Il ne faut jurer de rien Reading Order

Il ne faut jurer de rien (One Should Never Swear, 1836) by Alfred de Musset is the most perfectly executed of his Proverbes dramatiques — short plays written to illustrate a moral or proverbial wisdom — and one of the most delightful works in the French Romantic theater. Valentin, a confirmed young bachelor who swears he will never marry, is challenged by his uncle to spend a week in the country attempting to seduce Cecile, the young woman his uncle has chosen for him, to prove that she is unworthy of marriage. Valentin sets out to seduce and expose her, spends a week in her company, discovers she is charming, wise, and generous, and falls in love with her. The play is a comedy of the ironized Romantic type — its hero is disarmed by exactly what he was sent to defeat, and the moral ('Il ne faut jurer de rien') is proven by his own experience. Musset writes with extraordinary lightness and tact: the play never loses its comedy for the sake of sentiment, and the sentiment is all the more moving for remaining understated and indirect.