Balzac, Honore De

Average customer rating:

contents are good but the printing condition is not good
A Touching and Personal Novel
For Love of Gold: The Burden of the Miser, Scathingly Told
A touching tragedy
Short concise character study with a twist

Eugenie Grandet (Penguin Classics)
Honoré de Balzac
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 014044050X

Book Description

Many people among them Henry James) have considered Balzac to be the greatest of all novelists. Eugenie Grandet, his spare, classical story of a girl whose life is blighted by her father's hysterical greed, goes a long way to justifying that opinion. One of the most magnificent of his tales of early nineteenth-century French provincial life, this novel is the work of a writer on whom nothing was lost, and who represents most fully the ability of the human animal to understand and illuminate its own condition.

Translated By Ellen Marriage With An Introduction By Fredric R. Jameson

Fredric R. Jameson is William A. Lane, Jr. Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University in North Carolina. His publications include Sartre: The Origins of a Style, Signatures of the Visible, and Post-modernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, with Aesthetics of the Geopolitical forthcoming.

Customer Reviews:

contents are good but the printing condition is not good.......2006-11-03

it was an intresting story...it leaves something to think about life. Mr. Grandet-the vingrower& cooper/ Eugenie's father- is more impressive than Eugenie in this book. i would recommand this book for the people who don't read it yet. but this book's printing condition is bad...it looks like just copied by scanner and printed by text version black & white by printing device.

A Touching and Personal Novel.......2006-02-02

The tragedy of Eugenie Grandet is one that never fails to move me, no matter how many times I read it. This is one of those perfect novels about "small" people. Some may find it slow going relative to more contemporary novels, but the scenes are beautifully set, the characters well drawn, and the experience enveloping. Compared to many of its contemporaries, this novel is a study in narrative economy. Other reviews explain the plot, so I won't bother.

This is also an ideal book if one wishes to introduce a young person (especially a girl) to the classics. Any child who is comfortable reading the Harry Potter or Wizard of Oz books should have no trouble with this, except for some archaic vocabulary. All the romance in the novel is either courtly or mercenary, but certainly never inappropriate or too complicated for a young person; neither does it have the high melodrama of, say, Tess of the D'Ubervilles.

This is not to say that the book is too facile for an adult. Rather, it is so well written and constructed it will appeal to nearly everyone.

For Love of Gold: The Burden of the Miser, Scathingly Told.......2005-02-10

Marcel Proust famously said of Balzac: "He hides nothing; he says everything." A more fitting quote has never been attributed to this visionary of the mid-19th century, this paragon and paradox, who at the age of thirty declared that he would devote his life to a chronicle of his contemporary era, classifying the social strata of France through narrative. Balzac went on to write more than ninety novels of his self-styled 'Human Comedy', the deliberate rival and successor to Dante's vast metaphorical triumph, a handful of which are rightly considered to be among the utmost achievement of classical literature. Balzac's ego was as vast as his ambition and his talent, and he considered 'pretended portrayal' - shallow platitudes to disguise interior deficiencies - as vain and unworthy. In his art Balzac sought to consolidate and epitomize whatever themes he worked on at the time, drawing inspiration from his own experiences and multifold resources...if Henry James is correct in his claim that Balzac's great glory stemmed from the fact that he pretended ~hardest~, through the combination of overwork and intuition, then his unique status is assured on that effort alone: but we have his works to draw on, all ninety-three of them, to reassure that Balzac's spirit and intent were pure: in other words, the art of complete representation. Few can match the French genius in this regard.

Each of Balzac's novels tackle a different theme of the human condition, and in *Eugenie Grandet*, written in 1833, the subject of avarice is contemplated, and devastatingly revealed, through the author's usual concoction of dry wit, scathing portrayal, minutiae-obsession and omniscient understanding: Balzac's perspective is that of the all-seeing, all-knowing Godhead third eye, simultaneously deconstructing and putting into perspective the actions and consequences of the miser, in all his sordid, gold-grasping compulsion. It's difficult to second-guess or place doubt upon the fiery condemnations explicit in this text: just brace yourself for the ride, and expect the grunts of agreement, the surprised whistles and the startled outbursts of laughter that inevitable result from a tour through this man's prodigious mind. Entering Balzac is to confront oneself with genius, to learn and be humbled...and be entertained, lest I forget, in ways rarely qualified by his contemporaries. It is this humorous quality, implicit in his contemplation of human nature, that endear Balzac so close to my heart; even when you know events are going to turn badly, as they so often do, the rare psychological and sociological insight of the author, so keen, pessimistic yet never despairing, buoy one across the tides of tragedy.

I loathe to speak too much of the interior text of any Balzac novel, which in turn always somewhat hinders my attempt at review, for it is my belief that the shape and scope of each particular episode of The Human Comedy should be discovered by the diligent reader with as little knowledge about the text as possible, therein to reduce spoiling the impact of the narrative; a foolish desire, I know: and a standard overview of the surface is necessary. Thus: *Eugenie Grandet* tells the tale of the quintessential miser, Monsieur Grandet, a man who, as another reviewer accurately depicted, is a caricature of money-grubbers everywhere - but what a caricature! One cannot help feel as much amused as disgusted by Grandet's penny-pinching and wily business shenanigans, which include the affectation of a stammer to throw off opponents, shady negotiations to curtail any forced obligations, and casual back-stabbing of his compatriots when there is coin to be made; the portrait is made complete with massive amounts of gloating and caressing of his gold behind closed doors. Grandet lives to make money, and to have as little of it leave his possession as possible, thus reducing his immediate family to a state of penury entailing shaved lumps of sugar, a ban on fires for most of the year, an utter lack of decorative excess and a strict rationing of bread and water as the main constituent - jam being an outrageous luxury! Madame Grandet and her daughter, Eugenie, suffer like saints in this condition, ignorant of any other sort of lifestyle, at least until cousin Charles Grandet of Paris appears at the door one day, a dandy whose finery and extravagance shocks the elder Grandet and bewitches the deprived Eugenie. From here I will reveal no more, except to say that Grandet's miserly affliction condemns his offspring, even from beyond the grave; avarice becomes a hereditary endowment, unconsciously applied, though the daughter - shy and virginal - continually exerts her generous nature despite the installed programming, giving a faint ray of charitable bliss to the grim consequence of the denouement.

In all of his novels, Balzac peppers the narrative with observational asides and digressions, enhancing the story with the reflections of earned experience:

"The beginning of love and the beginning of life have a pleasing likeness to one another. Is it not everyone's concern to lull a child with soothing songs and kind looks, to tell him stories of wonders that paint the future with gold for him? Are not hope's dazzling wings always spread for his delight? Does he not shed tears of joy as well as grief, and grow impatient about nothing, about the stones with which he tries to build an unsteady palace, about the flowers forgotten as soon as picked? Is he not eager to grasp time and put it behind him, to get on with his business of life? Love is the soul's second metamorphosis." (pgs 168-169)

It is these moments of internalized perception, brought forth from quill to parchment, that bring the events surrounding into perspective; that make Balzac an author to be poured over, analyzed with delight, to be read again and again. *Eugenie Grandet* deserves its place next to *Lost Illusions*, *The Black Sheep*, *Pere Goirot* and *Cousin Bette* at the forefront of The Human Comedy, and literature in general.

Highly Recommended.

A touching tragedy.......2003-11-21

After some difficult literary debuts, Balzac (1799-1850) finally obtains his first success in 1829. At the age of 20 years he already published more than a hundred books all describing very human characters, portrayed in a prose with an unseen force. Because the same characters appeared often in more than one book, Balzac created a universe of his own, which he himself called "La Comédie Humaine".

In Eugénie Grandet, a novel dating from 1833, one gets acquainted with father Grandet, an extremely wealthy and greedy aristocrat living together with his wife and daughter in Saumur, France. His daughter Eugénie has grown to maturity and her father has no other goal than to see her getting married. But who is suitable enough for his precious daughter? Surely not her adopted nephew Charles Grandet, not? Eugénie has to fight against the tyrannical power of her father, but gets help from their faithful servent, Nanon.

Through this tragedy Balzac reveals one of the most destructive vices of man: greed. Although the author does not recoil from an ever-growing list of moralizing statements, the story stays authentic enough to pull the reader into the story. The comparison with a masterpiece as Wuthering Heights is easily made and not only because it dates from the same period. But to make from Eugénie Grandet a true classic it certainly misses depth.

Short concise character study with a twist.......2003-08-29

Balzac's style and economy of words indeed does seem "modern" as so many literary critics have pointed out, despite the fact that many of his short pieces were small studies in 19th Century French life. This short tale is of a family totally controlled and dominated by a father's greed. The father actually weighs out eggs, butter, flour, and sugar for the family servant to use every day. His wife, daughter, and family servant all have adjusted their views of reality to accomodate his greed. The equilibrium is upset when Cousin Charles Grandet comes to visit. The women in the household cater to the needs of this handsome young man but the father is unsympathetic upon hearing that his brother has become bankrupt and a suicide and the young man is penniless. By the time the young man leaves, the daughter of the house is totally in love with him. She writes to Charles but after a few letters he fails to respond further to her letters. As the miserly father withers and dies, so too does the expectations and soul of his daughter, Eugenie. Balzac did a really fine job of showing how self defeating the miser's greed was to his family and his relationship with his wife and child. After the death of the father, Eugenie inherits a fortune. Cousin Charles meanwhile has become rich through the slave trade between African and the Caribbean. His soul has shrunk and he is about to marry a 19 year old socialite for her family connections. He writes a letter telling Eugenie that he has never stopped loving her but that he must look out for his interests with this advantageous marriage. He receives a letter back that is polite yet biting, gracious yet revengeful, compassionate and understanding yet reminding of the lost opportunity. Charles then finds out that his cousin, whom he loves, is extremely wealthy and he has made a decision that he thought was advantageous which turned out to be less than optimal. Balzac has the faithful maid as the only winner in the story. Eugenie rewards her for her years of hard work and service. The story resonates with Henry James' Washington Square. They both involve a triangle between a rich father, an innocent daughter, and a suitor. The difference is that James' father is cruel to his daughter thinking that since she is plain and shy that men will court her only for money. Eugenie's father's obsession was wealth, the effects on his family were a consequence of his greed, not due to his conscious demeaning sarcasm. Both heroines seek revenge on the suitor, James' with a trick and Balzac's with a superbly written letter that left the revenge to his own immagination and judgement. James' suitor was indeed a crook, whereas Charles Grandet was lead into opportunism and missed chances. Finally, the Aunt in Washington Square was a silly gossip who was not supportive of the daughter/niece whereas the mother and servant in Eugenie Grandet were supportive of Eugenie. I would strongly recommend reading Eugenie Grandet, a concise,short, book. Balzac was just to his characters and this realistic justice made for a fine short novel.

Average customer rating:

Worth Reading But LONGISH!
Love as a Ponzi Scheme
V For Virtue
Great to read, actually lots of fun!
"Love and vengeance hunting together will always strike down their prey"

Cousin Bette (Modern Library Classics)
Honoré de Balzac
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Eugenie Grandet (Penguin Classics)
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ASIN: 0375759077
Release Date: 2002-02-12

Book Description

“Bette is a wronged soul; and when her passion does break, it is, as Balzac says, sublime and terrifying,” wrote V. S. Pritchett. A late masterpiece in Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine, Cousin Bette is the story of a Vosges peasant who rebels against her scornful upper-class relatives, skillfully turning their selfish obsessions against them. The novel exemplifies what Henry James described as Balzac’s “huge, all-compassing, all-desiring, all-devouring love of reality.”

Customer Reviews:

Worth Reading But LONGISH!.......2006-08-22

I guess people in the 19th Century had alot of time on their hands to spend reading a long book that goes over the same material again and again.

I read this as a book on tape. The book for me was alittle longish and dull so I doubt I would have been able to read it in its hardcopy form without giving up on it. However, thanks to books on tape, I was able to stick with the book until its end.

Yes, do read the book! Apparently Balzac, poor fellow, was himself a victim to debts and even penury. I read in the bio that he never made much money from his writing. I was sorry to hear that. In this book there are innumerable mentions about the financial plight of his characters----their debts, going into debt, mortgages on houses that can't be paid, borrowing money that can't be repaid, the threat of debtors prison and arrest imminent. So, if you think you have "financial problems" your "problems" will seem miniscule compared with the characters in this book!

Yes, this book is worth reading as long as you are patient and don't get bored too easily. I at first gave it 3 stars but then I felt sorry for Balzac so I raised it up to 4---I suppose a 3.5 would be more a more accurate guage of my opinion about this book. Actually, it is well written. Don't let me dissuade you from giving it a try. You'll find alot in the book to enjoy and you will learn about what life was like in Paris during the first part of the 1800's. The courtesans sounded interesting to me...but don't tell my wife! :o) Email Boland7214@aol.co

Love as a Ponzi Scheme.......2006-05-30

This was Honoré de Balzac's last great novel. Within a few more years, he would be dead of overwork. His last great scheme -- the marriage with the Polish Countess of his dreams -- finally came off, but poor Eveline Hanska had nothing on her hands but a ruined hulk of a man who had given everything for his art and had little left to give her.

COUSIN BETTE is about "love in all the wrong places," to quote a popular country & western song. Baron Hulot d'Ervy is a former Napoleonic officer who now serves as an official in the Ministry of War. But mostly, he serves Cupid. At the start of the novel, his faithful wife Adeline is besieged by a rival philanderer who tries to make a play for her, even as the Baron is getting dumped by his current mistress Josepha -- who was taken away from him by none other than the Célestin Crevel who is currently besieging his wife.

Two very important things occur that set in motion a diabolical scheme for revenge on the part of a poor old-maid cousin living with the Hulots, one Lisbeth Fischer. She has a protegé in a young Polish count named Wenceslas Steinbock who has shown some talent as a sculptor. Lisbeth has him practically caged up in his studio because she believes that (1) he has talent and (2) he might one day come to like her, though she is by far the older of the two. When Hortense, Baron Hulot's daughter, learns of Steinbock's existence, she becomes intrigued and takes some trouble to locate him, throwing a wrench into Lisbeth's plans when they fall in love with each other.

Enter Valerie Marneffe, Balzac's most accomplished villain. A young housewife married to a complaisant older husband, she makes a play for Hulot, who sets her up as his mistress. But Valerie's ambitions in love are truly Napoleonic: she also snares Crevel, Steinbock, and a returning Brazilian ex-lover of hers called Montes de Montejanos. And probably a couple dozen more unnamed co-conspirators. Living in Valerie's house as her housekeeper, advisor, and mother confessor is none other than Lisbeth Fischer.

When Valerie becomes pregnant, the real fun begins. She brazenly tells each lover that he is the father of the child, and each commits a princely sum for an annuity. (As in most Balzac novels, the trail of the money is fascinating to follow.)

The over-leveraged Hulot is the first to fall. Even before meeting up with Mme Marneffe, he was teetering on the edge of bankrupty. he falls so hard that he has to go into hiding, even from his family. Curiously, Adeline actually manages to make a comeback in a small way, though she is apparently in the beginning stages of Parkinson's Disease.

Marneffe's transgressions are now beginning to be talked about in society, and finally they catch up with her. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, but suffice it to say that not even Herod had a worse come-uppance than Valerie and her husband.

And Lisbeth Fischer? She, too, is ultimately foiled: First, her desired beau, Field Marshal Hulot, commits suicide; and second, she herself sickens and dies, but without anyone ever discovering her treachery to the family.

I have read COUSIN BETTE twice now, and it only grows better on re-reading. This is one of the handful of Balzac novels that stands at the pinnacle of literary greatness. The novel's vision of the ruin of great families from indiscriminate womanizing is almost cosmic.

V For Virtue.......2006-03-21

This novel examines the effects of virtue and vice on the involved characters as well as commenting on the temper of the times. Balzac's style can be melodramatic but at his best he is able to put the reader in the scene and reveal the complexities of inter-personal activity. Bette serves a doorway between the upper middle class existence of the Hulot family and the demi-monde of Josepha, Jenny Cadine and Valerie. These two worlds mingle and collide in a Paris which is transiting from Empire to Republic. The structure of the novel can be choppy as Balzac is prone to long dissertations on a variety of subjects, happily, most of which are interesting.There is no moral to this story only a cynical overtone with elements of schadenfreude. There is an appeal to religious sensibilities but it doesn't ring true.I think in later ages Balzac might have developed into a psychologist since he fascinated by the workings of the human mind.

Great to read, actually lots of fun!.......2005-09-17

Balzac is so much fun! He would be great to invite to dinner. Please read this book - you will enjoy it. The other reviews here go on at great length. Don't worry about it - I guarantee you will be taken aback, shocked and dismayed, but very entertained.

I highly recommend this book.

"Love and vengeance hunting together will always strike down their prey".......2005-06-26

Revenge is the key theme to Balzac's masterpiece "Cousin Bette." The novel plots the fortunes of the powerful Parisian family, the Hulots. The Hulot family is composed of the aging lecher, Baron Hulot, his much younger, saintly wife, Adeline, and their two children Victorin and Hortense. A poor relative, spinster Cousin Bette resides near the Hulot home and secretly nurses a heart full of hate and loathing for the Hulots. Bette poses as the quiet, faithful relative who assumes the role of family retainer, but in reality, she resents all the Hulots, and she's created a fictional version of how meanly the Hulots treat her. In her mind, instead of owing a debt of gratitude to the Hulots for the financial support they give her, she plots the destruction of the Hulot family.

Bette has a bizarre fondness for a young refugee, Wenceslas, a Polish artist she saves from suicide. Bette's power over Wenceslas is rooted in guilt, gratitude and ultimately by lending him money while he becomes established as an artist. Bette considers that she owns Wenceslas--wielding an "absolute empire over his spirit", and she feels betrayed when he becomes engaged to Hortense Hulot. Bette considers that the Hulots have stolen the one thing she cares about--Wenceslas--and it is this incident that spurs Bette into taking her revenge against the Hulots.

The key to destroying another human being is to discover their weaknesses, and Baron Hulot's doting patronage of a series of actresses and opera singers has already placed the family on the road to financial ruin. When Baron Hulot's latest mistress, the opera singer, Josepha, dumps the Baron for a wealthier man, Bette introduces the Baron to the "courtesan tastes" of Madame Marneffe, the conniving, mercenary wife of a petty government official. While the Baron idiotically imagines that Madame Marneffe will be a cheaper mistress to maintain, she enters into a pact with Bette to bleed him dry and hasten the family's ruin.

Balzac's skillfully woven tale recreates nineteenth century Paris, and the characters within this greatly treasured novel come to life with their secrets, their passions, and their weaknesses. Balzac explores the finely nuanced structure of human motivation through his lively characters. The annoyingly saintly Adeline Hulot insists on impaling herself on the altar of her husband's vanity and libido. In Adeline's character, "noble sentiments pushed to extremes produce results very like those of the worst vices." Madame Marneffe desires social prestige and money above all else, and she's talented enough at juggling men to sit at dinner with a husband and four lovers who all imagine that they're the father of her unborn child. Baron Hulot's unquenchable habit of procuring women becomes more and more absurd and desperate as he ages, and he's willing to starve his family to keep his mistresses happy. Then there's Bette--the frustrated spinster who blossoms with the accomplishments of her horrible intrigues. The "good" and the "bad" characters in the novel are set on an inevitable course by the characteristics they cannot deny. And the sinister shadow of the Parisian crime world exists just below the grimy surface of fine Parisian society. If you've never read a Balzac novel before, "Cousin Bette" is a great place to start, and if you enjoy this novel, I highly recommend "Black Sheep."--displacedhuman

Average customer rating:

Skin of Chagrin
A familiar tale
Wacky!
Solid Balzac

The Wild Ass's Skin (Penguin Classics)
Honoré de Balzac
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140443304

Customer Reviews:

Skin of Chagrin.......2006-02-06

O.K. A minority opinion. Nowhere are the master storyteller's considerable talents more admirably on display than in this quintessential commentary on the futility of desire. What is the locus of Balzac's genius? One of the all-time masters of character development, Balzac allows us a deeper appreciation of interiority.
What perhaps disturbs certain modern and post-modern readers about La Peau de Chagrin, derives from their delimiting reliance on the modern scientific world view. The very idea of a talisman - which certain magical powers - a love potion - is `hokey' or `wacky'. Of course, U.F.O.'s are somewhat plausible and `ring viruses' even moreso.
If the vehicle might seem uncomfortably quaint to some, the dignity of the project is, I feel, hardly compromised. Of course, we have that memorable, if not prototypical, B-film, "Into the Night", which seems to indicate that in fiction, weird things can still be acquired at antique stores and junk shops.
The question raised is however whether Balzac does bring his A-game to La Peau de Chagrin, and I claim most emphatically: A +. What is offered here is not dime store murder mystery fare (the genre of Earl Stanley Gardner, E. Howard Hunt, Dan Brown, et al) . . . but mortality mystery in dime store guise. Underlying the superfluity of our celebrated romantic angst is the dark inevitability of our certain doom. What Balzac wishes us the see in the tragic absurdity of his characters' collective fate, is that the doom and the desire are commensurate. If as we live, we die, if our inexorable desires are fatally predatory upon our better sense, what is the point of living, where is the meaning? This query, Balzac poses most seriously in his elsewhere acknowledged masterpiece, and for better or worse, we are still trying to answer that sphinxian riddle.

A familiar tale.......2001-05-20

A very familiar moral tale, in which Raphael, disappointed in his unsuccessful attempts to woo the rich Faedora (underlying theme perhaps - is she a lesbian??) enters into a Faustian pact, the "talisman" of which is the strange and exotic wild ass's skin. The consequences are of course, disasterous for Raphael and those with whom he comes into contact.

The messages are unsurprising - wealth without responsibility and/or the maturity to use it wisely is a curse both on the wealthy and on others. It's difficult to feel any sympathy for the hero (or is he an anti-hero?) Raphael: his love for Faedora is driven by her wealth and his poverty; and essentially he gets what he deserves.

The book I think suffers from the familiarity of its themes, and the hackneyed devices it uses - the skin is exotic as it has Arabic writing on it (everything from the East is mysterious, and curses of course are always powerful). The mood shifts of the book make it difficult to judge how Balzac indended it to be read - the first part is an eerie meeting leading to the possession of the skin, then a long section on the pursuit of Faedora, the last section being Raphael's decline beneath the effects of the skin (including a long satire on scientists, as they aim to analyse and neutralise the skin).

In all, not a bad book, but it suffers from the author's lack of a consistent approach the the story, and it contains nothing to surprise the modern reader.

Wacky!.......2001-01-30

Certainly not Balzac's finest, but still compelling in its own way. The thing ya gotta understand firstly is that this is one of the man's self-consciously 'philosophical' novels, meaning that drawing realistic and complex character portraits is not a primary concern. It's certainly possible to feel a certain amount of sympathy for Raphael, but he's not really much of a 'character,' and if this was one's first encounter with Balzac, one might get the false impression that he just wasn't able to draw deep characters. Anyway: this is, if I recall, only the second novel of the Human Comedy, and in many ways the ideas presented form the basis for his later works. The idea of success without any real work--success which turns out to be fleeting and ephermeral--is a common Balzacian theme, but here it's taken in a literal sense: Raphael acheives success not through his own merits but rather through the magical powers of the skin in question, even as this continued 'success' gradually diminishes his life-force. Compare this with Lucien in Lost Illusions, who rises and falls in much the same manner, only without any sort of physical representation of this rise and fall.

Bleh. The real question is, is the book a good read? Yeah, more or less. It definitely gets better as it goes along; one's patience is definitely tried by the antique shop sequence near the beginning, and I found the banquet/orgy scene to be more than a little tedious. However! Things do pick up: Raphael's courtship of Faedora is well done, and the novel's climax is wonderfully bizarre and nightmarish (I swear, it made me think of Lovecraft). The reader's patience is rewarded; it just takes a little while. As previously noted, not a good first Balzac (try Old Goriot), but once you're hooked, a worthwhile piece of work that provides priceless insights into the author's mode of thinking.

Solid Balzac.......1999-01-30

This is bo no means the man's best book. I have read 4 of his other works and this is the worst yet it is still an excellent book.

The plot focuses around Raphael, a depressed man who acquires a talisman that will grant your wishes. The catch is everytime you make a wish, the talisman diminishes, as does your health. The book is divided up almost into three seperate parts. The first deals with Raphael going to an elegant diner with colleagues followed by an orgy. The second part is cloddish and long as it discusse Raphael's romance towards Foedora. She is a sly temptress who really comes across as an uncompelling ice queen. Why Raphael would go after her is beyond me.

The third part features the books most touching moments and also its most wonderful imagery. This is where Raphael flees to the country and ponders his existence.

Book Description

The story of a French military hero of the Napoleonic Wars, long assumed to be dead, tries to recover his fortune and former wife through the help of a famous Parisian lawyer. Colonel Chabert, a Napoleonic War hero supposedly killed in the Battle of Eylau, returns to Paris after a long convalescence to find his wife remarried, and his pension gone. He employs a young, well-known lawyer to at least reclaim his pension. It is a game of wits: first to convince the lawyer that he is who he says he is; secondly to get his wife to admit to his identity and thereby give up some of her wealth. Once the lawyer believes Chabert's story, the wife must be made to part with his pension...

Customer Reviews:

The best translation..........2004-05-10

...of a great Balzac novella. Ms. Cosman captures the rigorous, logical quality of Balzac's prose - most translators get lost in unidiomatic wordiness. This 100 page novella showcases the Master's comfort with legal matters, his profound understanding of "the fang and the claw" and features at its center the incomparable Derville, Balzac's great, recurring lawyer character. I usually recommend Pere Goriot for first-time Balzac readers because of the rich connections between that novel and many other Balzac works - but I am hard pressed to imagine a better one-course meal than this rendering of Colonel Chabert by Ms. Cosman. I certainly plan to read her version of The Girl with the Golden Eyes.

TRAGEDY DISTILLED.......2003-10-08

One of the greatest novelists of all time, Balzac was most at home in the Paris of Post-Napoleonic Paris. In a time when the middle class was showing its strength and starting to reach towards the aristocracy, Balzac shows just how selfish and grubby and greedy humans can be in attaining and how treacherous they can be in keeping their all important upward mobility.

Colonel Chabert is a man disfigured in the Napoleonic Wars who was left for dead on a battlefield. After digging his way out of a mass grave, he finds that he has no legal right to his title or his massive estate. Nobody will believe his true identity. For ten longe years he goes about trying to communicate his plight to anyone who will listen. They only see a crazy bum, and his wife rebuffs his letters. She already has a new husband and kids. Finally Chabert is able to convince a lawyer named Dervilles to accept his case, namely that of reclaiming his title, lands, and wife. The problem is that noone is really interested in his life being resurrected. Most people would rather that he remained dead. So begins the ludicrous battle of a man against the law to prove his own existence.

This short but great novel, or novella, is a tragic take on the world's thirst for social status and the judgement by visuals that our society is only too guilty of to this day. If it walks like a bum, talks like a bum, it must be a bum. Colonel Chabert has such a hard time convincing people of his identity because of how they perceive him. It sounds echoes of Frankenstein in that a good man is reduced to a monster when all he really needs is love. The fact that even his wife wishes he were dead just drives home the isolated suffering of the book. As in all Balzac novels, you feel a world moving under the mantle of the book. The Human Comedy of Balzac is one of the crowning achievements of literature and ranks right up there with Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy.

"the depths of the human heart.".......2003-03-09

"Colonel Chabert" is the story of a soldier--a great favourite of Napoleon's who is left for dead following the battle of Eylau. Chabert literally digs himself out of a mass grave and is nursed slowly back to health. Unfortunately, Chabert's severe head wound caused permanent memory loss, and it is years before Chabert clearly remembers who he is.

After fragments of his memory return, Chabert contacts his wife--unfortunately, she has remarried and is now the Countess Ferraud, and it is in her best interests that Chabert remain dead and forgotten and that she remain the sole wealthy recipient of the Chabert fortune. So she ignores the letters Chabert sends.

Desperately poor, in bad health, and nursing a growing sense of injustice, Chabert seeks out the services of an ambitious and fascinating young lawyer named Derville. Derville is intrigued with Chabert's story and decides that Chabert is either the victim of a terrible injustice or "the most accomplished actor" he has ever seen. And so Derville sets out to regain at least a portion of Chabert's fortune...

Balzac is one of my favourite authors, and I've read many of his works. "Colonel Chabert" is novella length, but it is better described as a sketch of a novel. For anyone trying Balzac for the first time, I recommend starting with either "Cousin Bette" or "The Black Sheep." "Colonel Chabert" is perhaps not the best Balzac novel to start with as it is certainly not a good example of Balzac's extraordinary talent, but the novella certainly serves nicely as a later supplement to Balzac's better novels. I have to say that the film version is actually even better than the novel--and it's usually the other way around. In the novel, Countess Ferraud is a grasping, selfish, pitiless ambitious woman--in the film, she is portrayed much more sympathetically. Also, the visual media of film allowed much greater scope for such scenes as the dead on the frozen battlefield--this was not conveyed with such power in the novel. Nonetheless, "Colonel Chabert" follows Balzac's favourite themes--greed and human motivation---displacedhuman

Dead Men Do Tell Tales.......2002-05-27

Balzac, one of the greatest writers who ever lived, did not trip up with this one. I read it with great pleasure and conclude, as people so often say, that the movie based on the story did not equal the original. Ever the cynic (some might say 'the realist') Balzac portrays here the efforts of a noble-minded soldier, who rose from an orphanage to serve his country under Napoleon in Egypt and eastern Europe, only to reap the all-too-common fate of dedicated and true warriors---to be forgotten and ignored. Death (which he accepted) might have seized him, but he found a living death, a denial of his sanity and identity, as the reward of his service. Reported killed at the battle of Eylau, against the Russians, after a heroic action, the soldier literally crawls from his grave to a kind of shadowy survival. In his earlier life, Colonel Chabert had raised a woman to his own status, but now finds that she is unwilling to let others learn of her origins and does not want to recognize that he is, in fact, her long lost husband. Honestly thinking she was widowed, she married a highborn aristocrat who knew nothing of her humble beginnings.

The tale is one of greed, intrigue, loyalty and disloyalty. As usual, Balzac manages to cast a light, pitiless and bright, on every rotten corner of the human condition, while offering a few inspiring examples in contrast. Every detail of a lawyer's life in 19th century Paris is scrutinized, every glimpse of urban dairyman or elite country squirehood rings true. No wonder I admire him so much, no wonder I have no hesitation in urging you to read COLONEL CHABERT and any other volume of Balzac you can lay your hands on.

An Excellent Translation of a Masterful Story!.......2001-11-29

Carol Cosman's translation of Balzac's French 'Colonel Chabert' into the English has been very effective here- she does not input her own interpretations and seems to have a good handle on Balzac's natural, concise wording style.

The story itself is fascinating. In a nutshell, it focuses on a military man who is essentially erased from society, and the tribulations and insights he has from this 'non-existant' state as he tries to re-establish himself. Not only is this a witty and profound social commentary, but an entertaining twist which just keeps twisting.

In reading other's reviews of this short masterpiece, it seems as if many people have missed the meaning of the finale. While it is indeed a very enigmatic ending, it is not as lugubrious or fatalistic as most believe. What happens is that Colonel Chabert, in essentially having his old identity annihilated, becomes enlighted. In the ultimate destruction of his ego he becomes free. This is the magic finale which Balzac labors so hard, and so majestically, to set up in the plot.

This tome is very impressive, and relatively short (just over 100 pages) for those new to Balzac who want a nice, piquant appetizer. Balzac is one of the most brilliant French fiction writers of all time! He is a giant, and in 'Colonel Chabert', he weaves another illustrious stitch into his tapestry the Comedie Humaine.

The Unknown Masterpiece (New York Review Books Classics)
Average customer rating:

BORING ARGUMENTS ABOUT ART

Artists are not gods

Great Tales About Artists Struggling To Create Masterpieces

The birth of the modern

A writer expressing the life of the artist

The Unknown Masterpiece (New York Review Books Classics)
Honoré de Balzac
Manufacturer: NYRB Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Masterpiece (Oxford World's Classics)

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Styles, Schools and Movements: The Essential Encyclopaedic Guide to Modern Art

A Harlot High and Low (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: 0940322749
Release Date: 2000-08-31

Book Description

A New York Review Books Original

One of Honoré de Balzac's most celebrated tales, "The Unknown Masterpiece" is the story of a painter who, depending on one's perspective, is either an abject failure or a transcendental genius—or both. The story, which has served as an inspiration to artists as various as Cézanne, Henry James, Picasso, and New Wave director Jacques Rivette, is, in critic Dore Ashton's words, a "fable of modern art."

Published here in a new translation by poet Richard Howard, "The Unknown Masterpiece" appears, as Balzac intended, with "Gambara," a grotesque and tragic novella about a musician undone by his dreams.

Customer Reviews:

BORING ARGUMENTS ABOUT ART.......2005-11-28

The effect of reading the two short works in this book is one of overhearing two snobbish and conceited intellectuals arguing about painting and music in a wanna-be hip cafe. Being that, The Unknown Masterpiece is not only annoying, it's boring. Set in Paris in 1612, a young unproven painter named Nicolas Poussin has come to the city to make a name for himself by studying under the great master Frenhofer. Frenhofer has been holed up in his studio for years working on his great masterwork, a portrait of a woman who he has disturbingly started referring to as his wife. The problem is that he hasn't found a suitable model for him to be able to finish the work. "Gambara", the novella that is also in this book, also concerns an artist that can never quite find the X-factor that would allow him to finish his work. Signor Gambara is a composer of music, whose grand operas come out as random noise to all those that listen, except when he's drunk, then his music turns beautiful, as if he can only communicate his divine music when his conscious mind is gone. A young playboy Count is meanwhile trying to steal Gambara's beautiful wife Marianna.

This book was awful and is a poor example of Balzac's genius. Even for his big fans like me. I don't know why Richard Howard even went to the trouble of translating this. Supposedly "Masterpiece" has had a profound effect on painters like Picasso who identified with the character Frenhofer. So what? It's just the same blithering romantic notion of capturing the unattainable that we've heard for centuries. "Gambara" is even worse. In a normal Balzac work, he would have focused on the characters of the Count and the Gambaras, but here he focuses on chord names and arguments and analyses of operas that I had to literally slog through with my eyes. If these had been longer pieces I would not have finished the book. Steer clear. It's a shame because probably only about 10% of Balzac's novels are available in English so why waste time printing this sub-minor work?

If you want to see Balzac's true genius, check out any of the Penguin editions of his works.

Artists are not gods.......2004-05-03

Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece is not about abstract art! It is about the destructive power of obsession for perfection. The artist Frenhofer over-paints and touches-up his masterpiece until it is not recognizable as anything but a mess. Balzac's Gambarra was too wordy but it does have the interesting theme of an artist, totally consumed by his personal vision, and thus not able to recognize the sacrifices and motivations of those around him. He writes an opera about the beginnings of Islam and the sacrifice of a woman for the man she loves. Yet Gambarra can not see this same pattern being played out with his wife and thus his single minded vision destroys his marriage. He is both a genius and a fool. His atonal compositions were 100 years before their time. His inability to empathize and get out of his own visions results in his wife's running off with an Italian count who plots to steal Gambarra's wife after he sees the composer's Achille's heel. I don't think I would recommend these books to anyone but artists. They reveal the artistic feet of clay which we so often overlook.

Great Tales About Artists Struggling To Create Masterpieces.......2004-01-24

At first glance "The Unknown Masterpiece" and "Gambarra" are dissimilar tales about a painter and a composer. Yet they share in common the main protagonist's struggle to make a masterpiece; the finest painting and opera ever conceived. Unfortunately in "The Unknown Masterpiece" the painter Frenhofer is so dissatisfied with his work that he paints it anew, and it is seen by his friends, with disastrous consequences for all. In "Gambarra" the composer of the same name struggles to finish an opera on the early history of Islam, which he promises will be more glorious than any by Mozart. Such lofty ambitions remain unrealized, leaving the composer impoverished. Without question two of the greatest tales ever written by Balzac, influencing generations of painters, writers and other artists.

The birth of the modern.......2001-11-27

It's amazing that the author was able to create an essay on 20th century abstract art in 1834. But this story is much more than that. It is a commentary on the parallels between art and human psychology, and the unreality of both... also, a character study, a mystery, an allegorical tale... all within 40 pages. In keeping with its theme, The Unknown Masterpiece is, on the other hand, none of those things. In keeping with its title... at least in this country.

A writer expressing the life of the artist.......2001-10-19

I dig Balzac telling us about his views of art through the stories of a painter ("The Unknown Masterpiece") and a musician ("Gambara"). You can't go wrong with this one. Terrific translation; I wish I read French well enough to dig the original.

Average customer rating:

BRING ON THE IRONY
Another superb Balzac's novel
A wonderful novel with emotional highs and lows.

The Black Sheep (Penguin Classics)
Honoré de Balzac
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140442375

Customer Reviews:

BRING ON THE IRONY.......2003-08-24

In his preface to this book, Balzac makes an interesting observation about 19th century France that seems to be a preoccupation of our century as well. Balzac states that young men who grow up without a significant male role model are destined to have a rough go in life. According to him, most of the tribulations that occur in The Black Sheep stem from the very fact that there was no father to steer the Bridau family.

The main focus of the book is upon two brothers, Philippe and Joseph Bridau, whose father has died, leaving their close to destitute mother to raise them. Phillipe ends up becoming an artist with a pretty dependable income. Joseph serves in Napoleon's army for a while until his final defeat and then, too proud to serve under the new government, becomes an unemployed gambler who steals money from his family only to throw it away at the tables.

You would think that their mother would favor Joseph with more love because he looks out for their family and provides a steady income and is completely devoted to her. She puts all of her love upon Phillipe, the ne'er do well who only sees humanity as a tool to further his own ends. She does this because she sees Joseph's profession as a painter as a waste of time in her practical mind. Real men become soldiers like Phillipe. So what if he's a vice filled man? She idealizes him so much that she can't see his faults.

Balzac is a genius. There really isn't a central character is this work. Everytime you think Balzac has settled upon a particular cast of characters, he exits them and enters a new set to interact with the plot. Constant reinvention. While Joseph is in jail for plotting against the government, Phillipe and his mother have to go rescue his rich uncle, who is being hoodwinked out of his fortune (a fortune, by the way, that the Bridau family is due to inherit) by a manipulating mistress and her lover.

This was a great novel. Not perfect, but great. Balzac is to me the most modern of the 19th century novelists writing in the Victorian age. He is not sentimental like Dickens. He was great at watching families squirming to get at money. Squirming to get money not for survival in most cases, but to attain status. All of the characters in this novel were drawn really well. Very strong. I would recommend any of the Penguin Editions of Balzac if you like this book.

Another superb Balzac's novel.......2002-10-03

Another occasion to live again an exceptionnal human adventure with Balzac.
A lot of emotion and intelligence ...

A wonderful novel with emotional highs and lows........1999-04-16

As historian and novelist Balzac paints a picture of post Napoleonic France through the eyes of an impoverished family, and the trials of their lives. After a series of emotional hits, Balzac takes the reader through a contest of wits, set amidst a web of intrigue, and a very contorted family tree. The end result is an excellent story with a sophisticated plot which at times gives too accurate a portrait of the detachment of man. The Black Sheep also contains a short social commentary on New York, which though written 150 years ago, is still exceptionaly accurate.

The Wrong Side of Paris (Modern Library Classics)

Average customer rating:

The Divine Balzac
DO GOOD UNTO OTHERS
Unexpected page turner
Well written but it became torture to read
So does an angel find vengeance

The Wrong Side of Paris (Modern Library Classics)
Honoré de Balzac
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812966759
Release Date: 2005-04-12

Book Description

The Wrong Side of Paris, the final novel in Balzac’s The Human Comedy, is the compelling story of Godefroid, an abject failure at thirty, who seeks refuge from materialism by moving into a monastery-like lodging house in the shadows of Notre-Dame. Presided over by Madame de La Chanterie, a noblewoman with a tragic past, the house is inhabited by a remarkable band of men—all scarred by the tumultuous aftermath of the French Revolution—who have devoted their lives to performing anonymous acts of charity. Intrigued by the Order of the Brotherhood of Consolation and their uplifting dedication to virtuous living, Godefroid strives to follow their example. He agrees to travel—incognito—to a Parisian slum to save a noble family from ruin. There he meets a beautiful, ailing Polish woman who lives in great luxury, unaware that just outside her bedroom door her own father and son are suffering in dire poverty. By proving himself worthy of the Brotherhood, Godefroid finds his own spiritual redemption.
This vivid portrait of the underbelly of nineteenth-century Paris, exuberantly rendered by Jordan Stump, is the first major translation in more than a century of Balzac’s forgotten masterpiece L’Envers de l’histoire contemporaine. Featuring an illuminating Introduction by Adam Gopnik, this original Modern Library edition also includes explanatory notes.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

The Divine Balzac.......2007-03-21

With this volume, the curtain is brought down on Balzac's heroic, "The Human Comedy". It is hard for me to resist Balzac, even when I make a effort to do so as I did with this book. I found it, until about two thirds into it, exceedingly tedious, harping on as he does, about the Catholic church and conservative virtue. It wasn't until the primary character, Godefroid, re-enters the Parisian world from his confinement with The Order of the Brothers of Consolation that I felt at last in the company of Balzac the master. He very slowly enters into this tale and it is, after all, near the end of his exhausting, prodigious and sometimes absurd life that he wrote this short, two part story. This is not anywhere near my favorites in "The Comedy"; that goes to "Cousin Bette", "Cousin Pons", "Old Goriot" and "Cesar Birotteau" however I haven't had the privilege to read them all. But "The Wrong Side of Paris" delighted me in many of the ways his great volumes do; wonderful perspectives of 19th century Paris (some vanished, some still existing), his usual great asides about writers and their perils and his digs at the publishing industry, delicious humor and irony and his extraordinary talent for dialogue. How many miles of it run throughout his great collected work? Oh the divine Balzac, if only I could spend one afternoon with him! This Modern Library version is a very fluid translation by Mr. Jordan Stump with extremely intelligent and useful Notes by Mr. James Madden. Of all of the dialogue created by Balzac in all of the books of "The Human Comedy" this is the last line of it; "The power of God is infinite but human nature has its limits". I give this book only four stars because he has several better but any true fan of Balzac will see his genius shining through.

DO GOOD UNTO OTHERS.......2006-07-08

In 1836 Paris, Godefroid is a 28-year-old man to whom life has not bequeathed much of a talent for anything. Godefroid doesn't want to be average at anything. He wants to live an extraordinary life. He tries to be a lawyer but grows bored of it. He tries his hand at writing and then starting a newspaper. Both ambitions are smashed, leaving most of his parent's once rich legacy in shambles. Even his attempts to get married end in failure. The horrible conclusion that Godefroid comes to is that he is "normal" and that he will die just like everyone else, never having succeeded at anything! Forced into seeking the cheapest apartment he can find, he rents a room from Madame de La Chanterie, a pious older woman who not only rents to unfortunates that have no money to find a better place, but also heads up a secret charitable organization whose members make up her other boarders. All of them have a past that once threatened to overwhelm but have let go of past misfortunes to focus on helping other people. All of the sudden, Godefroid believes he might have found his true profession after all these years as he makes a bid to join this exclusive circle of good.

The Wrong Side of Paris is one of Balzac's weaker works, but with the fact that probably only 10% of his books are in print in English, I'm glad with any translations I can get a hold of. The part of this book that almost sunk it for me is when instead of recounting a past incident midway through the novel in one paragraph, Balzac writes an ENTIRE criminal indictment legal document into the book lasting almost 20 pages which almost made me fall asleep. It totally ruined the flow of an already slow as molasses plot which centered more on religious instruction than character interaction or rising action. The writing itself, except for the legalease, is first rate, it's just that Balzac's topic wasn't enough to fill a book with in my estimation.

Unexpected page turner.......2005-09-17

After the first two pages, I found this to be a book that was very difficult to put down. As aptly put in the Translator's note, while I do not share the political or religous tendencies expressed, I found the characters and story completely absorbing.

Well written but it became torture to read.......2005-01-30

There are some wonderful paragraphs in this book and some profound observations on life, such as "all criminals are atheists even if they don't know it," and this sort of thing makes the book worthwhile, but about half way through reading it, I thought to myself, "I don't CARE what happens next to these people."

It's a short book and I've read other works of Balzac that I liked, some short stories and "A Harlot High and Low", "Eugenie Whatever", I forget the title. But I couldn't get through this book.

I've read Les Miserables, unabridged, twice, two different translations, so I was surprised that I just couldn't get through this because it is very short and the translation seems good, that is to say, the writing flows.

But the plot! Agghhh. It is so convoluted and twisted and the manner of telling the background through a long, long, LONG legal document was so boring it almost made me cry.

Godefroid feels a failure, and he pretty much is one, so he joins a group of people who devote their lives to helping others (see the other review, I don't want to even try to relate the story again).

I don't see why it had to be a case of either/or. Godefroid seemed to think he had to (a) be a huge success or (b) renounce the world entirely.

Why not just get some work and live life the best he could? So I couldn't get too enthusiastic about his decision to renounce everything after living such a high life.

The story is told in a series of flashbacks that go way back and way back and WAY BACK, and the names of the people are long and they are changed and shortened due to the Revolution, and changed entirely through marriage, and other ways, so I lost track of everyone. The old woman who the story revolves around was a doormat and this quality of doormatness is elevated to pure holiness in Balzac's eyes. I became annoyed at the woman's continous praying and hoping for the redemption of her crook of a husband.

I got about half way through the book, said, That's it, forget it. But I read the last few pages and my last comment is, "Oh, give me a break."

So does an angel find vengeance.......2004-11-07

The theme of Balzac's novel "The Wrong Side of Paris" is redemption. Godefroid, the main character, is a thirty-year-old man. As the only son of a shopkeeper, he is the "sole vessel of his parents' ambition," and it is intended that he should become a notaire. Godefroid's parents make enormous sacrifices for his future, but when the novel begins, Godefroid's career has stalled, his parents are dead, and his inheritance is mostly gone. Godefroid is morally adrift with no ambition, no direction, and no purpose in his life. With his hopes crushed, and rejected by even the plain daughter of retired shopkeepers, Godefroid decides to retire from the world, and husband the money he has left. By sheer chance, he finds and applies for a room in a private boarding house, and there he meets the owner, the mysterious Madame de la Chanterie. She identifies Godefroid as a fellow sufferer and tells him, "You find yourself here surrounded by the wreckage of a great storm." Godefroid is intrigued and aware that the household and its residents are somewhat peculiar. There seems to be some conspiracy afoot, and for a while, he suspects that he has "blundered into some sort of Royalist conspiracy."

In time, Godefroid learns that the residents of the boarding house are all agents of a collective devoted to good works. Each of the residents has experienced the horrors of the revolution. Some wish to make amends, and others salve their wounds by doing anonymous good deeds. Godefroid wishes to join the Order of the Brothers of Consolation, and so he is given the task of assisting a once noble family who now live in a slum in Paris. Godefroid eagerly accepts the assignment and takes squalid rooms next to a Monsieur Bernard. Monsieur Bernard lives in stark poverty while catering to his daughter, Vanda. Vanda--who is bedridden--is under the illusion that the family's fortunes have not suffered, and so Monsieur Bernard, and his grandson maintain the painful pretence of wealth and luxury for Vanda's sake.

Balzac is unsurpassed in understanding human nature. In his novels, he explores the notion of good and evil, ambition and pride--often through the opportunities presented to his characters. The novel is set in 1836. The French Revolution of 1789 is long past, but many survive who suffered from its horrors, and several regime changes have since taken place. Each change has swept away many of the powerful and the rich, and "The Wrong Side of Paris" is the story of some of the survivors. Since redemption--through forgiveness and good deeds is the main theme of the novel, some readers may find the tone too spiritual. The main characters are unforgettable people who have lost everything that is supposed to be important--their families, rank, power, money and privilege, and yet they live on. "The Wrong Side of Paris" explores the complex ideas of revenge, survival and placing meaning back into one's life--even after all meaning has been wrenched away by circumstance. "The Wrong Side of Paris"--the final novel in Balzac's "The Human Comedy"--is a powerful story of the strength of the human spirit. If you enjoy this novel, I also recommend, "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy--displaced human

A Harlot High and Low (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

Some great moments
The Sequelitus-Sore Itches and Burns [ - ] Balzac Prevails
destruction more deserved, and more enjoyable than usual
le sequel fantastique
Another Balzac Page-Turner

A Harlot High and Low (Penguin Classics)
Honoré de Balzac
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140442324

Customer Reviews:

Some great moments.......2005-07-25

I must admit it is not as good overall as Lost Illusions, but this book is worth reading. It is like a twisted version of Les Miserables. There are some sublime moments late in the novel. It is a bit slow in parts of the book, but I found it worthwhile.

The Sequelitus-Sore Itches and Burns [ - ] Balzac Prevails.......2004-03-17

Like many other reviewers here at Amazon, I have a weakness for `Sequelitus.' What is this dreadful affliction, you might ask? Well, it is the compulsion to pursue a good story to its very end - enjoying the source media so much that it is paramount to ones mental comfort to locate and devour all related material. This can often lead to tragic result, for sequels tend, as a rule rather than as an exception, to wear thin the primary quality: the beauty and sweat-inducing power of the original diminished through needless repetition, theme-bastardization and/or the tangible fatigue of that most accursed of artistic predicaments: the necro-stench, the entropy, <the horror! the horror!> of author-enervation. Nothing like a terrible case of "twilight of the idols" to put one in a despondent mood! But, in the past few years, I've managed to curtail my tendency towards indiscriminate consumption. No more Wheel of Time for this jaded .com shopper! Get thee gone, foul Star Wars simulacra!

And yet. . . and yet here I am again. After the month-long endeavor of reading - nay, <savoring> - the delicious disenchantments of Honore de Balzac's *Lost Illusions,* I simply had to have the sequel post-haste. What would be the fate of Lucian Rebempre, *Illusions'* failed poet of increasingly ignoble achievement? Who _was_ the dastardly "priest" that plucked Lucien from the liquid depths of potential-Providence? Would they together storm the snooty ranks of Parisian high society, acquiring a noble rank for Lucien, enacting revenge on all those who had scorned the poet in his previous incarnation as a mudraker and news-shaper? I had to know. So, barely recovered from *Lost Illusions,* I cracked open this penguin edition of *Harlot,* eager for answers, desperate for the final contentment of my shameful sequelitus itch.

Alas, *A Harlot High and Low* does not live up to either the reputation or the narrative force of the previous volume. For although it shares the same techniques that have endeared this French author to my particular literary `taste' - that being a forceful Voice, a sensitive Ear, and an intuitive sense of balancing straight drama with the shamefaced attractions of its "melo"-histrionic cousin - despite these similarities in quality, *Harlot* meanders (like all Balzac) but rarely justifies its long-winded digressions; it simmers with harlot-heat, but the tensions hardly reach that particular boiling-point necessary for a cathartic climax; it is occasionally boring. Worst of all, after a sprightly pick-up of pace and a much-enjoyed battle-of-the-(criminal)-wits climax, the ending crumples in and around itself with desultory result: the other reviewers were right in that it comes within stomping-grounds of far-reaching, ludicrous, unlikely - pick your adjective, it'll do.

In fact, *Harlot* is a flawed progeny in so many respects - at least in the matter of base comparison - that, for insight as to _why_, we must examine the particulars around its construction, rather than take the (oft-correct) blindsight standpoint that pere Honore must have been milking the prime components of his past masterpieces in a vainglorious attempt at renewal. . . or for *money*, that silver-grasping Judas of artistic downfall, another foul-but-certain aspect of sequelitus. No, I believe the "blame" should be assigned elsewhere. Perhaps it is due to the fact that this was written during Balzac's final three years, when the strain of overwork began to catch up with his physical shell: there is certainly something fatigue-ridden and world-weary to be read *between* the lines, and though Balzac masks it well, it is an inescapable impression. Or perhaps the "blame" should be assigned to the translator - Heppenstall readily admits to having difficulties with some of the particulars of the text, and although I'm ignorant with the origin-language and thus cannot check comparatively, there seems something suspect with the balance of digression/progression, usually so keenly integrated in Balzac; it feels as if Heppenstall approached these delicate pace-issues as if he were in an automobile, chugging along, stopping every so often to put more gas in the tank, jump-starting the cranky old girl to get her going again, etc. - a rather grotesque metaphor, I admit.

In the end, I think it's a combination of the above theories along with the pertinent fact that Balzac wanted, initially, to just write a book about a prostitute, adding essential flavor to his social-strata opus: *Harlot* is considered part of _Scenes of Parisian Life_, and you cannot adequately delineate the sub-structures of this Gallic city-society without tackling the more sordid realities of its primal urges. I get the feeling that Balzac introduced Lucien and Vautrin as the twin passion-pillars on which to support his poor Esther, a woman elevated from base brothel squalor to the very highest levels of concubine-existence - and Lucien and Vautrin, inscrutable rascals that they are, came to dominate the story on their own accord. Esther simply could not compete with the satanic vigor of Jacque Collins' varied schemes . . . and in this regard, the novel itself suffers from the lack of clear-sighted predevelopment; not enough harlot for this *Harlot*! And yet Esther's passions are the only tangible _purity_ to be found from cover to cover; she is simple and true, a virgin-white canvas upon which these hypocrites and fools spurt their petty aspirations upon, and subsequently her plight is the only real tragic involvement.

Now, with my grievances expressed (except for one more, but I'll get to that in a moment), don't mistake my overall opinion of this novel - it frustrated me with its unevenness, but it's still a fine read in and of itself, at times entertaining, erudite and educational. I don't regret spending the time to read/absorb all of its insights/inconsistencies. It's just that it cannot compare favorably with its predecessor, and the end - without spoiling anything - is a remarkable cop-out as to the fate of the novel's protagonist. I found out later, by way of the introduction, that this wily scoundrel actually makes his final-incarnation appearance in *Cousin Bette* - AGGH! I burn with the itch: Sequelitus has infected me once again!

destruction more deserved, and more enjoyable than usual.......2002-01-31

I just had to find out what happened to Lucien, when he was so mysteriously (and admittedly, a bit too miraculously) saved from suicide at the end of Illusions Perdues. This is the place to find it.

The interesting thing is that Lucien is not the principal player here: it is an equally mysterious mentor, whose identity and methods are revealed as the plot thickens. Another character is the "harlot" from the title in English, which misconstrues the character of the novel. She is Esther, who is Lucien's true love, whom he uplifts from prostitution to install as his secret mistress. There is also Nucingen, the Jewish banker whom Balzac despises (from the novel of the same name), and several wily spies.

I must say that, though I love Balzac, this novel wore a bit thin on me: it has too many unlikely coincidences and is crowned with a cynicism in the surprise ending that stretched way beyond what I could believe, even when taking into account the French judicial system. That being said, Balzac offers a wonderful tour of the underbelly of the life of the scheming courtesan: without revealing too much of the plot, having given up on art, Lucien is trying to enter the aristocracy as a diplomat with the rank of Marquise. But to do so, he had to marry the right woman, buy his ancestral grounds, and somehow pose as a dandy when he is in fact flat broke. One pole of the plot revolves around the maneuvering of his mentor, who proves himself exceptionally cunning, the other around Lucien's true love. Needless to say, there are betrayals, hidden enemies, and ruthless manipulations that destroy oh-so-many lives. In the end, it is mostly sad, except for...well, you have to read it to believe it! The view of the aristocracy in this one is rather oblique as they play behind the scenes, while I expected them to play center stage.

If there is one thing to sum up Balzac, it could be this: there is one chapter entitled, "boring chapter to explain four years of happiness" in which Lucien in love is portrayed. When I told my wife that it was winding down, she replied: "don't you mean it is grinding down?"

As usual, you need a strong stomach for this one. I got bored by the middle, at the height of all the unbearably sleazy maneuvering, but the last 200 pages really picked up the pace. To wit: I enjoyed the characters hurtling toward destruction in this one, which is usually the opposite: I prefer their hopes and hate their falls, except in the case of Lucien.

le sequel fantastique.......2001-11-03

I was hungry for this book for months after the end of Lost Illusions, which concluded saying that Luciens life in Paris would be continued in Scenes from Paris Life, obviously an abstract title to the Paris series of the Human Comedy. Finially I found it. This read much faster than Lost Illusions. There was more action packed into fewer pages, which really quenched my thirst for all the characters that I knew from Balzacs other novels and their going ons about Paris. This novel epitomizes Balzacs gossipy toned, money ridden, scandelous style . If you are daunted by the heavy and lengthy discriptions that fill so many substantially sized French novels, this is definitly an unintimidating enjoyable read! As juicy as the most scandelous TV show, although it may cheapen such fine writing to make a comparison like that!

Another Balzac Page-Turner.......2001-08-04

If you've read and enjoyed Lost Illusions, a novel widely (and correctly) considered one of Balzac's classics, A Harlot High and Low is almost certainly worth your time. It's not as powerful or satisfying as Lost Illusions, but it does pick up and complete the story of Lucien, that book's maddening protagonist. The true central figure of A Harlot High and Low, however, is "Father Carlos Herrera," who is really the criminal Jacques Collin, or Vautrin (from Old Goriot). (I'm not giving away any plot twists here, Balzac doesn't withhold the character's double, or triple identity.) That said, the first hundred pages or so are pretty heavy going, especially compared to Lost Illusions, and the plot setup is overly complicated. But once things pick up steam, it's a page-turner, with the usual array of entertaining characters, and the usual withering portrait of early 19th century Parisian society. Is it realistic? Well, let's just say some of the plot twists are improbable, but so what? It's a fine tale.

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The quality of Balzac
Caffeine Inspired Realism

Père Goriot (Norton Critical Editions)
Honoré de Balzac
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 039397166X

Book Description

<B>About the Series</B>: Each Norton Critical Edition includes an authoritative text, contextual and source materials, and a wide range of interpretations-from contemporary perspectives to the most current critical theory-as well as a bibliography and, in most cases, a chronology of the author's life and work.

Customer Reviews:

The quality of Balzac .......2004-11-02

This work is considered one of Balzac's masterpieces. It is written with this kind of energy and power the same kind of literary ambition that seems uniquely his. Balzac as a writer has a drive and strength , and this is felt in his descriptions of character as well as in the force of his plots. Here we have a variation of Lear, with two ungrateful daughters doing - in the over- solicitous father for whom the daughters are all. One of Balzac's central themes is obsession, the fixing on one particular object as one's life aim or meaning and giving all to it. For old Goriot it is his daughters, as for Balzac himself it is his ambition to capture the whole of his society in his novels. But the Balzac worlds and this in itself another long subject are also worlds in which traditional values are in clash with values of social climbing money grabbers as exemplified by Goriot's daughters. Balzac's works are filled with great dynamism and are for many one of the great peaks of world - literature. At least some of his works should be read by one who wishes to have a taste of the best that has been thought and said. I would only add my own personal reservation. That the energy and greed of so many of the characters in his world , has left me feeling a bit detached from them. I can admire this Literature but I have never especially loved the world or characters presented in it.

Caffeine Inspired Realism.......2002-12-10

You know right away that de Balzac is an author of realism when, at the start of the book, he takes you on a five page tour of the first floor of Madame Vauquer's Parisian boarding house. One immediately realizes that sanitation standards for such accommodations were seriously lacking. The dining room "table [was] covered with oilcloth so greasy that, if a waggish diner wanted to, he could write his name in it, using nothing more than his finger as a pen." We then quickly learn about the overwhelming contrast between the boarders' life style and that of aristocratic Parisian society..

The protagonists of the story are Eugene, a young and poor law student, and old man Goriot, the aging father of two narcissistic daughters who live in the upper strata of Parisian society. While many mediocre authors manage to make cardboard characters out of real people, Balzac has the task of making cardboard people real. Eugene is invited to a ball held by his cousin, a countess, and falls in love with the beautiful people and their world. He is determined to be a part of it. Vautrin, a fellow boarder, a wise street philosopher, and prototype for modern day CEOs, tells Eugene that money is everything. Eugene promptly appropriates every cent of his family's savings to buy the clothes that will allow him to blend in with the aristocracy. Soon he meets Goriot's aristocratic daughters and falls in love with one of them. These two grasping young ladies, in their need for the necessities in life (fine clothing and jewelry), have taken so much money from their formerly wealthy father that he now lives in abject poverty, sleeping on a moldy straw mattress in Madame Vauquer's boarding house.

By now I am sure that you have discerned Balzac's attitude toward the socially elite. He has no love for people who are famous for being famous. We should resist the urge, though, to shake our heads in wonder over these strange 19th century Parisians. If Balzac were alive today I am sure he would loosen his poison pen on our own celebrities whose meaningless lives are constantly being spotlighted during their fifteen minutes of fame. Balzac is a lively writer. He supposedly drank huge amounts of coffee every day, and his writing often seems to be the product of a highly caffeinated mind. If the highly stylized writing of some Victorian era writers numbs your brain you might want to dip into Balzac.

Customer Reviews:

Conspiracies of the Heart.......2003-10-30

"They were thirteen kings...judges and executioners too, they had equipped themselves with wings in order to soar over society in its heights and depths, and disdained to occupy any place in it because they had unlimited power."

So reads the back-cover blurb for the Penguin Classics edition of _History of the Thirteen_. Balzac had a way with words, and with these the fertile imagination soars: what sort of conspiracy theory would pere Honore, perhaps the most famous French novelist of all time, detail? What feverish secrets of ritualistic skullduggery would the ink-corrupted quill scrawl upon the blank, innocent face of parchment? Given the fact that this was written 160 or so years ago, I assumed that current Conspiracy Theory staples of paranoiac-favor would be missing-it seemed a far cry, that any 4th dimensional reptilian Satan-worshiping aliens would make a cameo appearance in the French salons, perverting the rule of the Bourbons, re-writing the Dead Sea Scrolls in their spare time, and jostling the extras line for a background face-shot in Sightings-yet certainly one could expect, in Balzac's `fictional' account of the Thirteen, the occasional allusion to the `old-skool' *member's only* clubs... perhaps a hint of neo-Templar Egyptian-spiced exclusivity? Or, perhaps, an eyewitness account of the ultra-debauched rites used to entertain and ensnare...? Thus, I plunged into the book with bated breath and no few pulpy expectations, hoping that, once again, the literary pen would raise the ghosts and grandiosity of the bygone age: let nineteenth-century Conspiracy Theory breath the befouled air of its exhumation!

Well, in reflection, the literary pen did revive, to my firmly modern-entrenched mind, the environmental parameters and social paradigms of this long-extinct Parisian era, so turbulent and raw in the aftermath of the Revolution and Napoleon's Grand Vision. Balzac was born on the tip of this generation, and his writings capture the social strata of the time: the continual wrangling for power between the aristocracy and the reformists; the lack of fortitude among the noble-born, the ignorance of the common-man...and, lest I forget, the upjump exploitation of the self-made individual. All and one, they find a place in Balzac's interconnected oeuvre, the Human Comedy, wherein the three novels of _History of the Thirteen_ reside.

Yes, three novels, or more accurately, novellas. Curiously, I could not find the above quote anywhere in the pages between the front and back cover, though its promising eloquence continually mocked me; moreover, the secret society of the Thirteen is left, for the most part, unexamined, their motives mysterious, their origin untold. Balzac instead concerns himself with the trials and turmoil of those in love, covering the three bases of miscommunication, coquetry, and unachieved expectation, afflictions so common and prevalent in matters of the heart.

A closer look:

1) Ferragus:
A tragic tale of a good, honest stockbroker and the wife he comes to suspect of cuckoldry. Miscommunication and the fear of plummeting down the social hierarchy are Balzac's central themes here, with constant asides about the nature of Paris or humanity as a whole. A member of the thirteen is central to this story, though his appearance is late and he reveals precious little of the society's History.

2) The Duchesse de Languais:
Balzac had just emerged from a disastrous fling when he wrote this novel, and it is quite obvious between the lines that he had an o'erbearing spleen to vent: thus we are treated to the oft-silly and ultimately destructive theme of coquetry. In no uncertain terms Balzac savages the "young and the restless" of the 1840's Parisian jet-set in straight language (a venomous critique of the dissipative patterns of the day), and exemplifies this class in one of the two main characters, the Duchess de Languais. The Duchess mercilessly toys with the desires of the honest soldier Montriveau (in essence, Balzac himself) until he, in turn, decides to enact a callous form of silent-treatment revenge... There are some rather piercing statements about the nature of women in this novella; nothing that would turn the eyebrow of Schopenhauer, but more than enough to infuriate the Toni Morrison crowd. Still, Balzac is unequivocal in his treatise on character wiles: Montriveau's pride is just as damaging, ultimately, as the Duchesse Languais' (quite natural) coy instinct.

3) The Girl with Golden Eyes: Here, Balzac abandons narrative and uses the first-quarter of the novella to ruminate on the social strata of Paris, specifically the physiognomy of the artist, the civil servant, and the elevated bourgeois; all enslaved, in their own way, to the lusts of "gold and pleasure." The story, when we eventually get to it, concerns the seduction of a beautiful young woman by a dissipated servant of the Thirteen, and touches on the sensitive (for that time) topic of homosexuality and the human obsession with purity and virginity. The shortest and the least of the three novellas, the Girl with Golden Eyes is still a worthy read for the opening screed and for some of Balzac's delicious descriptive prose.

All in all, although nowhere near as good as Pere Goirot or the Black Sheep, this is a worthwhile read for those who like nineteenth century literature. Balzac knew French society like few others and is happily unsentimental in both conceptual idea and the commencement of the prose. Just don't go in expecting `alternative history'... the only conspiracies here are those of the heart.

An Interesting Book By Balzac.......2000-02-02

Most people will not consider this book one of Balzac's best, but I think this collection has some very interesting stories nonetheless. The main theme of each of these stories is love and passion seen through the eyes of Parisians. Some of these passages I consider some of Balzac's best; they are memorable words for anyone who has fallen hopelessly in love. The thoughts and observations of the characters within this collection of books is simply amazing.

A social analyze of Paris in the XIXth century.......1999-10-12

A definitive contrast between the men called the Thirteen and social life in Paris at the beginning of past century. On one hand, we have men dedicated to their principles and goals, and on the other hand, a declining noble society only busy with itself and its past glory. In the meantime one can feel how the less glamorous society is evolving and maturing.

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