A Platonic Love

<p><em>A Platonic Love </em>is Paul Alexis? novel or novella about the unrequited love between a mature man of means Mr. Mure who is fifteen years the senior of the beautiful Helen a woman he?s known since she was a child. It was published originally in 1886 as <em>Un amour platonique </em>(but even earlier in 1880 under the title <em>Journal de Monsieur Mure</em>).</p><p></p><p>Paul Alexis? touch is fine his style is deft. This book is elegantly written nostalgic and masterful. If it weren?t for the Naturalist moniker that often gets attached to him - by literary historians - one might almost call him Romantic. The last thing that comes to mind when reading him and <em>A Platonic Love</em> in particular because their styles seem although similar so very different - is Émile Zola who was his friend and master and the founder of Naturalism.</p><p></p><p>Paul Alexis is not very well known at all in the English-speaking world nor even in the French one. A Platonic Love is even less so. If one had to compare this novel with something better known today F. Scott Fitzgerald?s <em>The Great Gatsby</em> comes immediately to mind. Both participate in a rich and deep feeling of longing unrequited love and a strong sense of nostalgia for things of the past. Another book similar in theme might be <em>The Sorrows of Young Werther</em> by Goethe. </p>