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Camille (The Lady of the Camellias) |
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Alexandre Dumas fils |
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Written by the illegitimate son of famed author of The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas, Camille is the story of the scandalous love between a beautiful Parisian courtesan and a prominent young man. He fell in love with her for her beauty, while she fell in love with him for his goodness. However, (as viewers of the recent movie Moulin Rouge, possibly loosely based on Dumas' book, know) love between such a woman and such a man can never last as it may begin. It is a sweet, touching story, full of sacrifice and love. With references to early 19th century Paris and France, it is a historical work in the sense that it relates the day-to-day life of such glamorous and scandalous women as the kept women of the day were. All told, it is a magnificently written book with many merits besides that of it being a classic love story. Dumas takes a rôle not often taken during his time period, that of a sympathizer with courtesans. In doing so, however, he reaches a newer, more open audience in today's readers, those who can appreciate the heart of gold that Marguerite has despite her outer appearance. His prose is poetic, yet not lacking flavor and substance, and is easy to read, thanks to the translation by Sir Edmond Gosse. "Then, when God allows love to a courtesan, that love, which at first seems like a pardon, becomes for her almost without penitence. When a creature who has taken all her past to reproach herself with is taken all at once by a profound, sincere, irresistible love, of which she had never felt herself capable;...They have lied so often that no one will believe them, and in the midst of their remorse they are devoured by their love." This book has been staged as a play many times since its original performance while Dumas was still alive and directing it, and has most recently been made into a movie starring Colin Firth and Greta Scacchi.
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