6 h 28 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 28 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What makes love begin—and what makes it last when desire and manners pull in different directions?
In What Does Love Depend On? — Tales of France and America, Emile Blémont brings together short tales about love, desire and human nature. The question in the title guides the collection: what makes affection begin, endure or fade? Rather than offer a rule for the heart, Blémont invites you to consider its odd turns.
France and America stand side by side, inviting you to compare habits and ways of courting. The collection opens a conversation between two worlds through the personal subject of love. Its guiding themes include “A question that frames the tales,” “Two countries, two ways of courting” and “Desire and human nature up close.”
What you’ll discover
- A question worth keeping Consider what love depends on without expecting one rule to explain every heart.
- Two worlds in conversation Compare French and American habits through tales that place desire beside social manners.
- The heart at close range Explore love as a personal question, with human nature always close at hand.
- Room for your own answers Ask what each tale suggests about the forces that make affection last or fade.
- A pause between tales Read one story at a time, leaving space to weigh its view of love.
Who will love it
Readers who love short stories with a French accent, from romantic drama and Paris comedy to street scenes and Mark Twain's tall tales.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A marriage proposal casts a shadow
- Debt becomes a claim on love
- War reveals what people value
- Self preservation puts conscience at risk
- Love answers to more than advantage
- Claire questions the safe match
- City scenes uncover hidden feeling
- Straight faces sharpen the joke
- Many forms hold human experience
Who’s who
- François RouillonA rich tanner, brewer and miller in Verval who wants Lucile Fraisier and uses her father's debts to get her.
- Lucile FraisierA nineteen-year-old draper's daughter who loves André Jorre and refuses to be bought, even to save her family.
- André JorreA harness-maker called back to the army, who loves Lucile and hopes to protect her family from ruin.
- Constant FraisierLucile's father, a charming gambler and failed shopkeeper who is deep in debt to Rouillon.
- Madeleine CibreA former servant of Rouillon's, cast out when pregnant, who later serves at the Villa des Roses.
- OctaveA shy young Parisian law student who adores his cousin Édith and stumbles through a wild day with new friends.
- Claire AlbeA dowryless, warm-hearted young Parisian woman who must choose between a safe suitor and the man who unsettles her.
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- Large print hardcover
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What Does Love Depend On? — Tales of France and America 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.
What Does Love Depend On? — Tales of France and America
A tanner in a small Picardy town lends money to a girl's father to win her, and war arrives in Verval.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Pain, you see, is still the finest thing in the world.”
In short
A rich tanner stands in a moonlit garden in July 1870, dressed with unusual care, trying to decide whether to ask a girl to marry him. Within a year, that single evening will cost lives in a French town.
What Does Love Depend On? — Tales of France and America at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 45 min3 h fast, 4 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 53,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
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
A creditor holds a whole family hostage
The title story opens in Verval-sur-Orle, a small Picardy town, in July 1870. François Rouillon, a tanner, brewer and miller of about thirty-seven, is broad, strong, shrewd and used to getting his way. On a moonlit evening he dresses with care and sets out to win a wife.
His choice is Lucile Fraisier, nineteen and fair, daughter of the draper Constant Fraisier. Rouillon once spread rumors until a girl who refused him had to leave town. He pursues Lucile the way he does business. Fraisier is a gambler who never manages his shop, and Rouillon lent him money with careful guarantees until the family owed twenty thousand francs.
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Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Blémont, Émile. What Does Love Depend On? — Tales of France and America. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/what-does-love-depend-on-tales-of-france-and-america.
Blémont, É. (2026). What does love depend on? — Tales of France and America. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/what-does-love-depend-on-tales-of-france-and-america
Blémont, Émile. What Does Love Depend On? — Tales of France and America. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/what-does-love-depend-on-tales-of-france-and-america.
@book{blemont2026what,
author = {Blémont, Émile},
title = {What Does Love Depend On? — Tales of France and America},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/what-does-love-depend-on-tales-of-france-and-america}
}
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What is What Does Love Depend On about?
It is a collection of short stories and sketches by Emile Blémont. The title story follows a rich tanner in 1870 who wants to marry a draper's daughter. Other pieces range from Paris comedies to tales from Naples, London and America.
Who is François Rouillon?
He is the central figure of the title story, a tanner, brewer and miller in the Picardy town of Verval. Strong and shrewd, he lends money to a family to win their daughter, and the war of 1870 tests him.
Are the American Sketches written by Mark Twain?
They are free French versions of Mark Twain pieces, including the jumping frog tale, Journalism in Tennessee and How to Cure a Cold. A preface from 1881 says the translator kept the flavor of the original while adapting it for French readers.
The author
Emile Blémont
1839–1927 · French poet
French writer.
“Pain, you see, is still the finest thing in the world.”
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