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The narrative follows Maître Alfred L'Ambert, a fashionable Parisian notary noted for his vanity, elegant white cravats, and poor eyesight, whose life is upended when an altercation leaves him with a damaged nose. Episodic scenes blend social satire and comic mishap as he navigates altered appearance, class pretensions, romantic complications, a troublesome cat, a pair of spectacles and the peculiar effects of a head cold. Through brisk characterization and ironic observation, the work lampoons bourgeois manners, the cult of outward refinement, and the small rituals of law, society and the theatre.
Permettez-moi, monsieur, d’inscrire en tête de ce petit livre le nom cher et honoré d’un homme qui a consacré toute sa vie à la cause du progrès, d’un père qui a offert ses deux fils à la délivrance de l’Italie, d’un ami qui est venu entre les premiers me donner une preuve de sympathie le lendemain de «Gaëtana».
E. A.