The lady of the Camellias - Alexandre Dumas

La Dame aux Camélias, here published in the translation by Edmund Gosse, first appeared in 1848 and was Dumas’ second novel. A dramatised version was produced in 1852, since when, the leading role has been taken by many great actresses from Bernhardt to Garbo. The story is of course familiar to opera lovers as the basis for Verdi’s La Traviata.

After a succession of rich lovers, Marguerite Gautier, known to all Paris as ‘The Lady of the Camellias’ because she was never seen without her favourite flower, falls passionately in love for the first time in her life with Armand Duval. He is the son of a respectable family, she a Second Empire courtesan. Their tragic affair is doomed. In masterly fashion Dumas created a legend, an enduring myth, which still has the power to evoke a sympathetic response from the modern reader.