A handsome young man named Calyste du Gunic is in love with the older woman, Flicit des Touches, a famous writer who uses the pen name of Camille Maupin. Flicit at first does not reciprocate Calyste's feelings, and Calyste falls in love with the blonde marchioness Batrix de Rochefide. Batrix is a beautiful but selfish woman; one critic remarked in 1897 in regards to Batrix that "for cold-blooded cruelty and vulgarity she is unexampled, and her efforts to keep her youth and her hold over men are drawn in Balzac's heaviest and most pitiless manner." Batrix had already had an affair with Gennaro Conti, and Calyste has an additional rival in the form of Claude Vignon. Flicit des Touches (Camille Maupin) tries to help Calyste win Batrix's heart, thus sacrificing her own. Calyste's efforts are ultimately a failure, and Batrix is taken away by Gennaro Conti. Calyste is devastated by his failure, but promises his dying father to get married. Flicit des Touches enters a convent, but before she does, she uses her fortune to arrange a marriage for Calyste with a woman named Sabine de Grandlieu. When Calyste encounters Batrix again in Paris, his wife Sabine struggles to win back her husband's affections after Calyste falls for Batrix again. Subsequently, through the intercession of Count Maxime de Trailles, Batrix falls for another young man, and Calyste comes to his senses.
A handsome young man named Calyste du Gunic is in love with the older woman, Flicit des Touches, a famous writer who uses the pen name of Camille Maupin. Flicit at first does not reciprocate Calyste's feelings, and Calyste falls in love with the blonde marchioness Batrix de Rochefide. Batrix is a beautiful but selfish woman; one critic remarked in 1897 in regards to Batrix that "for cold-blooded cruelty and vulgarity she is unexampled, and her efforts to keep her youth and her hold over men are drawn in Balzac's heaviest and most pitiless manner." Batrix had already had an affair with Gennaro Conti, and Calyste has an additional rival in the form of Claude Vignon. Flicit des Touches (Camille Maupin) tries to help Calyste win Batrix's heart, thus sacrificing her own. Calyste's efforts are ultimately a failure, and Batrix is taken away by Gennaro Conti. Calyste is devastated by his failure, but promises his dying father to get married. Flicit des Touches enters a convent, but before she does, she uses her fortune to arrange a marriage for Calyste with a woman named Sabine de Grandlieu. When Calyste encounters Batrix again in Paris, his wife Sabine struggles to win back her husband's affections after Calyste falls for Batrix again. Subsequently, through the intercession of Count Maxime de Trailles, Batrix falls for another young man, and Calyste comes to his senses.
