Camille (La Dame Aux Camilias)
Alexandre Dumas fils turned his brief affair with the courtesan Marie Duplessis into one of the nineteenth century’s great tragic love stories. Marguerite Gautier reigns over fashionable Paris, admired for her beauty and known by the camellias she wears, yet she is quietly dying of consumption. When the earnest young Armand Duval falls for her, she risks giving up her glittering, ruinous life to be with him, only to sacrifice their happiness under pressure from his father, who fears the scandal will taint the family. Tender and mournful, the novel exposes the cruelty a respectable society reserved for women it both desired and despised. It later inspired Verdi’s opera La Traviata and countless stage and film versions. A free PDF and EPUB edition is offered here.
