Aline

She was thin and a little pale, seventeen years old, at an age when young girls can easily lose their rosy complexion, and she had freckles on her nose. This is Aline, who falls in love with the mayor's son. The daughter of a poor widow experiences the exhilarating joy of her first love and soon a defiant rebellion against the strict conventions of the village. But while Aline dreams of a shared happy future, Julien is only interested in his own pleasure. Aline becomes a burden to him, and when she becomes pregnant, he sneaks away from the relationship and speaks ill of her in the village. Even her mother turns away from her, the whole village becomes involved, and the tragedy unfolds as Julien seeks a suitable bride. Left behind is a broken mother, watching the carriage of the newlyweds as a gray cloud of dust slowly settles on the low grass of the embankments. In his debut novel from 1905, Ramuz tells an unsentimental simple love story full of tragedy, carried by beautiful language.