The Lady of the Camellias

“The Lady of the Camellias” is a love story about the young bourgeois Armand Duval’s love for the sickly courtesan Marguerite Gautier, who pinned camellias of different colors to her dress (white when she was accessible to her lovers, red when she felt unwell). The book is a story within a story, because Armand Duval tells the story of the generous courtesan to the author—the original narrator of the novel.