Dominique
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket - cloth/board in good condition
Pages: Yellowed
Markings: Previous owner
A masterwork of restrained passion and psychological acuity, Dominique stands as one of the most celebrated French novels of the nineteenth century — a quiet, devastating portrait of a man haunted by a love he chose to abandon. Set against the languid landscapes of rural France, the novel chronicles the confession of Dominique de Bray, a retired country gentleman who recounts to a sympathetic visitor the defining romance of his youth: an all-consuming, unconsummated devotion to the married Madeleine, and the agonising renunciation that shaped the remainder of his life. Written with the precision of a painter's eye — Fromentin was himself a celebrated artist — the prose captures both the luminous beauty of the natural world and the intricate inner geography of a soul in conflict. Dominique, published in 1862 and the only novel Fromentin ever wrote, occupies a singular position in French literary history, bridging the Romantic tradition and the emerging realism of Flaubert and his contemporaries. The novel's central argument is not one of grand tragedy but of willed quietude — the idea that dignity and happiness may be found in renunciation rather than pursuit. Edward Marsh's elegant English translation preserves the novel's meditative rhythm and its author's characteristic blend of lyricism and emotional restraint. For readers who prize psychological depth over melodrama, this is a novel that rewards patience with revelations that linger long after the final page.
Author: Eugene Fromentin
Format: Hardback
Published: 1948, The Cresset Press
Genre: Classic fiction
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket - cloth/board in good condition
Pages: Yellowed
Markings: Previous owner
A masterwork of restrained passion and psychological acuity, Dominique stands as one of the most celebrated French novels of the nineteenth century — a quiet, devastating portrait of a man haunted by a love he chose to abandon. Set against the languid landscapes of rural France, the novel chronicles the confession of Dominique de Bray, a retired country gentleman who recounts to a sympathetic visitor the defining romance of his youth: an all-consuming, unconsummated devotion to the married Madeleine, and the agonising renunciation that shaped the remainder of his life. Written with the precision of a painter's eye — Fromentin was himself a celebrated artist — the prose captures both the luminous beauty of the natural world and the intricate inner geography of a soul in conflict. Dominique, published in 1862 and the only novel Fromentin ever wrote, occupies a singular position in French literary history, bridging the Romantic tradition and the emerging realism of Flaubert and his contemporaries. The novel's central argument is not one of grand tragedy but of willed quietude — the idea that dignity and happiness may be found in renunciation rather than pursuit. Edward Marsh's elegant English translation preserves the novel's meditative rhythm and its author's characteristic blend of lyricism and emotional restraint. For readers who prize psychological depth over melodrama, this is a novel that rewards patience with revelations that linger long after the final page.