above all by her sense of humour. The chemistry was exactly right
between them—and so was the timing. The affection which now quickly
grew between them gave fresh purpose to both their lives.
It is a relief among so many biographical notices that emphasize an allegedly
pernicious influence exercised over Constant by Isabelle de Charrière to come across one
at least that is more clear-sighted. It is Edouard Laboulaye (1811–83) who, in his long
1861 article, rightly stresses the positive and sustaining nature of her affection. Noting
that in the letters they subsequently exchanged there was ‘the tone of genuine friendship’,
he adds that as they were both enemies of ‘platitudes’, Isabelle naturally encouraged in
the future author of Adolphe ‘that boldness of thought, ... that need to go deeply into
matters which explains the lucidity of his thinking and the clarity of his language’.^2 In Ma
Vie it is the ‘boldness of thought’ that Constant chooses to bring out:
Madame de Charrière had such an original and animated way of
looking at life, such contempt for received ideas, such vigour in her
thinking, and such a powerful and disdainful superiority over
ordinary mortals that, disdainful and out of the ordinary as I also
was at 20, I found a hitherto undreamt-of pleasure in talking to her.
I unhesitatingly abandoned myself to the delight of conversation
with her.^3It was in this state of mind that Constant at the same time was entering
upon a relationship (and possibly a sexual liaison) with Jeanne-Jacqueline-
Henriette Pourrat (1770–1835), known as ‘Jenny’, the rich 17-year-old
daughter of Augustine-Magdeleine Pourrat (c. 1740–1818), hostess of a
Parisian literary salon. His primary intention was to marry her and thereby
pay off the debts his gambling mania had caused him to amass. The only
other choice open to him was to leave Paris and face his father.
Understandably he preferred to try his luck with Jenny Pourrat, and wrote
to her mother asking for Jenny’s hand in marriage. She promptly sent back
a polite refusal, explaining that her daughter was already promised to
someone else. But Constant had reason to believe that there was still a
chance that he might succeed, since Madame Pourrat frequently left him
and her daughter together en tête à tête. Inexplicably he set about
beginning their relationship ‘in the most absurd manner imaginable’. At
no point could he bring himself to overcome his shyness sufficiently to be
able to speak to her of his ‘feelings’, but instead he wrote to Jenny
offering to elope with her, as if she were being forced to marry another
man against her wishes—which was not the case. And Constant kept up
his strange one-sided correspondence despite Jenny’s refusal, never
mentioning his letters when they were together. He persisted out of sheer
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