6 h 41 minAudiobook8 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 price does beauty demand when a proud courtesan meets a man used to getting everything he wants?
In Pierre Louÿs’s Ancient Manners, Alexandria is a city of harbors, temples, libraries and crowded streets under Greek rule. Here lives Chrysis, a beautiful courtesan from Galilee who values her freedom and sets her own terms. When she meets Demetrios, a famous sculptor close to Queen Berenice, desire meets pride.
Demetrios knows admiration and obedience, but Chrysis does not simply say yes. Her conditions are strange and costly, setting daring acts in motion. Around them, Louÿs draws an imagined city through rooms, gardens, robes and rituals. This frank, sensual story asks what people will surrender for beauty—and what their desire may cost them.
What you’ll discover
- A city to linger in Explore an imagined Alexandria where Greeks, Egyptians, Jews and other peoples live side by side.
- A woman with her terms Meet Chrysis, whose cleverness, pride and freedom matter as much as her beauty.
- An artist facing desire Follow Demetrios as his longing for Chrysis challenges his habit of getting what he wants.
- Beauty with a price Consider how the pursuit of beauty draws people toward costly choices and daring acts.
- Sensuous detail at every turn Linger over rooms, gardens, robes and rituals in a story both sensual and cautionary.
Who will love it
For readers who love richly drawn historical settings, French fiction of the 1890s, and stories about desire and its price.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Alexandria is a city of pleasure
- Chrysis is beautiful and proud
- Demetrios is a man who gets what he wants
- Chrysis sets a price that is hard to pay
- Beauty and desire are the book's real subjects
- Louÿs tells it as a picture of a world
Who’s who
- ChrysisA beautiful, proud courtesan from Galilee who lives freely in Alexandria and sets her own terms for anyone who wants her.
- DemetriosA famous sculptor close to the queen, used to getting what he wants, who falls into a strong desire for Chrysis.
- Queen BereniceThe ruler of Alexandria, whose favor toward Demetrios gives him standing and makes his choices dangerous.
- DjalaChrysis's slave, who lives in her household and shares in her daily life.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Read and hear Costumi antichi in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Costumi antichi
by Pierre Louÿs · 1896
In Alexandria, the sculptor Demetrios desires Chrysis, a proud courtesan whose terms put love and pride at stake.
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In short
Ancient Manners is the English subtitle of Aphrodite, a novel by the French writer Pierre Louÿs, first published in Paris in 1896. It is set in Alexandria in the age of the Greek rulers of Egypt, a city of harbors, libraries, temples and crowded streets.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Alexandria is a city of pleasure
The novel opens in Alexandria, the great port founded by Alexander and ruled in this story by a Greek dynasty. Louÿs shows a city where Greeks, Egyptians, Jews and other peoples live side by side. The harbor is full of ships, the streets are loud with trade, and the temples never seem to close. Everything is described with the care of a writer who wants you to see it, smell it and walk through it.
This is not a quiet backdrop. The city shapes the people in it. Its wealth gives them leisure, its many gods give them rites and festivals, and its mix of cultures lets them live by looser rules than a small town would allow. Louÿs presents a world where love is a public art, talked about openly and practiced with skill.
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What is Aphrodite by Pierre Louÿs about?
It is a novel set in ancient Alexandria about the courtesan Chrysis and the sculptor Demetrios. Their desire and her demanding conditions set off bold acts that test pride, love and the limits of what a person will do.
Why is it called Ancient Manners?
Ancient Manners translates the French subtitle Moeurs antiques. It tells you that the book aims to paint the customs, beliefs and daily habits of an imagined ancient Greek Alexandria, as well as to tell a love story.
Is Aphrodite a true story?
No. It is fiction written in 1896. Louÿs used his study of Greek and Egyptian history to build a believable Alexandria, but the characters and plot are invented and shaped by the taste of 1890s France.
The author
Pierre Louÿs
1870–1925 · French poet and novelist
Pierre Louÿs was a French writer and poet born in Ghent, Belgium, in 1870. He lived in Paris and died there in 1925. His works include The Songs of Bilitis, published in 1894, and Aphrodite, published in 1896 and known in English as Ancient Manners.
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