Story summary
Samenvatting van Amaury
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A doctor who can heal anyone in Paris watches his daughter's love for a young count put her life at risk.
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Amaury in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 6 h4 h 45 min fast, 7 h 5 min slow
- Lengte
- 85.200 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1844by Alexandre Dumas
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Amaury in short
Amaury is told as an answer to a question put in a Paris salon: can love kill? The count has his secretary read a story assembled from two diaries. A rich young man is raised by a famous doctor beside the doctor's frail daughter. They fall in love, the doctor fights his jealousy and gives his consent, and the wedding seems certain.
What Amaury is about
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? Count M... asks his secretary Auguste to fetch a manuscript, and the room falls quiet.
That manuscript is Amaury, a novel by Alexandre Dumas. It follows a young count, Amaury de Leoville, who loves Magdalena, the delicate daughter of his guardian, the famous physician Doctor Avrigny. The story is built from the doctor's diaries and the young man's letters, so you hear each heart in its own words. You get a tender love story, a father who cannot bear to share his child, and a quiet argument about two kinds of love.
Voor wie is het?. 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.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
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.
The count explains his story. Named executor for a doctor friend, he found a moral autopsy of a heart, and beside it the diary of the doctor's young ward. He changed the names and sent for his secretary to read it aloud.
The story is offered as evidence in a debate, so each scene is a small piece of proof about love.
Listen to it as a case argued before a jury.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
Amaury and Magdalena seem to have everything
The story proper begins on a May morning in 1838.
- 3Begin gratis met lezen
A guardian's sudden coldness hides a secret
Left alone for a moment, Amaury and Magdalena speak freely.
- 4Begin gratis met lezen
A letter wins consent and a wedding date
Amaury decides the fault is his own, because he never asked formally for Magdalena's hand.
- 5Begin gratis met lezen
Antonia carries a love she will not name
Once Amaury is promised to Magdalena, attention turns to those left outside the circle.
- 6Begin gratis met lezen
The doctor plans a future he cannot join
Avrigny tells his diary that he will give up his post as royal physician and live with the couple.
- 7Begin gratis met lezen
A ball, a waltz and a sudden fall
The night of the great ball arrives, when the doctor will present his children to Paris.
- 8Begin gratis met lezen
Eight days of battle at the bedside
Avrigny's diary becomes a war report.
- 9Begin gratis met lezen
The last night before the journey begins
Amaury writes to Antonia of Magdalena's first walk in the garden.
- 10Begin gratis met lezen
Two loves and the diaries that hold them
Behind the plot stands the count's question, and Dumas gives two answers side by side.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Amaury de Leoville A rich young count of an ancient family who loves Magdalena and wants to marry her, though his ardor endangers her.
- Magdalena de Avrigny The doctor's frail, loving daughter, who feels most alive near Amaury and fears losing him to her cousin.
- Doctor Avrigny A famous physician and Amaury's guardian, who struggles with jealousy and tries to protect his daughter's life above all.
- Antonia Magdalena's lively cousin and the doctor's niece, who hides her own feelings and works quietly for the happiness of others.
- Philippe Auvray Amaury's law school friend, comic and shy, always a little late and always in love with the wrong moment.
- Madame Braun The 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 Mengis An old friend of the doctor who becomes a guardian to Antonia and tries to arrange her future.
How it ends (spoiler)
Magdalena dies after the secret garden meeting, and Amaury plans to kill himself. The doctor stops him, then retires to live beside her grave. Amaury travels for months, and Antonia writes to him. At Ville d'Avray, the doctor sees that Amaury and Antonia love each other and blesses them. Felipe arrives too late again. They marry, and the doctor dies the day before they come to visit him.
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Vragen over Amaury
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.
Is Amaury easy to read?
The chapters are short, the scenes are clear, and diaries and letters give a personal voice to each character. Comic episodes with Philippe lighten the mood, so it reads smoothly and quickly.
What is the main message of Amaury?
The book contrasts a lover's fierce passion with a father's patient, sacrificing love. It suggests that real love sometimes means giving way, and that grief and hope can live side by side.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
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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