Items related to Paul and Virginia
Synopsis
Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814) was a French writer and botanist, best known for his 1787 novel Paul et Virginie. In 1803 he was elected to L'Académie Française. Paul and Virginia are very good friends since birth who fall in love. Written on the eve of the French Revolution, the novel records the fate of a child of nature corrupted by the false, artificial sentimentality prevalent among the upper classes of France.
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About the Author
Saint-Pierre was a naturalist and influential social critic as well as a successful author. A military engineer by training, he was instrumental in popularizing pastoral fiction.
From Publishers Weekly
Naturalist Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737–1814), a disciple of Rousseau, led a hardscrabble life until he published his one novel, Paul et Virginie, in 1788. The book catapulted him into wealth and fame, speeding through dozens of editions on its way to touchstone status for 19th-century lovers of sentimental tales—Flaubert used it as the exemplum of the pulp fiction that cheapened Madame Bovary's young mind. The plot (which also inspired Blue Lagoon) is this: Paul's mother and Virginie's mother, unmarried pregnant strangers when they meet on the tropical French outpost of Mauritius, become bosom friends in adversity. When their children are born, they and their two slaves (who conveniently marry each other), start up a farm on the island. The children are handsome, illiterate, casual about nudity, innocent of the slave labor that sustains them, and close as brother and sister until, inevitably, sexual and romantic feelings begin to muddy the crystal blue waters of their affection. Then Virginie's imperious, aristocratic aunt back in France demands her services, and she must part from Paul for the very first time. The second half of the story (told here in Donovan's elegant 1982 translation) has traditionally been read through a mist of tears. (Nov.)
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- PublisherWildside Press
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 1434456714
- ISBN 13 9781434456717
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages228
- Rating
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