Mercadet (Dodo Press)
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Balzac Honore de
The Black Sheep (Penguin Classics)
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DescriptionPhilippe and Joseph Bridau are two extremely different brothers. The elder, Philippe, is a superficially heroic soldier and adored by their mother Agathe. He is nonetheless a bitter figure, secretly gambling away her savings after a brief but glorious career in Napoleon's army. His younger brother Joseph, meanwhile, is fundamentally virtuous - but their mother is blinded to his kindness by her disapproval of his life as an artist. Foolish and prejudiced, Agathe lives on unaware that she is being cynically manipulated by her own favourite child, but will she ever discover which of her sons is truly the black sheep of the family? A dazzling depiction of the power of money and the cruelty of life in nineteenth-century France, The Black Sheep compellingly explores is a compelling exploration of the nature of deceit.Customer ReviewsA Great SurpriseI am fairly new to reading Balzac, and was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I became engrossed in the story. Balzac is a wonderful writer. His characters really come to life, and I became very attached to them, and didn't want the story to end. He touches on the best and worst qualities in people, and while I found I could really relate to his depiction of how "the majority" of people act, his heroes and heroines in the story are people you really grow to like and admire very deeply. And, the story takes some twists which were very unexpected. I loved this book!! What more can I say? Machiavelli for fiction lovers This might be Balzac's greatest novel, it is certainly his most perfect. Elsewhere Balzac can be garrulous, here not a word is wasted. The plot has a classic, beautiful symmetry. We are driven forward at a rapid pace by the author's logic. (Forgive the cliches.) Balzac greatly admired the Machiavellian element in Stendahl, but in this respect he far surpassed Stendahl. One can be "too good for this world". Nice people finish last. To fight evil you must be almost as bad as the people who threaten you. We need scoundrels to protect us from external enemies, but then who will protect us from our protectors. Anyone interested in the Bush Administration's war on terror must read this novel. BRING ON THE IRONY 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 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. 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.
Pere Goriot (Signet Classics)
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DescriptionA masterful study of a father whose sacrifices for his daughters have become a compulsion, this novel marks Balzac's "real entrée" into La Comédie Humaine, his series of almost one hundred novels and short stories meant to depict "the whole pell-mell of civilization."Customer ReviewsGreat ExperienceThis is a great novel. Read it for an English course and enjoyed it. Great experience ordering book and was a great price. Recieved it in a timely manner. Great Novel, Great Translation I had four days to read this for a class, so I budgeted my time and decided to read around 70 pages a day. But this book was so enjoyable that I couldn't put it down, and I ended up reading 90 pages on the first day and the remaining 190 on the second. This is an engrossing story of devotion, betrayal, ambition, humility, crime, and innocence, told at a pleasantly brisk pace and peppered with profound observations on human nature. Goriot, Rastignac, and Vautrin are amazing characters, right up there with the creations of Dickens and Shakespeare. As for the translation, I don't know French and therefore can't judge Henry Reed's faithfulness to Balzac's expression. But as English, Reed's prose is flawless. brilliant translation The story is marvelous, but what I'm most impressed with is the quality of the translation. This is an elegant, witty, and very readable translation which adds much to the appreciation of Balzac. The translator, Henry Reed, was a well regarded poet in the UK. His only other Balzac translation is of Eugenie Grandet, out of print, but worth looking for. The Cesspool That Is Paris Getting involved in the works of Balzac is like entering a magnificently equipped library with an insatiable appetite for books. His output was prodigious: novels, short stories, and essays, but it is primarily the HUMAN COMEDY for which he is best known. The complexity that is that book had its origins much earlier in his novel FATHER GORIOT (PERE GORIOT). Balzac liked to move characters back and forth from book to book like chess pieces. In much of his fiction, he places his characters in cities like Paris that are center of dissolution and corruption that test their moral mettle. Most often they fail, but it is in their failures that give his work their distinctive flavor. Father Goriot is an old, sick pensioner who has raised his two daughters improperly such that they now return his earlier parental errors with daughterly ingratitude that elevates him to the status of a wounded Lear. He lives in a boarding house on the third floor, the cheapest floor. He had once been able to avoid the more expensive lower, but as he has given far too much of his dwindling resources to his greedy daughters, he is now facing poverty. This boarding house is a bustling center of activity, with Goriot only one part. A young and money hungry lawyer Eugene de Rastignac lives there too. He is handsome, witty, and definitely willing to bend a few rules to advance in the cesspool that is Parisian society. Eugene becomes the lover to one of Goriot's wealthy daughters, hoping that she can open doors to him that might otherwise have been closed. This daughter Delphine is only slightly less mercenary than her sister Anastasie, with whom Delphine is not on speaking terms. A friend of Eugene, Vautrin, who is aware of Eugene's poverty, offers to kill the brother of a woman that Eugene is dating, thus ensuring that in the event of a marriage, Eugene will marry into money. The primary focus of the story is on the disintegrating relation between Goriot and his daughters. They take his money until there is no more. For his part, Goriot remains inexplicably oblivious to their machinations. When he dies, both daughters find reasons not to attend the funeral which only Eugene attends. FATHER GORIOT is a novel of pessimism. It is not an unpleasant read, just an unpleasant topic, yet in Balzac's dramatic portrayal of the origins and consequences of greed and betrayal, it shows the depths to which people may plunge, while an uncaring city does little more than sit back and not take notice. Awesome! This seller sent me an awesome copy of this book. The binding wasn't even cracked and it was this vintage edition. And the book was sent rather quickly!
Old Goriot (Pere Goriot)
 List Price: Price: $6.95 DescriptionConsidered to be one of Balzac's most important works, "Old Goriot", or "Père Goriot", is the story of its title character Goriot; a mysterious criminal-in-hiding named Vautrin; and a naive law student named Eugène de Rastignac. We are introduced to the characters at Maison Vauquer, a boarding house owned by the widow Madame Vauquer. Central to the theme of the book is the struggle to achieve upper-class status in society. Rastignac is eager to achieve this upper-class standing but is unfamiliar to the ways of Parisian society. Vautrin tries to convince Rastignac to pursue an unmarried woman named Victorine, a dubious suggestion which involves the disposal of her brother who blocks the woman's fortune. The failings to achieve this upper-class status are exemplified by Goriot who has bankrupted himself to support his two well-married daughters, yet they reject him. A classic and tragic story, "Old Goriot" is one of the most pivotal works in Balzac's sweeping novel sequence "La Comédie Humaine", which endeavors to depict the effects of society on the entirety of the human condition.Customer Reviews"All is true!"At the beginning of this wonderful commentary on love, society, family and wealth Balzac asks if the story he is about to tell "Will it be understood outside of Paris?" and he answers: "It is doubtful." This of course is just meant to be sarcastic, since like all classics, this work can be appreciated by everyone, regardless of time and place. I won't say much about the plot - which centers around a father fanatically devoted to his two daughters, and a poor law student hoping to make his way in fashionable Parisian society - since it's really Balzac's keen insight into human behavior and the complexity of his characters which make "Old Goriot" both an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. While there are some very melodramatic and extremely theatrical scenes that I think are somewhat distracting, this is still a book that is hard to put down, and one that will make you think about your own life in a more critical way. This is the first novel I've read by Balzac, but I will definitely read more! Old Goriot is the Classic Poor Little Rich Man Written in 1830's after the recession of the early 19th century where more than 75% of Parisians lived below the poverty level, ths book extensively focuses upon the social inequities and improprieties of France's most beloved city, Paris. Paris is sensual. "Love in Paris is a thing distinct and apart . . . in this country within a country, it is not merely required of a woman that she satisfy the senses of the soul . . . [L]ove, for her, is above all things." Paris is beyond description of idle gossipers. "Those who know Paris believe nothing that is said, and say nothing of what is done there." Similar to today's Law Vegas ad campaign - what happens there, stays here. And, what is happening is good old fashioned adultery. Old Goriot's lost daughter, Anastasie, is so overboard in her quest to keep her lover, she is virtually bankrupt because of expenses exceeding 100,000 francs to maintain her lover's attention. Goriot's other daughter, Delphine, has an unloving husband who has paid her fortune for his two mistresses - women and bad businesses decisions. And, so the tale become focused upon Delphine's lover - Rastignac - a boarder in the house of Vauquer, whose 8 or 9 boarders are well outlined at the book's beginning. And, among the boarders is Goriot - appearing to be a pauper, but nouveau riche from fortunes made in vermicelli sales. Rastignac (Eugene) is a law student who has nothing but a great future in store for him. But, he makes some errors. "Eugene had yet to learn that no one in Paris should present himself in any house without first making himself acquainted with the whole history of its owner, and of its owner's wife and family . . . " Paris, even in this time of poverty, was full of old time bequeathed wealth and snobbery. As a young man, he is warned to "lock your heart carefully away like a treasure . . Or you will be lost. . . And, if ever you should love, never let your secret escape you! Trust no one . . . " Later he learns how forlorn marriage and parenthood can be as Goriot's daughters' cumulative demands for capital from father Goriot literally withdraw every cent and breath respectively from his estate and soul. Upon learning that his daughters abandoned him when his needs grew greatest, Goriot advises Rastignac, "Oh! My friend, do not marry; do not have children! You give them life; they give your death-blow. You bring them into the world, and they send you out of it." Ultimately, the sad and faithful Goriot, whose generous hand delivered 700,000 francs to each daughter which did not last even a decade's time (when average people lived as families for less than 1,200 francs per year), discovers his spoiling was in error. Had he reserved the money and remained wealthy, as opposed to delivering the money to his daughters and self-imposed poverty for their purchase of happiness, he and they would have been happier; and, the family tighter. Full of detail, and laden with Parisian character, this book resonates as to what confounded times this post-Napoleonic period entailed. Frivolity and thanklessness by the youth to the detriment of their parent's unending love, contrast to the world about them where a vast majority struggle not for love, but for food and shelter. Dickens-like social statements, curried with Shakespearean moments and Moliere-esque dialogue, make this a remarkable novel which resonates even two centuries later. Old Goriot is a searing portrait of a nineteenth century Parisian King Lear Old Goriot is a short novel of 1835 written by the prolific Honore de Balzac (1799-1850), Balzac wanted to portray in his long series "The Human Comedy" French life in all of its many manifestations. In this early work we travel with him to Madame Vacquin's Boarding House meeting there several fascinating characters. Among them is Vautrin who is an escaped convict gifted with the ability to talk of philisophical matters. Vautrin gives the young law student Eugene de Rastignac advice on how to survive in the jungle of Paris. Eugene is fresh from the country and about to conquer the City of Lights. He becomes romantically entwined with several women. Among these ladies are two thankless daughters of Old Goriot a moribund border forced to live in the attic of the boardinghouse. His lonely death and the callous disregard of his feckless, materialistic daughters will bring a tear to all but the most cynical of readers. Rastignac will appear in several other of the novelist's books in the Human Comedy series. His work would later influence such diverse authors as Flaubert, Henry James, Emila Zola and Marcel Proust. This novel is often taught in college courses providing an excellent introduction to the world of Balzac. A Classic Tale of Unconditional Love "To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter." Euripides "Noble natures cannot long endure this world. How indeed should deep and noble feeling find a place in such a shallow, petty, mean society?" p. 282 "Old Goriot" This classic novel by Balzac simply busted up my heart. It's so depressing; that reading it was the like watching the last half hour of "Brian's Song" times twenty. Ergo, anyone who tends to be on the soft-hearted, extremely sensitive side, beware my fellow friends, because this one is sure to draw a few tears. Especially if you are a father! Now a few words about the story itself: The main protagonist, an altruistic, gentle, saint of a man 'Old Goriot' is a widower with two adult daughters. Old G. resides in a seedy boarding house in the slums of Paris. He rents out a tiny, filthy, dank room, one of the worst the shanty has to offer. He is getting on in years, and because of his quiet, simple, child-like nature, along with the fact that he is practically broke, he suddenly finds himself to be the butt of jokes by his fellow housemates. However, there is definitely an air of mystery regarding this old soul. For it was not too long ago that this simpleton was once a very successful businessman who made quite a fortune in his earlier days. Now at the same time Old G. is living this sad, lonely life of a pauper, his two beautiful young daughters are basking in the sunlight of bourgeoisie Paris society. They are both in loveless marriages to wealthy, amoral men. However, both women came into their nuptials with quite a large dowry to boot due to their overly generous father who absolutely adores his daughters beyond definition and has spoiled them rotten ever since they were little girls. Both of his daughters are pretentious, self-absorbed, petty, ungrateful brats. Whatever their husbands deny them, they simply run off to daddy and he always happily grants them their every wish despite its personal cost to him. And King Lear thought he had it bad! Another main character in this rather tearful tale is a young, noble, highly ambitious law student named Rastignac who is also one of the boarders at the sty in which Old G. resides. He comes to the big City of Lights from a poor, farming family in the South of France and quickly tries to immerse himself into the elite of Paris society, mainly because he's smitten with ... I'm stopping myself here, in order to not relate too much. I would also be remiss to omit mentioning another fascinating character by the name of Vautrin who also lives in the same boarding house as Old G. and Rastignac (two characters that play active roles in other Balzac stories). All in all, the essential themes of this compelling classic are just as relevant today as they were in Paris in 1834. It's all about love and money, the two obsessions that seem to make this crazy world go round and round. Balzac's prose is loaded with wit which does help alleviate some of the novel's prevailing sadness. He also writes with such brilliant, dazzling detail in regards to Paris society after the French Revolution - what an artist! This is the first time I have ever tackled one of Honore's classics, and I definitely plan on reading more of his works in the future. This story took a while for me to really get into, but after about a third of the way through, I couldn't put it down and found myself staying up until 4am to finish it. If you love French Classics (as I do), pick this one up immediately! Is This Worth Reading? Yes! Balzac's Literature, for me, is "a mixed bag". You have to be "patient" because there's alot of "description". I "read" this book as a book on tape which helped keep me from giving up on it which I thought about doing a couple of times during the reading of the book. But, I'm GLAD I DIDN'T GIVE UP on the story because some of the best is near the end. This "best near the end" makes the time and effort worthwhile for the reader. You'll be glad you read the entire book! Let me say a few words about "economics". Balzac apparently was always in debt and never "made a bundle" during his life. So, he was always suffering under a burden of debt----like many of us here on Amazon with our VISA and Master Cards and house payments and car payments! So, many of us can "identify" with the plight of his characters as they try to stay solvent, out of debt, and out of debtors prison! Of course, we don't have "debtors prisons" these days but many people worry about how to pay the bills and many people live paycheck to paycheck. If you're not one of the above, then you are one of the lucky people. Even so, anyone can fall into debt---just get a disabling disease and see what happens when you can't work! Thus, many of Balzac's characters are out of funds and in debt. These economic constraints on the characters, as on Balzac himself, we can have sympathy for. And, economic motivations loom large with the characters. For example, the two daughters are maligned in the book by their father because he "gave them everything they wanted" and "now that he's impoverished they won't even come to see him on his death bed." "Oh, if I had millions of francs they'd be here. But, now that I'm broke they don't come to see me because there's no money I can give them.", says Father Goriot. What I like about Balzac is not that he "blames" the characters, even the ungrateful daughters, but I see Balzac as "telling it the way it is"---that we are all "economic beings" who behave based on "economic motivations"---it's just natural, it's the way the world is, and it's not our fault. Thus, I believe, after reading Balzac, he helps me "understand" and especially "accept" the "normal" way people will react to you based on whether you can help them financially or not. If you want people to "be good" to you, you have to reward them financially. Does that make people "bad" or "greedy" or "selfish"---I have come to think maybe not. That's just "the nature of people"...it's the way they are so we should accept the reality of that and not feel disappointed about it. So, reading Balzac has helped me personally accept people the way they are instead of the way I'd like them to be. Good reason to read this book, I think. Recommended! Email is gourmet72141@yahoo.co
The Atheist's Mass
 List Price: Price: $29.95 DescriptionMany of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.Customer ReviewsClashing Viewpoints Treated Respectfully...Honore DeBalzac is one of those less well known authors who has simply been overlooked by many. I am new to reading his stories, but he has an excellent manner of characterization which really puts you into the shoes of the characters, and draws you into the story through that means. He also is fluent in a few different techniques to add interest to the story by the way the story is presented. Not only that, but he is prone to picking topics which are quite interesting, just based on what I've read to date. All these things go together, combined with the short story nature of the stories presented on Kindle for free, makes him a highly recommended author in general. **Some Spoilers** The early parts of this story really draw most of the negatives I felt for myself. Basically the story starts off with some interesting thoughts as to the legacy of great men, and then thoughts to how great men of science often are atheist, and then into current character development of the main doctor and his house surgeon. Over time, the mystery is revealed of the publically atheistic doctor who holds a secret mass at the church on ocassion. The introduction feels entirely too drawn out, and fills a bit like filler to fill in this quite short story, and it meanders a bit to much for me to get the point. After that mystery has been laid out, and the virtues of atheism having already been extolled, the story develops more fully, and the characters are further developed, and we find the answer to our mystery in a revelation provided by the doctor. This revelation concludes with some dramatic moments, and the story concludes immediately afterwards. I found that the story treated both atheism and the church with all due respect, and never supposes the preferred viewpoint for the reader, but merely provided the story and allowed the reader to come to his own conclusion. Clearly, there is some to be admired in both viewpoints as presented in the story. The mystery takes a different direction that might be expected, and in a way, is slightly less clever than I expected based on the title. This is also a little hard to relate to, for the modern reader who has not experienced the kind of poverty on might experience in the early nineteenth century which had few, if any, of the modern social reforms. A good book which might be worthy of the fourth star if the message resonated more with myself as the audience. I certainly can appreciate the message, nonetheless, and I would rate it a hearty 3.5 stars, but no more. Recommended.
The Vendetta
 List Price: Price: $20.00 DescriptionPublisher: J. Redpath Publication date: 1864 Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary History / Europe / France Literary Criticism / European / French Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.Balzac Honore de News
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The Post-Standard - Syracuse.comWriters born this day: Honore de BalzacFrench novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac (1799), Norwegian novelist Sigrid Undset (1882), English mystery novelist Margery Allingham (1904), American newspaper reporter (and Post-Standard Health & Fitness editor) Amber Smith (she sits within Birthday quote for May 20
FabulaO. Heathcote, Balzac and Violence. Representing History, Space Violence is one of the main themes in the novels of Honoré de Balzac. Executions, murders, savagery and death accompany the conspiracies and the turbulence that characterise his post-Revolutionary times, from the Terror to the Napoleonic campaigns and