Lady with camellias

The narration is conducted in the first person. On March 12, 1847, the narrator read an announcement that a sale of furniture and luxury items from the deceased owner, courtesan Margaret Gauthier, would take place in a rich house. The hero appears at the auction and under the influence of a sudden urge for a very large amount buys out the book " Manon Lesko ", inscribed by a certain Armand Duval. A few days later Arman himself is announced - a handsome young man who has just returned from a trip. He begs to resell the book to him, and thus the narrator learns the story of Margarita Gauthier, "ladies with camellias."

For the first time, Arman Duvall saw her in the theater and fell in love at first sight, although Margarita only laughed at him. Under a plausible pretext, he came to visit and was amazed that a woman dying from consumption consumes so much, receives guests until late at night, and goes to bed only in the morning. Seizing the moment, Arman confesses his love, and Margarita agrees to become his mistress. She says: "I have long been looking for a lover of a young, submissive, selflessly in love, requiring nothing but my love." However, over time, Margarita is imbued with a reciprocal feeling. She abandons her patrons and secrets with Arman in the village. Lovers lead an idyllic life until Armand discovers that Margarita, accustomed to luxury, turns out to secretly sell her property to pay off her debts. Arman's father, Georges Duval, finds out about their financial hardships. In the absence of a son, he comes to Margarita and asks her to save Arman from ruin:

My son has no fortune, but he wants to sacrifice for you the inheritance of his mother. If he accepts from you the gift that you want to bring him, honor and dignity oblige him to provide you in case of misfortune. But he cannot accept your sacrifice, because a light that you do not know will misinterpret his consent and tarnish our name. No one will ask themselves if Arman loves you and whether you love him, whether this mutual love is happiness for him and salvation for you. All will note only that Arman Duvall allowed his landlady ... to sell for him everything she had.

Margarita breaks with Armand and returns to Paris . She resumes the old way of life, which exacerbates the disease, again converges with patrons. Arman decides that he was simply abandoned and cruelly avenges: he finds a new lover named Olympia and constantly appears with her in front of Margarita. Exhausted Margarita leaves for England, Arman in response also goes to travel. On the road, he learns about the death of Margarita, immediately goes back, but does not even have time to auction.

The novel immediately became very popular. The playwright Siroden advised Dumas to remake it into a play. Having finished the work, he showed it to his father, who was delighted. Dumas the father was going to put it in his Historical Theater, but the events of the revolution of 1848 prevented it . In 1850, Alexander Dumas reworked the drama. The Vaudeville Theater took her to the production. But an obstacle arose: the plot for that time was bold, police minister Leon Faucher banned the play. Dumas unsuccessfully turned to the censor de Beaufort - the ban remained in effect. Madame , who was supposed to play the role of Margarita, in her efforts about the play reached Louis Napoleon , whom she met in London. At one of the rehearsals, the Prince-President’s uterine brother, the Duke of Morney , came and demanded a “moral certificate” for the play, signed by three famous writers. Dumas-son showed the drama to Jules Janin , Leon Gozlan and Emil Ogier , and they recommended it for production. However, even this did not help. Only after the coup on December 2, Morney, who succeeded Faucher for a short time, lifted the ban on staging ^[2] .

• The Lady with Camellias (film, 1912) - French silent film , starring Sarah Bernhardt .
• The Lady with Camellias (film, 1915) is an English silent film, in the writing of the script of which Francis Marion took part.
• The Lady with Camellias (film, 1917) - an American silent film, the role of Margarita Gauthier was played by Ted Bara . Currently considered lost ^[3] .
• A Lady with Camellias (film, 1921) is an American silent film starring Rudolf Valentino and Alla Nazimova .
• The Lady with Camellias (film, 1926) is an American silent film, starring Norma Tolmege and Gilbert Roland . For a long time it was considered lost ^[4] .
• Camille: The Fate of a Coquette is an American silent film by Ralph Barton, starring Paul Robson , Sinclair Lewis , Anita Luz ^[5] .
• The Lady with Camellias (film, 1936) is an American film with Robert Taylor and Greta Garbo , who received an Academy Award nomination for this role. He is included in the list of 100 most passionate American films and in the list of 100 best films according to Time magazine in 2005 ^[6] .
• The Lady with Camellias (film, 1962) - Spanish feature film, film adaptation of director Alfonso Balcazar, starring Sarah Montiel .
• The Lady with Camellias (film, 1976) - television movie , cast - Kate Nelligan , Peter Firth , Alfred Burke , director - Robert Knights
• The Lady with Camellias (film, 1978) is a German film directed by Tom Tölle , starring Eric Pluar , Tatyana Ivanova .
• The true story of a lady with camellias (film, 1981) is a biographical feature film about the life of Marie Duplessis , directed by Mauro Bolognini, starring Isabelle Huppert .
• The Lady with Camellias (film, 1984) is a television movie starring Greta Skakki , Colin Firth , John Gilgud .
• A Lady with Camellias (1990 play) - staged by the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army , directed by Alexander Burdonsky
• A Lady with Camellias (film, 1994) - Vietnamese feature film, film adaptation of director Chiang Phong based on a script by Kim Kyong.
• The Lady with Camellias (film, 1995) - Polish feature television film adaptation, director Jerzy Antczak . Starring Anna Radwan.
• The Lady with Camellias (film, 2005) - starring Francesca Neri .
• Marguerite and Arman (ballet) - ballet based on the play "Ladies with Camellias" and the opera La Traviata, choreography and staging by Frederick Ashton, music - Ferenc Liszt , ballet was created in 1963 specifically for the dance duet - Margot Fontaine and Rudolf Nureyev .
• The Lady with Camellias (ballet, 2008) - choreography and production - John Neumeier, music - Frederic Chopin.
• Lady with Camellias (ballet, 2010) - staged by the Tatar Academic State Opera and Ballet Theater. M. Jalilia . Choreography by Alexander Polubentsev. ^[7]
• Violetta (film, 2011, Italy) - directed by Antonio Frazzi. Starring Vittoria Puccini.
• A lady with camellias (performance, 2012 ) is a melodrama ^{[8] of the} State Russian Drama Theater of Udmurtia ( Izhevsk ), directed by Viktor Prokopov ^[9] .
• A Lady with Camellias (play, 2013 ) - a plastic play ^{[10] by} Sergey Zemlyansky ^[11] , Moscow Drama Theater. A.S. Pushkin (as Margarita Gauthier - Anastasia Panina )

• Traviata

• The full French text of the novel (Fr.) on the site of the Gutenberg project .