The Duchesse of Langeais by Honoré de Balzac. Short summary

5 seconds

The Duchess de Lange plays with the general’s feelings. After he steals the girl, she herself falls in love with him, but the man’s feelings by this time are gone.

1 minute

The Duchesse de Lange, queen of the Saint-Germain Society, plays with the feelings of a fighting general until one day a man steals her from her family. The aristocratic friends advise him to brand the girl on her forehead. But the general, after scolding him, decides to let the culprit go.

The Duchess repents of her actions and confesses her love for her captor. But the latter declares that after everything that has happened his feelings have gone. Then the girl gives the man an ultimatum, either he stays with her or she disappears forever. The general does not take her words seriously, but after a while the heroine does disappear.

Later, the General realizes that he still has feelings for the Duchess. A few years later he finds the fugitive in a Spanish convent, recognizing her by her keyboard playing style. The man, along with his associates, prepares an escape for the girl, but she suddenly dies. The general buries his beloved and tells her that only a woman’s last love can satisfy a man’s first love.