A Passion of the South by Alphonse Daudet (1880)

This in the original French was titled after its main character, Numa Roumestan. The English title gives emphasis to a major theme - it is the story of a man of the south of France, who in Daudet's eyes typifies that region. He has the 'gift of the gab' in a relatively subtle sense; it is his capability also to utilise his intelligence in this gift's decoration - he has the power to inspire the public, but also to inspire those close around him, with his words. These not only detail his plans in public service - he is a popular minister in the French government on the road to greater things - but also his promises to those nearer by: promises he can only sometimes keep. So, there is a sense of danger in his utterances and his envelope of romance - will he be able to keep to his undertakings? Will his pleasure-seeking nature be at odds with what is required of his position, and how will he try to wrangle or popularise his way out of tight corners? His largesse impresses many; it causes a few to be badly burnt. This southern, emotional, charming way of personality has initially taken in his wife, Rosalie, the wary, wealthy daughter of a well-connected northern family. But she has had her eyes opened by an affair early in their marriage, and looks on steelily as Numa, on a reasonably rare visit to the south from their Parisian abode, promises too much to a celebrated tabour-player about what fame he could achieve in the nation's capital with his help. The player and his family fall for the allure hook, line and sinker. Typically, when they pitch up at his office in Paris a little while later, Numa, busy with many other petitioners to whom he has also covenanted much, is disconcerted and disturbed by what he himself has promised. Rosalie's vibrant younger sister, Hortense, falls for the tabour-player, even though he is much lower than her in class terms. Numa has also promised to a vivacious young singer, Alice Bachellery, a place at the Opera. There are two problems with this: she's not a fine singer, just an entertaining one, and Numa has made this assurance mainly because he fancies her. She gets her position when he gets his expected promotion, to the frenzied opposition of the leader of the Opera. They start their affair. Meanwhile, the tabour-player's debut has not fulfilled Numa's prognostications. He and his family, having sold their farm in the south to make this new career happen, now begin to slip in the social rankings from whatever tenuous point they had previously occupied on the basis of Numa's championing. The player's sister, Audiberte, a tough cookie who won't be gainsaid, makes a friend of Hortense on the basis of her predilection for Valmajour, the player. Unfortunately, Hortense's interest begins to slow as does Valmajour's career. Audiberte is furious that her safety-line is looking like slipping, until she overhears some fellow southerners talking of Numa's little flirtation with Alice Bachellery. She makes sure that the now pregnant Rosalie hears of it, and Numa's life is headed toward destruction and scandal. At the same time it is realised, on a holiday in the south, that Hortense has the beginnings of consumption. She begins to waste away. She begs Rosalie to forgive Numa as a deathbed wish. Rosalie cannot but accede, and their child is born to united parents, though on Rosalie's part surely doubtfully so. Daudet charts here another slowly drooping course to disaster, which I'm beginning to see is his specialty. But the advent of the child and their conditional reunion form a heartening, if compromised, counterpoint.