Jason Furman's Reviews > The Lady of the Camellias

I needed a short book for a short trip to Paris and this fit the bill perfectly. It is the original source for La Traviata and has a reputation for being somewhat less than high brow. I guess that's fair--not a lot of complexity in the characters and the situation they face is a bit clichéd (although possibly this book helped make the cliché). But, I did think it was wonderfully constructed--starting with the author showing up at the auction for the recently deceased courtesan Marguerite Gautier. Then he meets Armand Duval who tells his story from the beginning (the one that La Traviata is based on)--with a conclusion that, even though I expected it, still had me in tears because of the nobility and sacrifice of Marguerite and the feeling Armand's father showed as well--all while reading the words and hearing the music in my head.