The Red Lily

What It's About

Thérèse Martin-Bellème is the wife of a successful politician and a fixture of Parisian high society. Bored by her marriage, she begins a passionate affair with Jacques Dechartre, a sensitive and reclusive sculptor. Their love moves between Paris and Florence, but it is complicated by Thérèse's former lover Robert Le Ménil, and by Jacques's growing jealousy over her past. The novel is a close study of how desire, pride and suspicion can poison even a deeply felt attachment.

Key Concepts

The central theme is the gap between love and possession: Thérèse wants to be loved wholly, while Jacques cannot stop imagining the lovers who came before him. Around this, France sets a portrait of the social world of the French Third Republic, with its politics, salons and fashionable morality. The Florentine setting adds a contrasting backdrop of Renaissance art and beauty, which shapes the characters' ideas of love and permanence.

About the Author

Anatole France (1844–1924) was a French novelist, critic and public intellectual, born in Paris, the son of a bookseller. He was known for his elegant, ironic and sceptical style, and for his outspoken support of Alfred Dreyfus. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921.

About This Edition

This is a 1908 translation by Winifred Stephens.