14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a hidden garden path teach you about feelings that good manners keep out of sight?
In The Love Lesson in the Park, René Boylesve looks back to an older France of country houses, formal gardens and carefully kept manners. Hidden paths and quiet corners become places where innocence meets desire. The question is intimate: how does a person begin to understand a feeling they cannot yet clearly name?
Boylesve makes this discovery a comedy of feeling, with gentle irony and a sharp eye for small gestures. The park matters as much as the people: its ordered spaces frame feelings that are harder to arrange. Rather than hurry toward action, the novel invites you to notice what lies beneath polite behaviour, and to enjoy the wit of its telling.
What you’ll discover
- A garden full of feeling Explore hidden paths and quiet corners where the setting shapes the discovery of desire.
- Innocence without easy answers Follow the delicate question of how people first learn to recognise what they feel.
- Wit beneath good manners Enjoy gentle humour that looks past polite surfaces without losing its lightness of touch.
- The weight of small gestures Notice how Boylesve's precise attention gives subtle shifts of feeling room to matter.
- A lesson beyond rules Discover a study of love that offers no simple moral to copy out.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy witty, affectionate comedy about manners and gardens, if you like a narrator who talks to you directly, or if you wonder how an old novel treats love and growing up.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A friendly storyteller welcomes human weakness
- Cupid divides the household over innocence
- Ninon's shame becomes someone else's punishment
- Secrecy teaches Jacquette to look closer
- A doll gives curiosity a voice
- Protecting innocence creates fresh hiding places
- Love joins worship to bodily desire
- Human folly calls for generous understanding
Who’s who
- Ninon, Marquise de ChamaranteA plump, kind and flighty young heiress who wants pleasure and affection, and who cares about her daughter's innocence at the wrong moments.
- Foulques, Marquis of ChamaranteHer good-natured husband, who loves hunting, wine and peace, and chases the governess with large hands.
- JacquetteTheir daughter, a clear-headed and curious girl who listens at doors and confides everything to her doll, Pomme d'Api.
- Chevalier DieutegardA shy, poetic boy who worships Ninon from afar and cannot bear to see love turn rough.
- ChâteaubedeauA bold young page who boasts of his conquests and dreams of becoming Ninon's lover.
- Mademoiselle de QuinsonasThe bishop's niece hired as governess, who follows her uncle's rules and fears for her position.
- Baron de ChemilléJacquette's godfather, a witty old freethinker who believes children should know the truth about love.
- Madame de MatefelonJacquette's godmother, a stern guardian of modesty whose zeal causes more trouble than it solves.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
- 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.
Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout. The eBook opens when the book texts go online.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then USD 0.14 a day in your first year on the yearly plan and USD 0.27 a day after, or USD 0.66 a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
The Love Lesson in the Park in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Love Lesson in the Park
by René Boylesve · 1902
A marble Cupid in a Loire park teaches a marquise, a governess and a little girl lessons nobody planned.
Challenging2–5 hours to read20 languages
Learn a language with challenging classicsSpanishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseEnglishHow we measure levels
Excellent
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeRenews every year · Cancel anytimeHow it works
- Read, large type too
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
“The world’s examples and philosophy count for very little beside a drop of fine blood.”
In short
What happens when a young marquise orders a statue of Cupid for her garden, and the sculptor delivers a boy who looks down in wonder at his own small arrow? That scene sits at the heart of The Love Lesson in the Park, a comic novel by René Boylesve, set among the gardens and châteaux of the Loire valley.
The Love Lesson in the Park at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 30 min2 h 45 min fast, 4 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 49,500 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1902by René Boylesve
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The narrator promises an unrestrained little tale
The book opens with a preface in which the author speaks straight to you. He says a reader secretly wants a friend who talks to him alone, and he means to write like that, as one writes a letter.
He chooses his people with open delight. He rejects villains and schemers, and he rejects flawless heroes too. He wants people who commit grave weaknesses with such good grace that God seems to watch them without frowning.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
You looked at
Which edition is right for me
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer. Your place follows you, and you can make the type as big as you like.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1902
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 55 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Boylesve, René. The Love Lesson in the Park. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-love-lesson-in-the-park.
Boylesve, R. (2026). The love lesson in the park. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-love-lesson-in-the-park (Original work published 1902)
Boylesve, René. The Love Lesson in the Park. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-love-lesson-in-the-park.
@book{boylesve2026love,
author = {Boylesve, René},
title = {The Love Lesson in the Park},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-love-lesson-in-the-park},
note = {First published 1902}
}
Free gifts
USD 580 in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
USD 170FREE - Every eBookIn 25 languages, any device
USD 120FREE - 15-minute summariesRead in 25 languages
USD 60FREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
USD 60FREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
USD 170FREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about The Love Lesson in the Park
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is The Love Lesson in the Park about?
It follows a Loire château where a marquise installs a daring statue of Cupid. Her little daughter Jacquette grows up among flirting guests, a nervous governess and a freethinking godfather, and slowly learns how love really works.
Who is Pomme d'Api in the novel?
Pomme d'Api is the doll the Baron de Chemillé gives his goddaughter Jacquette. She scolds it, instructs it and shares her secrets with it, so the doll lets readers hear what the child truly thinks.
What does the statue of Cupid mean in the story?
The marble Cupid stands for love as a force both innocent and dangerous. It draws the marquise, the governess, the gardener and the chevalier, and it sparks the quarrel about whether to shield or inform the young.
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.
“The world’s examples and philosophy count for very little beside a drop of fine blood.”
More by René Boylesve
See all their booksMore like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
