La Duchesse de Langeais
{{Short description|1834 novel by Honoré de Balzac}}
{{Infobox book
| name = La Duchesse de LangeaisThe Duchess of Langeais
| image = BalzacDuchessLangeais01.jpg
| caption = Title page of La Duchesse de Langeais (1833)
| author = Honoré de Balzac
| title_orig = La Duchesse de Langeais
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = France
| language = French
| series = La Comédie humaine
| subject =
| genre =
| publisher =
| pub_date = 1834
| english_pub_date =
| media_type =
| pages =
}}
The Duchess of Langeais ({{langx|fr|La Duchesse de Langeais}}) is an 1834 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) and included in the Scènes de la vie parisienne section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. It first appeared in 1834 under the title Ne touchez pas la hache (Don't Touch the Axe)This expression is a reference to the axe that had been used to decapitate Charles I of England, which the character Montriveau had overheard at Westminster Palace. in the periodical L'Écho de la Jeune France. It is part of Balzac's 1839 trilogy Histoire des treize: Ferragus is the first part, Part Two is The Duchess of Langeais and part three is The Girl with the Golden Eyes.
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, General Montriveau finds the duchess in a Spanish monastery of Discalced Carmelites under the name of Sister Theresa.
Dedicated to Franz Liszt, this portrait of a vain representative of the noble families of Faubourg Saint-Germain, was inspired by the Laure Junot with whom Balzac had a failed romance.{{Cite book |last=Robb |first=Graham |title=Balzac: A Biography |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=1994 |isbn=0-393-03679-0 |location=New York |pages=130 |language=en}}
Film adaptations
- La Duchesse de Langeais, 1910 French film by André Calmettes
- The Eternal Flame, 1922 American film by Frank Lloyd
- Love (Liebe), 1927 German film by Paul Czinner
- La Duchesse de Langeais, 1942 French film by Jacques de Baroncelli
- La Duchesse de Langeais, 1982 French television film by Jean-Paul Roux
- La Duchesse de Langeais, 1995 French television film by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe
- The Duchess of Langeais, 2007 French film by Jacques Rivette
{{wikisource|The Duchesse de Langeais}}
References
External links
- {{librivox book | title=The Duchess of Langeais| author=Balzac}}
{{Honoré de Balzac}}
{{La Duchesse de Langeais}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duchess of Langeais}}
Category:Books of La Comédie humaine
Category:Novels set in 19th-century France
Category:French novels adapted into films
Category:Novels by Honoré de Balzac
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