![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
♯ INTRODUCTION
Sep. 18th, 2025 02:47 pmJean-Philippe is the frame narrator of Alexandre Dumas fils' novel, The Lady of the Camellias. In the book, Jean-Philippe, unnamed and in first person, tells the story of how he comes into possession of the full narrative of the recently deceased courtesan, Marguerite Gautier. He hears about her from various sources, but most importantly, he meets the woman's former lover, Armand Duval, and the two form a firm friendship while Armand tells him of how he and Marguerite met and fell in love, then had an ugly fall-out and never reconciled before her death. Afterwards, when Armand has slowly recovered from his loss, Jean-Philippe spends some time with him and his family outside of Paris, before the book that he writes on the subject is published a year later.
Few established facts are known about Jean-Philippe. He is well-educated and intelligent, seemingly an established author. He moves in circles where it's normal to acquaint yourself with courtesans, if you're a man, and where everyone knows everyone else through gossip. He is seemingly not a noble, but knows many of them by sight and name, which suggests he has credit enough to attend the same events and establishments they do. He has some unorthodox, for the time, opinions on social class and what he calls 'the plight of courtesans', believing that it is right to pity the vulnerable and the poor, but that nobility among such people is still a rarity and an exception. Thus, more a charitable bourgeoise than a revolutionary one, he believes in the 'state of things'. For example, he speaks against Voltaire.
Note: As the frame narrator is never mentioned by name originally, both his given name, Jean-Philippe, and his redacted surname, D(ubois), are of my making.
Few established facts are known about Jean-Philippe. He is well-educated and intelligent, seemingly an established author. He moves in circles where it's normal to acquaint yourself with courtesans, if you're a man, and where everyone knows everyone else through gossip. He is seemingly not a noble, but knows many of them by sight and name, which suggests he has credit enough to attend the same events and establishments they do. He has some unorthodox, for the time, opinions on social class and what he calls 'the plight of courtesans', believing that it is right to pity the vulnerable and the poor, but that nobility among such people is still a rarity and an exception. Thus, more a charitable bourgeoise than a revolutionary one, he believes in the 'state of things'. For example, he speaks against Voltaire.
Note: As the frame narrator is never mentioned by name originally, both his given name, Jean-Philippe, and his redacted surname, D(ubois), are of my making.
