7 h 53 minAudiobook7 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
In a world where manners rule, what happens when an old love refuses to stay in the past?
Lucile, known in society as the Countess de Nevers, has wit, charm, and a past she keeps private. Her life is tied to Lord Alfred Vargrave by an old attachment and lingering hurt. Around them, fashionable society in France and England makes its claims, and a careless word can do lasting harm.
Robert Bulwer-Lytton tells this romance in rhymed couplets, carrying you through drawing rooms and country houses with a lively, rolling rhythm. Matilda Darcy brings an open nature to this worldly company, while the proud Duke de Luvois and socially ambitious Lord Walter Vargrave add pressure. Love and loyalty meet pride, mistaken judgment, and the demands of rank.
What you’ll discover
- A woman with depth Meet Lucile, whose intelligence and generosity sit beside memories she does not readily share.
- The pull of old love Follow an attachment that binds Lucile and Alfred through old hurt and society’s claims.
- Drawing rooms under pressure Enter a polished social world where manners matter and careless words leave lasting wounds.
- A story carried by rhyme Let the rolling couplets draw you through a romance shaped like a novel.
- Room to pause Spend time with a long poem that pauses to comment on the world it portrays.
Who will love it
Readers of verse novels and of tender, spirited heroines will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A letter calls a betrothed man away
- Honor and regret pull in different directions
- A restless man meets a stranger on the road
- Lucile is calm, and Alfred is shaken
- A mountain storm sweeps away his defenses
- A letter of refusal leaves three hearts raw
- Years later a quiet marriage wears thin
- A friend steps in before harm is done
- Love, duty and pride drive the whole poem
Who’s who
- Lucile, Comtesse de NeversA witty, independent Frenchwoman of Indian birth who hides deep feeling behind charm and wants a love that will not cost her honor.
- Lord Alfred VargraveA gifted but unsteady English gentleman who is betrothed to Matilda and is pulled back toward the woman he once left.
- Matilda DarcyA young, lovely, sheltered English bride who longs to be truly loved and learns what that means.
- Duc Eugene de LuvoisA proud, passionate Parisian man of fashion who wants Lucile and cannot bear to lose.
- Cousin JohnAlfred's frank, kind and funny cousin, who gives plain advice and is ready to stand by his friends.
- Sir Ridley MacnabMatilda's pious banker uncle, who preaches thrift and faith and takes great care of his own interests.
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- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read today.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Lucile in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Lucile
by Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, conde de Lytton · 1860
A countess asks an old love to return his letters.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What happens when a man goes to keep a promise to a woman he left ten years ago? In Lucile, a novel in verse by Owen Meredith, the pen name of Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton, a letter from a French countess sends Lord Alfred Vargrave from Bigorre to Luchon in the Pyrenees while he is engaged.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A letter calls a betrothed man away
A short letter opens the poem. The Comtesse de Nevers, who goes by the name Lucile, writes to Lord Alfred Vargrave at Bigorre in the Pyrenees. She has heard he will marry Miss Darcy, and she asks him to bring back the letters they once swapped, as he promised long ago. Her tone is light, polite and a little teasing.
Alfred reads it with an unsteady hand. He is travelling with his cousin John and the golden-haired Matilda Darcy, and he has little to do but ride, smoke and flirt. The note lands in that boredom like a stone in a pond. The poet pokes fun at the quiet resort, where the only enemy is time itself.
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What is Lucile about?
It is a verse novel about a French countess, an English lord who once loved her, his young wife and a proud Duke. Their choices test honor, love and pride across the Pyrenees, a German spa and a war.
Who wrote Lucile and what is Owen Meredith?
Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton wrote it under the pen name Owen Meredith. He was the son of the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton and later became a diplomat and viceroy of India.
Is Lucile a true story?
No. The poem draws on real places such as Luchon, Bigorre and Ems, and on the Crimean War as a historical backdrop for its later part.
The author
Robert Bulwer-Lytton
1831–1891 · British poet and diplomat
Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton (1831–1891) was a British author and diplomat who wrote under the name Owen Meredith. He was born in London and died in Paris. His verse novel Lucile appeared in 1860. He served as Viceroy of India from 1876 to 1880 and later as British ambassador to France.
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