Camille
Camille
La Dame aux Camilias
Book Excerpt
ll the knowledge of good and evil that God had perhaps given her, but that no one had ever thought of developing. I shall always remember her, as she passed along the boulevards almost every day at the same hour, accompanied by her mother as assiduously as a real mother might have accompanied her daughter. I was very young then, and ready to accept for myself the easy morality of the age. I remember, however, the contempt and disgust which awoke in me at the sight of this scandalous chaperoning. Her face, too, was inexpressibly virginal in its expression of innocence and of melancholy suffering. She was like a figure of Resignation.
One day the girl's face was transfigured. In the midst of all the debauches mapped out by her mother, it seemed to her as if God had left over for her one happiness. And why indeed should God, who had made her without strength, have left her without consolation, under the sorrowful burden of her life? One day, then, she realized that she was to have a child, and all that re
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Readers reviews
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I enjoyed this interesting romance and method which it was written. Translated into modern English, it reads easily and flows well. The story is told in first person of the lover through the author writing it, and is delivered as recited memory of the past relationship. Without giving things away, prepare for a sadness, it’s not the typical “happy ending” love story.
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It didn't move me emotionally like I thought it would. I wonder if I had just read the French version, if I could, there would have been more meaning.
07/05/2014
This story is about a demimondaine (a mistress-for-hire) named Marguerite Gautier. She leads a glamorous life, which is already crumbling when the story begins. The title "Camille" is taken from the original french title "La Dame aux camelias".
10/03/2013
A marvelous character analysis of a courtesan called Camille. I've always known that authors are the best psychoanalysts in the world, and Dumas shows his skill by accurately penetrating the pscyhe of the girl whose name is the title of this book.
11/23/2008