{"id":31593,"date":"2019-09-24T05:36:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T03:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=31593"},"modified":"2019-09-15T19:09:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T17:09:18","slug":"french-literature-la-dame-aux-camelias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-literature-la-dame-aux-camelias\/","title":{"rendered":"French Literature – La Dame aux Cam\u00e9lias"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/em> (which incidentally helped to save the magnificent cathedral<\/a> the last time it was in need) or Alexandre Dumas<\/a>‘s Les Trois Mousquetaires<\/em> – are quite long and take real commitment. Others – like Alexandre Dumas fils’s La Dame aux Cam\u00e9lias<\/em> – are quick, compelling reads that you can enjoy in less time.<\/p>\n

La Dame aux Cam\u00e9lias<\/strong> \/ The Lady of the Camellias<\/em><\/p>\n

Written in the middle of the 19th century, La Dame aux Cam\u00e9lias<\/em> tells the tragic story of Marguerite Gautier, a French courtisane<\/strong> (courtesan, prostitute<\/em>) and her lover, Armand Duval. As Alexandre Dumas, fils<\/a> (the son of the prolific author of Les Trois Mousquetaires<\/em>) 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).<\/p>\n

I share a few lines of that intro here \u2026 You can click to reveal the English translations.<\/p>\n

Mon avis est qu’on ne peut cr\u00e9er des personnages que lorsque l’on<\/a> a beaucoup \u00e9tudi\u00e9 les hommes, comme on ne peut parler une langue qu’\u00e0 la condition de l’avoir s\u00e9rieusement apprise.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ouvrir<\/a><\/h4>\n
For me, one can only really create characters when they have really studied people, in the same way that one can only speak a language if they have really learned it.<\/em>
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

N’ayant pas encore l’age* ou l’on<\/a> invente, je me contente de raconter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ouvrir<\/a><\/h4>\n
Not having yet reached the age of invention, I’ll stick with relating.<\/em>
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

J’engage donc le lecteur \u00e0 \u00eatre convaincu de la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 de cette histoire, dont tous les personnages, \u00e0 l’exception de l’h\u00e9ro\u00efne**, vivent encore.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ouvrir<\/a><\/h4>\n
I call therefore on the reader to accept the truth of this story, one in which all of the characters, with the exception of the heroine, are still living.<\/em>
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

If you’d like to read the story for yourself, you can find on-line and t\u00e9l\u00e9chargeable<\/strong> (downloadable<\/em>) versions from Project Gutenberg here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the way, if you’d like to tackle Notre-Dame or Les Trois Mousquetaires, you can find them on Project Gutenberg as well. Both are amazing and well worth the effort to read in the original French.
\nNotre-Dame de Paris<\/a>
\nLes Trois Mousquetaires<\/a><\/div>\n

* Dumas, fils was only 23 years old when he wrote the novel.
\n**\u00a0Alerte spoiler!<\/em> (Spoiler alert!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

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…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":31599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[65759,228987],"class_list":["post-31593","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alexandre-dumas-fils","tag-french-literature"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t