15 h 26 minAudiobook14 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 is beauty worth in a society that knows the price of everything polished?
In Aymeris, Jacques-Émile Blanche looks at an artist's life among people who make, admire and pay for beauty. Drawing on the studios and drawing rooms of Paris and the French coast, he explores a polished, money-minded world around the turn of the twentieth century. Beneath its glitter lies a question: how much of what people admire is only show?
Blanche brings a portrait painter's attention to faces, hands, clothes and rooms. Small signs reveal character, while encounters between artists and wealthy patrons expose the ties between money and art. His slow, observing manner invites you to look beyond appearances and consider what happens when social polish wins more praise than substance, and an age trusts too deeply in its own permanence.
What you’ll discover
- A painter's way of seeing Look closely at the small signs through which a portraitist reads character.
- The glitter of society Enter drawing rooms where polish commands attention and substance can struggle to matter.
- Beauty and its buyers Explore the uneasy dependence between an artist's work and those who can pay.
- An age of illusions Consider a gilded society's faith in permanence, and the fragility beneath that confidence.
- The pleasure of looking Spend time with an observant writer who makes faces, clothes and rooms worth studying.
Who will love it
Readers who love richly furnished novels of Paris, painting and family life, who enjoy sharp portraits of salons and studios, and who like a narrator who keeps a close, affectionate eye on one troubled man.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A boy meets death too soon
- Jessie and the first love
- Failing at school and finding painting
- Studios, masters and public shame
- The Princess and the Siren's snare
- Darius, bohemia and the ruin of a name
- Rosemary and Georges's ailing parents
- Exile, Cynthia and a restless son
- What the book is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- Georges AymerisA frail, gifted painter, raised by elderly parents, who longs for freedom and friendship and keeps giving his trust to the wrong people.
- Alice AymerisGeorges's sharp, nervous mother, who loves him fiercely, pushes him toward success and cannot bear to see him leave her.
- Pierre AymerisGeorges's gentle father, a famous lawyer and charity giver, who hides his feelings behind silence and kindness.
- Jessie Mac FarrenThe thin English orphan taken into the household, Georges's first love and companion, who is sent away by a family scandal.
- Léon MaillacA half-blind, witty old bachelor and art lover who guides Georges's taste and counsels him about love.
- Princess Lucia PegliosoA rich, mocking Parisian beauty with greyhounds and many admirers, who draws Georges into her circle and toys with him.
- Darius MarcellotA dreamy, shortsighted editor and schemer who longs for fame and the Jockey Club and drags Georges into his ventures.
- Cynthia MerrymoreA learned English widow, shy and commanding, who becomes Georges's friend and guardian and refuses to be treated as a wife.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 15 h 26 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 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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Aymeris
A frail boy raised among elderly parents grows into a painter who cannot choose between his art and the women he loves.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Aymeris is a novel by Jacques-Émile Blanche, the painter and writer who knew the Paris of artists, salons and society at first hand. It follows the life of Georges Aymeris, a painter born into an old lawyer's family in Passy, from the sickly child of elderly parents to a restless man at the edge of a changing century.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A boy meets death too soon
The story opens in the last years of the Second Empire. Georges Aymeris is a pale, silent child who still wears skirts, while his brother Jacques is a sturdy fourteen-year-old whom everyone adores. One Thursday in May, during a drive in the Bois de Boulogne, Jacques turns pale and points to his side. Within days he is gone, and Georges is told only that his brother is with God.
The boy believes what he is told, but he needs to picture it. He asks where Paradise is and wonders whether it lies at Père Lachaise or Montmartre. He even complains of pains in his own side, hoping to be sick in the same way and follow Jacques. The adults whisper, dress in black and call him poor little one, and he cannot work out why.
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What is Aymeris about?
It follows the painter Georges Aymeris from his sheltered childhood in Passy through his love affairs, studio rivalries and travels in London and Italy, told by a close friend using letters and journals.
Is Aymeris based on a true story?
It is a novel, though its author, Jacques-Émile Blanche, was a painter who knew the Paris art world well, and many real artists and writers appear in its pages, such as Degas, Mallarmé and Manet.
Who are the main people in Aymeris?
Georges Aymeris is the painter at the centre. Around him stand his mother Alice, his father Pierre, the governess's sister Jessie, the Princess Peglioso, his model Rosemary and the English widow Cynthia Merrymore.
The author
Jacques-Émile Blanche
1861–1942 · French painter and writer
Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861–1942) was a French painter and writer. He was born in Paris and died in Offranville, Normandy. He painted portraits, including one of Marcel Proust. In the early twentieth century, he wrote novels, memoirs and art criticism. His novels include Aymeris. He lived in Paris and Normandy.
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