Дама с камелиями

Alexandre Dumas (1824-1895) was a French playwright and novelist. The son of Alexandre Dumas Sr. and Catherine Labe, a simple Parisian worker, from whom he inherited a love of a quiet lifestyle, which so sharply distinguishes him from his father's purely bohemian nature. He lived a long busy life, in which there was a place for both stormy novels and literary work. Dumas son touched on the most pressing issues of social and family life with courage and talent, which made a social event out of each of his works. “I draw my plots in dreams,” said Father Dumas, “and my son finds them in reality. I work with my eyes closed, he with his eyes open. I draw, he takes pictures.”
The Lady of the Camellias is a novel about problems that not everyone dared to openly discuss in the middle of the 19th century. This is a book about the love of the terminally ill Marguerite Gauthier, a lady of the demi-monde, for the young and romantic Armand Duval, about passionate, tragic and doomed love.
The story, inspired by the author's feelings for Marie Duplessis, is an example of psychological literature of incomparable depth. The image of the Parisian courtesan was embodied on the stage by the great actress Sarah Bernhardt, and in the cinema by the world star Greta Garbo. The premiere of the play based on the novel was attended by the composer G. Verdi, who later composed the famous opera La Traviata based on The Lady of the Camellias.