Les Diaboliques, Jules Barbey dAurevilly
Les Diaboliques, Jules Barbey dAurevilly
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Les Diaboliques

Author: Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly

Narrator: John Burlinson, Cate Barratt

Unabridged: 11 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/15/2021


Synopsis

Les Diaboliques

By Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly

Narrated by Cate Barratt and John Burlinson

This translation, by an unknown hand, of D'Aurevilly's salacious miscellany, which consists of six novellas, was published in 1900 under the title “Weird Women” and is in the public domain.

When the collection was first published in France in 1874, it caused up an uproar; it was declared a danger to public morality and the Prosecutor issued orders for its seizure on the grounds of blasphemy and obscenity.

Contents

1) The Crimson Curtain: An old vicomte tells a younger friend about his first sexual adventure and its disastrous consequences.

2) The Greatest Love of Don Juan: An aged playboy, surrounded by past lovers, relates the tale of his most remarkable love affair.

3) Happiness in Crime: A comte falls in love with his fencing mistress, resulting in adultery, fraud and much worse.

4) Beneath the Cards of a Game of Whist: The secret affair of a lady and an expert whist player leads to an horrific act.

5) At a Dinner of Atheists: A French officer defends his attendance at church to a group of free-thinkers by relating a tale of love and lust with the wife of one of his fellow officers.

6) A Woman's Revenge: A wealthy princess adopts an extreme strategy to punish her ignoble husband in the most damaging way.

Production copyright 2021 Voices of Today

Reviews

Goodreads review by Glenn

Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly (1808 – 1889), romantic with the sensibility of a decadent, self-styled dandy, teller of risqué novels and short stories, shocked readers and infuriated the authorities with the publication of Les Diaboliques. But there is much more to this captivating novel with its sumptuo......more

Goodreads review by Vit

Stories of Les Diaboliques are rather decadent than satanic… Decadent tales, written in the exquisite style and brandishing neither virtues nor morality, never fail to fascinate me. In The Crimson Curtain, told by an old viscount, a young innocent girl becomes a victim of her utterly fatal passion… Th......more

Goodreads review by Bill

" 'Keep in the ranks, Ranconnet,' said Mesnilgrand, as though he had been commanding his squadron, 'and hold your tongue. Are you always going to be as hot-headed and impatient as you are before the enemy? Let me make my story manoeuvre as I like.' " Thus Napoleon's old commander upbraids a former of......more

Goodreads review by P.E.

Duplicité, dissimulation, ambiguïté, raffinement dans le mal. Voilà les thèmes communs aux 6 nouvelles qui forment Les Diaboliques. Les 6 nouvelles sont pour l'essentiel racontées par des témoins indirects des événements, et ne donnent pas toutes les clefs de leur résolution. À l'exception de la dern......more