玛格丽特原来是个贫苦的乡下姑娘，来到巴黎后，开始了卖笑生涯。由于生得花容月貌，巴黎的贵族公子争相追逐，成了红极一时的"社交明星"。她随身的装扮总是少不了一束茶花，人称"茶花女"。下面是《茶花女》英文读后感。欢迎阅读。
《茶花女》英文读后感一：
Those Beautiful Flowers
---Book Review: “Camille”
I read the Chinese version of “Camille” a few years ago. At that time I was deeply moved by the main character Marguerite Gautier. “Camille” or “The Lady of the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas, fils, is the story of Marguerite Gautier, a young courtesan, or kept woman, in Paris in the mid 1800's, and how she falls in love with a young man, Armand Duval, and then tries to escape from her questionable past. Unfortunately, it comes back to haunt her and she ends up returning to that life and dies painfully and alone, but with the knowledge that she was a noble woman at heart. When I first began to read the book, I did not care for Marguerite or her attitude or lifestyle, but as I got further into the narrative, I realized that her saucy attitude was a front to cover the lonely woman that she really was. She felt used, abused and unloved, until the gentle Armand Duval came into her life and showed her that he loved her as a person and not for what she could do for him. It must have taken great courage for Marguerite to leave the life she had lived for so long, knowing all along that it was probably too good to be true and would not last indefinitely. And it also showed that Marguerite really loved Armand Duval for she could even change herself for him.
However, happiness didn’t last for long. When M. Duval, Armand's father, came to her, pleading for her to leave Armand to save both Armand's reputation and that of his younger innocent sister, Marguerite saw a way to become pure of heart, if not in body. She felt that it was her duty, because she loved Armand so much, to do this even though it meant giving up her own happiness and hurting Armand temporarily. She reluctantly returned to her former life, knowing that some day Armand would forgive her. Sadly, she died in debt and basically alone, except for her one female friend, Julie Duprat, who helped her during her illness. She had her journal sent to Armand after her death, explaining why she had made the choices she had. I think Dumas's last few lines about Marguerite being the exception, not the rule were quite true, and I also agreed with his view that while her lifestyle could not be condoned, we as a society assume that all of these type of women are cold and heartless, while this may not always be the case. A person can make the wrong choices in life when they are young, and try to redeem themselves, but sometimes past situations prevent them from changing their lives, even though they desperately wish to do so. This applies to both men and women in many different types of circumstances: involvement in crime; drug or alcohol abuse; gambling; prostitution; financial problems; poor marriage choices; etc. And this is the fact, which exists in the whole society.
As far as the other characters in the book, I think Marguerite was right in saying that no one truly cared about her, but only wanted something from her, the only exceptions being Armand and Julie Duprat. Of course, the Comte de G. and Comte de N. wanted her body and appearance. The Duke needed to “wake up and smell the coffee” and realize that she could never replace his dead daughter. If he truly cared, he could have helped her leave her lifestyle without “keeping” her himself. And lastly, Prudence was a blood-sucking leech who used Marguerite almost worse than the men.I also think she was jealous of the fact that Marguerite had so much more courage than herself and someone truly loved her.
Last morning, when tiding my bookshelf, I took this book out of the shelf, and a dried flower flew away from the book. It was pale blue, very transparent, with thin fine veins. a dried flower flew away from the book. It was pale blue, very transparent, with thin fine veins. I held it against the morning light and blew on it. The soft breeze carried it away. Camille is just like the camellia, she could never escape from the destiny of withering. But it wasn’t her fault; it’s because of the evil of Capitalism and the hideousness of that society.
Suddenly, I remembered a saying: “Women are like the flowers”。 Those pretty women are like those beautiful flowers; their delicate beauty makes people feel they are the miracle of life. However, even the God envies their beauty. It seems that beautiful women always have tragic endings. As we are normal persons, even we can see the hideousness of humanity that results in their fate of withering, we can at most ask quietly in our hearts: Where have those beautiful flowers gone? Where have they gone?
《茶花女》英文读后感二：
Recently , I read the famous book written by French writer Alexandre Dumas,fils, which is called La dame aux Camélias .It is French name of it and you also can call it The Lady of the Camellias.And I got a lot from it and I want to share my feeling about it.
The whole story is about Marguerite,who is a kept womon in Paris in the mid of 1800s . After meeting Armand Duval ,Marguerite fell in love with the young man and even tried to flee from her questionable past ,so they left Paris and led a peaceful life.But the father of Armand thought it was a insult to let his son marry with the kept woman,so he went to Marguerite and pleaded with her for the reputation of Armand and his little daught . At that time Marguerite also realized it was the right way to love her lover, so she went back to Paris, the past life ,and at last because of the illness ,she died in heavy debts and the regret that she did not meet her lover.
Yeah , that is whole story .After that ,Armand knew the fact why Marguerite left him and he told Dumas the story. Dumas repeated emphasizing it was a true story, but as for me it just makes no difference and I really love that story .
So, at first ,I want to talk about the main role ---Marguerite. After reading the book, you can definitely feel the preference of the auther, for example “It will seem absurd to many people ,but I have an unbounded sympathy for women of this kind and I do not think it necessary to apologize for such sympathy.”And another thing is doubtless is that she was beautiful beyond words. Dumas described her as follow: Excessively tall and thin ,she had in the fullest degree the art of repairing this oversight of Nature by the mere arrangement of the things she wore. Two black eyes ,cheeks of rosy hue,teeth white as snow and all the beautiful clothes she had on made she perfect. That was also the reason she was so popular at that time. What moved me most is that her attitude toward the loved and the hated. When Comte de N asked her to be her lover, and she knew she could get a lot from her ,but she refused. And when she fell in love with Armand ,she tried to sell her belongings with a loss of more than 20 thousand francs only to want to live with her. But she was like a man who is addicted to drugs, she could not quit the luxurious life and she loved Armand so much ,so she could not avoid the tragic ending.
The second role impressed me should be Armand, who is also the main role of the story. To some extent, I do not like that guy and in some ways ,I think he should take the responsibility of the tragic ending of Marguerite. At first, after getting his certification , he did not return home but rented a house and got a woman with the 8000 francs from his father.
And meeting Marguerite ,he fell in love with the beauty of her. Just as words said, you can use two things to win a woman of that kind : one is money, the other is love. But more than 100 thousand francs that Marguerite would spend for a year, which was too much for him to afford, so he decided to take advantage of the last alternative. So he kept visiting Marguerite asking about her health, which gave Marguerite a good impression. Even the kept women got money by trading their bodies ,but that also made them more treasure love. So when Marguerite thought what Armand offered her to be love, she gave him all she had with soul and heart.
But I feel Armand was an unpleasant lover. At first ,when they were in Paris, he never gave her any trust or understanding, all he had done was taking and mistrusting. And he also prided himself on making the most beautiful woman as his lover and that was why he came to ask for her forgiveness after he realized that relationship cost him nothing but benefits. Even after he and Marguerite left Paris and lived in the country, he did not trust her and suspect her of having something with other men, which made much unpleasantness . And after living with her ,he did not get a real job but lived with her money---what he thought was dirty, and he even went to gamble. And when Marguerite wrote him a letter and returned to Paris ,he chose to trust his father’s words, and thought she left because she minded his poverty, and did not tried to figure out the reasons . And to save his face ,he even wrote a letter filled with insulted words to her. Just as Marguerite said , he wanted to maintain the rich life that Marguerite led and he did not trust that she would not share his poverty and sorrow. To some degree, in that love affair, he was not just that serious, and even without the interference of his father or her illness, he would leave her after he got tired of her . I think it is the death of Marguerite perfect their love.
But we have to accept the fact that Armand loved Marguerite, or he would not be so jealous when he knew her slept with other men and he would be not willing to give up all he had in Paris and go to the country with her, or he would not even reject his old father’s demand .Even we do not the love contained how much curiosity and how much true love towards him, but we can make sure that he loved Marguerite. But he was too young to understand what love was and how to make love work well, he did not know how to treat his beautiful lover. He thought staying with her was loving her, so he lost her.
And then I want to talk about the old duke. I do not want to judge what kind of person he was, but he is the important role. After losing her daughter, he met Marguerite who took after his daughter. That liked a fate .That old duke took nothing from her but offer her a lot of help when she was ill and when she needed money. He even offered her an opportunity of saying goodbye to her past life. But he was so nice that Marguerite could hurt him or take advantage of him. And Marguerite also did not like being controlled, so even with such a nice rich man to help, she died miserably.
And there was also an Prudence, who used to be a kept woman. She was not popular any longer, so she bore her company and tried to get things from her .For example ,she went to the duke for getting money for Marguerite, but then she “borrowed” 500 francs from her and she would never returned it. And impressed me most was that she kept praising Marguerite’s belongings and took all the stuff that she did not like. But the fact was that when Marguerite was ill and became not popular in heavy debts, she did not help her and left her and to build relationship with others , she even said mean words about her.
As for the father of Armand, I do not try to scold him for what he had done to Marguerite, because I think he did that just by nature. He loved his son and he wanted his son to own a good reputation and prospect, and he just did not realize that Marguerite really loved his son .But he did make a mistake. It was not the fault of Marguerite but his son. Even there were not Marguerite, there was also another woman in his life. And the whole story seemed to me that Marguerite helped Armand a lot ,she taught him how to love and how to treat life. But Armand was so into the colorful life that that decided that he could not have a successful career.
Actually, that story remind me of a Chinese story named Du Shi niang. But Marguerite was luckier than Shi niang ,at least Armand truly loved her. But to Shi niang ,she was sold by her lover, and after knowing what her lover did ,she jumped into river and was drowned.
And this story can be regarded as Dumas’ story. In 1884, Dumas fell in love with the popular kept woman Mary in Paris. Mary was from a poor family and to make a living, she was reduced to a kept woman . She cherished the relationship with Dumas but she had to contact with the rich people. After knowing that, Dumas broke up with her and left Paris. But when he came back ,he only found out that Mary died at the young age of twenty three. To memory her, he wrote that story. The story soon became a hit and it later was adopted as a script, and the play and movie which were based on the story also won big fame.
And in that story we can find out that love was heavily affected by money , and we can not deny that in the society where money comes first ,our love affairs especially marriage are largely depended on how much money you have. For example, when two people begins a relationship, they will at the first place think about his or her possessions. It is so sad and shameful to know that even a kept woman know to treasure her love. So I hope that all young people can follow their heart and find the half that they truly love rather than find the rich people that they do not love deep down.