9 h 53 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 53 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does love ask of you when duty stands in its way and illness darkens every hope?
In Amaury, Alexandre Dumas turns toward the quieter world of sentimental and psychological romance. Love, duty and sacrifice press against one another, while illness casts a shadow over hope. The tension lies in feelings that cannot stand apart from social rules and personal honor.
This is a different side of Dumas from his adventure fiction. Rather than the rush of swordplay, the book draws you toward the weight of feeling. Its central concerns are intimate: what love demands, what duty allows, and how much a person may be asked to sacrifice.
What you’ll discover
- Love against limits Explore a romance where deep feeling meets the barriers of duty and social rules.
- The cost of sacrifice Consider what it means to love when sacrifice becomes part of the test.
- Hope under a shadow Feel how illness gives questions of love and time a sharper edge.
- A quieter Dumas Meet the novelist through intimate emotional pressures rather than duels, schemes and escapes.
- Feeling and personal honor Enter a world where the claims of the heart press against personal honor.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love romantic stories told through diaries and letters, who enjoy Paris in the 1830s, and who care about fathers, daughters and what love asks of us.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A count in a salon promises to settle love's question
- Amaury and Magdalena seem to have everything
- A guardian's sudden coldness hides a secret
- A letter wins consent and a wedding date
- Antonia carries a love she will not name
- The doctor plans a future he cannot join
- A ball, a waltz and a sudden fall
- Eight days of battle at the bedside
- The last night before the journey begins
- Two loves and the diaries that hold them
Who’s who
- Amaury de LeovilleA rich young count of an ancient family who loves Magdalena and wants to marry her, though his ardor endangers her.
- Magdalena de AvrignyThe doctor's frail, loving daughter, who feels most alive near Amaury and fears losing him to her cousin.
- Doctor AvrignyA famous physician and Amaury's guardian, who struggles with jealousy and tries to protect his daughter's life above all.
- AntoniaMagdalena's lively cousin and the doctor's niece, who hides her own feelings and works quietly for the happiness of others.
- Philippe AuvrayAmaury's law school friend, comic and shy, always a little late and always in love with the wrong moment.
- Madame BraunThe English governess who watches over the two cousins and cares for Magdalena in her illness.
- Count M...The salon host who has his secretary read the manuscript to show which love kills and which does not.
- Count of MengisAn old friend of the doctor who becomes a guardian to Antonia and tries to arrange her future.
Formats and delivery
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- Large print hardcover
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Amaury
by Alexandre Dumas · 1844
A doctor who can heal anyone in Paris watches his daughter's love for a young count put her life at risk.
Medium level5–10 hours to readfrançais
Excellent
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In short
Picture a Paris drawing room on a snowy night, a fire burning, and a host who promises to settle an old question. Can a person die of love?
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A count in a salon promises to settle love's question
The book opens not with its hero but with a host. Count M... keeps one of the few salons in Paris where nobody dances or plays cards. He has known Rousseau, Voltaire and Franklin, and he can end a tiresome argument with one dry remark.
One snowy night the guests drift toward love. Doctor P... calls it a mild swelling of the brain, curable with leeches and a strict diet. The count asks a harder question instead. Can anyone actually die of love? The young say yes, because they think they have time to die of despair. The old say no. The women make a doubtful gesture, too proud to deny it and too honest to swear to it.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1844
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 6 h 25 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Dumas, Alexandre. Amaury. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/amaury.
Dumas, A. (2026). Amaury. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/amaury (Original work published 1844)
Dumas, Alexandre. Amaury. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/amaury.
@book{dumas2026amaury,
author = {Dumas, Alexandre},
title = {Amaury},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/amaury},
note = {First published 1844}
}
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What is Amaury by Alexandre Dumas about?
It tells of Amaury de Leoville, a young count who loves Magdalena, the delicate daughter of his guardian, Doctor Avrigny. The story asks whether love can endanger a life, and it follows the lovers, the jealous father and a hidden cousin.
Who is Count M... at the start of the book?
He is the host of a Paris salon who frames the tale. He claims to have found two diaries after a friend's death, and he has his secretary read the story aloud to answer whether people can die of love.
Is Amaury based on a true story?
The count says he never invented anything, but arranged the diaries, changed the names and recast the account in the third person. Dumas wrote the novel in the nineteenth century as a romantic story told through diaries and letters.
The author
Alexandre Dumas
1802–1870 · French novelist and playwright
Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) was a French novelist and playwright. He was born in Villers-Cotterêts, lived in Paris, and died in Puys, near Dieppe. He wrote The Three Musketeers (1844), The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–1846), Twenty Years After (1845), and The Black Tulip (1850).
More by Alexandre Dumas
Voir tous ses livresMore like this
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