Genevieve: Histoire D'Une Servante (1857)

by Alphonse de Lamartine

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

318 pages, Hardcover

First published February 14, 2010

About the author

French romantic poet Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine served briefly as minister of foreign affairs in 1848.

This instrumental writer and politician in the foundation of the second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France.
Les Méditations Poétiques , a masterpiece in 1820, made his entrance into the field, and he awoke famous. He was made a knight of the Legion of Honour in 1825. He worked for the embassy in Italy from 1825 to 1828. In 1829, he was elected a member of the Académie française. He was elected a deputy in 1833. He in the course of making the journey in royal luxury to the countries lost his only daughter and immediately afterward in 1835 published the "Voyage en Orient", a brilliant and bold account. He then confined to prose.
He published volumes on the most varied subjects (history, criticism, personal confidences, literary conversations) especially during the Empire, when, having retired to private life as the prey of his creditors, he condemned to "literary hard-labor in order to exist and pay his debts". Lamartine ended his life in poverty, publishing monthly installments of the Cours familier de littérature for support. He died in Paris in 1869.

Frédéric Mistral published his long Mirèio; the following praise of Alphonse de Lamartine in the fortieth edition of his periodical Cours familier de littérature in part duly caused his fame, and he later won Nobel Prize. People most revere Mistral among writers in modern Occitan literature.

Charles-Julien Lioult de Chênedollé worked on similar innovations at the same time), and Paul Verlaine and the Symbolists acknowledged his important influence.

Reviews

[Yavor Petkov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roman fleur bleue, quelque peu peu schématique et à l'eau de rose, surtout vers la fin. Pas très habile et peu inspiré dans l'ensemble, ce livre offre néanmoins quelques passages émouvants et pénétrants, notamment pour ce qui est du discours de Geneviève. Je peux facilement entendre la voix de la vraie personne qu'aurait imaginé l'auteur en écrivant. Je peux imaginer ma propre tante conter son chemin de croix sur le même ton. Je peux flairer les blessures et le souffle fourbu de cette femme stoïque et exemplaire qui rejoint plus ou moins l'archétype de la sainte, de la martyre. Rien que pour cela, pour sa grande empathie, le livre commande sa reconnaissance.