recommends him to M. de Fercourt a powerful financier who can offer him a job. However, as he is offered the job there is an appeal from an attractive girl Mme d'Orville and her mother, whose husband has just been thrown out of the job. Jacob magnanimously gives up the offer provided the husband, who is very ill is allowed to keep the job. Mme de Ferval arranges a secret rendez-vous with Jacob, but the occasion is lost when a young officer bursts in thinking there was someone else there. Jacob realises the situation he has got himself into and the nature of Mme de Ferval and gets away. In another adventure he manages to save the life of a man who has been set upon by three villains. Jacob is going to the opera with this Compte d'Orsan, when the text of Marivaux finishes. An apocryphal suite has been written in which M. d'Orville turns out to be a wealthy man who can give Jacob a good position. Jacob's elder brother reappears after his marriage goes badly wrong and his profligate wife leaves him bankrupt. D'Orsan also introduces Mme De Vambures a wealthy widow. Jacob's wife dies and so he is free to set his hand at Mme de Vambures. Eventually they marry as do D'Orsan and Mme d'Orville. Jacob becomes wealthy and eventually his wife buys for him the estate in the village in which he grew up He therefore returns a wealthy man to meet his parents. He has three children and he also brings up his nephews and all are settled in good positions. Eventually all situations resolve themselves happily. Main characters Jacob le Valle Genevieve Mlle Halbert younger Mlle Halbert elder Mme de Ferval M d'Orville Mme de Vambures References Bibliography Peter Brooks, The Novel of worldliness; Crébillon, Marivaux, Laclos, Stendhal, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969. David Coward, Marivaux, La Vie de Marianne and Le paysan parvenu, London: Grant & Cutler, 1982. 1734 novels 18th-century French novels Unfinished novels Unfinished literature completed by others Novels set in France