Fromont jr und Risler sr

by Alphonse Daudet

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from CHAPTER III THE FALSE PEARLS ?TER two or three years of intimacy with Claire, of sharing her amusements, years during which Sidonie acquired the familiarity with luxury and the graceful manners of the children of the wealthy, the friendship was suddenly broken. Cousin Georges, whose guardian M. Fromont was, had entered college some time before. Claire in her turn took her departure for the convent with the outfit of a little queen; and at that very time the Chebes were discussing the question of apprenticing Sidonie to some trade. They promised to love each other as before and to meet twice a month, on the Sundays that Claire was permitted to go home. Indeed, little Chebe did still go down sometimes to play with her friends; but as she grew older she realized more fully the distance that separated them, and her clothes began to seem to her very simple for Madame Fromont's salon. When the three were alone, the childish friendship which made them equals prevented any feeling of embarrassment; but vistors came, girl friends from the convent, among others a tall girl, always richly dressed, whom her mother's maid used to bring to play with the little Fromonts on Sunday. As soon as she saw her coming up the steps, resplendent and disdainful, Sidonie longed to go away at once. The other embarrassed her with awkward questions. Where did she live ? What did her parents do ? Had she a carriage? As she listened to their talk of the convent and their friends, Sidonie felt that they lived in a different world, a thousand miles from her own; and a deathly sadness seized her, especially when, on her return home, her mother spoke of sending her as an apprentice to Mademoiselle Le Mire, a friend of the Delobelles, who conducted a large false-pearl establishment on the Rue...

Genres: Literature, French Literature, France

322 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1874

About the author

Stories of life of French writer Alphonse Daudet of the naturalist school in his native Provence include Lettres de mon moulin (1869).

Louis Marie Alphonse Daudet authored novels. He was the younger brother of Ernest Daudet. He was married to Julia Daudet and the father of Léon Daudet, Lucien Daudet and Edmée Daudet, all writers.

Family on both sides belonged to the bourgeoisie. Vincent Daudet, the father, manufactured silk, but misfortune and failure dogged the man through life. A boyhood depressed Alphonse amid much truancy had. He spent his days mainly at Lyon, left in 1856, and began life as a schoolteacher at Alès, Gard, in the south. The position proved intolerable. As Charles Dickens declared that all through his prosperous career, the miseries of his apprenticeship to the blacking business haunted him in dreams, so after Daudet left Alès, he woke with horror, thinking for months that he still dwelt among his unruly pupils.

On 1 November 1857, he abandoned teaching and took refuge with Ernest Daudet, his brother only some three years his senior, who tried "soberly" to make a living as a journalist in Paris. Alphonse took to writing, and a small volume, Les Amoureuses (1858), collected his poems and met with a fair reception. He obtained employment on Le Figaro, then under energetic editorship of Cartier de Villemessant, and wrote two or three plays; those interested in literature began to recognize him as possessing individuality and promise. Morny, all-powerful minister of Napoleon III, appointed Daudet, who held a post of his secretaries till death of Morny in 1865, and Morny showed Daudet no small kindness. Daudet put his foot on the road to fortune.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Valantin]

Хубаво пише Доде, има прекрасен усет за пейзаж, описание, за реалност, за чувства и морал.
Историята сама по себе си е била лайт-мотив за епохата - напомня Зола и неговата "Дамско щастие", и също "Панаир на суетата" на Текери.

Цялата история и внушенията ѝ ми дойдоха малко дълги за история като тази, но простих, за да се насладя на изрази и метафори.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This late 1900s naturalism novel is in the mode of Zola et al. It has a typical, classic style drawing in the emotional inequity formed around a love triangle or more accurately square.

Risler a mature business inventor is in wallpaper factory with wealthy Georges Formont. They share a family as friends in the same apartment block, the Chebes and their young daughter Sidonie. Young brother Franz Risler is interested in Desiree the disabled daughter of old actor Delobelle but ultimately leaves the country so Georges marries is cousin Claire and Rilser Sidonie. Sidonie soon becomes the typical money grabbing, adulteress with Georges. business ruin is on the cards because Risler is blind to work.

This is a typical, well written example of French realism using many of the standard motifs of the genre - tragic death, the revelation of a letter, fraud to pay for a mistress. A good pot-boiler.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immensely solid and satisfying social novel of the classic French type. Anyone who enjoys 19th Century fiction ought to check this out!

[Lyre Dans Les Étoiles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah oui. Quand la quatrième de couverture parle de tragédies, ça n'est vraiment pas une blague. Oufti.

[Greta · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story, interesting characters, and a wonderfully descriptive look at a bygone era. So French. J’adore.