Reading Order
Confession of a Child of the CenturyThe Confession of a Child of the Century Reading Order
The Confession of a Child of the Century (La Confession d'un enfant du siècle, 1836) by Alfred de Musset is the most historically explicit of the French mal du siècle texts — a semi-autobiographical novel in which Musset gives the most famous diagnosis of the generational malaise of the post-Napoleonic Romantic generation. The novel opens with what is perhaps the most famous historical diagnosis in French Romantic literature: the chapter in which the narrator (Octave de T.) explains the world-weariness of his generation as the result of their having been born between two eras — too late for Napoleon's empire (which had mobilized all the energy and ambition of France into military glory), and too early for the new industrial and democratic order that was still forming. Between these two worlds, the generation of 1815 is left with nothing to believe in and nothing to do: the fathers had fought and died for Napoleon, the sons had merely inherited the exhaustion of defeat. This diagnosis of the mal du siècle as a generational and historical condition (rather than an individual temperamental one, as in René) was enormously influential: it shaped the entire French Romantic generation's self-understanding. The autobiographical novel itself follows Octave's love affair with an older woman (a lightly fictionalized account of Musset's devastating relationship with George Sand, who left him for the Italian doctor Pietro Pagello during their trip to Venice in 1833–1834).
Where to start
The Confession of a Child of the Century (1836) — the Penguin Classics edition translated by David Coward is the most accessible English version; the New York Review of Books edition translated by Andrew Brown (2012) is also excellent. Read the first chapter's historical diagnosis first — it is the most famous section and sets up everything that follows.
Complete Confession of a Child of the Century Book List
- 1Buy
René
François-René de Chateaubriand·1802·The companion text that Musset's novel is developing and explicitly historicizing — where René's melancholy is individual and universal (the vague des passions afflicts the sensitive person in any era), Musset's historical chapter explains the same condition as a result of specific historical circumstances; the contrast between the two diagnoses is the central debate of the mal du siècle tradition. - 2Buy
Indiana
George Sand·1832·The novel by the woman whose relationship Musset fictionalized in the Confession — George Sand is the model for Brigitte Pierson in the novel; reading Indiana alongside the Confession gives the full picture of the Sand-Musset relationship from both perspectives. - 3Buy
The Life of Henry Brulard
Stendhal·1890·Stendhal's autobiographical novel (written 1835–1836, published posthumously) that is the companion historical-generational self-examination — Stendhal and Musset both examined their generation's historical formation; comparing the two gives the fullest picture of the post-Napoleonic generation's self-understanding. - 4Buy
Adolphe
Benjamin Constant·1816·The predecessor that the Confession is partly developing — where Adolphe dissects emotional paralysis in a specific relationship with cold analytical precision, Musset gives it a historical explanation and a warmer autobiographical form; the contrast shows the range of French Romantic psychological fiction. - 5Buy
Obermann
Étienne Pivert de Senancour·1804·The other great text of French Romantic pessimism that the Confession is in dialogue with — Obermann's metaphysical mal du siècle and Musset's historical mal du siècle are complementary diagnoses of the same generational condition.
Confession of a Child of the Century — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Confession of a Child of the Century about?
The Confession of a Child of the Century (1836) by Alfred de Musset opens with a famous historical diagnosis of the mal du siècle: the narrator (Octave de T.) explains his generation's world-weariness as the result of having been born between two eras — too late for Napoleon's empire, too early for the new industrial order. Between these two worlds, the generation of 1815 is left with nothing to believe in. The autobiographical novel then follows Octave's destructive love affair with an older woman (a fictionalized account of Musset's own devastating relationship with George Sand), using it to illustrate the consequences of the historical condition.
What is the relationship between The Confession of a Child of the Century and George Sand?
The Confession of a Child of the Century (1836) is Alfred de Musset's fictionalized account of his devastating relationship with George Sand, who left him for the Italian doctor Pietro Pagello during their trip to Venice in 1833–1834. Musset was 22 and Sand was 29 when they became lovers; the affair lasted about a year and a half and ended with Musset's breakdown and Sand's departure with Pagello. In the novel, the older woman (Brigitte Pierson) is a lightly fictionalized Sand; the relationship's emotional trajectory closely follows the real affair. Sand wrote her own account of the relationship in Elle et Lui (1859); Musset's brother Paul wrote a counter-account in Lui et Elle (also 1859).
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