Novel
Paul and Virginia
Paul et Virginie
Opening lines
Sur le côté oriental de la montagne qui s’élève derrière le Port-Louis de l’Isle-de-France, on voit, dans un terrain jadis cultivé, les ruines de deux petites cabanes.
On the eastern side of the mountain that rises behind Port Louis in the Isle of France, there can be seen, on land once cultivated, the ruins of two small cabins.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from fr.wikisource.org
Synopsis
On the Île de France, an old man tells a traveller the story of the inhabitants of two cabins now abandoned. Two women, Mme de La Tour, an aristocrat, and Marguerite, a peasant, had taken refuge there after being dishonoured; there they raised their children, Paul and Virginia, together as brother and sister, and farmed a small plantation with the help of their slaves, Domingue and Marie. The children grow up in lush nature, far from society.
Context
The story appeared as the fourth volume of a work of natural history by its author, before being published separately because of its success. The story is told by an old man who knew both families. The book also takes a look at slavery, notably in the episode where the children try to help a runaway slave and discover the cruel consequences of their intervention.
Who it is for
A short narrative, openly pathetic, in the language of the eighteenth century, rich in descriptions of tropical nature.
Prizes and reception
An immediate success, it became a reference for the Romantic writers and left its mark as far as Flaubert.
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