Paul and Virginia

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre

Translated from the French by John Donovan

Paul and Virginia is the classic of naïve love.

'The second half of the story (told here in Donovan's elegant translation) has traditionally been read through a mist of tears.' – Publishers Weekly

First published in 1788 and an instant bestseller of great popular appeal, Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's only novel subsequently appeared in hundreds of editions in France and throughout the world. It influenced a generation of French writers including George Sand, Lamartine, Balzac and Flaubert; and it was the favourite book of Napoleon Bonaparte who said it spoke to his soul.

Bernardin was inspired by Rousseau to tell the story of a boy and a girl, the offspring of French colonists, who grow up on a paradise island entirely according to nature's laws, free from the corrupting influence of the world. They reach adolescence and fall in love, but a shipwreck tragedy strikes and both die untimely deaths. In modern times Paul and Virginia provided the inspiration for the film The Blue Lagoon, musicals, paintings, engravings, photographs (including iconic images by the Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron), a hit song by Celine Dion and even a chain of luxury hotels on Mauritius, the island on which the tale takes place.

Paul and Virginia is a key text in the development of the novel and essential reading for anyone interested in the history of European literature. This attractive new edition from Peter Owen contains many period engravings.

‘It made the world weep . . . Bernardin has created an authentic myth.’ – Peter Ackroyd, Sunday Times

‘Brought tears to the eyes of both sexes through many generations.’ – Observer

‘The most widely read of French novels . . . one of the great romances of literature . . . the translation by John Donovan is also a work of art; and his introduction a valuable piece of scholarship and appreciation. This is indeed a classic edition.’ – Irish Times

‘A charming example of the pastoral naïve.’ – Guardian

JACQUES-HENRI BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE was born in Le Havre in 1737. When Paul and Virginia was published in 1788 he was already well known as a natural historian, but his first novel catapulted him to stardom. In 1792 he was made Superintendent of the Royal Botanical Gardens and later became Professor of Moral Science at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. By the time of his death in 1815 he was President of the French Academy.