Jean Mintié, born in a small Norman town on the edge of the Tourouvre forest, has a melancholy boyhood. After the horrors of the war of 1870 he falls desperately in love in Paris with Juliette, a kept woman who plays at housekeeping for him, and his devotion becomes a slow martyrdom.
Mirbeau’s searing first signed novel, an unsparing study of obsession and the 1870 war. Download the free EPUB.