
She returns home after a rare day spent wandering the countryside, the late‑spring sun spilling gold across her skin. Sitting by the window, she feels the light like a warm wine, her thoughts brightening with the colors of the evening. The quiet of her room suddenly feels both a sanctuary and a place where something inside her stirs.
Drawn to a secluded pond deep in the woods, Annette slips into water that glitters like an eye of the sun. The sensation shifts from a tender, luminous embrace to a tangled, murky grip of vines, as if unseen gazes are watching her naked form. She fights her way back to the surface, emerging shaken but alive, the fading light casting long shadows over the water’s edge.
The opening captures a lyrical meditation on desire, perception, and the fragile boundary between the self and the world. It invites listeners to follow Annette’s inner journey, where every sensation hints at larger questions about love, thought, and the search for harmony. The story promises further steps beyond this vivid encounter, leaving the imagination eager for what lies ahead.
Language
fr
Duration
~5 hours (309K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive)
Release date
2014-06-14
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1866–1944
A French novelist, dramatist, music historian, and essayist, he wrote with deep feeling about art, conscience, and the moral struggles of modern life. Best known for the multi-volume novel cycle Jean-Christophe, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1915.
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