A bookish young man of humble birth is consumed by a hopeless romantic and social longing in 19th-century Paris.
Books mentioned in The Aspirations of Jean Servien (12)
Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso: “I have translated the Gerusalemme Liberata, the immortal masterpiece of Torquato Tasso”
Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe: “the theatrical posters announced ... Mithridate, Adrienne Lecouvreur, Rodogune, les Enfants d'Edouard, la Fiammina”
Mithridate by Jean Racine: “the theatrical posters announced ... Mithridate, Adrienne Lecouvreur, Rodogune ...”
Rodogune by Pierre Corneille: “the theatrical posters announced ... Mithridate, Adrienne Lecouvreur, Rodogune ...”
Les Enfants d'Édouard by Casimir Delavigne: “... Rodogune, les Enfants d'Edouard, la Fiammina”
La Fiammina by Mario Uchard: “... les Enfants d'Edouard, la Fiammina”
Fables by Jean de La Fontaine: “his favourites being La Fontaine's Fables, Anquetil's History of France, and Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique”
History of France by Louis-Pierre Anquetil: “his favourites being La Fontaine's Fables, Anquetil's History of France ...”
Dictionnaire Philosophique by Voltaire: “... Anquetil's History of France, and Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique”
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost: “such figures as Ophelia and Cassandra, Gretchen, Delia, Phædra, Manon Lescaut, and Virginia”
The Ancient History by Charles Rollin: “reading aloud ... a passage from Rollin's Ancient History”
Myrrha by Vittorio Alfieri: “Jean Servien spent his days in translating Myrrha bit by bit, with an infinity of pains”