Details
DUPLESSIS, Marie (born Alphonsine Plessis, 1824-1847, courtesan, 'la dame aux camélias'). Three autograph letters signed ('Alphonsine'), including two to her great-uncle ('Monsieur [Louis] Meni [Mesnil], capitaine au village de la trouillère ... par nonan[t]', n.p. [Paris] 12 and 25 November [1841], 4 pages, 8vo, address leaf (slightly stained); and one to her sister Delphine, n.p. [Paris], 25 November [1841], one page, 8vo, address panel (light scorch marks, slightly frayed at top and bottom edges).
LA DAME AUX CAMELIAS, shortly after her arrival in Paris: 'Je suis arriveée a paris en bon port mais ma santé n'est pas encore tres bonne; j'ai encore été obligee d'avoir le medecin depuis quelques jours.''Ce n'est pas par negligence que j'ai tardé si longtems à t'ecrire, je suis rentrée dans les magasin dont je t'ai parlé et je suis tellement occupée que je n'ai même pas un moment pour ecrire.' Affectionate letters to her uncle and guardian, in the first returning an order for 100 francs and asking him to draw the money and send ten francs to her sister and the rest back to her; the second letter conveying the news of her busy life also mentions two camisoles which she is sending as gifts, and asks for her linen. A postscript refers to an English neighbour at Nonant -- 'Bien des amities pour moi chez l'anglais' (probably referring to the English family who engaged her mother as a companion). The letter to Delphine refers to the ten francs which her sister has not yet received, and again to being well occupied in the 'magasin'.
After a childhood of extreme poverty, Marie arrived in Paris aged fifteen, working as a laundress and a hatmaker before captivating the son of the Duke of Guiche who set her on the course in which she was later immortalised by Dumas fils. It is probable that by 1841 she was already on her way to becoming the most famous of Parisian courtesans and the 'magasin' to which she refers was a convenient fiction. (3)
LA DAME AUX CAMELIAS, shortly after her arrival in Paris: 'Je suis arriveée a paris en bon port mais ma santé n'est pas encore tres bonne; j'ai encore été obligee d'avoir le medecin depuis quelques jours.''Ce n'est pas par negligence que j'ai tardé si longtems à t'ecrire, je suis rentrée dans les magasin dont je t'ai parlé et je suis tellement occupée que je n'ai même pas un moment pour ecrire.' Affectionate letters to her uncle and guardian, in the first returning an order for 100 francs and asking him to draw the money and send ten francs to her sister and the rest back to her; the second letter conveying the news of her busy life also mentions two camisoles which she is sending as gifts, and asks for her linen. A postscript refers to an English neighbour at Nonant -- 'Bien des amities pour moi chez l'anglais' (probably referring to the English family who engaged her mother as a companion). The letter to Delphine refers to the ten francs which her sister has not yet received, and again to being well occupied in the 'magasin'.
After a childhood of extreme poverty, Marie arrived in Paris aged fifteen, working as a laundress and a hatmaker before captivating the son of the Duke of Guiche who set her on the course in which she was later immortalised by Dumas fils. It is probable that by 1841 she was already on her way to becoming the most famous of Parisian courtesans and the 'magasin' to which she refers was a convenient fiction. (3)
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