02718cam a22003373u 4500 77329 UtSlPG 20260610134806.0 m cr n 260607r20251929utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d UtSlPG fr iso639-1 PQ Régnier, Henri de, 1864-1936 Le vrai bonheur Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2025 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Les roses latines, 1 Release date is 2025-11-24 Laurent Vogel (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica)) Le vrai bonheur by Henri de Régnier is a novella written in the early 20th century. The book examines the pursuit and fragility of happiness through an unconventional love affair set between Paris and the Italian lakes. Its likely topic is the perilous gap between romantic illusion and reality, as seen in a woman’s late-blossoming passion for a much younger man and the social, emotional, and moral tensions it creates. A Parisian narrator, drawn to eccentric circles, meets the charming Germaine de Gaillandre, a cultivated, superstitious woman separated from her husband and guided by a discreet fortune-teller, Mme Quittenard, who predicts future happiness. After the narrator’s absence abroad, he returns to learn that Germaine has fallen for an eighteen-year-old beauty, Jean de Querdrun, encountered in the painter Massot’s studio; they retreat to Stresa on Lake Maggiore, where Germaine worships him, and Jean, vain and gentle, lets himself be adored, even wearing her jewels. The narrator visits and sees a radiant idyll sustained by Germaine’s absolute faith. Two years later a telegram summons him: Jean has vanished—taking the pearls. With Mme Quittenard’s help, he is found in his old Latin Quarter flat, calmly resuming law studies and planning a conventional marriage, returning the jewels in tears for the lost necklace yet refusing to go back. The tale closes on a dry consolation: Germaine had her season of bliss, and, says the fortune-teller, for a lady the true happiness may be—at least—recovering her pearls. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: Paris: Horizons de France, 1929 French fiction -- 20th century Les roses latines, 1 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9622419x https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77329 118049 118049