Abstract: This study explores the relationship between the spirit of seriousness found in society and the experience of fictional immersion found in reading. We show that the confrontation between social convictions, characteristic of the spirit of seriousness, and fictional belief allowed the Romantic literature of the early nineteenth century to express the difficulty of breaking free from bourgeois ideology. This is why authors like Sand, Desbordes-Valmore, Nodier, and Vigny pilfered the reserves of the same paradoxical figure: the serious fool.
