What is love?I suppose everyone has a diffierent definition.If gived you a choice between to love and to be loved,which one would you prefer?Today I want to introduce my most favorite book The Lady of the Camellias.
The Lady of the Camellias are the novel and play by the son of Alexander Dumas, France's literary lion.It’s a story of Marguerite Gautier, a young courtesan, in Paris in the mid 1800's; it’s a story of how she fell in love with a young man, Armand Duval, and then tried to escape from her questionable past; it’s a story of how she ended up returning to her former life and died painfully and lonely.The main plot of the story is that their love can really never be allowed because of society's strict standards.
The novel unfolds in a flashback¬ -- Armand Duval overcome by his memories, begins to tell his story.The lead heroine is Marguerite Gautier, who is a "kept woman" by counts and dukes -- men of "Fashionable Society". She meets a young middle class lover Armand Duval who does the unpardonable thing of falling jealously in love with her and breaking all convention of what's expected between a courtesan and her admirers. He, of course, has no way of sustaining the standard of living which she is accustomed.
In her fragile physical state she moves to the country. There in her new house, a confrontation between the jealous Armand and her rich admirers and "benefactors" takes place. For the first time she sticks up for her lover -- making a life choice -- and they are left indignantly and alone.
Armand becomes depressed, his career seems doomed by the intolerance of French society, and knowing he will never be able to support Marguerite to the level she deserves. Unbeknownst to Armand, his father comes to plead for her to leave Armand to save both his son's reputation and that of his younger innocent sister -- whom is also tainted by the scandal. To prove her love, she agrees and leaves Armand. Suffocated by the society she lives in as much as by a...