The Deserted Woman (1822)

An aristocratic husband and wife lead separate lives. The wife is quite active in high society, throwing parties that the greatest names in France attend, but after her lover deserts her to marry another woman, she retreats to the countryside and lives a life of seclusion for three years. There a young man manages to meet her and court her. They are lovers for nine years but he cannot marry her because her husband is still alive. The young man finally marries someone else, but realising that he has made a mistake only too late he commits suicide, which makes the plot similar to Collete's novels "Cheri" (1920) and "The Last of Cheri" (1926) in some respects.

The "artificial sublimity of the language," "lofty diction", and "French...religion of love" could make this one drag for some readers. (Hunt, 62-63)

(Short, La Femme abandonnee, dswmn10.txt)