8 h 38 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 212 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 212 pagesAbout this book
What if the love that breaks your boredom also unsettles every careful arrangement in your life?
Thérèse Martin-Bellème has rank, a Paris salon and a husband who gives his energy to politics. Her lover, Robert Le Ménil, offers habit rather than happiness. Then she meets Jacques Dechartre, a shy painter and sculptor, and the polished life she knows begins to lose its hold.
In Anatole France’s The Red Lily, drawing rooms, dinner tables and a journey to Florence frame a close study of passion. As Thérèse seeks a love that feels real, jealousy presses against her hopes. Around her, poets, writers and politicians trade opinions, while quiet conversations expose the distance between polite manners and private longing.
What you’ll discover
- A woman beyond appearances Enter Thérèse’s thoughts as she weighs familiar comforts against the desire for something real.
- Love shadowed by jealousy Explore the uneasy line between wanting another person and wanting to possess them.
- Florence and growing closeness Follow Thérèse and Dechartre into a city where art and affection draw them together.
- The talk of Paris Meet poets and sceptics whose wit brings society’s money, manners and politics into focus.
- Irony with real tenderness Find a calm, attentive portrait of love that leaves room for painful questions.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who enjoy slow, psychological novels about love, jealousy and manners, and who like Florence, art and good talk. It may be less suited to anyone who wants fast plots or action, since much of it happens in conversation.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Thérèse rules a polished Paris salon
- A lover who offers habit, not happiness
- A sculptor enters and the room changes
- Le Ménil grows jealous and demanding
- Florence gives love a place to grow
- Passion arrives and brings its own trouble
- The book asks if love can forgive the past
- Society, politics and talk surround the lovers
- A calm voice, a symbol and a sharp irony
Who’s who
- Thérèse Martin-BellèmeA beautiful, intelligent society wife who is tired of irony and polite arrangements, and who longs for a love that asks something real of her.
- Jacques DechartreA shy and serious sculptor and painter who loves beauty and wants a love that is whole, and who is troubled by anything that shadows it.
- Robert Le MénilThérèse's lover, a handsome man of fashion, who wants to own her and cannot imagine love without possession.
- Monsieur Martin-BellèmeThérèse's husband, a deputy and ambitious politician, who gives his energy to parliament and his wife only his polite company.
- ChouletteA poet of odd habits and religious feeling who speaks in the salon with a mixture of piety and gentle mockery.
- Paul VenceA learned and sceptical writer who has read everything, believes little, and comments on society with quiet wit.
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- Hardcover
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- 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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The Red Lily — Complete
by Anatole France· 1894
A married woman’s love for an artist unsettles her life.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
Thérèse rules a polished Paris salon
The novel opens in the Paris of the 1890s, among people who have money, rank and leisure. Thérèse Martin-Bellème is at the center of this world. She is young enough to be admired and experienced enough to understand exactly what the admiration is worth. Her house is a place where politicians, writers, financiers and fashionable ladies meet.
Her husband, Monsieur Martin-Bellème, is a deputy, and he is ambitious. He gives most of his attention to parliament, to committees and to the careful climb toward a ministry. He is not cruel, and he is not a villain. He is simply a man whose passions are public ones, and his wife has learned to live beside him without asking for more.
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The author
Anatole France
1844–1924 · French novelist
Anatole France (1844–1924) was a French novelist, poet and essayist. He was born in Paris and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, France. His novels include The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), Thaïs (1890), The Red Lily (1894), Penguin Island (1908) and The Revolt of the Angels (1914).
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What is The Red Lily about?
It is about Thérèse, a married woman in Paris society who has a lover and then falls deeply in love with a sculptor. The story follows her love, his jealousy and the cost of a past that cannot be undone.
What does the red lily mean in the novel?
The red lily is the emblem of Florence, where much of the story takes place. In the book it also stands for love at its brightest and most dangerous, tied to beauty and the city itself.
When was The Red Lily written and is it a true story?
Anatole France published it in 1894. It is fiction, but it draws on the real Paris society and the Italian travels he knew well, and some characters echo people of his circle.
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