Paul und Virginie

The novel addresses, in the tradition of Rousseau's "Julie or The New Heloise," the difficulties that a class-based society imposes on love relationships between unequal partners. It tells the story of two half-orphans who grow up carefree in the natural paradise of the island of Mauritius with their mothers, free from class distinctions, until an aristocratic great-aunt of Virginie brings them to France, thereby separating the young lovers who have since fallen in love - forever. For Virginie, who does not want to marry according to her social standing but wishes to remain faithful to Paul, is sent back by her furious aunt and becomes a victim of shipwreck on her return journey. Paul becomes so frustrated by the disillusioning lectures given to him by an old friend about the rigid class society in France during the Ancien Régime that he sets out to search for Virginie.