining ; there is not one long page in it. The book is
also irritating. That is not Mr. Harold Nicolson's fault, bin definitely Constant's. Though Mr. Nicolson does his loyal best, to put the blame on Benjamin's father and step-mother, there must have been something essentially wrong with the man himself. Mr. Nicolson gives two very satisfactory guesses. " His compelling intelligence was not accompanied by an equally decisive will." Constant had no roots anywhere ; " he was never accorded any sense of home or country." He was neither French, nor Swiss, nor European, neither a Catholic, nor a Protestant, nor an unbeliever. This was not so much the result of his environment ; there was not • in Constant himself the faculty to attach himself to anything.. I believe that Mr. Harold Nicolson takes too lenient a view of his hero. No doubt Constant must have had some endearing qualities, since his personal charm had so marked an-effect on many women—though on few men. But judged on his record as presented by Mr. Nicolson, Constant must be pronounced, technically, so to speak, capable de tout.
It may be pleaded that he was often unconsciously so—but the plea cannot cover all his deeds, of which many are beyond condona- tion. For instance, on Napoleon's landing from_Elba, Constant writes a furious and eloquent article against the Emperor—while it looks as .if the Emperor would fail. As soon as Napoleon is in Paris, Constant goes over to him and becomes one of his chief advisers. Iminediately after Waterloo, Constant goes on a mission to persuade the Allies to have a Regency with Le Roi de Rome. But directly Louis XVIII is in Paris again, Constant sues for pardon, and gets it. He is a man who for private_ advantage is willing to do anything. Constant cannot be acquitted, besides, of being a hypocrite ; all his changes are always for the sake of liberty. Within a few dais.
Napoleon, from being in Constant's eyes the very pattern of tyranny becomes the very model of a constitutional monarch—when he adopts Constant as a Councillor.
As for Constant's attitude to women, the most liberal system of morality must condemn it ; even under polygamic ideology (should there be such a thing) he is unforgivable. He gets married to Charlotte; he hides his marriage from the world ; he repeatedly abandons his wife for months at a time to live with Madame de Stael ; he makes his own father, a witness to the marriage, lie and proclaim there is no marriage. Constant's relations with Madame de Stael are totally indescribable. Mr. Harold Nicolson must be praised -for having made them even readable—which he achieves by dint of tactful omissions, yet saying enough to alarm the most unwary.
We must charitably suppose that the period is to blame. The age that saw Mirabeau, Danton, Marat, Robespierre and Napoleon as well as Lord Byron and Goethe was no doubt enough to unsettle anyone's morals or brains. Madame de Stael, on Mr. Nicolson's showing, makes an even worse picture than Constant • the scenes in which she refuses to let him go free, even when she knows he is now married, lower one's idea of human nature—but at least there is some intellectual coherence in Madame de Stael. In Benjamin Constant I can see none.
Yet Constant matured a little. An accident made him a cripple, so that his love affairs were put a stop to ; and his good wife had him—such as he was—to herself. He found a seat in Parliament and became a leader of the Liberals. Every political man or cultured person mistrusted him because of his past record, but the ignorant masses, knowing only of his pamphlets Ind articles, saw in him a defender of liberal ideai. He was a very popular publicist—but Providence at last took steps, and he died six months after the Revolution of 183o, when at last, under Louis Philippe, he might have played a decent and important part. Undoubtedly he was very brave physically.
Mr. Harold Nicolson's book must be unreservedly praised ; it is elegantly, indeed often charmingly, written. No novel can pretend to rival this story—unless it be the whole of Balzac put together ; there are enough subjects here for fifty ,novels. Yet Mr. Nicolson tells each successive story with enough detail to make it entrancing, and enough rapidity to give a very clear view. I have no doubt that Mr. Nicolson has done wisely by refraining from all moral con- demnation of his heroes and heroines ; the book would have become dull from constant reiteration of moral principles every page would have contained a sermon. But neither does Mr Nicolson palliate the offences. The readers can pronounce, the verdict.
Without Adolphe there would have been no good reason to write this book. So after all the reader will be tempted to try once more
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