Paul Delbouille - Böcker

Volume VI of the »Complete Works« contains the first two of the Intimate Journals, the full-length Journal (1804-1805) and the abridged version (1804-1807), complete with an exhaustive description of notable features in the manuscripts and a set of notes far broader in scope than those of the first edition (1952). The Journals are followed by a hitherto unedited dossier kept by Constant on the financial differences between himself and his father. This document, titled »Affaire de mon père«, enhances our understanding of the complex relations between the two men. The volume also provides a useful critical apparatus including a chronology, a list of works cited by Constant, a bibliography, indexes of personal and place names, etc.

Volume 7 contains the journal written in Greek characters and kept by the author between 1811 and 1816. It traces his itinerary from the point where he left Switzerland for Germany up to his return to Paris under the Second Restoration. The journal records Constant's stay in Germany, the Cent-jours, his volte-face to Napoleon and the Empire, and his exile in London, alongside the author's errant sentimental attachments to Charlotte von Hardenberg, Juliette Récamier, and Mme de Staël, and his ongoing scholarly aspirations and frustrated political ambitions. The journal is followed by the carnet written after an accident, and a series of notebooks on his expenses, which Constant kept to his death. The texts come with the usual resources: a chronology, a record of the author's movements, listings of persons and proper names, a bibliography, and various indexes.