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Domestic Peace / The Young Conscript / El Verdugo / An Episode During The Terror / Before Jena (An Episode From 'A Mysterious Affair') / The Abbé Birotteau / Colonel Chabert
Domestic peace --
The young conscript --
El Verdugo --
An episode during the terror --
Before Jena (An episode from 'A mysterious Affair') --
The Abbé Birotteau --
Colonel Chabert.
The young conscript --
El Verdugo --
An episode during the terror --
Before Jena (An episode from 'A mysterious Affair') --
The Abbé Birotteau --
Colonel Chabert.
- GenresShort Stories
267 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1830
1 person is currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Honoré de Balzac
9,606 books4,402 followersFrench writer Honoré de Balzac (born Honoré Balzac), a founder of the realist school of fiction, portrayed the panorama of society in a body of works, known collectively as
La comédie humaine
.
Honoré de Balzac authored 19th-century novels and plays. After the fall of Napoléon in 1815, his magnum opus, a sequence of almost a hundred novels and plays, entitled, presents life in the years.
Due to keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation, European literature regards Balzac. He features renowned multifaceted, even complex, morally ambiguous, full lesser characters. Character well imbues inanimate objects; the city of Paris, a backdrop, takes on many qualities. He influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles John Huffam Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac as well as important philosophers, such as Friedrich Engels. Many works of Balzac, made into films, continue to inspire.
An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac adapted with trouble to the teaching style of his grammar. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. Balzac finished, and people then apprenticed him as a legal clerk, but after wearying of banal routine, he turned his back on law. He attempted a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician before and during his career. He failed in these efforts From his own experience, he reflects life difficulties and includes scenes.
Possibly due to his intense schedule and from health problems, Balzac suffered throughout his life. Financial and personal drama often strained his relationship with his family, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; five months later, he passed away.
Honoré de Balzac authored 19th-century novels and plays. After the fall of Napoléon in 1815, his magnum opus, a sequence of almost a hundred novels and plays, entitled, presents life in the years.
Due to keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation, European literature regards Balzac. He features renowned multifaceted, even complex, morally ambiguous, full lesser characters. Character well imbues inanimate objects; the city of Paris, a backdrop, takes on many qualities. He influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles John Huffam Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac as well as important philosophers, such as Friedrich Engels. Many works of Balzac, made into films, continue to inspire.
An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac adapted with trouble to the teaching style of his grammar. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. Balzac finished, and people then apprenticed him as a legal clerk, but after wearying of banal routine, he turned his back on law. He attempted a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician before and during his career. He failed in these efforts From his own experience, he reflects life difficulties and includes scenes.
Possibly due to his intense schedule and from health problems, Balzac suffered throughout his life. Financial and personal drama often strained his relationship with his family, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; five months later, he passed away.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 25, 2017
The devious, the delusional, and the damned
Balzac is one of my favorite writers, so I'm definitely giving him five stars here. This is a collection of 7 stories, one of which, "Colonel Chabert", has been published on its own. Another of the 7, "Before Jena" is actually a part of one of Balzac's novels, "A Murky Business", so what I am writing about here concerns the other five stories.
They fit in with Balzac's enormous plan to describe all of French society in his times. These five were all written in the early 1830s, but concern earlier times, during the Revolutionary or Napoleonic periods. As usual, Balzac's stories are filled with richly-drawn characters with very down-to-earth motives or romantic fantasies that do them in. "Domestic Peace" concerns the convoluted love (sex) life of high society at Parisian balls, while "El Verdugo" is an excruciatingly tense drama set during the French occupation of Spain. "The Young Conscript" deals with mistaken identity and the trials of the mother of an anti-revolutionary soldier. "An Episode during the Terror" and "The Abbé Biroteau" both have to do with the Church, one during the period of revolutionary terror (duhh), the other afterwards, when the Church had reassumed its power in society. This last story is perhaps the best of all, pure Balzac---the machinations of wily people, the crushing of the innocents. All in all, if you've never read any Balzac, give this one a go. If you like Balzac, you'll definitely like this selection.
Balzac is one of my favorite writers, so I'm definitely giving him five stars here. This is a collection of 7 stories, one of which, "Colonel Chabert", has been published on its own. Another of the 7, "Before Jena" is actually a part of one of Balzac's novels, "A Murky Business", so what I am writing about here concerns the other five stories.
They fit in with Balzac's enormous plan to describe all of French society in his times. These five were all written in the early 1830s, but concern earlier times, during the Revolutionary or Napoleonic periods. As usual, Balzac's stories are filled with richly-drawn characters with very down-to-earth motives or romantic fantasies that do them in. "Domestic Peace" concerns the convoluted love (sex) life of high society at Parisian balls, while "El Verdugo" is an excruciatingly tense drama set during the French occupation of Spain. "The Young Conscript" deals with mistaken identity and the trials of the mother of an anti-revolutionary soldier. "An Episode during the Terror" and "The Abbé Biroteau" both have to do with the Church, one during the period of revolutionary terror (duhh), the other afterwards, when the Church had reassumed its power in society. This last story is perhaps the best of all, pure Balzac---the machinations of wily people, the crushing of the innocents. All in all, if you've never read any Balzac, give this one a go. If you like Balzac, you'll definitely like this selection.
Displaying 1 of 1 review