The Lady of the Camellias

By Alexandre Dumas fils, Alexandre Dumas, Alejandro Dumas hijo, et al.

Book Overview

The landmark novel that inspired Verdi's opera La Traviata, in a sparkling new translation

"One of the greatest love stories of all time," according to Henry James, and the inspiration for Verdi's opera La Traviata, the Oscar-winning musical Moulin Rouge , and numerous ballets, stage plays (starring Lillian Gish, Eleonora Duse, Tallulah Bankhead, and Sarah Bernhardt, and films (starring Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Rudolph Valentino, Isabelle Huppert, and Colin Firth), The Lady of the Camellias itself was inspired by the real-life nineteeth-century courtesan Marie Duplessis, the lover of the novel's author, Alexander Dumas fils.

Known to all as "the Lady of the Camellias" because she is never seen without her favorite flowers, Marguerite Gautier, the most beautiful, brazen, and expensive courtesan in all of Paris. But despite having many lovers, she has never really loved--until she meets Armand Duval, young, handsome, and hopelessly in love with her.

"Marguerite and Armand are the kind of bright, self-destructive young things we still read about in magazines, watch on-screen, or brush up against today."
--Liesl Schillinger, from the Note on the Translation

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 014310702X
• ISBN13: 9780143107026
• Release Date: June 2013
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A "Regular People" Review

I decided to read this book because it is the story that the opera La Traviata is based on and I wanted to read the story before experiencing the opera. With that said I am very looking forward to seeing the opera. This book was a very good, short read and the story was for the most part, moving along at a good pace. I believe that this book would be ideal for a person interested in starting to read classic literature, but great for anyone, so go read it....and keep me updated!

beautifully written book

A beautifully written book whose basic plot and story line are the basis of the new Moulin Rouge movie. A young naive man, who falls for the most beautiful courtesan in Paris, has to contend with his father's interference, her more sophisticated lovers, and her eventual death by consumption. This book follows a long tradition of great novels that were about the lives and loves of women.

Must-read preparation for Verdi's "La Traviata"

As an operatic soprano, I found it invaluable to read this Dumas classic in preparation for the role study of Violetta (Marguerite), the character in Verdi's opera, "La Traviata". Based on "La Dame Aux Camelias", the libretto concisely follows the plot of the novel. The novel provides much more background information which helps fill in the blanks left by the opera. One gets much more of a sense of the kind of life the heroine is leading, her extreme youth, and the financial circumstances surrounding her life and death. It is interesting how the opera librettist threw in more dramatic conventions for more of a punch: for instance, Alfredo (Armand) humiliating at a party after she leaves him, and the father revealing the truth to his son, which he tells the heroine in a letter, and which leads both men to her side for her death bed scene. I highly recommend this novel to any opera lovers and singers, as I would recommend the opera to anyone who has enjoyed this book.

Love in hateful society

This is a very moving story. The love between Marguarite and Armand could not survive the hypocritical French society of the time, with its "honour, guilt, and shame," because no-one ever dared to challenge it. It is an entrapping read, from the very first page.