The passionate love of Alexandre Dumas for Marie Duplessis, a 19th-century courtesan famous for her unparalleled beauty, drove him to write this masterpiece that made him known worldwide through the theatrical adaptation of his work and Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata - which is based on the same work. Alexandre Dumas fils takes the form of the narrator in his novel, in which the protagonist Armand Duval recounts step by step his love for the young Marguerite Gautier. A pure love that can only submit to social constraints and end eternally with Marguerite's death.