I know a number of readers here really enjoyed The Little Duchess, Castalia’s first translation of a Zénaïde Fleuriot novel. Mlle Fleuriot was more or less the French Christian Louisa May Alcott, but her very popular and bestselling work was never translated into English. So I expect that people will be pleased to know that our intrepid French translator, Summer Charrette, just published the sequel to The Little Duchess, which is simply titled Alberte.
Alberte de la Rochefaucon is twenty now: beautiful, high-spirited, and the ward of an old ducal name. The wild child of The Little Duchess has become one of the most admired young women in the capital, and the fashionable world has decided her future for her. Her sister Madeleine. the marchioness de Valroux, is determined to see her make a brilliant match, and a dazzling candidate has appeared: David Louzéma, a fabulously rich friend from her Cannes childhood, who sweeps back into her life amid charity bazaars, skating parties, and masked balls, resplendent one evening in the pearls and emeralds of a rajah’s costume.
But Alberte measures men by a different standard. She will give her heart only to someone in whom she can find “a God, a country, and a heart” which draws her not to the glittering foreigner but to Roger de Châteaugrand, a plain young officer of dragoons with little to offer her but faith, honor, and steadiness. Against her stands a formidable alliance: her scheming sister, a severe great-aunt, and a false friend of doubtful reputation, all determined to steer her toward fortune and away from love.
Alberte has already gone out to the Library Unlimited subscribers and is now available on Amazon.
In other Castalia House news, three Natsume Soseki translations are now available in hardcover print editions: