Naturalist Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737–1814), a disciple of Rousseau, led a hardscrabble life until he published his one novel, Paul et Virginie
, in 1788. The book catapulted him into wealth and fame, speeding through dozens of editions on its way to touchstone status for 19th-century lovers of sentimental tales—Flaubert used it as the exemplum of the pulp fiction that cheapened Madame Bovary's young mind. The plot (which also inspired Blue Lagoon
) is this: Paul's mother and Virginie's mother, unmarried pregnant strangers when they meet on the tropical French outpost of Mauritius, become bosom friends in adversity. When their children are born, they and their two slaves (who conveniently marry each other), start up a farm on the island. The children are handsome, illiterate, casual about nudity, innocent of the slave labor that sustains them, and close as brother and sister until, inevitably, sexual and romantic feelings begin to muddy the crystal blue waters of their affection. Then Virginie's imperious, aristocratic aunt back in France demands her services, and she must part from Paul for the very first time. The second half of the story (told here in Donovan's elegant 1982 translation) has traditionally been read through a mist of tears. (Nov.)
