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Balzac Honore de

Vendetta

General Books LLC

List Price: $20.00
Price: $20.00

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; Literary Collections / General; Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / European / French;
The Secrets Of The Princesse De Cadignan

List Price: $31.95
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D'Arthez allowed love to enter his heart after the manner of my Uncle Toby, without making the slightest resistance; he proceeded by adoration without criticism, and by exclusive admiration. The princess, that noble creature, one of the most remarkable creations of our monstrous Paris, where all things are possible, good as well as evil, became--whatever vulgarity the course of time may have given to the expression--the angel of his dreams.
Pere Goriot (Norton Critical Editions)

W. W. Norton & Company

Price: $11.70

Description

About the Series: 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

Peerless
Norton has done a really fine job on its critical edition of PERE GORIOT. The translation is especially good, vivid and direct. The commentaries are well chosen and organized. Of particular interest are appreciations of Balzac by writers who were influenced by him, including Zola, Proust, Baudelaire and Henry James. Henry James' take on Balzac is particularly interesting. Written in James' late style, the essay is sometimes inscrutable, but still, James, as always when he writes on writers and writing, offers great insight into Balzac and his oeuvre.

Highly recommended.

The quality of Balzac
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
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.

I strongly recommend that you consider purchasing the Norton Critical Edition of this novel. It provides an additional 150 pages of commentary on Balzac, this novel, and his oeuvre in general; an extra dollar or two well spent.


Father Goriot

FQ Books

List Price: $9.99
Price: $9.99

Description

Father Goriot is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Honore de Balzac is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Honore de Balzac then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.

Customer Reviews

Pere Goriot
Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac. Published by MobileReference (mobi).

Father Goriot is a masterful study of a father who sacrifices his wealth and health to assure his two daughters into the hotbed of Parisian high-society.
A romp of a good read!
Balzac guided European fiction away from the overriding influence of Walter Scott and the Gothic school, by showing that modern life could be recounted as vividly as Scott recounted his historical tales, and that mystery and intrigue did not need ghosts and crumbling castles for props. Maupassant, Flaubert and Zola were writers of the next generation who were directly influenced by him, and Marcel Proust (that other weaver of a great tapestry) acknowledged his influence.

He is worth reading for pleasure as well as for his influence on European literature.

Pere Goriot (Thrift Edition)

Dover Publications

List Price: $3.50
Price: $3.50

Description

A kind-hearted and idealistic youth enters the grasping Parisian society of the 1820s, where his education in the realities and costs of city life begin among the residents of a shabby but respectable boardinghouse.  Acclaimed by Leslie Stephen as "the modern King Lear," it offers a timeless view of the tragedies behind the prosaic details of everyday life.

Customer Reviews

My first introduction to Balzac
I have been going through the classics lately and decided to give Balzac a try. Pere Goriot is considered one of his most important works. Overall, it was a good novel, but it didn't impact me like many of the other classics that I have read.

It did paint a vivid picture of the early 19th century French aristocracy that was far from flattering. The title character has a distorted view of love but the law student does have some redeeming qualities. Balzac does a good job describing things, but I found his characters hard to like.

Since this is the only version of Pere Goriot that I have read, it is hard to make a judgment call on the translation, but if I read it again I will try a different translation. Some of the phrases could have been translated better and sounded almost too literal.

The book was worth reading, if only to get a feel for that time period in France. I came away from it very grateful that I wasn't born an aristocrat in 19th century France.
Works of Honore de Balzac. (150+ Works) Incl: The Human Comedy, Colonel Chabert, Ursula, A Woman of Thirty, Father Goriot, The Chouans, An Historical Mystery, ... The Magic Skin, Droll Stories & more (mobi)

MobileReference

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Description

Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley, Clara Bell, Ellen Marriage, R. S. Scott, James Waring and others

Table of Contents

List of Works by Genre and Title
List of Works in Alphabetical Order
Honore de Balzac Biography

La Comédie Humaine:

Scenes From Private Life:
The Ball at Sceaux
The Purse
Madame Firmiani
A Second Home
Domestic Peace
Paz or The Imaginary Mistress
Study of a Woman
Another Study of Woman
La Grand Breteche (Sequel to "Another Study of Woman")
Albert Savarus
Letters of Two Brides
A Daughter of Eve
A Woman of Thirty
The Deserted Woman
La Grenadiere
The Message
Gobseck
The Marriage Contract
A Start in Life
Modeste Mignon
Beatrix
Honorine
Colonel Chabert
The Atheist's Mass
The Commission in Lunacy
Pierre Grassou

Scenes From Provincial Life:
Ursule Mirouet or Ursula
Eugenie Grandet
The Celibates:
- Pierrette
- The Vicar of Tours
- The Two Brothers or A Bachelor's Establishment

Parisians in the Country:
- The Illustrious Gaudissart
- The Muse of the Department

The Jealousies of a Country Town
- An Old Maid
- The Collection of Antiquities
The Lily of the Valley
Lost Illusions (Les Illusions perdues)
- The Two Poets
- A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
- Eve and David

Scenes From Parisian Life
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
- Esther Happy
- What Love Costs an Old Man
- The End of Evil Ways
- Vautrin's Last Avatar

A Prince of Bohemia
A Man of Business
Gaudissart II
Unconscious Comedians
The Thirteen
- Ferragus
- The Duchesse de Langeais
- The Girl with the Golden Eyes

Father Goriot
The Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau
The Firm of Nucingen
The Secrets of a Princess
Bureaucracy or The Government Clerks
Sarrasine
Facino Cane
Poor Relations
- Cousin Betty
- Cousin Pons

The Lesser Bourgeoisie or The Middle Classes

Scenes From Political Life
An Historical Mystery or The Gondreville Mystery
An Episode Under the Terror
The Brotherhood of Consolation or The Seamy Side of History
- Madame de la Chanterie
- Initiated or The Initiate

Z. Marcas
The Deputy of Arcis or The Member for Arcis

Scenes From Military Life
The Chouans
A Passion in the Desert

Scenes From Country Life
The Country Doctor
The Village Rector or The Country Parson
Sons of the Soil or The Peasantry

Philosophical Studies
The Magic Skin (La Peau de chagrin)
The Alkahest or The Quest of the Absolute
Christ in Flanders
Melmoth Reconciled
The Hidden Masterpiece
The Hated Son
Gambara
Massimilla Doni
Juana or The Maranas
Farewell
The Recruit or The Conscript
El Verdugo
A Drama on the Seashore or A Seaside Tragedy
The Red Inn
The Elixir of Life
Maitre Cornelius
Catherine De Medici
- The Calvinist Martyr
- The Ruggieri's Secret
- The Two Dreams

Louis Lambert
The Exiles
Seraphita

Analytical Studies
The Physiology of Marriage

Novels:
Adieu
Beatrix
The Country Doctor
Petty Troubles of Married Life
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau
Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan
Vendetta

Short Stories:
At the Sign of the Cat & Racket
Domestic Peace
Droll Stories Volume 1
Droll Stories Volume 2
Droll Stories Volume 3
Folk-Tales of Napoleon, The Napoleon of the People; Napoleonder
A Street of Paris and Its Inhabitant

Plays:
Mercadet: A Comedy In Three Acts
Pamela Giraud: A Play In Five Acts
The Resources of Quinola
The Stepmother, A Drama in Five Acts
Vautrin: A Drama in Five Acts


Customer Reviews

Perfect format for the Kindle!
I've purchased over 20 of these complete author collections from this publisher. I have purchased William Shakespear, Charles Dckens, Mark Twain, Edgar Alan Poe, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Jule Verne, Oscar Wilde, Alexander Dumas, and a few others. These collections work superbly on the Kindle. Take Mark Twain collection. The collection includes huge number of Mark Twain's works all in one place, searchable and well-organized. If I would have purchased all these books separately, searching for `The Gilded Age' among hundreds of other books on my Kindle would be a nightmare. With Mobile Reference collections, I simply click `Works of Mark Twain', then click Novels> `The Gilded Age'. I can also click `List of works in alphabetical order' > `G' > `Gilded Age'. If I forget the book title but remember that `The Gilded Age' was written by Mark Twain early in his career, I can click on `List of works in chronological order' > (1873) `The Gilded Age'.

If I want another author, say, Charles Dickens, I click `Home' > `Works of Charles Dickens'. If I want Dostoevsky, I click `Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky'. I think this format is perfect for organizing books on the Kindle.

Inside collections, each book has links to chapters and footnotes. The text is nicely formatted and seems to be complete and accurate - something that cannot always be said about inexpensive ebooks. I think these collections are great bargains both in terms of saved money, time, and book organization!

Works of Honore de Balzac (Kindle edition)
Works of Honore de Balzac. (150+ Works) Incl: The Human Comedy, Colonel Chabert, Ursula, A Woman of Thirty, Father Goriot, The Chouans, An Historical Mystery, ... & more. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

Without questions, Balzac is one of the most masterful fiction writers in history. His wit and talent are simply unsurpassable.

Balzac Honore de News




Writers born this day: Honore de Balzac - The Post-Standard - Syracuse.com
Writers born this day: Honore de Balzac - The Post-Standard - Syracuse.com 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

From The Times - Times Online
From The TimesSir Henry Percy (Harry Hotspur), English rebel who led an uprising against King Henry IV, 1364; William Thornton, first architect of the Capitol building in Washington, 1759; Honoré de Balzac, novelist, 1799; John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist

The almanac
They include William Thornton, architect of the Capitol building in Washington, in 1759; Dolley Madison, wife of the fourth US president James Madison, in 1768; French novelist Honore de Balzac in 1799; English philosopher and economist John Stuart

NORM: This could be it for local dancer - Las Vegas Review - Journal
NORM: This could be it for local dancerAlso born on May 20: first lady Dolley Madison, 1768; French novelist Honoré de Balzac, 1799; actor Jimmy Stewart, 1908; Israeli war hero Moshe Dayan, 1915; singer Joe Cocker, 1944, and NASCAR star Tony Stewart, 1971. An "American Idol" viewing

O. Heathcote, Balzac and Violence. Representing History, Space ... - Fabula
O. Heathcote, Balzac and Violence. Representing History, Space ... - Fabula 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

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Honoré de Balzac - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Honoré Balzac was born into a family which had struggled to achieve respectability. ... This was the first work signed "Honoré de Balzac" ...

Honoré de Balzac: Biography from Answers.com
Honoré de Balzac (click to enlarge) Honoré de Balzac, daguerreotype, 1848. ... Born at Tours on May 20, 1799, Honoré de Balzac was sent as a boarder, at the ...

Honoré de Balzac
Provides biography, bibliography, further reading list, and museum information.

Free Online Library: Honore de Balzac
Biography and links to online texts.

Balzac, Honoré de
Works by Honoré de Balzac. Project Gutenberg. Honore de Balzac, available for free via Project Gutenberg by Albert Keim and Louis Lumet ...