Title: The love affair as a work of art
First published: 1996
Description: Hofstadter "shows how these rediscovered documents [forgotten personal writing which has resurfaced in France] bear on the erotic lives of their writers, and how the fine French tradition of conducting love affairs developed as an art form....The romantic trajectory runs from Benjamin Constant and Mme. de Staël to the beautiful Mme. Récamier and her lover Chateaubriand; from George Sand and Alfred de Musset to Mme. de Caillavet and Anatole France; and it concludes with a touching portrait, based partly on still-unpublished sources, of the girl who became the model for Proust's Gilberte."--Jacket.
Subjects: Authors, French, Correspondence, French Authors, Love in literature, Love-letters, Relations with men, Relations with women, New York Times reviewed, Love, France, social life and customs, Man-woman relationships
Time periods: 19th century
LC classification: PQ147.5 .H64 1996