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Lot Essay
Paul et Virginie is a love story of childhood friends written by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and first published in 1788. The story is set on the island of Mauritius under French rule, then named Île de France where Bernardin de Saint-Pierre lived for a time and based part of the novel on a shipwreck he witnessed there. Written on the eve of the Revolution, the novel criticizes the social class divisions found in eighteenth-century French society. It describes the contrast with Mauritius whose inhabitants live in a perfect social and non-violent harmony sharing their possessions and working the land together. Bernadin argues for the emancipation of slaves and although in the story Paul and Virginie own slaves themselves, they appreciate their labour and do not treat them badly.