This is the story of the ill-fated romance of Marguerite Gautier, a beautiful and brazen young courtesan of Paris, and Armand Duval, her passionate aristocratic lover. After becoming his mistress, Marguerite grows emotionally attached, returning Armand's love and living with him in the country in order to recover her health. Estranged from his family and deeply in debt, Armand is confronted by his father who demands an end to the illicit relationship. When Armand defies him, Monsieur Duval convinces Marguerite to release her beloved to secure his future and protect his reputation.
Marguerite dies alone and in agony from consumption.
The protagonist, Marguerite Gautier, embodies the romanticized construction of the disease, thought to affect those individuals who were emotionally sensitive, sexually passionate, physically fragile and highly creative. The visible symptoms of slenderness, languidness and fever not only enhance her attractiveness to characters within the narrative but also evoke sympathy outside it among audiences who might otherwise have been inclined towards harsher moral judgments of her. Only by literally ceasing the activity of daily life could one hope to arrest the ravages of the disease. Miscellaneous Translated by Sir Edmond Gosse. This edition includes 15 pages of photographs from stage productions and film adaptations.