Alexandre Dumas, La Dame aux camélias [The Lady of the Camellias]

Béatrice Vernier (Lakehead University)

Ed. by Tim Unwin, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1848

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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While the play

La Dame aux camélias

by Alexandre Dumas fils remains popular throughout the world, its lesser known source as a novel deserves equal attention. His third novel, it was the first to become a bestseller when published in 1848. The story describes the tragic love between the young bourgeois Armand Duval and a courtesan named Marguerite Gautier, a character largely inspired by Dumas fils’s short liaison with the famous Marie Duplessis (her real name was Alphonsine Plessis), who died prematurely of tuberculosis. Although the topic of courtesans was frequently addressed in nineteenth-century literature (see

Manon Delorme

by Victor Hugo,

Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes

by Honoré de Balzac,

Nana

by Zola, among others) Dumas fils wanted to show the courtesan in a…

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2486 words

Citation: Vernier, Béatrice. "La Dame aux camélias". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 October 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=31709, accessed 22 November 2024.]

Alexandre Dumas, La Dame aux camélias [The Lady of the Camellias]

Dates

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