Le Lys dans la vallée

Le Lys dans la Vallée (English: The Lily of the Valley) is an 1835 novel about love and society by the French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). (The title, in French, does not refer to the English flower called "lily of the valley", which is called "muguet" in French). It primarily concerns the emotionally vibrant but never physically consummated affection between Félix de Vandenesse and Henriette de Mortsauf. It is part of his series of novels (or Roman-fleuve) known as La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy), which parodies and depicts French society in the period of the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy (1815–1848). In his novel he also mentions the château Azay-le-Rideau, in the Loire Valley, which can still be visited today.