The Lady of the Camellias

“I looked at her with love and almost with terror, as I contemplated what I was ready to suffer for her sake.”

This is a beautiful novel. It is a great solace to discover a new, vibrant book from the canon.

This book, published in 1848, makes a perfect companion piece to Émile Zola's Nana (1880). They both depict prostitutes, a popular subject of the French nineteenth-century Naturalists.

There are many similarities between the two novels, but Dumas's depiction of his character is more romantic than Zola's—because he is describing his own real experience of having been “l'amour du coeur” of courtesan Marie Duplessis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Duplessis).

On the other hand, Zolas's character, Nana Coupeau, is a composite of various nineteenth-century demi-mondaines, such as Blanche d'Antigny, Anna Deslions, Delphine de Lizy, and Hortense Schneider.

Zola also drew inspiration for Nana from a Parisian courtesan he met, Valtesse de La Bigne. For example, both Zola's character Nana and Valtesse de La Bigne had elaborately decorated beds. De La Bigne's bed is shown on her wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valtesse_de_La_Bigne.

Valtesse de La Bigne is also the inspiration for Valtesse, a Seattle burlesque troupe (https://www.valtesseproductions.com/), which shows our enduring interest in courtesans.