Part of La Comédie Humaine, book 12
First published 2010
The Marquise de Listomere embodies the contradictions of Restoration society. She attends mass and takes communion with the same devotion she brings to opera performances and elegant balls. Her confessor approves this blend of sacred and secular pursuits. Married seven years to a deputy who seeks a peerage, she maintains strict virtue that serves both her principles and her family's political aspirations. The marquise could easily shift toward either religious devotion or worldly gallantry depending on which path society rewards. Her calculated morality reflects a generation raised to prize legality above all else. She follows church doctrine and social convention with equal precision. Other women watch her carefully, waiting to judge her choices when her husband achieves his peerage and she reaches thirty-six. That age marks when many women realize they have been deceived by the very social rules they followed so faithfully. The marquise represents her era's attempt to balance competing demands of faith, society, and personal ambition.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, adult-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: moral-ambiguity, social-commentary
Setting: France
Period: Restoration
18 pages · ebook · Pubone.Info