Alexandre Dumas, fils. La Dame aux Camélias. French ed. 1848; Amazon.com, 30 Mar 2011. E-book.

The author and title require a bit of explanation. The author is Alexandre Dumas, fils, that is Alexandre Dumas, Jr. He was the son of the famous novelist (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, etc.) and the grandson of the Napoleonic general. All three men had the same first and last name. Dumas, fils, mostly wrote plays, including an adaptation of this novel. Like Les Miserables, the title normally keeps its French name even in English. The stage adaptation is sometimes called Camille, which is a word play on the title. The main character of the novel is named Marguerite.

Marguerite is a beautiful courtesan. She lives a luxurious life in mid-nineteenth-century Paris. She appears in the various Parisian theaters in the evening to make her assignations. She normally carries a bouquet or corsage of camellias, hence her name.

Our narrator does not really know much about her until he attends her estate sale. He hears some things about her and, being a writer, is drawn to a copy of Manon Lescaut which is inscribed to her by someone named Armand. Manon Lescaut is an eighteenth-century French novel about a courtesan who gives up her occupation and even France for the man she loves. The man, the noble Chevalier des Grieux, naturally scandalizes his family. He has to renounce his title and leave France. It is romantic and complicated.

La Dame aux Camélias is similar to Manon Lescaut except that Armand is from a prosperous middle-class family, and it appears that Marguerite is the one who has to give up more. Because of the story frame of the estate sale, we know right from the beginning that Marguerite has died. Clearly the book was given to demonstrate how Armand felt about Marguerite, that he knew about her occupation but loved her anyhow.

Our narrator hears about Marguerite, and out of curiosity he visits her grave. He notes that someone has placed fresh camellias on it. Eventually, Armand tracks our narrator down because he is looking for the book he gave Marguerite. Virtually the entire story is a flashback told by Armand to our narrator.

Armand is clearly a naïf and out of his league when he tries to gain Marguerite’s attention and win her love. Most of her clients are noblemen or wealthy businessmen. She does befriend an old duke, apparently without any of the relations that the other men pay her for, because she resembles a daughter of his who has died. In other words, she has some tenderness and is not completely hardened and calculating. (At one point we meet another courtesan named Olympe, who is both, and she makes a contrast with our heroine who still has a heart.)

Eventually, Armand does win her love, and they spend an idyllic six months in the country falling in love. The plot is very sentimental and romantic. There are numerous complications for Armand to overcome to win her love. We also suspect that their love nest is going to be interrupted, and it is. As mentioned above, Marguerite has to give up more, but she is willing to do it for the love she has for Armand.

I recall a high school English teacher of mine saying that there is an old literary tradition of the virtuous prostitute. La Dame aux Camélias falls into that category. Yes, prostitution cheapens love, but Marguerite redeems herself through her loving actions towards Armand. To say any more would give away too much, but the love is real. And, as in many such stories of lovers, there are a number of misunderstandings which take a lot of time to straighten out.

There is not much lively action in La Dame aux Camélias as there are in the novels of the author’s father, but this is a kind of drawing-room novel which many readers have found appealing. Since we hear the story from Armand’s point of view, the author does a great job of describing young love. Readers of both sexes can respond to his feelings and reactions to things.

Like the novels of Dumas, père, [Senior] La Dame aux Camélias has had legs. There have been stage adaptations, as mentioned before, and the story is famously retold (again with different names of characters) in Verdi’s opera La Traviata. The title in Italian means “the fallen woman”—not an inappropriate title at all. The best operas tend to be the most emotional, and if La Traviata is anything like the novel that inspired it, that opera has to be one of the best.

P.S. One reason the French title remains even in English editions is that, like Les Miserables, the title does not translate perfectly. It means something like “the lady with the camellias” but there is a greater identification, more like “the lady of the camellias” or “at the camellias” or “in the camellias.” It has been translated into English several times. Having recently read and reviewed a book about General Dumas and having translated some pieces that inspired Dumas, Sr., to write The Count of Monte Cristo, I realized that I had never read a book by Dumas, Jr. It was time. And it was very sentimental.