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The Girl Who Loved Camellias The Life and Legend of Marie Duplessis Julie Kavanagh Books

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The Girl Who Loved Camellias The Life and Legend of Marie Duplessis Julie Kavanagh Books

As far as I know this is the "only" full-length English language biography of Marie Duplessis, a name that few Americans would recognize. The author herself mentions her need to study French in order to read what other writers had to say about Marie, including several who met her. The problem is that few of her letters survive and she kept no journals or diaries that anyone is aware of, so what we know about Marie is always based on how others saw her and remembered her.

In her lifetime, she was a well-known courtesan - a fashion tend-setter who could often be seen at the theater or at her box at the opera, a woman whose name was mentioned in whispers. While she wasn't invited to the places where she might mingle with "respectable" women, her home became a salon to some of the most well-known and accomplished men. If she is remembered today it is primarily as the woman who inspired the opera La Traviata and the Greta Garbo movie, Camille. Of course, long before Anna Netrebko put on that red dress, there was a novel, La Dame Aux Camilias, written by a young man with a famous name - Alexander Dumas fils. When the novel came out, shortly after Marie's death at age twenty-three from "consumption," it was viewed as an account of their relationship, though Dumas admitted that much of it, including the idea of the whore with a heart who makes a great sacrifice for a "love" was pure fiction. Once the play of the same name became popular, Marie as Marguerite Gautier belonged to the world.

While the book is heavily sourced, Kavanagh quotes often from the Dumas' novel and play, even though these are both fictional portrayals. The author sometimes speculates, for instance wondering if the close relationship Marie had with another courtesan had a "sapphic" character, but also telling us that if it did, Marie would have kept that to herself. Later Kavanagh imagines that a "friend," who was said to have been staying with Dumas while he was writing his book, might have been another of Marie's lovers, and the true inspiration for the character of Armand, but she offers no evidence that Dumas was more than causally acquainted with that particular rival.

The book is useful for learning about Marie's milieu the demimonde, and its interaction and connection to the larger world. There is no modern-day equivalent of the great courtesans. These were women who were celebrated and known. They were independent operators who could choose their alliances, at a time when women had few choices. Unlike the ladies who could not be present when men gathered to speak frankly of ideas, politics and even art, women like Marie were expected to be there and participate.

But there are mysteries at the book's core which are never solved. How did uneducated, abused Alphonsine Plessis manage to transform herself into the glamorous and wealthy Marie Duplessis? That is, we know who kept her and have the dates, but why her? What was it about her in particular? It's hard to know how Marie actually "felt" about anything. She was known to lie, having once quipped, "I lie to keep my teeth white." Often people who knew her wrote entirely different versions of the same events. So while Kavanagh manages to fill in some blanks, we are left with an empty space at the center, and the question remains: Who was Marie Duplessis?


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The Girl Who Loved Camellias The Life and Legend of Marie Duplessis Julie Kavanagh Books Reviews

Interesting woman, interesting times
The true story is amazing but I found the book well researched but lacking somehow ...
Enjoyed the book. Written as a history so if your looking for a romance novel or a historical fiction this is not the book for you. Well researched with a smooth timeline- a great window into 1800's Paris
I found this biography compelling in a number of ways. The subject was treated with compassion and understanding within a solidly researched context. In many respects, the Lady of the Camellias has been so often and interestingly made part of our culture and Western Art, that it was moving to be able to look behind the novels, the movies, the opera etc. to discover a quite remarkable, sensitive, resilient and ultimately tragic woman who was little more than a child in a difficult world. Beautifully and sensitively written.

The Book Worm.
Lovely bio beautifully researched and told. Fascinating story that she inspired. I was so amazed when I first figured out on my own that Violetta of the opera and Camille of the movie were one and the same. And to realize they were based on a real life person, an enchanting woman, really just a girl, who mingled with so many of the outstanding personalities of her day. Author traced many interesting details of her real and legendary life, pulling out the threads to distinguish which was which. Wonderful illustrations also, although I wish they could have been intermingled with the text. Very highly recommended.
I thought this was very good in presenting what the times were like in which she lived, the people who were part of her life and is obviously well researched. The problem seems to be that there isn't all that much that is known about her and parts of the book are based on the plays and operas that her life inspired but were of course fictionalized. Some events in her life are looked at from multiple viewpoints that leave you wondering what was the truth. The book was, for me, kind of a dry read. I did not feel this fascinating character was brought to life.
This book is a very well done biography of someone who captivated an age and continues to reach millions through the various pieces of art that immortalize her (the opera La Traviata, the ballet Marguerite and Armand, the novel, play, and ballet La dame aux caméllias, and the dozens of movies, notably Greta Garbo's Camille). Some people may be put off by the fact that such a biography has to include a decent amount of scholarly speculation; however, this is one of a historian's main jobs, especially when dealing with a figure who does not have much documentation of her public life and very little left behind of her private life. Kavanagh draws well on every source available to her to craft Marie's story and brings the real person- not the legend- to life as much as a modern historian can. She makes excellent judgement calls based off her knowledge of the time period and by comparing the sometimes conflicting documents as well as fiction to come to a conclusion. This book left this student of both opera and history thoroughly informed, entertained, and fascinated.
As far as I know this is the "only" full-length English language biography of Marie Duplessis, a name that few Americans would recognize. The author herself mentions her need to study French in order to read what other writers had to say about Marie, including several who met her. The problem is that few of her letters survive and she kept no journals or diaries that anyone is aware of, so what we know about Marie is always based on how others saw her and remembered her.

In her lifetime, she was a well-known courtesan - a fashion tend-setter who could often be seen at the theater or at her box at the opera, a woman whose name was mentioned in whispers. While she wasn't invited to the places where she might mingle with "respectable" women, her home became a salon to some of the most well-known and accomplished men. If she is remembered today it is primarily as the woman who inspired the opera La Traviata and the Greta Garbo movie, Camille. Of course, long before Anna Netrebko put on that red dress, there was a novel, La Dame Aux Camilias, written by a young man with a famous name - Alexander Dumas fils. When the novel came out, shortly after Marie's death at age twenty-three from "consumption," it was viewed as an account of their relationship, though Dumas admitted that much of it, including the idea of the whore with a heart who makes a great sacrifice for a "love" was pure fiction. Once the play of the same name became popular, Marie as Marguerite Gautier belonged to the world.

While the book is heavily sourced, Kavanagh quotes often from the Dumas' novel and play, even though these are both fictional portrayals. The author sometimes speculates, for instance wondering if the close relationship Marie had with another courtesan had a "sapphic" character, but also telling us that if it did, Marie would have kept that to herself. Later Kavanagh imagines that a "friend," who was said to have been staying with Dumas while he was writing his book, might have been another of Marie's lovers, and the true inspiration for the character of Armand, but she offers no evidence that Dumas was more than causally acquainted with that particular rival.

The book is useful for learning about Marie's milieu the demimonde, and its interaction and connection to the larger world. There is no modern-day equivalent of the great courtesans. These were women who were celebrated and known. They were independent operators who could choose their alliances, at a time when women had few choices. Unlike the ladies who could not be present when men gathered to speak frankly of ideas, politics and even art, women like Marie were expected to be there and participate.

But there are mysteries at the book's core which are never solved. How did uneducated, abused Alphonsine Plessis manage to transform herself into the glamorous and wealthy Marie Duplessis? That is, we know who kept her and have the dates, but why her? What was it about her in particular? It's hard to know how Marie actually "felt" about anything. She was known to lie, having once quipped, "I lie to keep my teeth white." Often people who knew her wrote entirely different versions of the same events. So while Kavanagh manages to fill in some blanks, we are left with an empty space at the center, and the question remains Who was Marie Duplessis?