Chapter 1 gives an account of the historiographical and methodological framework of the book. It defines the politique problem as a problem both in the sense of difficulty and of cognitive challenge, and the point that this book offers a literary take on the politique problem as well as an analysis of how literature helped create that problem. Then it addresses the specific context of the book within broader histories of political thought, the historiography of the term politique and the associated political party. Following this, I outline the keywords and word-historical methods used, and indicate the basis on which I selected the sources analysed. Finally I consider the politics of the study itself and its bearing on what the political is in a more transhistorical sense.