'' La Duchesse de Langeais '' is an 1834 novel by French author

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

(1799–1850) and included in the ''Scènes de la vie parisienne'' section of his

novel sequence A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their pub ...

La Comédie humaine LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

''. It is part of his 1839 trilogy ''Histoire des treize'': '' Ferragus'' is the first part, Part Two is ''La Duchesse de Langeais'' and Part Three is '' The Girl with the Golden Eyes''. It first appeared in 1834 under the title ''Ne touchez pas la hache'' (Don’t Touch the Axe) in the periodical ''L'Écho de la Jeune France''.

Plot

General Armand de Montriveau, a war hero, is enamored of Duchess Antoinette de Langeais, a coquettish, married noblewoman who invites him to a ball but ultimately refuses his sexual advances and then disappears. Assisted by the powerful group known as The Thirteen, who subscribe to an occult form of

freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, General Montriveau finds the duchess in a Spanish monastery of

Discalced Carmelites The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel ( la, Ordo Fratrum Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo) or the Order of Discalced Carme ...

under the name of Sister Theresa. Dedicated to Franz Liszt, this portrait of a vain representative of the noble families of

Faubourg Saint-Germain ''Faubourg Saint-Germain'' () is a historic district of Paris, France. The ''Faubourg'' has long been known as the favourite home of the French high nobility and hosts many aristocratic '' hôtels particuliers''. It is currently part of the 7th ...

, was inspired by the

Laure Junot Laure may refer to: * ''Laure'' (film), a 1976 Italian erotic film in the Emmanuelle universe * '' Doxocopa laure'', commonly known as the Laure, a butterfly People * Laura (given name) (French variant) * Laure (art model) (fl. 1859–1867), Fr ...

with whom Balzac had a failed romance.

Film adaptations

* ''La Duchesse de Langeais'', 1910 French film by

André Calmettes André Calmettes (1861-1942) was a French actor and film director. Biography After being a theatre actor for twenty years, he joined the society ', founded in 1908 by the novelist and editor, at the urging of the Sociétaires of the Comédie-Fr ...

*'' The Eternal Flame'', 1922 American film by

Frank Lloyd Frank William George Lloyd (2 February 1886 – 10 August 1960) was a British-born American film director, actor, scriptwriter, and producer. He was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was its preside ...

* ''

Love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

'' (''Liebe''), 1927 German film by Paul Czinner * '' La Duchesse de Langeais'', 1942 French film by

Jacques de Baroncelli Jacques de Baroncelli (25 June 1881 – 12 January 1951) was a French film director best known for his silent films from 1915 to the late 1930s. He came from a Florence, Florentine family who had settled in Provence in the 15th century, occupying ...

* ''La Duchesse de Langeais'', 1982 French television film by

Jean-Paul Roux Jean-Paul Roux, PhD (5 January 1925 – 29 June 2009) was a French Turkologist and a specialist in Islamic culture. He was a graduate of the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales, the École du Louvre, and the École ...

* ''La Duchesse de Langeais'', 1995 French television film by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe * '' Ne touchez pas la hache'', 2007 French film by

Jacques Rivette Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine '' Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including '' L'amour f ...

References

External links

* Books of La Comédie humaine Novels set in 19th-century France 1834 French novels French novels adapted into films Novels by Honoré de Balzac {{1830s-novel-stub