
P.-J. TOULET
MON AMIE NANE
Mon amie Nane
I. Les Sirènes
II. Comment on s'aime
III
L'apéritif chez la Marquise
IV. L'heureuse Mère
V. L'après-midi esthétique
VI. Une journée entre toutes
In this richly lyrical work, a self‑styled admirer narrates his encounters with a strikingly beautiful and inscrutable woman known only as Nane. Set against the glittering yet ruthless backdrop of an 18th‑century court, the narrator’s devotion oscillates between reverent admiration and wry observation, painting Nane as both a radiant muse and a figure of melancholy. Her presence is described with paradoxical language—she is at once a “girl of joy” and “of sadness,” a living enigma whose fleeting words sound like carnival bells while her mind flickers like summer heat on stone.
The prose weaves philosophical musings on truth, beauty, and the interconnectedness of all things, inviting listeners to ponder how a single soul can embody an entire cosmos. As the narrator balances tender affection with a subtle critique of aristocratic pretensions, the story unfolds as a meditation on love, perception, and the fragile line between admiration and obsession, promising a listening experience that is both intellectually stimulating and poetically intimate.
Language
fr
Duration
~3 hours (220K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Carlo Traverso, Renald Levesque and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica)
Release date
2005-05-23
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1867–1920
A sharp, elegant voice from France’s Belle Époque, he is best remembered for the finely tuned poems later gathered as Les Contrerimes. His life moved between Parisian literary circles and the southwest of France, giving his work both polish and a faint, wistful edge.
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