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"Two very intelligent, very idealistic young women leave the convent school wherethey became the fastest of friends to return to their families and embark on theirnew lives. For Renee de Maucombe, this means an arranged marriage with a countrygentleman of Provence, a fine if slightly dull man for whom she feels admirationbut nothing more. Meanwhile, Louise de Chaulieu makes for her family's house inParis, intent on enjoying her freedom to the fullest: glittering balls, the opera, andabove all, she devoutly hopes, the torments and ecstasies of true love and passion. What will come of these two very different lives? Despite Balzac's title, these aren't memoirs; rather, this is an epistolary novel. Forsome ten years, these two will--enthusiastically if not always faithfully--keep uptheir correspondence, obeying their vow to tell each other every tiny detail of theirstrange new lives, comparing their destinies, defending and sometimes bemoaningtheir choices, detailing the many changes, personal and social, that they undergo. AsBalzac writes, "Renee is reason. Louise is wildness. and both will lose." Balzacbeing Balzac, he seems to argue for the virtues of one of these lives over the other;but Balzac being Balzac, that argument remains profoundly ambiguous: "I would," heonce wrote, "rather be killed by Louise than live a long life with Renee.""--
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