2 h 12 minAudiobook9 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 happens when forbidden love meets religious vows—and disguise offers a dangerous kind of freedom?
The Woman Abbé, attributed to Sylvain Maréchal, explores desire, secrecy and devotion in revolutionary France. Private feeling presses against public duty. Religious vows carry weight, yet disguise opens a space where identity and expectation can shift. At stake is the uneasy balance between what a person feels and what society permits them to express.
Maréchal’s world is one of Enlightenment ideas, sharp wit and open argument about religion and authority. This romance brings those tensions into a story of feeling and risk. Disguise does more than conceal: it invites you to question the rules of dress, rank and sex, and to notice how differently the world treats someone under another identity.
What you’ll discover
- Love against devotion Explore the pull of forbidden desire when religious vows place limits on private feeling.
- The freedom of disguise Consider how another identity can reveal the rules that shape a person's life.
- Secrecy and risk Enter a tale where hidden feelings bring private wishes into conflict with public duty.
- A world in question Encounter the tensions of an age marked by arguments about religion, society and authority.
- The limits of devotion Reflect on what devotion asks of a person when desire pulls in another direction.
Who will love it
Readers who love letters and confidences, tender and daring love stories, and the lively social world of eighteenth century Paris, with its churches, salons and fashions, will find much to enjoy in this book.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A first Mass changes Agathe's life
- Pity grows into love
- Zoé warns, Agathe pleads
- The confessional and the first disguise
- Devotion becomes a daily habit
- Agathe enters the seminary
- A love hidden in holy things
- What the story is really about
- How the book is told
Who’s who
- AgatheA warm, witty nineteen year old orphan in Paris who falls in love with a priest and wants to stay near him without wrongdoing.
- Saint-AlmontA gentle, sensitive young priest, wounded by an earlier love, who devotes himself to his duties and is later made head of a seminary.
- ZoéAgathe's married friend, wise and loving, who warns her against her plans and keeps her secrets.
- Agathe's grandmotherA kind old woman who raises Agathe, indulges her whims and trusts her tender heart.
- TimonA bitter philosopher who lives in an abandoned quarry, distrusts all society, and hates its laws and priests.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- 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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La donna abate
A young Parisian woman, in love with a priest, cuts her hair and walks into his seminary dressed as a man.
Easy read2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Woman Abbé is a short novel in letters by Sylvain Maréchal, a French writer who died in 1803. The preface says the letters were written well before 1789, and promises a story that will cost you nothing worse than a few gentle tears.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A first Mass changes Agathe's life
The book opens with a short note from Agathe to her friend Zoé. She cannot visit tomorrow, because she must go with her grandmother to a first Mass. Agathe expects to be bored. She promises to tell Zoé afterward whether she was.
She is far from bored. The church is packed, especially with women, and she learns why. The new priest is Saint-Almont, a handsome and sensitive young man. People whisper that he was jilted by a flirt and has turned to the Church in despair.
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What is The Woman Abbé about?
It tells of Agathe, a young Parisian woman who falls in love with a priest named Saint-Almont at his first Mass. She follows him in disguise, first at church and then in his seminary, and writes it all to her friend Zoé.
When was The Woman Abbé written?
The preface says the letters were written well before 1789, so before the French Revolution. The author, Sylvain Maréchal, died in 1803. It is a work of fiction, told in the form of a real correspondence.
Who is Zoé in The Woman Abbé?
Zoé is Agathe's married friend, who first lives in the countryside near Paris. She answers Agathe's letters with advice and warnings, and later sails to a colony overseas, after which Agathe writes her a journal.
The author
Sylvain Maréchal
1750–1803 · French writer and philosopher
French writer and philosopher.
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