ABSTRACT
Paul Bourget's continued ambivalence towards the dilettante's condition is evident in the portrayal of Julien Dorsenne's novels, which has interesting connotations for the concept of literary dilettantism. A gradual shift towards a predominantly negative evaluation of dilettantism can be discerned towards the end of the decade and throughout the 1890s. There is a consensus that both Le Disciple and Cosmopolis can be read biographically as Bourget's rejection of his own dilettantism. Bourget returns to his analysis of contemporary morality in the novel Cosmopolis, written in 1892 and published in 1893. Bourget's portrayal of dilettantism in Cosmopolis combines a synthesis of his previous writings on the subject with the new reflection on the dilettante's existential condition. Bourget's sustained ambivalence towards dilettantism raises the question of his own dilettantism. The predominantly negative impression of dilettantism given in Le Disciple and Cosmopolis is symptomatic of the reaction against the concept around the start of the 1890s.
