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La Comédie Humaine #14
Une fille d'Ève
Dans sa confortable maison parisienne, la jeune Marie-Angélique de Vandenesse, mariée au comte Félix de Vandenesse, s'ennuie déjà. Elle rencontre Nathan, un jeune écrivain. Celui-ci pour être digne de sa brillante conquête, se lance dans des projets politico-littéraires. Mais ses affaires tournent mal, et pour le sauver, l'imprudente Marie-Angélique souscrit des lettres de change... Extrait : Les deux Marie n’allèrent au bal qu’à l’âge de seize ans, et quatre fois seulement par année, dans quelques maisons choisies. Elles ne quittaient les côtés de leur mère que munies d’instructions sur la conduite à suivre avec leurs danseurs, et si sévères qu’elles ne pouvaient répondre que oui ou non à leurs partenaires. L’œil de la comtesse n’abandonnait point ses filles et semblait deviner les paroles au seul mouvement des lèvres. Les pauvres petites avaient des toilettes de bal irréprochables, des robes de mousseline montant jusqu’au menton, avec une infinité de ruches excessivement fournies, et des manches longues. En tenant leurs grâce comprimées et leurs beautés voilées, cette toilette leur donnait une vague ressemblance avec les gaînes égyptiennes ; néanmoins il sortait de ces blocs de coton deux figures délicieuses de mélancolie. Elles enrageaient eu se voyant l’objet d’une pitié douce.
127 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1838
28 people are currently reading
544 people want to read
About the author
Honoré de Balzac
9,540 books4,362 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 - 30 of 44 reviews
January 6, 2019
Balzac’ın her bir kitabını “İnsanlık Komedyası” adını verdiği anıtsal eserinin bölümleri olarak incelemek gerekiyor.
Komedya Paris ve Fransız toplumundan yola çıkarak gerek taşrada gerek kent hayatında insanlığın tüm hallerinin - zenginlik, yoksulluk, güzellik, çirkinlik, aşk, nefret, kibir, düzenbazlık, erdem- hem anlatıldığı hem de analiz edildiği bir nehir roman. Balzac, 51 yaşında öldüğünde eserinin 95 kitaplık parçasını bitirebilmişti. Planlayıp yazamadığı 50 civarı parça olduğu söyleniyor. Balzac, tüm romanlarında 2000 civarı karakter yaratmış ve önemli karakterlere farklı bir çok romanda yer vererek bir anlamda eserinin bütünlüğünü sağlamaya çalışmış.
İnsanlık Komedyası üç bölüm olarak kurgulanmıştı:
Analitik Çalışmalar: birey ve toplum hayatının analiz edildiği deneme türü eserler (Evliliğin Fizyolojisi, Çalışanın Fizyolojisi, Modern Uyarıcıları Kullanma Kılavuzu)
Felsefi Çalışmalar: insan eylemlerinin nedenlerini araştırdığı eserler (Uzun yaşam İksiri -Can yayınlarından çıkmış)
Toplum Görenekleri İncelemeleri: (özel yaşamdan sahneler, taşra yaşamından sahneler, siyasi yaşamdan sahneler, askeri yaşamdan sahneler ve kırsal yaşamdan sahneler olarak beş bölümden meydana geliyor ve ünlü romanlarının hemen hepsi bu başlık altında planlanmış)
Bir Havva Kızı romanı da Toplum Görenekleri İncelemeleri bölümünde Özel Yaşamdan Sahneler başlığı altında yer alıyor.
Anneleri tarafından çok katı bir dini eğitim verilerek, toplumsal hayattan uzak yetiştirilen iki kız kardeşin çok genç yaşlarda evlendikten sonra aristokrat sınıf içindeki hayatları anlatılıyor. Bu genç kadınlardan biri; düzenbaz, sonradan görme banker Du Tillet ile diğeri dürüst bir kont olan Vandenesse ile evleniyor. Roman, Kontes Vandenesse’in tekdüze aile hayatından sıkılıp, aristokrat toplantılara hasbelkader dahil olan parlak gazeteci Raoul Nathan ile yaşadığı gönül ilişkisini anlatıyor. Kontes tutkulu bir aşk yaşama derdindeyken işler çıkmaza giriyor.
Bu romanda Balzac, karakterlerin geniş geniş serimini yapmış. Kızların anne ve babasının kişilikleri, damatların seceresi, Kont’un erdemi, gazetecinin ahlaki çıkmazları mükemmel analizler ve mekân tasvirleri eşliğinde anlatılmış. Kanımca bu kitap daha çok Raoul nezdinde dönemin gazete sahiplerini yermek için yazılmış.
Romanda en sevdiğim karakterlerden biri Raoul’ün aktris sevgilisi Florine oldu. Balzac, o dönemde aristokrat kadınlarla ilişkiler kurarak onların ortamına dâhil olmaya çalışırken, bir yandan da ipliklerini pazara çıkartıyordu. İlk ve en sadık okuyucuları da bu aristokrat kadınlardı. Böyle bir ortamda, görece aşağı sınıftan olan Florine kendi ayakları üstünde duran, güçlü bir karakter olarak parlıyor romanda. Balzac’ın okumadığım diğer romanlarındaki orta ve alt sınıf kadın karakterleri merak ettim doğrusu.
Balzac’ın romanları için 21. yüzyılın birikimli okurları eleştirecek çok şey bulabilirler kuşkusuz. (Mesela, Kont Vandenesse’i ben Michel Zevaco’nun orta çağ Şövalyesi Pardayan’a benzettim. Öylesi kusursuz bir karakter yani) Klasiklerin hepsi için geçerli bu. Onları kendi dönemi içinde roman sanatına katkıları açısından değerlendirmek gerekiyor.
Klasikleri çok seven ben ise Balzac’ın bu çok renkli, çok katmanlı dünyasına girdiğim için memnunum. Bu sene bol bol okumayı planlıyorum.
Komedya Paris ve Fransız toplumundan yola çıkarak gerek taşrada gerek kent hayatında insanlığın tüm hallerinin - zenginlik, yoksulluk, güzellik, çirkinlik, aşk, nefret, kibir, düzenbazlık, erdem- hem anlatıldığı hem de analiz edildiği bir nehir roman. Balzac, 51 yaşında öldüğünde eserinin 95 kitaplık parçasını bitirebilmişti. Planlayıp yazamadığı 50 civarı parça olduğu söyleniyor. Balzac, tüm romanlarında 2000 civarı karakter yaratmış ve önemli karakterlere farklı bir çok romanda yer vererek bir anlamda eserinin bütünlüğünü sağlamaya çalışmış.
İnsanlık Komedyası üç bölüm olarak kurgulanmıştı:
Analitik Çalışmalar: birey ve toplum hayatının analiz edildiği deneme türü eserler (Evliliğin Fizyolojisi, Çalışanın Fizyolojisi, Modern Uyarıcıları Kullanma Kılavuzu)
Felsefi Çalışmalar: insan eylemlerinin nedenlerini araştırdığı eserler (Uzun yaşam İksiri -Can yayınlarından çıkmış)
Toplum Görenekleri İncelemeleri: (özel yaşamdan sahneler, taşra yaşamından sahneler, siyasi yaşamdan sahneler, askeri yaşamdan sahneler ve kırsal yaşamdan sahneler olarak beş bölümden meydana geliyor ve ünlü romanlarının hemen hepsi bu başlık altında planlanmış)
Bir Havva Kızı romanı da Toplum Görenekleri İncelemeleri bölümünde Özel Yaşamdan Sahneler başlığı altında yer alıyor.
Anneleri tarafından çok katı bir dini eğitim verilerek, toplumsal hayattan uzak yetiştirilen iki kız kardeşin çok genç yaşlarda evlendikten sonra aristokrat sınıf içindeki hayatları anlatılıyor. Bu genç kadınlardan biri; düzenbaz, sonradan görme banker Du Tillet ile diğeri dürüst bir kont olan Vandenesse ile evleniyor. Roman, Kontes Vandenesse’in tekdüze aile hayatından sıkılıp, aristokrat toplantılara hasbelkader dahil olan parlak gazeteci Raoul Nathan ile yaşadığı gönül ilişkisini anlatıyor. Kontes tutkulu bir aşk yaşama derdindeyken işler çıkmaza giriyor.
Bu romanda Balzac, karakterlerin geniş geniş serimini yapmış. Kızların anne ve babasının kişilikleri, damatların seceresi, Kont’un erdemi, gazetecinin ahlaki çıkmazları mükemmel analizler ve mekân tasvirleri eşliğinde anlatılmış. Kanımca bu kitap daha çok Raoul nezdinde dönemin gazete sahiplerini yermek için yazılmış.
Romanda en sevdiğim karakterlerden biri Raoul’ün aktris sevgilisi Florine oldu. Balzac, o dönemde aristokrat kadınlarla ilişkiler kurarak onların ortamına dâhil olmaya çalışırken, bir yandan da ipliklerini pazara çıkartıyordu. İlk ve en sadık okuyucuları da bu aristokrat kadınlardı. Böyle bir ortamda, görece aşağı sınıftan olan Florine kendi ayakları üstünde duran, güçlü bir karakter olarak parlıyor romanda. Balzac’ın okumadığım diğer romanlarındaki orta ve alt sınıf kadın karakterleri merak ettim doğrusu.
Balzac’ın romanları için 21. yüzyılın birikimli okurları eleştirecek çok şey bulabilirler kuşkusuz. (Mesela, Kont Vandenesse’i ben Michel Zevaco’nun orta çağ Şövalyesi Pardayan’a benzettim. Öylesi kusursuz bir karakter yani) Klasiklerin hepsi için geçerli bu. Onları kendi dönemi içinde roman sanatına katkıları açısından değerlendirmek gerekiyor.
Klasikleri çok seven ben ise Balzac’ın bu çok renkli, çok katmanlı dünyasına girdiğim için memnunum. Bu sene bol bol okumayı planlıyorum.
September 20, 2019
Bir Havva Kızı, dini vecibelere göre iyi bir şekilde yetiştirilmiş iki kız kardeşten bir tanesinin başından geçen yarı aşk yarı entrika böyle karışık bir hikayeyi konu alan güzel bir kitap.
Annelerinin baskısıyla yetiştirilen bu iki dindar kızın büyüyüp evlenmeyi bir kaçış olarak görmesi ve sonrasında aşırı baskının nasıl ters teptiğini gösteren olaylar yaşanmasını konu alan kitap sürükleyicilikten biraz uzak. Yoğun betimlemeler ve yazarın benimsediği bölümlere ayrılmamış tek parça anlatım tarzı okumayı oldukça zorlaştırmış.
Anna Karenina tarzı sosyete yaşantısının Fransa'daki uzantılarını merak edenler için betimlemeler oldukça doyurucu. (Duvarları komple kadife kaplamak nedir abi ya) 1830-1835 arası diyebileceğimiz bir dönemde geçen hikayemiz İhtilal Fransa'sının da derinlemesine bir incelemesi esasen. O dönemler Fransa'da özellikle sosyete ahalisinde yaşanan yoğun siyasi-politik çekişmeler çok güzel resmedilmiş. Kadının bu çekişmelerdeki yeri ise beni oldukça şaşırttı. Son derece aktif rol alıyorlar diyebilirim. Siyaseti erkekler yapıyor gibi görünse de, kadınlar her türlü entrikayı çeviren garip bir rolde karşımıza çıkıyor.
Balzac tarzına alışmak için okunabilecek kısa bir roman.
Annelerinin baskısıyla yetiştirilen bu iki dindar kızın büyüyüp evlenmeyi bir kaçış olarak görmesi ve sonrasında aşırı baskının nasıl ters teptiğini gösteren olaylar yaşanmasını konu alan kitap sürükleyicilikten biraz uzak. Yoğun betimlemeler ve yazarın benimsediği bölümlere ayrılmamış tek parça anlatım tarzı okumayı oldukça zorlaştırmış.
Anna Karenina tarzı sosyete yaşantısının Fransa'daki uzantılarını merak edenler için betimlemeler oldukça doyurucu. (Duvarları komple kadife kaplamak nedir abi ya) 1830-1835 arası diyebileceğimiz bir dönemde geçen hikayemiz İhtilal Fransa'sının da derinlemesine bir incelemesi esasen. O dönemler Fransa'da özellikle sosyete ahalisinde yaşanan yoğun siyasi-politik çekişmeler çok güzel resmedilmiş. Kadının bu çekişmelerdeki yeri ise beni oldukça şaşırttı. Son derece aktif rol alıyorlar diyebilirim. Siyaseti erkekler yapıyor gibi görünse de, kadınlar her türlü entrikayı çeviren garip bir rolde karşımıza çıkıyor.
Balzac tarzına alışmak için okunabilecek kısa bir roman.
July 24, 2016
Acabé esta novelita hace una semana pero inicialmente me dio pereza escribirle una reseña. El argumento podría resumirse en lo siguiente: “mujer de un aristocrático marido perfecto se enamora de un artista bohemio imperfecto. Las consecuencias, si ustedes tienen curiosidad alguna, las encontrarán en la propia lectura.
Reconozco a Balzac el ser pionero en un asunto, el adulterio, que décadas después dio obras maestras como el Madame Bovary de Flaubert, El primo Basilio de Eça de Queirós o La Regenta de Clarín. Sin embargo, esas novelas que cito me dejarán un recuerdo indeleble mientras que la obra de Balzac la olvidaré rápidamente.
Ando leyendo cosas francesas en preparación a mi primer viaje a Francia como destino (hasta ahora sólo la había pisado en tránsito hacia otros países). Mi anterior lectura fue El vientre de París, de Zola, y la novela que ahora comento no resiste la comparación. Zola describe, y describe, y describe, y deja que el lector se forme sus propias conclusiones (probablemente, muy próximas a lo que el autor quería sugerir). Balzac, sin embargo, orienta la opinión del lector. No apunté ejemplos, pero sería algo parecido a “Todos sabemos que las mujeres son frágiles e inconstantes. Nuestra protagonista, por tanto…”. El ejemplo es mío, no extraído de la novela, pero espero que dé a entender a qué me refiero. Por otro lado, Balzac me pareció que dedicaba largos párrafos a filosofar.
No es lo que yo buscaba.
Reconozco a Balzac el ser pionero en un asunto, el adulterio, que décadas después dio obras maestras como el Madame Bovary de Flaubert, El primo Basilio de Eça de Queirós o La Regenta de Clarín. Sin embargo, esas novelas que cito me dejarán un recuerdo indeleble mientras que la obra de Balzac la olvidaré rápidamente.
Ando leyendo cosas francesas en preparación a mi primer viaje a Francia como destino (hasta ahora sólo la había pisado en tránsito hacia otros países). Mi anterior lectura fue El vientre de París, de Zola, y la novela que ahora comento no resiste la comparación. Zola describe, y describe, y describe, y deja que el lector se forme sus propias conclusiones (probablemente, muy próximas a lo que el autor quería sugerir). Balzac, sin embargo, orienta la opinión del lector. No apunté ejemplos, pero sería algo parecido a “Todos sabemos que las mujeres son frágiles e inconstantes. Nuestra protagonista, por tanto…”. El ejemplo es mío, no extraído de la novela, pero espero que dé a entender a qué me refiero. Por otro lado, Balzac me pareció que dedicaba largos párrafos a filosofar.
No es lo que yo buscaba.
July 19, 2010
Honore de Balzac's work bears a certain Jekyll & Hyde quality: Either he is slipshod and rushed (the classic example is A Woman of Thirty), or he is in complete command of himself and takes the time and trouble to tie up all the loose ends. Fortunately, A Daughter of Eve is one of these latter. It is unfortunate that it is not better known, as it is, to my mind, a good book to start reading the Human Comedy.
Like many of Balzac's novels, the characters in A Daughter of Eve have a past: Felix de Vandenesse was one of the stars of The Lily of the Valley; and we have also seen his wife Marie, Eugene de Rastignac, the bankers du Tillet and Nucingen, the money-lender Gigonnet, and even up-and-coming litterateur Raoul Nathan in other novels. That is one of the wonderful things about Balzac: To commit oneself to reading the entire oeuvre, one is always running into old friends.
A Daughter of Eve is one of those stories in which people get themselves into terrible trouble, whose ripples spread until they seem to be stuck in some ghastly maelstrom of their own making. The Countess Marie de Vandenesse, out of boredom at being married to a good man, decides to take a lover, one Raoul Nathan. Thinking that his fortune is made, Nathan quickly finds himself in deep water until he is rescued by the efforts of the Countess, who in turn is rescued ... but I will not divulge how. Suffice it to say that this is one of Balzac's more gentle and delightful tales. In it, we do not sup with horrors, as in Pere Goriot or Cousin Bette: Poor Relations, Part One.
I hope that some talented translator will bring A Daughter of Eve from out of its Victorian cerements and into the light of the 21st century. Reading Balzac is not only good for your soul, but also will help you live without dangerous illusions.
Like many of Balzac's novels, the characters in A Daughter of Eve have a past: Felix de Vandenesse was one of the stars of The Lily of the Valley; and we have also seen his wife Marie, Eugene de Rastignac, the bankers du Tillet and Nucingen, the money-lender Gigonnet, and even up-and-coming litterateur Raoul Nathan in other novels. That is one of the wonderful things about Balzac: To commit oneself to reading the entire oeuvre, one is always running into old friends.
A Daughter of Eve is one of those stories in which people get themselves into terrible trouble, whose ripples spread until they seem to be stuck in some ghastly maelstrom of their own making. The Countess Marie de Vandenesse, out of boredom at being married to a good man, decides to take a lover, one Raoul Nathan. Thinking that his fortune is made, Nathan quickly finds himself in deep water until he is rescued by the efforts of the Countess, who in turn is rescued ... but I will not divulge how. Suffice it to say that this is one of Balzac's more gentle and delightful tales. In it, we do not sup with horrors, as in Pere Goriot or Cousin Bette: Poor Relations, Part One.
I hope that some talented translator will bring A Daughter of Eve from out of its Victorian cerements and into the light of the 21st century. Reading Balzac is not only good for your soul, but also will help you live without dangerous illusions.
August 19, 2015
Two aristocratic sisters raised in religious seclusion by their pious mother are suddenly married off into the glittering, treacherous Paris society of the 1830's, the younger to a domineering banker, the elder to a humane and loving count.
This excellent novella from the 'private life' collection of Balzac's Comédie Humaine focusses on the elder daughter, Madame Felix de Vandenesse, who has no need to be dissatisfied with her husband, yet naively invites a scandal on herself when she is manoeuvred into an affair by more sophisticated and mischievous ladies.
Her chosen lover, Raoul Nathan, is an ambitious playwright and would-be politician, a man of some genius but with feet of clay. Despite having a devoted mistress, the vaudeville actress Florine, Nathan recklessly courts Madame Felix, little knowing that he to is the dupe of wiser minds.
Though the story is slight and contains no great depths of either drama or tragedy, I still found A Daughter of Eve to be something of a delight, due in no small measure to Balzac's incomparably rich powers of physical description and eye for detail.
Each of the principle players receive the forensic treatment in turn, with both their inner and outer physiognomies laid bare in swift, slashing strokes by the always busy pen of Balzac. His descriptions of rooms and their contents are just as detailed.
The ending, though satisfying, could have been pulled off with a bit more aplomb, and the time spent on the younger sister early on seemed a little wasted by the end; but then again, that's the peculiarity of Balzac's Comédie Humaine, where characters pop up here and there across various works, as indeed the two sisters here appear elsewhere.
Ideal light reading for a rainy day.
This excellent novella from the 'private life' collection of Balzac's Comédie Humaine focusses on the elder daughter, Madame Felix de Vandenesse, who has no need to be dissatisfied with her husband, yet naively invites a scandal on herself when she is manoeuvred into an affair by more sophisticated and mischievous ladies.
Her chosen lover, Raoul Nathan, is an ambitious playwright and would-be politician, a man of some genius but with feet of clay. Despite having a devoted mistress, the vaudeville actress Florine, Nathan recklessly courts Madame Felix, little knowing that he to is the dupe of wiser minds.
Though the story is slight and contains no great depths of either drama or tragedy, I still found A Daughter of Eve to be something of a delight, due in no small measure to Balzac's incomparably rich powers of physical description and eye for detail.
Each of the principle players receive the forensic treatment in turn, with both their inner and outer physiognomies laid bare in swift, slashing strokes by the always busy pen of Balzac. His descriptions of rooms and their contents are just as detailed.
The ending, though satisfying, could have been pulled off with a bit more aplomb, and the time spent on the younger sister early on seemed a little wasted by the end; but then again, that's the peculiarity of Balzac's Comédie Humaine, where characters pop up here and there across various works, as indeed the two sisters here appear elsewhere.
Ideal light reading for a rainy day.
May 21, 2021
ŞAHANE BİR ESER, bitmesin duygusuyla okudum.
***
"...yüreklerindeki aşk ateşi çoktan küllenmiş, yüzleri soğuk ve dünyasından bezmiş bir ifadedeydi; suratların ekşidiği ve hüzünlendiği, duyarlılığın sadece sofralarda ve maddi rahatlıklarda kaldığı bir yaştaydılar.
...kendilerini işlerine güçlerine vermiş, günlük hayat gaileleri ile yıpranmış bu insanların bütün canlılığı yok olmuştu."
"Yol ortasında işlenen cinayetler bile, para için döndürülen dolapların yanında masum kalır; bu dolapları çevirenler, insanların yıkılıp mahvolmalarına son derece kayıtsızdırlar."
"Zekâ Tanrı gibi esirgeyendir; hayal büyüsünden kurtulma bir cerrahın kavrayıcılığını gerektirir, tecrübe ise bir annenin öngörülüğünü... Bu üç duygu evliliğin ilahi faziletleridir."
"Mutluluk kendi açıklamasını kendinde taşır."
"Çok defa acıda mutlulukta olduğundan daha fazla zevk vardır."
"Yüksek sosyete asla haklarından vazgeçmez, daima eğlenmek ister."
"Alman ressamların İsa'ya yakıştırdıkları suratta, insanoğlunun güçsüz tabiatı ile ilahî güçler arasında cereyan eden sürekli kavganın bin bir alameti göze çarpar."
"(Raoul Nathan) Yüzyılımızın kıskançlıktan kendini yiyip bitiren, emeksiz servet, yeteneksiz şeref, zahmetsizce başarı kazanmak isteyen çocuğudur; her köşede sıyırarak bir kemik bulacağı ve tekme yeme tehlikesinden uzakta, havlayıp etrafı korkutabileceği emin bir dam altı arıyordu; ...ihtiyaçlar onu, şartlar ileri sürmek yerine, sürülen şartları kabul etmeye götürdü."
"Edebiyatta dehanın işi, gerçeğin görünümleri arasından herkese mümkün geleni bulup çıkarmaktır."
"Kadınlar mucizeler yaratmayı, kayaları parçalamayı, tunç sağlamlığına görülen mizaçları eritmeyi sever.
...birden cezbeye kapılmış bir kadın, gözlerindeki o inanılmaz tatlılığı saklayamaz.
...aşkta tadılabilmeye yetecek kadar evlilikte pişmiş bir kadına rastlamış olmasından dolayı Raoul'u tebrik etti.
...Kadın düşüncesi inanılmaz bir esnekliktedir: Ağır bir şeyle vursanız, bükülür, ezilmiş görünür, ama belli bir zaman sonra doğrularak eski şeklini alır."
" Genç cumhuriyetler köhnemiş monarşilerden yaratılamaz. (Napoleon)"
"İhtiras ölüm gibidir, her şeye birden el koymak ister, hayatın bir adım ardından yürüdüğünü bilir."
"Hırsızlar, casuslar, âşıklar, diplomatlar ve nihayet bütün köleler, sadece onlar, bakışın derinliklerine inebilir, sevincini tadabilir. Yalnız onlar canlılık dolu bu ışıkta zekâyı, sevgiyi, ruh inceliğini, gazabı ve hainliği ayırt edebilirler."
"Belki güruh olarak insanlar tek tek olduklarından daha hırslı; bir hırsız tiyatro salonunda oturup, sahnede masumiyetin zaferini alkışlar, ama çıkarken de bir masumun mücevherini çalar. Toplum, ebesi olduğu kötülükleri susturmayı reddeder; ustaca aldatmacaları payelerle onurlandırır, ama kimsenin haberi olmadan yapılmış fedakârlıklara verilecek ödülü yoktur."
"Alışkanlık aşktan beter bir bağdır."
"Zamanında devrimci bir gazetenin düşünce yapısını belirlerken, hücumlarına baş hedef edindiği “ne pahasına olursa olsun barış” ilkesi, şimdi makalelerinin övgü malzemesi. Eskiden Saint-Simoncu ağızla öylesine saldırdığı miras hakkını şimdi aklının var gücüyle savunmakta. Bu mantık dışı tutum kaynağını ve gücünü, ülkemizde son zamanlarda yaşadığımız siyasî gelişmelerin, Raoul Nathan gibi bazı insanlarda yarattığı kaypaklıklarda bulur."
***
"...yüreklerindeki aşk ateşi çoktan küllenmiş, yüzleri soğuk ve dünyasından bezmiş bir ifadedeydi; suratların ekşidiği ve hüzünlendiği, duyarlılığın sadece sofralarda ve maddi rahatlıklarda kaldığı bir yaştaydılar.
...kendilerini işlerine güçlerine vermiş, günlük hayat gaileleri ile yıpranmış bu insanların bütün canlılığı yok olmuştu."
"Yol ortasında işlenen cinayetler bile, para için döndürülen dolapların yanında masum kalır; bu dolapları çevirenler, insanların yıkılıp mahvolmalarına son derece kayıtsızdırlar."
"Zekâ Tanrı gibi esirgeyendir; hayal büyüsünden kurtulma bir cerrahın kavrayıcılığını gerektirir, tecrübe ise bir annenin öngörülüğünü... Bu üç duygu evliliğin ilahi faziletleridir."
"Mutluluk kendi açıklamasını kendinde taşır."
"Çok defa acıda mutlulukta olduğundan daha fazla zevk vardır."
"Yüksek sosyete asla haklarından vazgeçmez, daima eğlenmek ister."
"Alman ressamların İsa'ya yakıştırdıkları suratta, insanoğlunun güçsüz tabiatı ile ilahî güçler arasında cereyan eden sürekli kavganın bin bir alameti göze çarpar."
"(Raoul Nathan) Yüzyılımızın kıskançlıktan kendini yiyip bitiren, emeksiz servet, yeteneksiz şeref, zahmetsizce başarı kazanmak isteyen çocuğudur; her köşede sıyırarak bir kemik bulacağı ve tekme yeme tehlikesinden uzakta, havlayıp etrafı korkutabileceği emin bir dam altı arıyordu; ...ihtiyaçlar onu, şartlar ileri sürmek yerine, sürülen şartları kabul etmeye götürdü."
"Edebiyatta dehanın işi, gerçeğin görünümleri arasından herkese mümkün geleni bulup çıkarmaktır."
"Kadınlar mucizeler yaratmayı, kayaları parçalamayı, tunç sağlamlığına görülen mizaçları eritmeyi sever.
...birden cezbeye kapılmış bir kadın, gözlerindeki o inanılmaz tatlılığı saklayamaz.
...aşkta tadılabilmeye yetecek kadar evlilikte pişmiş bir kadına rastlamış olmasından dolayı Raoul'u tebrik etti.
...Kadın düşüncesi inanılmaz bir esnekliktedir: Ağır bir şeyle vursanız, bükülür, ezilmiş görünür, ama belli bir zaman sonra doğrularak eski şeklini alır."
" Genç cumhuriyetler köhnemiş monarşilerden yaratılamaz. (Napoleon)"
"İhtiras ölüm gibidir, her şeye birden el koymak ister, hayatın bir adım ardından yürüdüğünü bilir."
"Hırsızlar, casuslar, âşıklar, diplomatlar ve nihayet bütün köleler, sadece onlar, bakışın derinliklerine inebilir, sevincini tadabilir. Yalnız onlar canlılık dolu bu ışıkta zekâyı, sevgiyi, ruh inceliğini, gazabı ve hainliği ayırt edebilirler."
"Belki güruh olarak insanlar tek tek olduklarından daha hırslı; bir hırsız tiyatro salonunda oturup, sahnede masumiyetin zaferini alkışlar, ama çıkarken de bir masumun mücevherini çalar. Toplum, ebesi olduğu kötülükleri susturmayı reddeder; ustaca aldatmacaları payelerle onurlandırır, ama kimsenin haberi olmadan yapılmış fedakârlıklara verilecek ödülü yoktur."
"Alışkanlık aşktan beter bir bağdır."
"Zamanında devrimci bir gazetenin düşünce yapısını belirlerken, hücumlarına baş hedef edindiği “ne pahasına olursa olsun barış” ilkesi, şimdi makalelerinin övgü malzemesi. Eskiden Saint-Simoncu ağızla öylesine saldırdığı miras hakkını şimdi aklının var gücüyle savunmakta. Bu mantık dışı tutum kaynağını ve gücünü, ülkemizde son zamanlarda yaşadığımız siyasî gelişmelerin, Raoul Nathan gibi bazı insanlarda yarattığı kaypaklıklarda bulur."
November 24, 2013
A Daughter of Eve is a novel by Honoré de Balzac appeared serialized in December 1838 and January 1839, published in volume at Souverain in August 1839 and then in the edition of Furne in 1842. It takes place in Études de moeurs: Scènes de la vie privée.
It is in this short novel Felix de Vandenesse, the future hero of The Lily of the Valley, made a first appearance.
It is also the first appearance of Ferdinand du Tillet, which is found in Cesar Birotteau. In A Daughter of Eve, Du Tillet married the daughter of the Earl of Granville, sister of the Countess Marie-Angélique Vandenesse.
The English version can be found at Project Gutenberg.
The original French text at La Bibliothèque électronique du Québec.
3* La maison du Chat-qui-pelote (1830)
3* Le bal de Sceaux (1830)
3* La Bourse (1830)
4* La Vendetta (1830)
3* Madame Firmiani (1832)
3* Une Double Famille (1830)
4* La paix du ménage (1830)
3* La Fausse Maîtresse (1842)
3* Étude de femme (1830)
4* Albert Savarus (1842)
4* Mémoires de Deux Jeunes Mariées (1841)
3* Le Colonel Chabert (1844, first published as La transaction, 1832)
4* Une fille d'Eve (1839)
It is in this short novel Felix de Vandenesse, the future hero of The Lily of the Valley, made a first appearance.
It is also the first appearance of Ferdinand du Tillet, which is found in Cesar Birotteau. In A Daughter of Eve, Du Tillet married the daughter of the Earl of Granville, sister of the Countess Marie-Angélique Vandenesse.
The English version can be found at Project Gutenberg.
The original French text at La Bibliothèque électronique du Québec.
3* La maison du Chat-qui-pelote (1830)
3* Le bal de Sceaux (1830)
3* La Bourse (1830)
4* La Vendetta (1830)
3* Madame Firmiani (1832)
3* Une Double Famille (1830)
4* La paix du ménage (1830)
3* La Fausse Maîtresse (1842)
3* Étude de femme (1830)
4* Albert Savarus (1842)
4* Mémoires de Deux Jeunes Mariées (1841)
3* Le Colonel Chabert (1844, first published as La transaction, 1832)
4* Une fille d'Eve (1839)
February 3, 2023
For all that Balzac chooses to write about shady topics, such as plotting marital assignations, economic shenanigans and other social and political machinations, these are just veneer for moral stories. Not that the author lived up to his own high standards, but at least he used his own hard-won lessons to provide rich material for his books.
Excellent story about a naïve young wife, brought up in a sheltered environment, maneuvered by bored and mischievous society matrons into an emotional affair with a ne'er-do-well author, who in turn is being manipulated by a financial and political men with their own agendas to ruin him.
It seems a little cliché at first, but quickly picks up speed and the ending is first rate!
Thank you again, Monsieur de Balzac!
Excellent story about a naïve young wife, brought up in a sheltered environment, maneuvered by bored and mischievous society matrons into an emotional affair with a ne'er-do-well author, who in turn is being manipulated by a financial and political men with their own agendas to ruin him.
It seems a little cliché at first, but quickly picks up speed and the ending is first rate!
Thank you again, Monsieur de Balzac!
June 29, 2021
Reading Balzac's La Comedie Humaine on my Kindle makes this whole series easier to read, not just for looking unknown items but in searching for characters because they are connected in either a large or small way to other stories. In Balzac's "A Daughter of Eve", the author builds on several stories where we have heard the names Rastignac and Madame de Nucingen from "The Study of a Woman". We hear about the painter Schinner from "The Purse". It seems Emilie de Fontaine's older husband dies and she marries again but it seems not to her once valued lover, "The Ball at Sceaux". The main of this story is the continuation of "A Second Home", Comte de Granville's daughters are the crux of this story. With my Kindle I can highlight a name and it will give me all the locations in this series, so having had so many names to remember, it is easy to forget.
Fast forward to an older Comte de Granville and his marrying his daughters off early so they can reduce the yoke of the unyielding harsh mother. He thinks they will be happy, because they can breathe easier and have freedom. Their mother did not let her sons infect her pure daughters, so when trouble starts for these young wives, they have no male support and must make their own way. Balzac throughout this series shows the changes in France after Napoleon and the changes in government and social order. The wives are both rich but in a different class distinction which makes their relationship impossible until trouble brews and the sisters cling.
I did not read this edition but a collection of his works, I liked this cover art the best. A brief synopsis below from my Delphi edition.
"This short novel was initially published in 1838 and introduces two married sisters, Marie-Angelique and Marie-Eugenie. As the novel opens, Angelique is weeping and Eugenie is trying to comfort her, but admits that her marriage is not a happy one and Angelique should not look to her for help. Balzac then explains their background, detailing their lives and the marriages they have had. "
I am thoroughly enjoying his stories and after a couple more, I will read a couple plays mentioned of Moliere which Balzac brings a comparison, "The School for Wives" and "The Learned Ladies".
💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢SPOILER ALERT💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢
What a fool Angelique to fall for Raoul Nathan and with such a good as Felix, who was very understanding. Good for Eugenie standing up to her unreasonable husband!
"and heard him give an account of an old love-affair. Another Study of woman. Delphine aided Marie de Vandenesse and Nathan to the extent of forty thousand francs during the checkered course of their intrigues. She remembered indeed having gone through similar experiences. A Daughter of Eve."
I thought Angelique a fool for loving Nathan when she has a wonderful husband though not perfect, much better than Eugenie's tyrant. I was happy Felix was very understanding. So Emily's older husband dies from The Ball Scene and marries again to Charles de Vandenesse. Connecting the stories, A Second Home. Comte de Granville's daughters are he subject. Granville's daughters have grown up with the mother's stern supervision and all he could do was marry them early. Eugenie the more giddy one was watched more and ends up unhappy with stern husband. Angelique has a husband not so reigning. The girls are very close but had had no relationships with their brothers due to their mother thinking them evil influence. Eugenie is married to the banker who did not receive any "dot" & he has mistress of 50 who controls him. He does not love her or his children. The sister who were very close but their husbands keep them apart. Angelique goes to see her sister with regards to money but Eugenie has no money to control and her husband treats her poorly. The banker looks to ruin the one Angelique loves. The ex lovers of Angelique's husband Felix look to make his wife have a lover and that would effect him. Angelique had a caring husband but he loved early on and he did not love so strong again. Raoul Nathan was a strange man that for not being so attractive was attracting attention which caught Angelique especially after her false friends told her the need for an affair. Her life gave her all happiness with Felix but seemed missing something. At a ball, Nathan having been told before about the countess falling for her begins to try to attract her so he gain politically. Her husband had been distracted by an old girlfriend who wanted Angelique to fall into Nathan's trap.Nathan has scheme but his female friend who he has been friendly with for over 10 years, Florine, he will not take from her but all from Angelique. Florine had a dealer come for her things and the men that came over thought she was in debt and gave her money. How can she fall for him? Angelique and Nathan become lovers and she gets him to promise not to see other women. He tells her how he has had to work and she loves him more. Nathan with help of du Tillet is in extreme debt to go to prison which is what du Tillet wants. Nathan is depressed and Angelique fears suicide and saves him. The sisters with the help of Madame Nucingin have the money paid to save Nathan from debt and jail with the help of their poor music instructor not aware of the note he was signing. Eugenie sees Felix to tell him all worried that after helping Nathan, Angelique would then do something imprudent that would ruin her in following this lover. Felix was kind and looked into the affair with clearing the bill with Madame Nucingin and being a friend to her and helping her husband if she keeps silent. She has learned from her lover, Rastingnic and Felix talks to both. He then slowly mentions a costume ball to his wife and brings up Nathan and his mistress Florine. Angelique then sees the start of his dishonesty especially after seeing Florine and in getting the letters from her for a price. Florine did not believe about Nathan until the letters are shown. Felix and Angelique have an understanding and they travel together and are closer. Eugenie in helping her sister helped herself in not being a slave to her husband but a good wife.
Fast forward to an older Comte de Granville and his marrying his daughters off early so they can reduce the yoke of the unyielding harsh mother. He thinks they will be happy, because they can breathe easier and have freedom. Their mother did not let her sons infect her pure daughters, so when trouble starts for these young wives, they have no male support and must make their own way. Balzac throughout this series shows the changes in France after Napoleon and the changes in government and social order. The wives are both rich but in a different class distinction which makes their relationship impossible until trouble brews and the sisters cling.
I did not read this edition but a collection of his works, I liked this cover art the best. A brief synopsis below from my Delphi edition.
"This short novel was initially published in 1838 and introduces two married sisters, Marie-Angelique and Marie-Eugenie. As the novel opens, Angelique is weeping and Eugenie is trying to comfort her, but admits that her marriage is not a happy one and Angelique should not look to her for help. Balzac then explains their background, detailing their lives and the marriages they have had. "
I am thoroughly enjoying his stories and after a couple more, I will read a couple plays mentioned of Moliere which Balzac brings a comparison, "The School for Wives" and "The Learned Ladies".
💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢SPOILER ALERT💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢
What a fool Angelique to fall for Raoul Nathan and with such a good as Felix, who was very understanding. Good for Eugenie standing up to her unreasonable husband!
"and heard him give an account of an old love-affair. Another Study of woman. Delphine aided Marie de Vandenesse and Nathan to the extent of forty thousand francs during the checkered course of their intrigues. She remembered indeed having gone through similar experiences. A Daughter of Eve."
I thought Angelique a fool for loving Nathan when she has a wonderful husband though not perfect, much better than Eugenie's tyrant. I was happy Felix was very understanding. So Emily's older husband dies from The Ball Scene and marries again to Charles de Vandenesse. Connecting the stories, A Second Home. Comte de Granville's daughters are he subject. Granville's daughters have grown up with the mother's stern supervision and all he could do was marry them early. Eugenie the more giddy one was watched more and ends up unhappy with stern husband. Angelique has a husband not so reigning. The girls are very close but had had no relationships with their brothers due to their mother thinking them evil influence. Eugenie is married to the banker who did not receive any "dot" & he has mistress of 50 who controls him. He does not love her or his children. The sister who were very close but their husbands keep them apart. Angelique goes to see her sister with regards to money but Eugenie has no money to control and her husband treats her poorly. The banker looks to ruin the one Angelique loves. The ex lovers of Angelique's husband Felix look to make his wife have a lover and that would effect him. Angelique had a caring husband but he loved early on and he did not love so strong again. Raoul Nathan was a strange man that for not being so attractive was attracting attention which caught Angelique especially after her false friends told her the need for an affair. Her life gave her all happiness with Felix but seemed missing something. At a ball, Nathan having been told before about the countess falling for her begins to try to attract her so he gain politically. Her husband had been distracted by an old girlfriend who wanted Angelique to fall into Nathan's trap.Nathan has scheme but his female friend who he has been friendly with for over 10 years, Florine, he will not take from her but all from Angelique. Florine had a dealer come for her things and the men that came over thought she was in debt and gave her money. How can she fall for him? Angelique and Nathan become lovers and she gets him to promise not to see other women. He tells her how he has had to work and she loves him more. Nathan with help of du Tillet is in extreme debt to go to prison which is what du Tillet wants. Nathan is depressed and Angelique fears suicide and saves him. The sisters with the help of Madame Nucingin have the money paid to save Nathan from debt and jail with the help of their poor music instructor not aware of the note he was signing. Eugenie sees Felix to tell him all worried that after helping Nathan, Angelique would then do something imprudent that would ruin her in following this lover. Felix was kind and looked into the affair with clearing the bill with Madame Nucingin and being a friend to her and helping her husband if she keeps silent. She has learned from her lover, Rastingnic and Felix talks to both. He then slowly mentions a costume ball to his wife and brings up Nathan and his mistress Florine. Angelique then sees the start of his dishonesty especially after seeing Florine and in getting the letters from her for a price. Florine did not believe about Nathan until the letters are shown. Felix and Angelique have an understanding and they travel together and are closer. Eugenie in helping her sister helped herself in not being a slave to her husband but a good wife.
October 24, 2023
Μια κόρη της Εύας. Ονορέ Ντε Μπαλζάκ.
"Καθισμένος στην πλατεία ο κλέφτης χειροκροτεί όταν θριαμβεύει η αθωότητα, θα της πάρει, ωστόσο, βγαίνοντας τα κοσμήματα".
Ο Μπαλζάκ είναι ο μόνος συγγραφέας ή έστω από τους λίγους, που μπορεί να υπαινίσσεται και να ομολογεί ξεκάθαρα, να εξυψώνει και να εξεφτελίζει, να αποθεώνει και να υποτιμά στο ίδιο έργο, στις ίδιες συνθήκες, τους ήρωές του. Γιατί; Γιατί απλά είναι ο Μπαλζάκ. Αυτός ο δαίμονας της λογοτεχνίας, ο ζωγράφος της πένας, ο σμιλευτής του λόγου, διαθέτει ένα εκφραστικό μεγαλείο μαζί με το οποίο δίνει μάχη για να βγει κάθε φορά κερδισμένος ο αναγνώστης, που θα έχει τη τύχη να διαβάσει κάποια δημιουργία του. Μια παράγραφος της χειρότερης στιγμής του Μπαλζάκ έχει τη δύναμη να ξυπνήσει ακόμα και την πιο ληθαργική συνείδηση και να προκαλέσει την αναγνωστική απόλαυση.
Ο Μπαλζάκ μπορεί να υπονομεύει αλλά δεν αυτοϋπονομεύεται ακόμα κι όταν χρησιμοποιεί τον εαυτό του στα έργα του εκφράζοντας μέσω αυτού τις πιο αμφιλεγόμενες διαθέσεις και ιδιαιτερότητες, γιατί έχει τη βαθιά γνώση τους και έτσι μπορεί να τις παραθέτει όχι με την απάθεια του ασυνείδητου αλλά με τη μαεστρία του πνευματώδους, που μπορεί να μετατρέπει σε προτέρημα το ελάττωμα της ιδιοσυγκρασίας του με το μαγικό ραβδάκι της τέχνης του λόγου, στην προκειμένη περίπτωση. Έτσι διεκδικεί το δικαίωμα να αναλίσκει χωρίς να αυτοαναλίσκεται στην μικροπρέπεια του εντυπωσιασμού, γιατί ακόμα κι όταν κομπάζει τού το συγχωρείς με όλη σου τη νόηση και την καρδιά παραταγμένες σύμφωνα με τις επιταγές του κι αυτό γίνεται ενστικτωδώς αναγνωρίζοντας πως τούτος ο καλλιτέχνης έχει παιδέψει τη γλώσσα και έχει παιδευτεί από αυτήν χωρίς να καταθέσει τα όπλα με την επιμονή του τρελού και τον ασκητισμό του βαθιά θρησκευόμενου, και έχει καταφέρει να την τιθασεύσει και να της επιβληθεί. Και σε αυτή του τη δημιουργία ο κοινωνικός σχολιασμός της αριστοκρατίας βρίσκεται στο κέντρο της αφηγησής του, όχημά της ο έρωτας και φυσικά οι δραματικές εξελίξεις, πιστές σύντροφοι πάντα της θερμόαιαμης γαλλικής του διοσυγκρασίας. Σχολιάζοντας με την καλλιεργημένη του οξυδέρκεια την κοινωνία σε κάνει να βλέπεις πως απλά δεν πέρασε ούτε μια μέρα από την εποχή του μέχρι τώρα.
Οι δ��άλογοι μπορούν να απομονωθούν σε ειδικό βιβλιαράκι περί της ευφυΐας της ανθρώπινης ματαιοδοξίας, της ιδιοτέλειας και κακεντρέχειας, του ξελογιάσματος και του αισθησιασμού, αλλά και της ευφυΐας, της εκτίμησης και της ανιδιοτέλειας. Οι περιγραφές του ανενδοίαστα αποδίδονται σε συλλήψεις ενός πνεύματος σε υπερδιέγερση και οι παρατηρήσεις του είναι τόσο ρεαλιστικές και βαθιά φιλοσοφικές, που αφήνουν απασχολημένη την σκέψη σου για καιρό. Από ποιον άλλον, αν όχι απ'τον Μπαλζάκ, θα διαβάσετε τις μεγαλύτερες και ίσως πιο ντροπιαστικές αλήθειες για τον άνθρωπο και το κοινωνικό του οικοδόμημα;
"Καθισμένος στην πλατεία ο κλέφτης χειροκροτεί όταν θριαμβεύει η αθωότητα, θα της πάρει, ωστόσο, βγαίνοντας τα κοσμήματα".
Ο Μπαλζάκ είναι ο μόνος συγγραφέας ή έστω από τους λίγους, που μπορεί να υπαινίσσεται και να ομολογεί ξεκάθαρα, να εξυψώνει και να εξεφτελίζει, να αποθεώνει και να υποτιμά στο ίδιο έργο, στις ίδιες συνθήκες, τους ήρωές του. Γιατί; Γιατί απλά είναι ο Μπαλζάκ. Αυτός ο δαίμονας της λογοτεχνίας, ο ζωγράφος της πένας, ο σμιλευτής του λόγου, διαθέτει ένα εκφραστικό μεγαλείο μαζί με το οποίο δίνει μάχη για να βγει κάθε φορά κερδισμένος ο αναγνώστης, που θα έχει τη τύχη να διαβάσει κάποια δημιουργία του. Μια παράγραφος της χειρότερης στιγμής του Μπαλζάκ έχει τη δύναμη να ξυπνήσει ακόμα και την πιο ληθαργική συνείδηση και να προκαλέσει την αναγνωστική απόλαυση.
Ο Μπαλζάκ μπορεί να υπονομεύει αλλά δεν αυτοϋπονομεύεται ακόμα κι όταν χρησιμοποιεί τον εαυτό του στα έργα του εκφράζοντας μέσω αυτού τις πιο αμφιλεγόμενες διαθέσεις και ιδιαιτερότητες, γιατί έχει τη βαθιά γνώση τους και έτσι μπορεί να τις παραθέτει όχι με την απάθεια του ασυνείδητου αλλά με τη μαεστρία του πνευματώδους, που μπορεί να μετατρέπει σε προτέρημα το ελάττωμα της ιδιοσυγκρασίας του με το μαγικό ραβδάκι της τέχνης του λόγου, στην προκειμένη περίπτωση. Έτσι διεκδικεί το δικαίωμα να αναλίσκει χωρίς να αυτοαναλίσκεται στην μικροπρέπεια του εντυπωσιασμού, γιατί ακόμα κι όταν κομπάζει τού το συγχωρείς με όλη σου τη νόηση και την καρδιά παραταγμένες σύμφωνα με τις επιταγές του κι αυτό γίνεται ενστικτωδώς αναγνωρίζοντας πως τούτος ο καλλιτέχνης έχει παιδέψει τη γλώσσα και έχει παιδευτεί από αυτήν χωρίς να καταθέσει τα όπλα με την επιμονή του τρελού και τον ασκητισμό του βαθιά θρησκευόμενου, και έχει καταφέρει να την τιθασεύσει και να της επιβληθεί. Και σε αυτή του τη δημιουργία ο κοινωνικός σχολιασμός της αριστοκρατίας βρίσκεται στο κέντρο της αφηγησής του, όχημά της ο έρωτας και φυσικά οι δραματικές εξελίξεις, πιστές σύντροφοι πάντα της θερμόαιαμης γαλλικής του διοσυγκρασίας. Σχολιάζοντας με την καλλιεργημένη του οξυδέρκεια την κοινωνία σε κάνει να βλέπεις πως απλά δεν πέρασε ούτε μια μέρα από την εποχή του μέχρι τώρα.
Οι δ��άλογοι μπορούν να απομονωθούν σε ειδικό βιβλιαράκι περί της ευφυΐας της ανθρώπινης ματαιοδοξίας, της ιδιοτέλειας και κακεντρέχειας, του ξελογιάσματος και του αισθησιασμού, αλλά και της ευφυΐας, της εκτίμησης και της ανιδιοτέλειας. Οι περιγραφές του ανενδοίαστα αποδίδονται σε συλλήψεις ενός πνεύματος σε υπερδιέγερση και οι παρατηρήσεις του είναι τόσο ρεαλιστικές και βαθιά φιλοσοφικές, που αφήνουν απασχολημένη την σκέψη σου για καιρό. Από ποιον άλλον, αν όχι απ'τον Μπαλζάκ, θα διαβάσετε τις μεγαλύτερες και ίσως πιο ντροπιαστικές αλήθειες για τον άνθρωπο και το κοινωνικό του οικοδόμημα;
May 29, 2014
once again a young woman comes out looking like a fool, a Jew comes out looking like a knave, and the hero is a brilliant wise saintly noble aristocrat. Hmmph!
July 18, 2019
Askerlik uzun da olsa bedelli de olsa yıpratıcı bir süreç, neyse ki akşam 10'dan sonra ya da hafta sonları kitaplarıma kavuşabildiğim zamanlarım oldu, böylelikle yorumlar da birikti.
Kitap, Fransa'nın çok da uzak sayılmayacak tarihine dokundurmalar yapıyor. Günümüzde de bolca olan devrin adamlarına güzelce ayar veriyor. Ayrıca aileyi ve toplumları derinden sarsan bireyciliğe de dikkat çekiyor. O günden bu tespit gerçekten çarpıcı.
"Erkek denen mahluk işte böyledir: Sen onun için cehennem azapları çek, o üstüne basıp geçsin."
Kitap, Fransa'nın çok da uzak sayılmayacak tarihine dokundurmalar yapıyor. Günümüzde de bolca olan devrin adamlarına güzelce ayar veriyor. Ayrıca aileyi ve toplumları derinden sarsan bireyciliğe de dikkat çekiyor. O günden bu tespit gerçekten çarpıcı.
"Erkek denen mahluk işte böyledir: Sen onun için cehennem azapları çek, o üstüne basıp geçsin."
October 24, 2018
A beautiful tale of character
A beautifully told tale of characters and motivations in relationships. Reading this is like watching a graceful and elegant play. It even has a happy ending.
A beautifully told tale of characters and motivations in relationships. Reading this is like watching a graceful and elegant play. It even has a happy ending.
August 17, 2016
An excellent story; Balzac the master of societal intrigue.
October 11, 2023
UNE FILLE D'EVE-HONORÉ DE BALZAC
✒️"Ne baisse pas la tête, ne t’humilie point : tu as été la dupe des sentiments les plus beaux, tu as coqueté avec la poésie et non avec un homme."
💋Ne znam zašto se ovo delo zove Evina kći kad govori o muškarcima koliko i o ženama.
💋Roman je studija buržoazije,nasuprot svetu umetnika.
💋Strogo vaspitavane kćeri,koje se udaju potpuno neiskusne i nespremne za salonski život koji ih čeka,lako podležu iskušenjima.
💋Umetnici koji se bore za opstanak ne biraju sredstva,a najlakše je zavesti sirotu malu bogatašicu🙄
💋Roman sadrži odlična zapažanja na temu ambicije,pohlepe,spletki,loših savetnika i savetnica.
💋A tu je i Florine,izvanredan lik glumice i žene koja se bori za sebe i svoje.
💋Kraj je ipak prilično bled i predvidiv,što mi je dosta pokvarilo utisak.
#7sensesofabook #bookstagram #readingaddict #literature #knjige #balzac
✒️"Ne baisse pas la tête, ne t’humilie point : tu as été la dupe des sentiments les plus beaux, tu as coqueté avec la poésie et non avec un homme."
💋Ne znam zašto se ovo delo zove Evina kći kad govori o muškarcima koliko i o ženama.
💋Roman je studija buržoazije,nasuprot svetu umetnika.
💋Strogo vaspitavane kćeri,koje se udaju potpuno neiskusne i nespremne za salonski život koji ih čeka,lako podležu iskušenjima.
💋Umetnici koji se bore za opstanak ne biraju sredstva,a najlakše je zavesti sirotu malu bogatašicu🙄
💋Roman sadrži odlična zapažanja na temu ambicije,pohlepe,spletki,loših savetnika i savetnica.
💋A tu je i Florine,izvanredan lik glumice i žene koja se bori za sebe i svoje.
💋Kraj je ipak prilično bled i predvidiv,što mi je dosta pokvarilo utisak.
#7sensesofabook #bookstagram #readingaddict #literature #knjige #balzac
June 1, 2025
Où nous retrouvons la mère de la nouvelle Une double famille. Nous suivrons ses deux filles, Marie-Angélique et Marie-Eugénie.
Marie-Angélique, l’aînée, est la fameuse Eve, mariée au comte Felix de Vandenesse qui lui enseigne les usages du monde. Elevée par une bigote, Marie ne connait rien aux usages du monde. Ainsi tombe-t-elle amoureuse de Raoul Nathan, un poète et auteur de théâtre à succès, qui est l’amant de Florine, une actrice (mais ça, Marie ne le sait pas).
Raoul décide de créer un journal (c’est à la mode) avec M du Tillet (marié à Marie-Eugénie). Mais M du Tillet est un roublard qui ne souhaite pas que Raoul obtienne un poste haut-placé à sa place et fait tout pour le ruiner.
C’est sans compter sur Felix qui voit claire dans ce jeu de pouvoir, sauve Raoul de la banqueroute et reconquiert sa femme.
Les explications sur les montages financiers et autres lettres de créances m’ont rapidement perdu, de même que les longues descriptions des intérieurs et des physionomies.
Mais j’ai voulu savoir comment la si amoureuse et naïve Marie allait découvrir le pot-aux-roses.
Encore une histoire d’amour et d’amant, cette fois sur fond de presse en plein essor et du Gouvernement Soult de 1834.
https://www.alexmotamots.fr/la-comedi...
November 8, 2018
I found this book to be an interesting study of French bourgeois society and I appreciated the attention to detail that Balzac applies to both the portrayal of his characters and the settings that the characters inhabit.
I found it especially interesting and revealing in the way in which education was perceived differently, depending on whether children were male or female, and the lack of expectation for females other than marriage which was often the only way that women could achieve some form of independence.
The story centres around two daughters whose upbringing and education is obsessively controlled by one parent only, the mother, who has `set ideas` of the way in which daughters should `be prepared ` for their only role in society, hopefully, as wives to rich and influential men. Consequently neither daughter has any idea or expectation of society or relationships beyond their own immediate establishment, except for a private tutor who teaches them music and is a welcome relief from their tedious lifestyle.
The novel continues to explore the way in which the two daughters adapt to their new found independence in their new roles as married women after their very controlled and repressive upbringing at home, and the degree to which French bourgeois society influences them.
I found it especially interesting and revealing in the way in which education was perceived differently, depending on whether children were male or female, and the lack of expectation for females other than marriage which was often the only way that women could achieve some form of independence.
The story centres around two daughters whose upbringing and education is obsessively controlled by one parent only, the mother, who has `set ideas` of the way in which daughters should `be prepared ` for their only role in society, hopefully, as wives to rich and influential men. Consequently neither daughter has any idea or expectation of society or relationships beyond their own immediate establishment, except for a private tutor who teaches them music and is a welcome relief from their tedious lifestyle.
The novel continues to explore the way in which the two daughters adapt to their new found independence in their new roles as married women after their very controlled and repressive upbringing at home, and the degree to which French bourgeois society influences them.
May 9, 2021
This novel is probably of interest primarily to scholars of Balzac and 19th century French literature, though of course it has the intense energy of all of Balzac's writing. Set in the 1830s, it has a lot to say about the political and social instability of that time in French history. The plot involves a rather confusing financial manipulation - confusing because only a historian of French law and institutions could completely understand the in and outs of letters of credit and other legal concepts that play a role in the plot. It's also about the temptations of romanticism and the wisdom of practical men. The romantic male anti-hero is a caricature of a new type of flashy and talented but irresponsible and shallow man, whose presence is tolerated in high society, what Balzac calls "le monde" - probably a sign of its decline. That character, Raoul Nathan, is the son of a Jewish pawnbroker and a Catholic mother, whose father died when he was young, and who was brought up Catholic. For readers with Jewish interests, this is probably important, though Balzac doesn't make anything much of it, and anti-Semitism doesn't seem to influence people's attitude toward him.
December 24, 2020
Kitapta öykü ve olay akışı olarak tatmin edildiğimi söyleyemeyeceğim. Kitapta eski bir teknik olarak aralarda yazarın düşüncelerini, tanımalarını çok beğendim. O kadar müthiş ve can alıcıydı. Zaten kitabı sonuna kadar okumamın tek nedeni olay akışı haricinde Olan o mükemmel edebiyat. Onun dışında öykünün zayıflığıyla okumayı bayağı zorlu hale geliyor. Kısacık kitap bitmek bilmiyorum. Bin bilmem ne kadar yıllık kitabı eminim benim gördüğümden daha fazlasını içeriyordur. Büyük bir kısmını kaçırdığım bu yüzden bana akıcılıktan çok uzak geldiğini söylemek zorundayım.
June 26, 2017
In questo racconto Balzac usa il suo tipico stile. Lunghe descrizioni ed un linguaggio non immediato, per immergerci nella quotidianità della Francia post Napoleonica.
La dettagliata ambientazione è forse sia il punto di forza che quello più debole del racconto. Lo stile adottato non fluisce rapido e non è facile immedesimarsi con le situazioni descritte. Allo stesso tempo lo spaccato dell'epoca risulta interessante e a tratti appassionante.
La dettagliata ambientazione è forse sia il punto di forza che quello più debole del racconto. Lo stile adottato non fluisce rapido e non è facile immedesimarsi con le situazioni descritte. Allo stesso tempo lo spaccato dell'epoca risulta interessante e a tratti appassionante.
July 16, 2017
One of the most interesting short novels of the Comédie humaine, this is the story of two girls raised by a religious mother, who marry as soon as possible to escape. One marries a rich banker, who is corrupt and tyrannical; the other marries a count. The story is largely about the count's wife and her love affair with a political journalist. The novel depicts the political situation in the first years after the July Revolution (i.e. under Louis-Philippe).
December 25, 2020
This novella has everything I love about Balzac, and none of the stuff I don't. I was delighted to see how Felix matured, and to see those nasty old duchesses get their plans thwarted. Got to love Florine, as well.
May 11, 2021
The tale of an innocent, strictly raised countess falling for a tumultuous love.
Balzac being Balzac, and extra point for featuring Félix de Vandeness (main character of "Le lys dans la vallée").
A must read.
Balzac being Balzac, and extra point for featuring Félix de Vandeness (main character of "Le lys dans la vallée").
A must read.
February 2, 2011
Some of this book is nice and sweet and the other half is random and cool. It reminds me of myself because sometimes she walks home.SHe has a few sisters and ya..but Im still reading it!
September 27, 2013
Rather lagging and not as interesting as "The Petty Troubles of Married Lives"
November 29, 2013
I am trying to read one Balzac book a month as I have a set of 50. I have said that to myself many times over the years and always fail to do it. Well written book but a bit of a bore.
September 25, 2016
25º dia do Mês da leitura mágica.
25ª leitura concluída.
;)
25ª leitura concluída.
;)
April 14, 2019
One of the best examples of Balzac's genius. Highly recommended delightful read.
September 5, 2014
This isn't a review, it's a summary so that I can remember the complicated plot.
The dedication is to the Comtesse Blignini, who Balzac seems to have met (and flirted with?) when travelling in Milan but she has now retired to a convent. She has a daughter, Eugenie, after whom the central character in this story is named. But the Eugenie of the story is denied happiness by a 'rigid mother'...
Chapter 1: The Two Maries
In this chapter, Balzac introduces two sisters: Madame Felix de Vandenesse and Madame du Tillet, who are Marie-Angelique and Marie-Eugenie respectively. Angelique is weeping and Eugenie is trying to comfort her, but admits that her marriage is not a happy one and Angelique should not look to her for help.
Balzac then explains their background. They are sweet girls, and very innocent, because their mother, the Comtesse de Granville is a religious fanatic. Prior to their marriage they had never been into society nor been to the theatre or a ball. Their father deplores his wife's excesses but has largely abandoned the girls to their mother because he thinks there is no middle course with daughters: either they are educated, flighty, and have no religion or they are ignorant and innocent. So they have a limited education, and have read very little, for example, the very popular Fenelon's Telemaque (Adventures of Telemachus, 1699, see http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/kan...) is thought dangerous for the girls to read. (This story of a trip to the Underworld was a thinly veiled attack on absolute monarchy and Louis XIV banned Fenelon because of it.).
His sons, on the other hand, get a normal education, go to balls and the theatre and become lawyers. They live with their father in a separate part of the house (Balzac calls this separation within the family 'the great evil of individualism.') His sole intervention on behalf of the girls is to insist on them having a music teacher, Schmucke, an elderly eccentric who is very poor. The girls love Schmucke dearly.
These two girls marry young to escape their mother's strictures. Balzac comments that many men like to marry innocent girls like this so that they can mould and manipulate them.
Chapter 2: A Confidence Between Sisters
Angelique is weeping because she loves her husband and fears she may have lost him. Eugenie is trying to comfort her, but admits that her marriage is not a happy one and Angelique should not look to her for help.
Eugenie has married an ambitious banker, but did so without a dowry (called a 'dot') and he despises her for it. Eugenie (du Tillet)is unhappy because she is a mere ornament to her husband, and she must obey him in everything. She is rich - 'covered in diamonds when I go to court, I wear the richest jewels in society but I have not one farthing I can use' i.e. she has no money of her own and no choice about what to spend it on. He's 'as hard and polished as that piece of marble' only interested in 'what flatters his vanity and proclaims his wealth'.
Angelique has married an aristocrat who never imagined that the revolution would change society so much that he could have a banker as a brother-in-law. The 'bridle of piety' weighs less heavily on Angelique: she goes into society and is a great success, though some of the other women are very jealous of her.
These two men live in worlds at enmity with each other because one has benefited by the revolution and the other is in favour of the restoration.
Du Tillet is a bad man. He is an associate of Baron de Nucingen and sometimes (because he thinks her opinion doesn't matter) Eugenie sits in on their plots and plans to ruin other people so that over time Du Tillet will become 'noble'. Du Tillet could easily lend Angelique 40,000 francs but she dare not ask him – and when he comes in, she refuses his money because she does not want to be in his power. . So Eugenie is not able to help Angelique with the money she needs.
After Angelique leaves, Du Tillet reveals that he knows what she wants the money for: to save her lover from the debtor's prison. Eugenie doesn't believe it but Du Tillet cynically replies that girls brought up in piety like her make bad wives because they want to be happy and never are within marriage. He warns Eugenie not to interfere because it's in his interest to see the man go to prison, but he decides to have her watched because he does not trust her.
Chapter 3: The History of a Fortunate Woman
Balzac introduces Felix de Vandenesse as a man of about 30 who has tired of bachelor life and chose Angelique because he wanted a wife he could mould – to mix a paternal role with a conjugal one. He is a decent husband who has tried to make his wife happy.
But after four years she, having initially been very happy, became dissatisfied. Vandenesse, by satisfying every need, had suppressed desire – for if all needs are met then no desire exists and the person suffers. (Balzac puts up a not very convincing argument here that this is why women apply the arts of coquetry and invent quarrels in marriage.) Angelique felt the monotony of her marriage as Felix deliberately maintained 'temperate regions of conjugal affection' and was in need of a bit of passion! He takes her into society when salons were reopened after the events of 1830 and warns her against the jealousy of other women. Her pretended friends encourage her to take a lover...
Chapter 4: A Celebrated Man
At the salon of Comtesse de Montcornet, Angelique meets the celebrated author Raoul Nathan. Not particularly handsome and rather scruffy in a Byronesque kind of way, he is lionised by Emile Blondet and is rather conceited though the success of his novels and plays is mixed. Not a man of principle his politics blow with the prevailing winds and at the moment he is a republican hoping for preferment. He dazzles Angelique and is flattered when the other women tell him he has made such a conquest. He and his friends mock her behind her back once she has left. (Nathan already has a mistress, an actress called Florine).
At breakfast the next day Angelique asks her husband about Nathan but doesn't take any notice of his warnings about him. (This, Balzac says, is because women have 'elastic' minds which rebound after being given information they don't like.)
At a subsequent ball, Nathan decides that Angelique's influence could be useful to him and he flirts with her. Felix isn't happy about this...
Chapter 5: Florine
This chapter introduces the actress Florine who has supported Nathan by sharing her home with him, lending him money, paying for things he needs – and of course he is using her. She works long hours to get herself out of poverty while he lazes about and sneers about her behind her back. He helps only by writing favourable reviews for publicity for her.
She is as loyal as she can be given her circumstances but she has to supplement her income through prostitution. (She isn't an elegant courtesan.)
It is through Florine that Nathan learns that there is a possible vacancy for a government position and on Blondet's advice he writes the sort of articles in his new newspaper journal that he thinks will lead to preferment. He decides to borrow money from a usurer to finance this paper because he is so certain he will be elected and will be able to pay it back – Florine sells everything she has to try to prevent him from doing this and is feted for it.
Chapter 6 Romantic Love
At Lady Dudley's ball, Nathan is quizzed by Madame d'Espard who (along with Lady Dudley and Madame Manerville) is encouraging the scandal behind the scenes but defending Angelique's honour in public. Nathan lets her think they are madly in love, and she tries to get him to write a play about it. She is a bit alarmed when Lady Dudley reveals his carefully concealed background: a bankrupt Jewish father and a Catholic mother who brought him up Christian; she feels she should not receive a man like that in her house.
Angelique and Nathan meet up again at Madame D'Espard's salon the following week He takes umbrage at some light-hearted remarks and has to be reminded of his manners by Blondet. He chafes at this, dithers about whether to keep going to these salons but ends up returning anyway. Rastignac and Marsay are there and they discuss politics...Nathan is losing a lot of precious work time by attending these social functions; society women – who act as if it were still the 18th century when things were settled - have no idea how much work has to be done by men who need to make a living. He is burning the midnight oil in order to get the paper out on time (and wearing himself out trying to ride the tides of political change).
Nathan arranges to meet Angelique daily in the seclusion of the Bois but stands her up three times because he wants to impress her by arriving in a cabriolet and charge the cost of it to the paper. His partners (du Tillet and Massol) readily agree (because they want to bankrupt him). When he does turn up to meet her with the air of a man at leisure, he is a bit peeved that she doesn't understand the 'enormous costs of his little attentions' . When he reveals to her that he is a harried man, rushing from the paper, evading his creditors, and attending society functions he is rewarded with a kiss.
Chapter 7: Suicide
Vandenesse takes Angelique to the countryside as usual, where she exchanges letters with Nathan. Meanwhile he is under siege from his erstwhile friends. His newspaper staff hate him, and Florine - who would have realised that his friends are really his enemies - is away. Massol the lawyer and Du Tillet the banker have let him have full control in order to let him hang himself. (Du Tillet uses the paper only for his stock-gambling). Nathan lords it over everyone, believing that he is managing them, but he's naïve, as most men of imagination are.
He is angling for a position as 'chair on the Board of Education and a place in the Council of State' and and the office of Master of Petitions – and they have promised it to him if his editorial stance complies with their purposes. Politically, Nathan is manipulated by Nucingen and Rastignac, and by du Tillet and Blondet, to give ostentatious support to the "doctrinaires" of their new and ephemeral cabinet. To appear independent he refuses money for the paper from other sources and so has to take it from Du Tillet instead.
He is presented to the de Nucingens where the Baroness receives him for Angelique's sake – but when she tries to talk to him about her he puts her off by talking about Florine instead, claiming to be devoted to her.
Florine returns to Paris but is persuaded by Nathan that all is well and uses the money she's earned to splash out on new furnishings. He is attentive to her and she has no idea that he is flirting with Angelique: he leaves a portfolio of their correspondence lying about and it never occurs to her not to trust him. His debts fall due but Du Tillet renews them for a short period – all seems to be going well.
But there are political ructions in Paris, (Rastignac loses his position after the death of de Marsay) and when Angelique (who has returned to Paris and resumed contact with Nathan) asks Felix about their impact, he warns that Nathan will ruin his business if he 'sits on the fence' editorially. He still suspects nothing.
And then in December the debts fall due again and this time Du Tillet demands payment. Nathan has to go to a usurer to get the money and never suspects that Du Tillet has made this easy for him for his own purposes. He pays back Du Tillet, but then when the debt to the usurer falls due, the banker makes the usurer instigate court proceedings because he doesn't want Nathan to be a rival in the electoral college – and Nathan can't stand for election if he's bankrupt. Florine can't help him because her spending has put her in debt too. Entrapped, he sees everything crumbling around him, and he thinks there is no alternative but suicide (which is very fashionable in Paris at the time).
He makes a melodramatic farewell to Angelique who then realises something is badly wrong. She pursues him to his rooms, has the door broken down and finds him almost suffocated with the smoke from a pan of charcoal. She has him removed to a hotel and then seeks help from her sister Eugenie.
Chapter 8: A Lover Saved and Lost
Du Tillet realises that the rumours about Angelique and Nathan are true and takes steps to find out what's going on. He learns where Nathan is but it takes him three days. This buys Nathan a little time.
Meanwhile Angelique has to find the money to help him. Felix asks what she is distressed about but she is evasive, alluding to 'that matter at her sister's' (without explaining that she had gone to Eugenie to borrow money). Felix warns her that Eugenie's husband is a bad man and that it's a pity he's a member of their extended family.
At the opera Eugenie reveals that she has been able to get the money: the Baroness de Nucingen will lend it on condition that someone else guarantees it. Du Tillet is furious when Nathan seems cheered, he knows the women are behind it.
Heedless of the risk to their old music-master Angelique gets Schmuck to guarantee the 40000 francs. She promises to visit again with her sister – but we know she won't because his poverty is too extreme. She rushes back to the baroness, and gets the money.
It is only afterwards that the baroness realises she has frustrated her own husband's plans (because he hadn't told her anything about them). Rastignac visits and she tells him about it as a bit of gossip, and he explains what's going on and that she has interfered with her husband's chances of preferment. She decides to keep quiet about this.
When Du Tillet finds out that the debt is paid he is furious but for the first time Eugenie stands up to him and recognises that it is her sister's problems which have finally given her the courage to do this. She flees to her sister's.
Chapter 9: A Husband's Triumph
Eugenie fears that Angelique may now flee with Nathan, and confesses the whole story to Felix. He is tolerant and understanding, and wants Angelique to give up Nathan of her own free will . He pays back the baroness, and – promising his support for Nucingen to get the position he wants, persuades her to tell him everything she knows. He uses the same promise to get Rastignac to tell him about Florine.
Felix is then able to manipulate a conversation in which Nathan's relationship with Florine is revealed to Angelique, and shows her the notes that were Schmucke's guarantees and burns them, She confesses everything, including that they have been writing letters to each other. He makes a long paternal speech and she is suitably contrite. Nathan's letters to her are burnt, but how to retrieve hers to him? They go to Florine.
Florine doesn't believe Nathan has betrayed her, and in order to get her to give up Nathan's letters there is an elaborate scene in which the characters go to a masked ball where Florine sees Nathan flirting with Angelique. Furious, she takes Felix and the still-masked Angelique back to her house and for a payment of 50000 francs surrenders the letters so that they can be destroyed and Angelique's reputation will be safe.
Nathan, rescued from ruin tries to go about in society again but Angelique spurns him and his 'friends' make cynical remarks about life and love. He only gets five votes at the election and Du Tillet is elected instead. By the time Angelique and Felix get back from a long holiday in Italy he has lost the newspaper and is working for the government instead.
The dedication is to the Comtesse Blignini, who Balzac seems to have met (and flirted with?) when travelling in Milan but she has now retired to a convent. She has a daughter, Eugenie, after whom the central character in this story is named. But the Eugenie of the story is denied happiness by a 'rigid mother'...
Chapter 1: The Two Maries
In this chapter, Balzac introduces two sisters: Madame Felix de Vandenesse and Madame du Tillet, who are Marie-Angelique and Marie-Eugenie respectively. Angelique is weeping and Eugenie is trying to comfort her, but admits that her marriage is not a happy one and Angelique should not look to her for help.
Balzac then explains their background. They are sweet girls, and very innocent, because their mother, the Comtesse de Granville is a religious fanatic. Prior to their marriage they had never been into society nor been to the theatre or a ball. Their father deplores his wife's excesses but has largely abandoned the girls to their mother because he thinks there is no middle course with daughters: either they are educated, flighty, and have no religion or they are ignorant and innocent. So they have a limited education, and have read very little, for example, the very popular Fenelon's Telemaque (Adventures of Telemachus, 1699, see http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/kan...) is thought dangerous for the girls to read. (This story of a trip to the Underworld was a thinly veiled attack on absolute monarchy and Louis XIV banned Fenelon because of it.).
His sons, on the other hand, get a normal education, go to balls and the theatre and become lawyers. They live with their father in a separate part of the house (Balzac calls this separation within the family 'the great evil of individualism.') His sole intervention on behalf of the girls is to insist on them having a music teacher, Schmucke, an elderly eccentric who is very poor. The girls love Schmucke dearly.
These two girls marry young to escape their mother's strictures. Balzac comments that many men like to marry innocent girls like this so that they can mould and manipulate them.
Chapter 2: A Confidence Between Sisters
Angelique is weeping because she loves her husband and fears she may have lost him. Eugenie is trying to comfort her, but admits that her marriage is not a happy one and Angelique should not look to her for help.
Eugenie has married an ambitious banker, but did so without a dowry (called a 'dot') and he despises her for it. Eugenie (du Tillet)is unhappy because she is a mere ornament to her husband, and she must obey him in everything. She is rich - 'covered in diamonds when I go to court, I wear the richest jewels in society but I have not one farthing I can use' i.e. she has no money of her own and no choice about what to spend it on. He's 'as hard and polished as that piece of marble' only interested in 'what flatters his vanity and proclaims his wealth'.
Angelique has married an aristocrat who never imagined that the revolution would change society so much that he could have a banker as a brother-in-law. The 'bridle of piety' weighs less heavily on Angelique: she goes into society and is a great success, though some of the other women are very jealous of her.
These two men live in worlds at enmity with each other because one has benefited by the revolution and the other is in favour of the restoration.
Du Tillet is a bad man. He is an associate of Baron de Nucingen and sometimes (because he thinks her opinion doesn't matter) Eugenie sits in on their plots and plans to ruin other people so that over time Du Tillet will become 'noble'. Du Tillet could easily lend Angelique 40,000 francs but she dare not ask him – and when he comes in, she refuses his money because she does not want to be in his power. . So Eugenie is not able to help Angelique with the money she needs.
After Angelique leaves, Du Tillet reveals that he knows what she wants the money for: to save her lover from the debtor's prison. Eugenie doesn't believe it but Du Tillet cynically replies that girls brought up in piety like her make bad wives because they want to be happy and never are within marriage. He warns Eugenie not to interfere because it's in his interest to see the man go to prison, but he decides to have her watched because he does not trust her.
Chapter 3: The History of a Fortunate Woman
Balzac introduces Felix de Vandenesse as a man of about 30 who has tired of bachelor life and chose Angelique because he wanted a wife he could mould – to mix a paternal role with a conjugal one. He is a decent husband who has tried to make his wife happy.
But after four years she, having initially been very happy, became dissatisfied. Vandenesse, by satisfying every need, had suppressed desire – for if all needs are met then no desire exists and the person suffers. (Balzac puts up a not very convincing argument here that this is why women apply the arts of coquetry and invent quarrels in marriage.) Angelique felt the monotony of her marriage as Felix deliberately maintained 'temperate regions of conjugal affection' and was in need of a bit of passion! He takes her into society when salons were reopened after the events of 1830 and warns her against the jealousy of other women. Her pretended friends encourage her to take a lover...
Chapter 4: A Celebrated Man
At the salon of Comtesse de Montcornet, Angelique meets the celebrated author Raoul Nathan. Not particularly handsome and rather scruffy in a Byronesque kind of way, he is lionised by Emile Blondet and is rather conceited though the success of his novels and plays is mixed. Not a man of principle his politics blow with the prevailing winds and at the moment he is a republican hoping for preferment. He dazzles Angelique and is flattered when the other women tell him he has made such a conquest. He and his friends mock her behind her back once she has left. (Nathan already has a mistress, an actress called Florine).
At breakfast the next day Angelique asks her husband about Nathan but doesn't take any notice of his warnings about him. (This, Balzac says, is because women have 'elastic' minds which rebound after being given information they don't like.)
At a subsequent ball, Nathan decides that Angelique's influence could be useful to him and he flirts with her. Felix isn't happy about this...
Chapter 5: Florine
This chapter introduces the actress Florine who has supported Nathan by sharing her home with him, lending him money, paying for things he needs – and of course he is using her. She works long hours to get herself out of poverty while he lazes about and sneers about her behind her back. He helps only by writing favourable reviews for publicity for her.
She is as loyal as she can be given her circumstances but she has to supplement her income through prostitution. (She isn't an elegant courtesan.)
It is through Florine that Nathan learns that there is a possible vacancy for a government position and on Blondet's advice he writes the sort of articles in his new newspaper journal that he thinks will lead to preferment. He decides to borrow money from a usurer to finance this paper because he is so certain he will be elected and will be able to pay it back – Florine sells everything she has to try to prevent him from doing this and is feted for it.
Chapter 6 Romantic Love
At Lady Dudley's ball, Nathan is quizzed by Madame d'Espard who (along with Lady Dudley and Madame Manerville) is encouraging the scandal behind the scenes but defending Angelique's honour in public. Nathan lets her think they are madly in love, and she tries to get him to write a play about it. She is a bit alarmed when Lady Dudley reveals his carefully concealed background: a bankrupt Jewish father and a Catholic mother who brought him up Christian; she feels she should not receive a man like that in her house.
Angelique and Nathan meet up again at Madame D'Espard's salon the following week He takes umbrage at some light-hearted remarks and has to be reminded of his manners by Blondet. He chafes at this, dithers about whether to keep going to these salons but ends up returning anyway. Rastignac and Marsay are there and they discuss politics...Nathan is losing a lot of precious work time by attending these social functions; society women – who act as if it were still the 18th century when things were settled - have no idea how much work has to be done by men who need to make a living. He is burning the midnight oil in order to get the paper out on time (and wearing himself out trying to ride the tides of political change).
Nathan arranges to meet Angelique daily in the seclusion of the Bois but stands her up three times because he wants to impress her by arriving in a cabriolet and charge the cost of it to the paper. His partners (du Tillet and Massol) readily agree (because they want to bankrupt him). When he does turn up to meet her with the air of a man at leisure, he is a bit peeved that she doesn't understand the 'enormous costs of his little attentions' . When he reveals to her that he is a harried man, rushing from the paper, evading his creditors, and attending society functions he is rewarded with a kiss.
Chapter 7: Suicide
Vandenesse takes Angelique to the countryside as usual, where she exchanges letters with Nathan. Meanwhile he is under siege from his erstwhile friends. His newspaper staff hate him, and Florine - who would have realised that his friends are really his enemies - is away. Massol the lawyer and Du Tillet the banker have let him have full control in order to let him hang himself. (Du Tillet uses the paper only for his stock-gambling). Nathan lords it over everyone, believing that he is managing them, but he's naïve, as most men of imagination are.
He is angling for a position as 'chair on the Board of Education and a place in the Council of State' and and the office of Master of Petitions – and they have promised it to him if his editorial stance complies with their purposes. Politically, Nathan is manipulated by Nucingen and Rastignac, and by du Tillet and Blondet, to give ostentatious support to the "doctrinaires" of their new and ephemeral cabinet. To appear independent he refuses money for the paper from other sources and so has to take it from Du Tillet instead.
He is presented to the de Nucingens where the Baroness receives him for Angelique's sake – but when she tries to talk to him about her he puts her off by talking about Florine instead, claiming to be devoted to her.
Florine returns to Paris but is persuaded by Nathan that all is well and uses the money she's earned to splash out on new furnishings. He is attentive to her and she has no idea that he is flirting with Angelique: he leaves a portfolio of their correspondence lying about and it never occurs to her not to trust him. His debts fall due but Du Tillet renews them for a short period – all seems to be going well.
But there are political ructions in Paris, (Rastignac loses his position after the death of de Marsay) and when Angelique (who has returned to Paris and resumed contact with Nathan) asks Felix about their impact, he warns that Nathan will ruin his business if he 'sits on the fence' editorially. He still suspects nothing.
And then in December the debts fall due again and this time Du Tillet demands payment. Nathan has to go to a usurer to get the money and never suspects that Du Tillet has made this easy for him for his own purposes. He pays back Du Tillet, but then when the debt to the usurer falls due, the banker makes the usurer instigate court proceedings because he doesn't want Nathan to be a rival in the electoral college – and Nathan can't stand for election if he's bankrupt. Florine can't help him because her spending has put her in debt too. Entrapped, he sees everything crumbling around him, and he thinks there is no alternative but suicide (which is very fashionable in Paris at the time).
He makes a melodramatic farewell to Angelique who then realises something is badly wrong. She pursues him to his rooms, has the door broken down and finds him almost suffocated with the smoke from a pan of charcoal. She has him removed to a hotel and then seeks help from her sister Eugenie.
Chapter 8: A Lover Saved and Lost
Du Tillet realises that the rumours about Angelique and Nathan are true and takes steps to find out what's going on. He learns where Nathan is but it takes him three days. This buys Nathan a little time.
Meanwhile Angelique has to find the money to help him. Felix asks what she is distressed about but she is evasive, alluding to 'that matter at her sister's' (without explaining that she had gone to Eugenie to borrow money). Felix warns her that Eugenie's husband is a bad man and that it's a pity he's a member of their extended family.
At the opera Eugenie reveals that she has been able to get the money: the Baroness de Nucingen will lend it on condition that someone else guarantees it. Du Tillet is furious when Nathan seems cheered, he knows the women are behind it.
Heedless of the risk to their old music-master Angelique gets Schmuck to guarantee the 40000 francs. She promises to visit again with her sister – but we know she won't because his poverty is too extreme. She rushes back to the baroness, and gets the money.
It is only afterwards that the baroness realises she has frustrated her own husband's plans (because he hadn't told her anything about them). Rastignac visits and she tells him about it as a bit of gossip, and he explains what's going on and that she has interfered with her husband's chances of preferment. She decides to keep quiet about this.
When Du Tillet finds out that the debt is paid he is furious but for the first time Eugenie stands up to him and recognises that it is her sister's problems which have finally given her the courage to do this. She flees to her sister's.
Chapter 9: A Husband's Triumph
Eugenie fears that Angelique may now flee with Nathan, and confesses the whole story to Felix. He is tolerant and understanding, and wants Angelique to give up Nathan of her own free will . He pays back the baroness, and – promising his support for Nucingen to get the position he wants, persuades her to tell him everything she knows. He uses the same promise to get Rastignac to tell him about Florine.
Felix is then able to manipulate a conversation in which Nathan's relationship with Florine is revealed to Angelique, and shows her the notes that were Schmucke's guarantees and burns them, She confesses everything, including that they have been writing letters to each other. He makes a long paternal speech and she is suitably contrite. Nathan's letters to her are burnt, but how to retrieve hers to him? They go to Florine.
Florine doesn't believe Nathan has betrayed her, and in order to get her to give up Nathan's letters there is an elaborate scene in which the characters go to a masked ball where Florine sees Nathan flirting with Angelique. Furious, she takes Felix and the still-masked Angelique back to her house and for a payment of 50000 francs surrenders the letters so that they can be destroyed and Angelique's reputation will be safe.
Nathan, rescued from ruin tries to go about in society again but Angelique spurns him and his 'friends' make cynical remarks about life and love. He only gets five votes at the election and Du Tillet is elected instead. By the time Angelique and Felix get back from a long holiday in Italy he has lost the newspaper and is working for the government instead.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2018
http://www.love-coffeeandbooks.pl/201...
Cieszę się, że w końcu udało mi się sięgnąć po dzieło Balzaca. Czytając współczesne powieści, gdzie najczęściej akcja musi być pośpieszna, a tempo stale utrzymujące się na wysokim poziomie, "Córka Ewy" była zupełnie nowym doświadczeniem, którego na pewno potrzebowałam, by odetchnąć, by spojrzeć na pięknie odmalowany portret ludzkiej duszy. Balzac po mistrzowsku, ale także z uczuciem i ogromnym szacunkiem stworzył kobiece postacie. Przy tym jest daleki od subiektywnych, wzniosłych obrazów. Ukazuje kobietę w taki sposób, w jaki jest prawdziwa - wspaniała w swej wielkości, przekonaniach i pragnieniach, naturalna w swych słabościach, kłamstwach i potknięciach.
Jeśli podobnie, jak ja nie mieliście okazji spotkać się z twórczością francuskiego powieściopisarza to sądzę, że "Córka Ewy" będzie doskonała na początek, by nadrobić zaległości.
Cieszę się, że w końcu udało mi się sięgnąć po dzieło Balzaca. Czytając współczesne powieści, gdzie najczęściej akcja musi być pośpieszna, a tempo stale utrzymujące się na wysokim poziomie, "Córka Ewy" była zupełnie nowym doświadczeniem, którego na pewno potrzebowałam, by odetchnąć, by spojrzeć na pięknie odmalowany portret ludzkiej duszy. Balzac po mistrzowsku, ale także z uczuciem i ogromnym szacunkiem stworzył kobiece postacie. Przy tym jest daleki od subiektywnych, wzniosłych obrazów. Ukazuje kobietę w taki sposób, w jaki jest prawdziwa - wspaniała w swej wielkości, przekonaniach i pragnieniach, naturalna w swych słabościach, kłamstwach i potknięciach.
Jeśli podobnie, jak ja nie mieliście okazji spotkać się z twórczością francuskiego powieściopisarza to sądzę, że "Córka Ewy" będzie doskonała na początek, by nadrobić zaległości.
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