9 h 23 minAudiobook16 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 if choosing a husband means choosing between your family’s expectations and your own heart?
In Gabrielle’s Marriage, Daniel Lesueur places a young woman’s choice within the world of the French social and romantic novel. Love stands beside money, family duty and rank. A marriage is never simply private: it carries the weight of family names, property and reputation, making the question of whom to marry reach far beyond affection.
Lesueur’s fiction centres on women’s choices and feelings. Here, the questions are quiet but searching: what does a woman owe her parents, and what does she owe herself? Read for the tension between personal feeling and social expectation, with the measured pace and attention to manners that belong to this tradition.
What you’ll discover
- Love beside duty Consider what happens when the claims of family press against the wishes of the heart.
- The weight of rank Explore a social world where wealth and standing shape who may hope for love.
- A woman’s inner life Look closely at feelings and choices through a novelist whose fiction gives women centre stage.
- The courage to choose Ask what choosing for yourself means when a woman’s freedom is limited.
- Quiet emotional stakes Discover the pull of a romance concerned with conscience, manners and the demands of others.
Who will love it
Readers who love Parisian society, old money meeting new, and romances where honor and pride are tested will find much here. It suits anyone drawn to nineteenth-century French fiction with warm humor and a clear, generous heart.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A ruined count chooses a rich bride
- A goddaughter dreams of a staircase
- Two families meet at Montretout
- A cold suitor and a cruel overhearing
- A summer ball ends in a duel
- René chooses to earn her respect
- Pride of rank blinds both worlds
- Love needs honesty, not a bargain
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- René de LaverdieA charming young count who has gambled away his fortune and agrees to a marriage for money, then must learn what he is worth.
- Gabrielle DuriezA lively, thoughtful eighteen-year-old merchant's daughter who hates pose and wants to marry only for love.
- Marquise de Saint-VilliersRené's proud, witty great-aunt and Gabrielle's godmother, who sets aside her principles to bring the two young people together.
- Alphonse de LinièresRené's prudent, aristocratic friend, fiercely loyal to old principles and outraged at the idea of a marriage for money.
- Monsieur DuriezGabrielle's honest, kind-hearted father, a prosperous Paris merchant who adores his daughter and bends easily to his wife.
- Madame DuriezGabrielle's mother, warm but anxious to seem grand, who dreams of seeing her daughter become a countess.
- Captain Ernest ArnaudA cheerful, brave cavalry officer and a friend of Émile, who falls for Gabrielle at first sight and hopes to win her.
- FrançoisRené's old servant, devoted to the Laverdie family, who wants only his young master's honor and happiness.
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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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Gabrielle's Marriage
A ruined Paris count plans to marry a merchant's daughter for her millions, then falls in love with her.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Gabrielle's Marriage is a French novel by Daniel Lesueur, the pen name of the writer Jeanne Loiseau. It is set in Paris and its leafy suburbs a few years after the war of 1870, when the young Republic has shaken the old order.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A ruined count chooses a rich bride
The novel opens at eight in the morning in a Gothic bedroom in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Viscount Alphonse de Linières hurries there in dread, because he has heard that his friend Count René de Laverdie lost seventy thousand francs at cards overnight. He pictures the worst, and his hand shakes on the crystal knob. Instead he finds René sleeping peacefully among Flemish tapestries, ancient swords and a bed of carved wood.
The room explains how the fortune vanished. René has spent it on horses, women, gambling and a collector's dream of rare art. He is twenty-eight, gracious and gifted, and life has given him only pleasure, so he cannot yet believe in disaster. Alphonse is his opposite. He is prudent, rather poor and fiercely proud of a family that lost members to the guillotine during the Terror.
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What is Gabrielle's Marriage about?
It tells of a ruined Paris count who agrees to marry a rich merchant's daughter for her money, and of the girl who learns his motive. The novel follows pride, class prejudice and love as the two young people change.
Who wrote Gabrielle's Marriage and when is it set?
Daniel Lesueur, the pen name of the French writer Jeanne Loiseau, wrote it. The story takes place in Paris and nearby villages a few years after the war of 1870, in the early years of the French Republic.
Who is René de Laverdie?
René is a charming, impulsive count of twenty-eight who has gambled away a great fortune. He agrees to marry Gabrielle for her dowry, and the novel follows how love and shame lead him to rethink his values.
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