Mont Oriol: or A Romance of Auvergne

A young bride arrives at the thermal springs of Auvergne expecting rest and rejuvenation. What she finds is a crucible of social ambition, medical quackery, and barely concealed desire. Christiane, beautiful and naive, has been brought to this volcanic landscape by her husband and her father, the Marquis de Ravenel, but not for her health. The family requires an heir, and the "miracle waters" are merely the latest attempt to produce one. What unfolds is Maupassant at his most sardonic: a comedy of manners where pompous physicians prescribe absurd remedies, where new money disrupts ancient aristocracy, and where Christiane discovers that in the game of marriage, she is both player and played. When the discovery of a new spa on Mont Oriol sends the resort into chaos, the social order begins to shift, and Christiane must choose between her duty and her own heart. This was Maupassant's first novel, and it already displays the sharp eye for social hypocrisy and the elegant, corrosive prose that would define his later masterpieces. For readers who relish the comedies of manners of 19th-century French literature, or who want to see one of the great short story writers in his earliest novelistic form.