The Red Lily

Thérèse has everything Parisian society can offer, a politician husband who barely notices her, a salon full of brilliant talkers, a discreet lover kept out of boredom more than passion. Then, in Florence among the lilies and old stones, she meets the sculptor Jacques Dechartre, and for the first time in her elegant, arranged life, love arrives as force rather than pastime. The trouble is that real love, unlike the society kind, cannot bear the existence of a past.

Anatole France (later a Nobel laureate) wrote The Red Lily as both a rapturous love story and a coolly observed autopsy of one: the conversations glitter, Florence glows, and underneath it all jealousy tightens notch by notch. It is a novel about the exact moment happiness begins to destroy itself, told by one of French literature's great ironists. Sensuous, worldly, and quietly merciless.

At roughly 75,700 words, The Red Lily runs about 8½ hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

The Red Lily is in the public domain, so the complete text is free on Project Gutenberg and LoudReader has the entire Project Gutenberg catalog built in. To listen:

1. Download LoudReader for Mac or iPhone (free, no account).
2. Search for “The Red Lily” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

LoudReader reads with natural offline voices, so the whole book works on a plane or underground. It is fully on-device and private, your library never leaves your device. Listening is unlimited on the free tier.