7 h 14 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 14 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if tomorrow promises more than family, class and habit will ever allow?
In The Bright Future, René Boylesve sets ambition beside illusion. What happens when the hope of a better tomorrow meets the pressures of family, class and habit? This French novel explores that tension through the manners, money and social expectations that shape a person's hopes.
Boylesve brings a patient, amused eye to ordinary families and small communities. His world is one of provincial and Parisian society, where hopes meet familiar limits. The pace is measured, the tone calm. Rather than loud tragedy, he offers quiet irony and close attention to the ways people imagine their lives.
What you’ll discover
- Ambition beside illusion Explore the distance between wanting a brighter future and living within familiar limits.
- The weight of class Consider how social standing shapes hopes that can feel deeply personal.
- Families and their expectations Watch family and habit pull against the promise of a different tomorrow.
- Irony without cruelty Enjoy a calm, amused gaze that notices human illusions without turning bitter.
- A patient social eye Spend time with the manners and money that frame ordinary lives.
Who will love it
Readers who like witty social comedy, French provincial and Latin Quarter life, portraits of ambitious mothers and sons, and a gently ironic narrator who sees every small vanity.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A likable boy and a worried family
- Paris through a mother's frightened eyes
- A protégée's son joins the race
- Cramped rooms, friends and the Left Bank
- Louise, Raymonde and a double life
- Mothers in rivalry and a small success
- Failure, money and a change of course
- Anonymous letters, rivals and a decline
- Ambition as the real subject
- How Boylesve tells it
Who’s who
- Madame Dieulafait d'OudartA devoted widow who spends her fortune and her peace to give her son a brilliant career and to keep ahead of her friend.
- AlexHer handsome, likable son, who drifts through Paris with charm and luck, wants pleasure and avoids work, and is loved by almost everyone.
- Monsieur LhommeauMadame d'Oudart's elderly father, a retired judge who jokes about everything and misses his orchard more than any career.
- Madame Chef-BoutonneHer old school friend in Paris, a well-connected and bossy mother who works tirelessly to push her son Paul to the top.
- Paul Chef-BoutonneHer well-mannered, correct but dull son, who wants to be seen in good company and fears nothing so much as disorder.
- Hilaire LepoirouxThe brilliant, awkward son of a protected widow, who lives only for exams and wants a position at any price.
- Madame LepoirouxA humble, shrewd woman from Poitou who flatters her benefactresses and presses them for help for her gifted son.
- LouiseA cheerful young clerk at the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, who asks nothing of Alex and loves him quietly.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 14 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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Read and hear Il radioso avvenire 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.
Il radioso avvenire
by René Boylesve · 1905
A widow gives up her country house and her savings so her charming son can beat his mother's friend's son in Paris.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Bright Future is a French novel by René Boylesve, set in Poitou and Paris in the years after the Tunisian expedition. It follows a widow, Madame Dieulafait d'Oudart, who sells her peace and her fortune to push her handsome, easygoing son Alex toward a respectable career.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A likable boy and a worried family
The story opens at Nouaillé, near Poitiers, about twenty years before the writing. Madame Dieulafait d'Oudart is a widow. Her husband, a commandant, was killed in the first fight of the Tunisian expedition. She lives on his small estate with her father, Monsieur Lhommeau, a retired counselor of the Poitiers court, and her son Alexis, called Alex.
The house is modest, but it has two dovecotes that look like towers, a sundial and a French garden with lime avenues. It reminds her of Versailles, where she lived as a young bride. The family could be happy there if they did not argue every day about Alex's future.
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What is The Bright Future by René Boylesve about?
It follows a widow, Madame d'Oudart, who moves from a country estate near Poitiers to Paris and spends her fortune so that her charming son Alex can succeed, while rival mothers push their own sons.
Who are the Chef-Boutonnes and the Lepoirouxes in the book?
The Chef-Boutonnes are Madame d'Oudart's wealthy, well-connected Paris friends, whose son Paul is Alex's rival. The Lepoirouxes are a humble Poitou widow and her gifted son Hilaire, whom the d'Oudarts have long helped.
What does the title The Bright Future mean?
It names the hope every mother in the book holds for her son: a career, a marriage and a place in society. The phrase appears like a mystical inscription over their plans and efforts.
The author
René Boylesve
1867–1926 · French novelist
René Boylesve was a French writer born in La Haye-Descartes, France, in 1867. He wrote novels and short stories. His novel The Love Lesson in the Park was published in 1902. He was elected to the Académie française in 1918. He died in Paris in 1926.
More by René Boylesve
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