France has supplied the world with some of its greatest writers. I often return to my favorites to keep up my skills. Some – like Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris (which incidentally helped to save the magnificent cathedral the last time it was in need) or Alexandre Dumas‘s Les Trois Mousquetaires – are quite long and take real commitment. Others – like Alexandre Dumas fils’s La Dame aux Camélias – are quick, compelling reads that you can enjoy in less time.

La Dame aux Camélias / The Lady of the Camellias

Written in the middle of the 19th century, La Dame aux Camélias tells the tragic story of Marguerite Gautier, a French courtisane (courtesan, prostitute) and her lover, Armand Duval. As Alexandre Dumas, fils (the son of the prolific author of Les Trois Mousquetaires) tells us in the intro to the novel, the story is based on real events (ones that history tells us transpired between him and his own lover, Marie Duplessis).

I share a few lines of that intro here … You can click to reveal the English translations.

Mon avis est qu’on ne peut créer des personnages que lorsque l’on a beaucoup étudié les hommes, comme on ne peut parler une langue qu’à la condition de l’avoir sérieusement apprise.

N’ayant pas encore l’age* ou l’on invente, je me contente de raconter.

J’engage donc le lecteur à être convaincu de la réalité de cette histoire, dont tous les personnages, à l’exception de l’héroïne**, vivent encore.

If you’d like to read the story for yourself, you can find on-line and téléchargeable (downloadable) versions from Project Gutenberg here.

* Dumas, fils was only 23 years old when he wrote the novel.
** Alerte spoiler! (Spoiler alert!)