Which? Or, Between Two Women Read online

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  WHICH?

  OR,

  BETWEEN TWO WOMEN.

  BY ERNEST DAUDET.

  TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCHBY LAURA E. KENDALL.

  * * * * *

  "WHICH? OR, BETWEEN TWO WOMEN," is the latest and most powerful novel from the pen of the celebrated French novelist, Ernest Daudet. It is fully worthy of its famous author's great reputation, for a more absorbing and thrilling romance has seldom been published. The interest begins at once with the flight of the gypsy mother with her child and her death in the Chateau de Chamondrin, where the friendless little one is received and cared for. The plot is simple and without mystery, but never, perhaps, were so many stirring incidents crowded within the covers of a novel. The scene is laid in Paris and the country, and some of the most striking events of the times are vividly reproduced. The reader is given a very realistic glimpse of Paris, and part of the action takes place in that historic prison, the Conciergerie, where nobles and others accused of crimes against the French Republic were confined. History and fiction are adroitly mingled in the excellent novel, which may be termed a double love story in that two women are passionately attached to one man. On the thrilling adventures and heart experiences of this trio the romance turns, and the reader's attention is kept constantly riveted to the exciting narrative. The other characters are all naturally drawn, and the book as a whole is one of the best and most absorbing novels that can be found. It will delight everybody.

  * * * * *

  NEW YORK: W. L. ALLISON COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, 1893.

  COPYRIGHT:

  BY T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS.

  1887.

  * * * * *

  WHICH?

  "WHICH? OR, BETWEEN TWO WOMEN," _is the title of a new, very thrillingand intensely interesting novel, by Ernest Daudet, one of the best knownand most widely read of the living French novelists. A highly romantic,attractive and touching love story, in which a gypsy girl of greatbeauty and heroism, named Dolores, and Antoinette de Mirandol, anheiress, are rivals for the possession of Philip de Chamondrin, thehero, forms the main theme, and it is most skilfully and effectivelyhandled. About this double romance of the heart are clustered a seriesof exceedingly stirring episodes, many of which are historic. Theadventures of Philip, Dolores and Antoinette in Paris are graphicallydescribed and hold the reader spell-bound. The book is highly dramaticfrom beginning to end, and especially so that portion where theConciergerie prison and its noble inmates are depicted. Very stirringscenes also are the attack on the Chateau de Chamondrin, Coursegol'sstruggle with Vauquelas and Bridoul's rescue of the condemned prisonerson the Place de la Revolution. But the entire novel is exceedinglyspirited, exciting and absorbing, and every character is finely drawn."Which? or, Between Two Women," should be read by all who relish anexcellent novel._

  CONTENTS.

  Chapter. Page.

  I. THE BOHEMIANS 21

  II. THE CHATEAU DE CHAMONDRIN 36

  III. THE CHILDHOOD OF DOLORES 53

  IV. PERTAINING TO LOVE MATTERS 73

  V. IN WHICH HISTORY IS MINGLED WITH ROMANCE 105

  VI. PARIS IN 1792 131

  VII. CITIZEN JEAN VAUQUELAS 163

  VIII. AN EPISODE OF THE EMIGRATION 179

  IX. THE MOVING CURTAIN 193

  X. COURSEGOL'S EXPLOITS 209

  XI. THE CONCIERGERIE 220

  XII. ANTOINETTE DE MIRANDOL 238

  XIII. LOVE'S CONFLICTS 249

  XIV. THE THUNDERBOLT 263

  XV. THE LAST FAREWELL 284

  XVI. IN THE CHEVREUSE VALLEY 304

  WHICH?

  BY ERNEST DAUDET.