
\[Publié dans *la Revue Indépendante*, numéros 11 à 14 (1887).\]
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A freshly returned engineering officer finds himself alone at a lively soirée on the boulevard Malesherbes, where music drifts through open windows and the night air rustles silk curtains. Amid the chatter, his gaze is captured by a pale, striking young woman whose dark eyes flash with a mix of contempt and allure, leaving him both fascinated and unsettled.
He soon learns from a fellow guest that she is Madeleine Vacreuse, daughter of a notorious family and the newest debutante in society. The officer’s curiosity deepens as whispers of her tangled past and a mysterious suitor, Victor de Semaise, surface, stirring a restless yearning within him. Caught between duty, melancholy, and a sudden, fragile hope, he must decide whether to remain a detached observer or to follow the pull of an emerging, yet uncertain, passion.
Language
fr
Duration
~4 hours (282K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Laurent Vogel, Pierre Lacaze and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr)
Release date
2008-11-20
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1856–1940
A pioneering voice in early science fiction, this French-language writer imagined alien life, deep time, and prehistoric humanity with unusual boldness. Best known for works like The Quest for Fire and Les Xipéhuz, he helped shape the genre long before it had its modern name.
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