Bernardin de Saint-Pierre - Paul et Virginie - 1863

1 volume, 8vo, half-chagrin and percaline, gilt edges, 330 pages, xxxvii-330 pages, serpents preserved, one page detached - Pleasant copy.

--------

Paul et Virginie is the masterpiece of Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814). Published in 1788 in the fourth volume of Études de la nature, then as a separate volume from 1789, this short novel enjoyed immense success in France and across Europe. It is regarded as one of the great French pre-Romantic texts.


Summary
The story unfolds on the Île de France (today Mauritius). Two French women, both victims of social prejudices, live there in seclusion with their children:

Paul, son of Marguerite;
Virginie, daughter of Madame de La Tour.
Raised together in generous nature and far from European conventions, Paul and Virginie develop an affection that becomes a deep love in adolescence.

Happiness is shattered when Virginie is forced to return to France to settle a inheritance matter with a wealthy aunt. After several years away, she returns by sea, but the ship Saint-Geran is wrecked off the coast of the island. Refusing to abandon the clothes that modesty forbids her to remove in order to swim, Virginie drowns before Paul, helpless. Struck by grief, Paul dies soon afterward.


The major themes
- Pure and innocent love;
- Nature as a model of virtue;
- Critique of social inequalities and aristocratic prejudices;
- The contrast between European civilization and the simplicity of natural life;
- Fatality and suffering;
- Sensibility, foreshadowing Romanticism.

Literary significance
Inspired by the thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre extols the natural goodness of human beings and denounces the corrupting effects of society. The novel inaugurates the French exotic novel and exerts a considerable influence on 19th-century Romantic literature. It is admired by authors such as Balzac, Flaubert, Alexandre Dumas, or Leconte de Lisle.

Today, Paul et Virginie remains a classic of French literature, appreciated for its blend of poetic descriptions of nature, moral reflection, and emotional tragedy.

--------

1 volume, 8vo, half-chagrin and percaline, gilt edges, 330 pages, xxxvii-330 pages, serpents preserved, one detached page - Pleasant copy.

--------

Paul et Virginie is the masterpiece of Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814). Published in 1788 in the fourth volume of Études de la nature, then as a separate volume from 1789, this short novel enjoyed immense success in France and across Europe. It is regarded as one of the great French pre-Romantic texts.


Summary
The story unfolds on the Île de France (today Mauritius). Two French women, both victims of social prejudices, live there in seclusion with their children:

Paul, son of Marguerite;
Virginie, daughter of Madame de La Tour.
Raised together in generous nature and far from European conventions, Paul and Virginie develop an affection that becomes a deep love in adolescence.

Happiness is shattered when Virginie is forced to return to France to settle a inheritance matter with a wealthy aunt. After several years away, she returns by sea, but the ship Saint-Geran is wrecked off the coast of the island. Refusing to abandon the clothes that modesty forbids her to remove in order to swim, Virginie drowns before Paul, helpless. Struck by grief, Paul dies soon afterward.


The major themes
- Pure and innocent love;
- Nature as a model of virtue;
- Critique of social inequalities and aristocratic prejudices;
- The contrast between European civilization and the simplicity of natural life;
- Fatality and suffering;
- Sensibility, foreshadowing Romanticism.

Literary significance
Inspired by the thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre extols the natural goodness of human beings and denounces the corrupting effects of society. The novel inaugurates the French exotic novel and exerts a considerable influence on 19th-century Romantic literature. It is admired by authors such as Balzac, Flaubert, Alexandre Dumas, or Leconte de Lisle.

Today, Paul et Virginie remains a classic of French literature, appreciated for its blend of poetic descriptions of nature, moral reflection, and emotional tragedy.