4 h 58 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if reversing the rules of love only gives desire a new way to dominate?
Raoule de Vénérande has wealth, social standing, and little patience for the life expected of her. Then she meets Jacques Silvert, a poor young maker of artificial flowers whose beauty captures her attention. In Rachilde’s Monsieur Vénus, she brings him into a world of comfort, determined to reshape the roles of lover and beloved.
But Jacques has desires of his own, and his independence threatens Raoule’s ideal. His sister, Marie Silvert, sees opportunities in his connection with wealth, while Baron de Raittolbe becomes entangled in the relationship. Attraction gives way to jealousy and efforts at control, raising a troubling question: where does love end and ownership begin?
What you’ll discover
- A woman who commands Meet an aristocrat whose refusal of expected roles becomes an increasingly possessive attachment.
- Beauty under pressure Follow Jacques as material comfort draws him into a relationship that threatens his independence.
- The price of comfort See how Raoule’s money shapes an affair that is never a meeting of equals.
- Gender roles unsettled Explore a reversal of male and female roles that offers no simple escape from domination.
- Desire without peace Enter a dark, extravagant struggle where possession cannot quiet jealousy or satisfy an ideal.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy Paris in the 1880s, richly furnished scenes, bold heroines and stories of obsession will find much here. It also suits anyone curious about decadent fiction and its fascination with gender and desire.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A visit to a garret changes everything
- Raoule plans a rescue and a purchase
- The bath, the tears and the first bargain
- A dream, a rival and a fake rendezvous
- Jaja learns to be a wife
- Violence, jealousy and a wedding
- What the story is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Raoule de VénérandeA proud, rich young woman who wants to own a love that no one has invented before and plays the master.
- Jacques SilvertA poor flower maker with a beautiful face and soft manners, who is drawn into a life of luxury and surrender.
- Marie SilvertJacques's sister, a former prostitute who is quick, coarse and sharp, and who wants money and revenge.
- Baron de RaittolbeA former hussar officer and man of the world who becomes Raoule's confidant and rival, and who is troubled by what he sees.
- Madame ÉlisabethRaoule's aunt, a pious canoness who raised her niece and cannot imagine her ever falling.
- Martin DurandA cheerful architect from the people who wants to make his way into good society.
- Marquis de SauvarèsRaoule's elderly godfather, a gossip with a roving eye who sets the tone of the circle.
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 4 h 58 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 5 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Monsieur Vénus in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Monsieur Vénus
by Rachilde · 1884
A wealthy Parisian heiress climbs to a garret, finds a florist with a face like a girl's, and decides to buy him.
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In short
A rich young woman climbs seven flights of stairs to order flowers and walks out wanting to own the man who makes them. Monsieur Venus is a novel by Rachilde, published in Paris in the early 1880s.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A visit to a garret changes everything
Raoule climbs to a dark seventh floor looking for a florist named Marie Silvert. She finds Jacques instead, a young man of twenty-four with red hair and the soft skin of a child, wrapped in a garland of satin roses. He is standing in for his sick sister.
Raoule pays three hundred francs for work worth far less. She cannot stop herself from touching his chest. Jacques feels the touch as an insult and answers roughly, and she leaves ashamed.
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What is Monsieur Venus about?
It tells of Raoule de Vénérande, a wealthy Parisian, who falls for Jacques Silvert, a poor flower maker. She sets him up in a studio and tries to turn him into her ideal, which overturns the usual roles of man and woman.
Who wrote Monsieur Venus and when?
Rachilde, the pen name of the French writer Marguerite Eymery, published it in Paris in the early 1880s. It was one of her first novels and made her name in decadent literature.
What does the title Monsieur Venus mean?
The title joins a male form of address with the goddess of love. It points to Jacques, a man whose beauty and manners are described in feminine terms, and to the way the story reverses the roles of its lovers.
The author
Rachilde
1860–1953 · French Decadent novelist
Rachilde, the pen name of Marguerite Eymery, was a French novelist at the center of the Decadent movement, and Monsieur Vénus — her audacious study of desire and reversed roles — made her one of the most talked-about writers in 1880s Paris.
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