Fernande

Overview

On itait au mois de mai 1835. Il faisait une de ces joyeuses journies de printemps pendant lesquelles Paris commence se dipeupler, tant tout ce qui n'est point condamni la capitale perpituiti a hbte d 'aller jouir de cette belle et franche verdure qui, chez nous, vient si tard et dure si peu.

Editorial Reviews

Available for the first time in English, this is an entertaining, if lesser novel of the great master. Unlike Dumas's rollicking historical romances, it is a morality piece, strictly 19th century in tone. Fernande, a beautiful, witty aristocrat, becomes a courtesan after being seduced at a young age by her guardian. She falls in love with the young Baron Maurice de Barthele and the two have a passionate romanceonly Maurice is allowed into her virginal white boudoirbut the relationship ends abruptly when Fernande discovers Maurice is already married. In a further reversal of the codes of conventional behavior, Maurice's mother sum mons Fernande to the family cha teau in hopes that she can cure Maurice of brain fever brought about by love sickness. Fully exploiting his satirical look at French society, Dumas makes the virtuous courtesan a catalyst for good who changes the lives of all the members of the de Barthele family. Shades of the sacrificial Camille are evident here, in the sentimental ending; Dumas fils later acknowledged his debt to his father's creation. (Jan.)

Author Information

Bio of Alexandre Dumas

After an idle youth, Alexandre Dumas went to Paris and spent some years writing. A volume of short stories and some farces were his only productions until 1927, when his play Henri III (1829) became a success and made him famous. It was as a storyteller rather than a playwright, however, that Dumas gained enduring success. Perhaps the most broadly popular of French romantic novelists, Dumas published some 1,200 volumes during his lifetime. These were not all written by him, however, but were the works of a body of collaborators known as "Dumas & Co." Some of his best works were plagiarized. For example, The Three Musketeers (1844) was taken from the Memoirs of Artagnan by an eighteenth-century writer, and The Count of Monte Cristo (1845) from Penchet's A Diamond and a Vengeance. At the end of his life, drained of money and sapped by his work, Dumas left Paris and went to live at his son's villa, where he remained until his death.

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Additional Info

Imprint

EBOOKSLIB

Filesize

440.34 KB

Number of Pages

N/A

eBook ISBN

9781102330639