Paul and Virginia is a story about two childhood friends who fall in love. Set on an island under French rule called Mauritius, the story records the destiny of a child of nature corrupted by the fakeness of the French upper classes in the late eighteenth century. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's novel successfully condemns the social class differences found in the eighteenth-century French community. He attempted to present Mauritius's immaculate equality of social relations, whose habitats share their possessions, have equal portions of land, and all work to cultivate it. They live in peace, without violence or any fuss. The characters of Paul and Virginia live off the ground without requiring technology or artificial interference.

Written on the eve of the French Revolution, this incredible story is acknowledged as Bernardin's most pleasing work. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre lived on the island for quite some time and based part of the novel on a ship wreck he saw there.