6 h 41 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 41 minPaperback · 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
Readers who love ancient Alexandria, daring women and proud artists will enjoy this novel. It also suits admirers of classic French fiction who like richly coloured banquets, gardens and crowds.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Three gifts become a dangerous bargain
- Chrysis wants greatness rather than wealth
- Indifference breaks through Demetrios's boredom
- Chrysis binds desire to a promise
- Demetrios mistakes a pause for freedom
- An innocent slave bears the cost
- The obedient lover begins to command
- An ideal can displace a person
- Pride leaves little room for kindness
Who’s who
- ChrysisA Galilean courtesan in Alexandria with golden hair and great ambition, who wants to rise to the highest place and sets a daring price on her love.
- DemetriosA famous sculptor and lover of the queen, tired of being adored, who loves his own ideal of beauty more than any living woman.
- Queen BereniceThe young ruler of Egypt, who commands a kingdom but cannot win the full attention of Demetrios, the lover she chose.
- DjalaChrysis's Indian slave, who taught her the art of a courtesan and dresses and sings with her.
- Rhodis and MyrtocleiaTwo young musicians from Ephesos who love each other and wish to be married, and who are loyal to Chrysis.
- BacchisA rich, nearly forty courtesan who prizes her silver mirror and is about to free her favourite slave at a banquet.
- TimonA witty young man of the banking class who lives for pleasure and shows an unexpected kindness.
- TouniThe high priest's wife, who loves Demetrios and wears an ancient ivory comb in her hair.
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Ancient Manners
by Pierre Louÿs · 1896
Chrysis, a courtesan of Alexandria, asks the sculptor Demetrios for three gifts, and each one costs a crime.
Easy read2–5 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What would you give a woman who asks for a mirror, a comb and a necklace? In Alexandria, the price is three crimes.
Ancient Manners at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 50 min3 h 5 min fast, 4 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 55,200 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
- First published
- 1896by Pierre Louÿs
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
Chrysis wants a destiny larger than her bed
Chrysis opens the story half asleep, pricking small holes in a green linen pillow with a golden pin. She is nearly twenty and has lived in Alexandria for seven years. Her red gold hair gives her the name, since Chrysis comes from the Greek word for gold.
She was born Sarah in Galilee, the daughter of a woman who met travellers on the road. At twelve she followed ivory sellers to Egypt, where an Indian slave, Djala, spent seven years teaching her the craft of a courtesan. Louÿs treats that craft as an art, and Chrysis counts more than two thousand five hundred lovers at night. Yet she is restless.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1896
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 20 min
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Louÿs, Pierre. Ancient Manners. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/ancient-manners.
Louÿs, P. (2026). Ancient manners. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ancient-manners (Original work published 1896)
Louÿs, Pierre. Ancient Manners. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ancient-manners.
@book{louys2026ancient,
author = {Louÿs, Pierre},
title = {Ancient Manners},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ancient-manners},
note = {First published 1896}
}
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What is Ancient Manners about?
It follows Chrysis, a courtesan in Alexandria, who asks the sculptor Demetrios for three stolen treasures as proof of love. The theft stirs the city, tests the sculptor's pride and sets two strong wills against each other.
Is Ancient Manners the same book as Aphrodite by Pierre Louÿs?
Yes. Ancient Manners is an English title for the French novel Aphrodite, mœurs antiques, published in 1896. Both names refer to the same story of the courtesan Chrysis and the sculptor Demetrios in ancient Alexandria.
Who is Chrysis, and what does her name mean?
Chrysis is a courtesan born in Galilee, first named Sarah. The other courtesans call her Chrysis, from the Greek word for gold, because of her red-gold hair. She seeks a place of greatness in Alexandrian society.
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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