La Duchesse de Langeais

1834 novel by Honoré de Balzac
La Duchesse de Langeais
Title page of La Duchesse de Langeais (1833)
AuthorHonoré de Balzac
LanguageFrench
SeriesLa Comédie humaine
Publication date
1834
Publication placeFrance

La Duchesse de Langeais is an 1834 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) and included in the Scènes de la vie parisienne section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. It is part of his 1839 trilogy Histoire des treize: Ferragus is the first part, Part Two is La Duchesse de Langeais and Part Three is The Girl with the Golden Eyes. It first appeared in 1834 under the title Ne touchez pas la hache (Don’t Touch the Axe)[1] in the periodical L'Écho de la Jeune France.

Plot

General Armand de Montriveau, a war hero, is enamored of Duchess Antoinette de Langeais, a coquettish, married noblewoman who invites him to a ball but ultimately refuses his sexual advances and then disappears. Assisted by the powerful group known as The Thirteen, who subscribe to an occult form of freemasonry, General Montriveau finds the duchess in a Spanish monastery of Discalced Carmelites under the name of Sister Theresa.

Dedicated to Franz Liszt, this portrait of a vain representative of the noble families of Faubourg Saint-Germain, was inspired by the Laure Junot with whom Balzac had a failed romance.[2]

Film adaptations

  • La Duchesse de Langeais, 1910 French film by André Calmettes
  • The Eternal Flame, 1922 American film by Frank Lloyd
  • Love (Liebe), 1927 German film by Paul Czinner
  • La Duchesse de Langeais, 1942 French film by Jacques de Baroncelli
  • La Duchesse de Langeais, 1982 French television film by Jean-Paul Roux
  • La Duchesse de Langeais, 1995 French television film by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe
  • Ne touchez pas la hache, 2007 French film by Jacques Rivette
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The Duchesse de Langeais

References

  1. ^ This expression is a reference to the axe that had been used to decapitate Charles I of England, which the character Montriveau had overheard at Westminster Palace.
  2. ^ Robb, Graham (1994). Balzac: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 130. ISBN 0-393-03679-0.

External links

  • The Duchess of Langeais public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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List of titles
Scènes de la vie privéeScènes de la vie de provinceScènes de la vie ParisienneScènes de la vie politique
Scènes de la vie militaireScènes de la vie de campagneÉtudes philosophiquesÉtudes analytiques
  • La Physiologie du mariage
  • Petites misères de la vie conjugale
RelatedRelated works by others
  • Fernand Lotte: Armorial de la Comédie Humaine
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Honoré de Balzac's La Duchesse de Langeais
Films
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