Résumé
Résumé de Le Mariage de Gabrielle
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who love Parisian society, old money meeting new, and romances where honor and pride are tested will find much here. It suits anyone drawn to nineteenth-century French fiction with warm humor and a clear, generous heart.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Gabrielle's Marriage is a French novel by Daniel Lesueur, the pen name of the writer Jeanne Loiseau. It is set in Paris and its leafy suburbs a few years after the war of 1870, when the young Republic has shaken the old order. Noble families with empty purses look down on rich merchants, and rich merchants dream of coats of arms. The author builds a love story on that quarrel, a story of money, honor and the courage to follow your own heart.
Two people stand at the center. René de Laverdie is a charming count of twenty-eight who has gambled away a princely fortune. Gabrielle Duriez is eighteen, quick, warm and independent, the daughter of a Paris commission merchant and the goddaughter of an elderly marquise. René agrees to marry her for her money and gives the matter little thought. Gabrielle, who has already begun to dream of him, is about to learn what he really wants.
What does the book give you? It gives you two worlds seen from inside, each with its pride and its blind spots, a heroine who thinks for herself, and a hero who must discover what he is worth. It also gives you vivid scenes: a ruined gambler sleeping among Gothic tapestries, a rescue on a country road, a duel after a summer ball. Let us begin with the morning after René loses his last coins at cards.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A ruined count chooses a rich brideFree
- 2A goddaughter dreams of a staircase
- 3Two families meet at Montretout
- 4A cold suitor and a cruel overhearing
- 5A summer ball ends in a duel
- 6René chooses to earn her respect
- 7Pride of rank blinds both worlds
- 8Love needs honesty, not a bargain
- 9How the story is told
Point clé 1 sur 9
A ruined count chooses a rich bride
The novel opens at eight in the morning in a Gothic bedroom in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Viscount Alphonse de Linières hurries there in dread, because he has heard that his friend Count René de Laverdie lost seventy thousand francs at cards overnight. He pictures the worst, and his hand shakes on the crystal knob. Instead he finds René sleeping peacefully among Flemish tapestries, ancient swords and a bed of carved wood.
The room explains how the fortune vanished. René has spent it on horses, women, gambling and a collector's dream of rare art. He is twenty-eight, gracious and gifted, and life has given him only pleasure, so he cannot yet believe in disaster. Alphonse is his opposite. He is prudent, rather poor and fiercely proud of a family that lost members to the guillotine during the Terror.
René swears that he will never gamble again, then leads his friend to the smoking room to admire a newly bought Hobbema. Alphonse, who came expecting a corpse, loses his temper at such a scatterbrain. Yet the scene shows René's nature clearly. He loves beauty, he lives by impulse, and he cannot face selling his treasures or serving as a poor lieutenant in a republican army.
On a ride through the Bois de Boulogne, René finally announces his plan. He will marry a merchant's daughter whose father has millions. Alphonse explodes, since to him a great name must never be traded for a commoner's money. René admits that it is an exchange and not a very honest one, yet he answers that he does not want to die, and that the bourgeois are vain enough to be happy with the bargain.
He adds a last reason. His great-aunt, the Marquise de Saint-Villiers, adores her goddaughter and has set aside her rigid principles to choose her for him. René pretends to treat the whole affair lightly, although his friend's cold disapproval stings. He even decides in advance to despise the family that will pay his debts, so that his pride stays whole. That decision will cost him dearly.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Le Mariage de Gabrielle
What is Gabrielle's Marriage about?
It tells of a ruined Paris count who agrees to marry a rich merchant's daughter for her money, and of the girl who learns his motive. The novel follows pride, class prejudice and love as the two young people change.
Who wrote Gabrielle's Marriage and when is it set?
Daniel Lesueur, the pen name of the French writer Jeanne Loiseau, wrote it. The story takes place in Paris and nearby villages a few years after the war of 1870, in the early years of the French Republic.
Who is René de Laverdie?
René is a charming, impulsive count of twenty-eight who has gambled away a great fortune. He agrees to marry Gabrielle for her dowry, and the novel follows how love and shame lead him to rethink his values.
Why does the Marquise de Saint-Villiers want the marriage?
The marquise loves both her nephew René and her goddaughter Gabrielle, who is a merchant's daughter. She hopes marriage will steady her nephew and raise the girl she adores to her own rank, and she sets aside her pride of blood to do it.
Is Gabrielle's Marriage easy to read?
The story moves in short chapters built around vivid scenes, with clear dialogue, humor and a warm narrator. Its characters are drawn with sympathy, so the social world of old Paris feels close and easy to follow.