The Blue Duchess

The Blue Duchess is the English translation of La Duchesse bleue, the 1898 novel by Paul Bourget (1852-1935), the French psychological novelist and member of the Académie française. The novel is set in the Parisian theatre world and turns on the actress who triumphs in the role of the Blue Duchess: the story is told by a painter who watches a cruel society intriguer manipulate the actress and the playwright who loves her, working out Bourget’s recurring themes of vanity, manipulation, and the suffering that worldly egoism inflicts on the sincere. The theatrical setting lets Bourget study the relation between performed and genuine emotion. The novel belongs to his mature period, after his turn toward moral and religious conservatism, and was widely translated. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.