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Published in 1905, Aline is Ramuz’s first novel. It tells the tragic story of Aline, a seventeen-year-old girl who lives with her mother Henriette in a Vaudois village. Aline falls in love with Julien, the son of wealthy peasants, and the two have a secret romance. But Julien worries about being discovered, and tires of a love that for him is only temporary. Eventually, he leaves her. Aline’s brutal experience of betrayal, disappointed love and suffering comes just as she learns she is pregnant. She spends her pregnancy alone with a mother who bullies her, then gives birth to a sickly child after very difficult labor. The moral judgment of the community weighs heavily on her, for she has transgressed many social conventions, whereas what has happened leaves Julien’s reputation unscarred. Aline gives in to her despair when she learns of Julien’s engagement. She smothers her child, who is already at death’s door, then hangs herself from the branches of an apple tree.