La Dame aux Camélias – Book Review

Finished reading

La Dame aux Camélias

by Alexandre Dumas fils, 

★★★★

Expectation

After a rather dry reading period I was pleasantly surprised to see this book as an assignment for my RL book club. It was a classic, a somewhat mysterious love theme AND it was not very long. It was an excellent book to get my reading mojo back on!

Summary

For a mere 250+ pages book it sure gave me a headache. I took to reading it very slowly some thirty pages at a time. I loved the melancholy feel to this book. At times it was very dramatic and angsty but I enjoyed those parts as well. There was a noticeable difference between the writing style of this book and some modern novels I’ve been reading this year. The wording and wordsmithing was much appreciated.

Our RL book club meeting was kinda loud and we poured our hearts into discussing the definition of love in the novel and the characters faults. As much I liked the book I did not see it as “greatest love story in the world”. What I learned about the book afterwards was very enlightening. The titular character was based on a real courtesan the author was in love with. I find it endearing and noteworthy how the author portrayed courtesans and their lives. As a person from twenty first century I can appreciate the effort to shed some light on lives of women about whom it was forbidden to talk about in polite society at the time. Needless to say this book was banned in the past. There were many points that were big on drama. There were passages I found it unnerving to read the martyr like behaviour from the leading characters.

This book inspired many theater plays and movies. I did not know that the famous La Traviata was based on this book and it was interesting to see many move versions as well. There is even one with Greta Garbo and the never version where the role of Armand is portrayed by Colin Firth!

Conclusion

Some parts of this book were thought provoking. I’m very glad to have read it. This book was a good choice for the return of my reading mojo! The book club discussion was great and very relaxing. I look forward to more books like this one!