Astolphe, Marquis of Custine (1790-1857), author of La Russie en 1839 (1843) and a significant figure of 19th century literature, was the victim of an unbelievably violent aggression in October 1824, after having given an assignation to a young soldier. The Marquis’ homosexuality, once it had become widely known, led to his being ostracised from “society” ; this ostracism divided his life between a “before” and an “after”. We will try to establish as precisely as possible the facts of the “Custine scandal” in the hope of bringing to light the reasons for an ostracism so extreme it does not seem to have met its peer during the first half of the 19th century.