Paul and Virginia

Bernardin de St. Pierre

• Publisher: Passerino
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9791222058351
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

Paul and Virginia is a novel by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, first published in 1788. The novel's title characters are friends since birth who fall in love. The story is set on the island of Mauritius under French rule, then named Île de France. Written on the eve of the French Revolution, the novel is recognized as Bernardin's finest work. It records the fate of a child of nature corrupted by the artificial sentimentality of the French upper classes in the late eighteenth century. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre lived on the island for a time and based part of the novel on a shipwreck he witnessed there. Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (also called Bernardin de St. Pierre ) (19 January 1737, in Le Havre – 21 January 1814, in Éragny, Val-d'Oise) was a French writer and botanist. He is best known for his 1788 novel Paul et Virginie, now largely forgotten, but in the 19th century a very popular children's book.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Paul and Virginia
• Table of contents
• PREFACE
• MEMOIR OF BERNARDIN DE ST. PIERRE
• PAUL AND VIRGINIA