The Girl Who Loved Camellia’s - The Life and Legend of Marie Duplessis
Title: The Girl Who Loved Camellia’s - The Life and Legend of Marie Duplessis A uthor: Julie Kavanagh Publisher: Knopf Pub Date: June 11, 2013 How Acquired: Through Edelweiss What it’s about: The astonishing and unknown story of Marie Duplessis, the courtesan who inspired Alexandre Dumas fils’s novel and play La dame aux camélias, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata, George Cukor’s film Camille, and Frederick Ashton’s ballet Marguerite and Armand. Fascinating to both men and women, Marie, with her stylish outfits and signature camellias, was always a subject of great interest at the opera or at the Café de Paris, where she sat at the table of the director of the Paris Opéra, along with the director of the Théâtre Variétés, and others. Her early death at age twenty-three from tuberculosis created an outpouring of sympathy, noted by Charles Dickens, who wrote in February 1847: “For several days all questions political, artistic, commercial have been abando