The Lady of the Camellias

The landmark novel that inspired Verdi’s opera La Traviata, in a sparkling new translation published to coincide with a major new biography of the real-life “Lady of the Camellias” One of the greatest love stories of all time and the inspiration for Verdi’s opera La Traviata and the Oscar-winning musical Moulin Rouge!, The Lady of the Camellias tells the story of Marguerite Gautier, the most beautiful, brazen, and expensive courtesan in all of Paris. Known to all as “the Lady of the Camellias” because she is never seen without her favorite flowers, she leads a glittering life of endless parties and aristocratic balls, with the richest men in France flocking to her boudoir to lay their fortunes at her feet. But despite having many lovers, she has never really loved—until she meets Armand Duval, young, handsome, and from a lower social class, and yet hopelessly in love with Marguerite.
This new translation—the first in English in more than twenty-five years—is by New York Times Book Review critic Liesl Schillinger and features an introduction by Julie Kavanagh, the acclaimed biographer of the courtesan Marie Duplessis, the lover of Alexandre Dumas fils who inspired the novel.

Alexandre Dumas fils (1824–1895) was the son of the famous novelist Alexandre Dumas. He published many novels, and after the success of the dramatic version of The Lady of the Camellias, he became equally prolific as a playwright. Liesl Schillinger is a journalist and literary critic who writes regularly for the New York Times Book Review and spent many years on the editorial staff of the New Yorker. She lives in New York. Julie Kavanagh is an award-winning biographer whose latest book is about the courtesan Marie Duplessis, who inspired The Lady of the Camellias. She has been London editor of both Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. She lives in London.