La Grenadière

La Comédie Humaine #17

by Honoré de Balzac

" La Grenadière est une petite habitation située sur la rive droite de la Loire, en aval et à un mille environ du pont de Tours. En cet endroit, la rivière, large comme un lac, est parsemée d'îles vertes et bordée par une roche sur laquelle sont assises plusieurs maisons de campagne, toutes bâties en pierre blanche, entourées de clos de vigne et de jardins où les plus beaux fruits du monde mûrissent à l'exposition du midi. Patiemment terrassés par plusieurs générations, les creux du rocher réfléchissent les rayons du soleil, et permettent de cultiver en pleine terre, à la faveur d'une température factice, les productions des plus chauds cli- mats. Dans une des moins profondes anfractuosités qui découpent cette colline s'élève la flèche aiguë de Saint-Cyr, petit village duquel dépendent toutes ces maisons éparses. Puis, un peu plus loin, la Choisille se jette dans la Loire par une grasse vallée qui interrompt ce long coteau. La Grenadière, sise à mi-côte du rocher, à une centaine de pas de l'église, est un de ces vieux logis âgés de deux ou trois cents ans qui se rencontrent en Touraine dans chaque jo- lie situation. Une cassure de roc a favorisé la construction d'une rampe qui arrive en pente douce sur la levée, nom donné dans le pays à la digue établie au bas de la côte pour maintenir la Loire dans son lit, et sur laquelle passe la grande route de Paris à Nantes. En haut de la rampe est une porte, où commence un petit chemin pierreux, ménagé entre deux terrasses, espèces de fortifications garnies de treilles et d'espaliers, destinées à empêcher l'éboulement des terres. Ce sentier pratiqué au pied de la terrasse supérieure, et presque caché par les arbres de celle qu'il couronne, mène à la maison par une pente rapide, en laissant voir la rivière dont l'étendue s'agrandit à chaque pas. Ce chemin creux est terminé par une seconde porte de style gothique, cintrée, chargée de quelques ornements simples mais en ruines, couvertes de giroflées sauvages, de lierres, de mousses et de pariétaires... . ".

Genres: France, Fiction, French Literature, Classics, Short Stories, Novels, Historical Fiction

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1832

About the author

French 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.

Reviews

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balzac's "La Grenadiere" was a treat in a sense because I learned more about Marie Gaston, who was first introduced in "Letters of Two Brides" . I had known the fate of his wife, Louise and his brother Louis, but his identity and youth were not well known. As I read this series I see how different periods in time are not fixed, meaning as in this story, Balzac has the reader travel back in time to have us understand his characters better.

I did not read this edition, but a Delphi Collection of his works, which provides the synopsis below.

"This 1832 short story provides a picturesque description of a little cottage, named La Grenadiere after the surrounding profuse pomegranate trees in the country close to Tours, Balzac’s birthplace. The story is set in a simple country paradise of a small vineyard, offering a beautiful view of the Loire River. In the spring of a Restoration year, Mme Willemsens rents the cottage for herself, her housekeeper and her two children. Mme Willemsens dresses simply as if in mourning and devotes herself completely to her two sons – Louis-Gaston, 13, and Marie-Gaston, 8. "

Story in short- Madame Willemsens take her sons to the country for health reasons and important family time.


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I wonder about Madame's marriage and her lover. And what fatal disease she dies of but we know Marie Gaston will marry and his wife is jealous of a mistress with children who look like him but actually are his brother, Louis' kids and that his brother has died and he is looking after the family.

[Armin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wieder einer jener Kieselsteine auf den ersten Blick, die bei besserer Kenntnis des Zyklus an Bedeutung gewinnen, auch wenn der Handlungskern nicht allzu weit reicht. Wer ähnliche Effekte wie beim anderen Architekturstück, La Grand Brétèche erwartet, wird enttäuscht, sogar das eventuelle Gruseln über düstere Schicksale und verhängnisvolle Wendungen wird auf andere Partien der Comédie Humaine vertagt.
Die ausführliche Beschreibung eines herrlichen Landsitzes in der Tourraine weist eher Parallen zur Lilie im Tal auf, die Grenadière befindet sich auch in unmittelbarer Nachbarschaft zu Clochegourde. Auch thematisch gibt es mit einer Mutter, die sich für ihre Kinder verzehrt eine gewisse Parallele, mit der Entscheidung für die Liebe und gegen die Konventionen bildet die kurze Erzählung gewissermaßen den Gegenentwurf zu Madame de Mortsauf, die lieber an den moralischen und gesellschaftlichen Verpflichtungen zugrunde geht, als in ein neues Leben aufzubrechen. Wegen gewisser Schlusspointen im Roman, die ohne die Kenntnis der Erzählung ein Rätsel bleiben, sollten sowohl die Grenadiere als auch der Ehevertrag zu den Vorkenntnissen gehören, auch wenn der Plot um eine angewelkte Mutter, bei der noch Spuren von Schönheit erkennbar sind, die aber jeden Versuch einer Kontaktaufnahme abblockt, nicht viel her gibt. Angesichts des nahen Endes gilt ihre gesamte Aufmerksamkeit der Sicherung des weiteren Erziehungsweges der beiden Jungen, 13 und 9. Louis-Gaston, der Ältere wird in Rekordzeit auf die Rolle des Familienoberhaupts getrimmt und nimmt die Herausforderung erfolgreich an. Sein Bildungsweg ist die Erfolgsgeschichte, der zarte, beinahe mädchenhafte Marie-Gaston wurde aber auch zum Kümmerer bis zur Selbstaufgabe erzogen und spielt in dieser Eigenschaft eine fatale Rolle als Ehemann in Briefe zweier Bräute.
Wie eingangs erwähnt, als isolierter Text eine Enttäuschung, aber als Missing Link auch ein Kandidat für eine gelegentliche Wiederholung. Im Hinblick auf die weiter führenden Fakten, spielt das architektonische erste Drittel keine Rolle, so weit es nicht um eine Beschreibung des Liebesnestes von Lady Dudley und Felix Vandernesse geht.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an early story by Balzac set near Tours where he was born. Balzac describes the area before introducing his characters. Not knowing French, it was interesting to me that La Grenadière is meant to refer to pomegranates, some of which were growing in the garden of the house of the same name in the story. It is obvious Balzac had not yet hit his stride as an author. I think if I had not already read other's by him, I might not even recognize his potential with this story. It is not as bad as 2-stars, but certainly wallows at the bottom of the 3-star group.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a high two than an actual three stars, but I'm feeling generous and enjoyed the bucolic and heartfelt description of the lush Loire countryside.

The short tale deals with the wasting away of an enigmatic woman of unknown origin, class or society who arrives as tenant to the beautiful vineyard cottage La Grenadiere (Pomegranate) of the title with her two sons and elderly female retainer. She doesn't frequent the town or community and thus provokes talk.

But, true to Balzac's form, she's going to die a beautiful death and leave her sons to make their way in the world alone - and that's where we leave things. We never find out what she's dying of - it's not consumption because she's not coughing, it could be cancer, (or just a broken heart, going by Balzac's previous).

I got the impression I was supposed to have already met Lady Brandon in another part of the Human Comedy, because we get so few facts about her and why she left her husband and fled to France, but apparently not. Although the two sons do reappear, much older, ten years later in the epistolary novel Letters from Two Brides.

So, schmaltzy and sugary, but not offensively terrible.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The English version can be found at eBooks@Adelaide.

The original French text at La Bibliothèque électronique du Québec.

Opening lines:
La Grenadière est une petite habitation située sur la rive droite de la Loire, en aval et à un mille environ du pont de Tours.

Quotations:

N'étant ni mère ni épouse, repoussée par le monde, privée du seul coeur qui pût faire battre le sien sans honte, ne tirant d'aucun sentiment les secours nécessaires à son âme chancelante, elle devait prendre sa force sur elle-même, vivre de sa propre vie, et n'avoir d'autre espérance que celle de la femme abandonnée : attendre la mort, en hâter la lenteur malgré les beaux jours qui lui restaient encore. Se sentir destinée au bonheur, et périr sans le recevoir, sans le donner ?

Vous la dominez d'une terrasse élevée de trente toises au-dessus de ses eaux capricieuses ; le soir vous respirez ses brises venues fraîches de la mer et parfumées dans leur route par les fleurs des longues levées. Un nuage errant qui, à chaque pas dans l'espace, change de couleur et de forme, sous un ciel parfaitement bleu, donne mille aspects nouveaux à chaque détail des paysages magnifiques qui s'offrent aux regards, en quelque endroit que vous vous placiez.

Un prince peut faire sa villa de la Grenadière, mais certes un poète en fera toujours son logis ; deux amants y verront le plus doux refuge, elle est la demeure d'un bon bourgeois de Tours ;

Dieu a mis les enfants au sein de la mère pour lui faire comprendre qu'ils devaient y rester longtemps. Cependant il se rencontre des mères cruellement méconnues, de tendres et sublimes tendresses constamment froissées : effroyables ingratitudes, qui prouvent combien il est difficile d'établir des principes absolus en fait de sentiment.

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)
3* La Femme Abandonee (1833)
4* La Grenadière (1832)

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Balzac apparently wrote this little gem, part of the scenes from provincial life in his Human Comedy, in one night (likely fueled by copious amounts of coffee). The country setting is slowly revealed to us -- climbing plants, abundant orchards, tranquil water -- and then we move from country setting to house and to the mother and her two children who inhabit it.

It is said that Balzac had a difficult relationship with his own mother, who provided the inspiration for Cousin Bette (ouch!). The mother-child relationship here, though layered with enigmas, is presented (at least on its surface) as idyllic as the countryside setting itself:

Perhaps there are no undutiful children without undutiful mothers, for a child’s affection is always in proportion to the affection that it receives—in early care, in the first words that it hears, in the response of the eyes to which a child first looks for love and life. All these things draw them closer to the mother or drive them apart. God lays the child under the mother’s heart, that she may learn that for a long time to come her heart must be its home. And yet—there are mothers cruelly slighted, mothers whose sublime, pathetic tenderness meets only a harsh return, a hideous ingratitude which shows how difficult it is to lay down hard-and-fast rules in matters of feeling.

Here, not one of all the thousand heart ties that bind child and mother had been broken. The three were alone in the world; they lived one life, a life of close sympathy.

But the blissful country life, the days without worry, are not to last. For we learn that the mother (only thirty-six) is dying of a mysterious illness, that she may have secrets, that the children (whose parentage may be uncertain) will soon become orphans. The halcyon days of youth soon become overshadowed by melancholy. And as tragedy slowly consumes the days of innocence and bliss, "The illusions of life were going one by one," until the perfect picture was no more, relegated to memory and to the past, while a new, sobering reality weighed down by duty and necessity took its place.

[Catherine Vamianaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Μια λυπηρη ιστορία μητέρας με τα δύο παιδιά της. Η αφοσίωση και αγάπη της μητέρας που μεγαλώνει μόνη της τα παιδιά.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five stars for scene-setting, 1 star for plot. Maybe this will change when I read the books that follow.

[Felipe Oquendo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conto bem fraco. Abre com um cenário psicológico maravilhoso (especialmente para quem já esteve no vale do Loire). Contudo, conta uma história simples de uma forma grandiloquente, repetitiva, cheia de adjetivos desnecessários, diluindo qualquer impacto da narrativa. A única coisa que se salva são as breves menções aos preparativos de Luís-Gastão para após a morte da mãe e a alusão a um passado possivelmente interessante de Augusta Willemsen que, no entanto, jamais foi explorado na Comédia Humana. Guardará um interesse especial para quem já leu "Memórias de Duas Jovens Esposas", podendo mesmo se dizer que se trata de uma "prequel" a esse romance.

[Miles Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthwhile short story in La Comédie humaine. The plot is fair to middling but the female protagonist is certainly one of the more interesting, if not mysterious, in Balzac's shorter works.

[Jeffrey Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

This melodramatic novella about a beautiful noblewoman and her two sons in an idyllic country house on the Loire near Tours is mainly worth reading if, like me, you are a Balzac fan and want to understand (and enjoy) his romantic side.
It also might be important to the field of gender studies. The noblewoman, treated with sympathy and admiration, not to say, adulation, apparently left her husband for a lover, who then abandoned her with two illegitimate sons (did he die? did he betray her? not certain, unless I didn't read carefully enough). For feminist critics I think the implicit critique of marriage here could make this novella an important piece of evidence.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story about one of those patient saintly idealised women who probably exist only in Balzac's imagination, and her two children. When she dies almost penniless, the elder makes provsion for his younger brother's education and sets off apprenticed to the sea.
The best bit about this story is actually Balzac's glorious description of La Grenadiere, the house where the story takes place. If you have been to the Loire Valley in France, Balzac's words will enchant you all over again.

[Irini Gergianaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μια μικρή νουβέλα στην οποία διαδραματίζεται μια θλιβερή ιστορία: Ο επικείμενος θάνατος της μητέρας δύο παιδιών τον οποίον γνωρίζουν τα παιδιά και ειδικά ο μεγαλύτερος γιος που ανδρώνεται μέσα από αυτήν την διαδικασία. Είναι εξαίσια η περιγραφή των τοπίων και των προσώπων-από τα καλύτερα που έχω διαβάσει ποτέ, όσο κι αν ξενίζει τον αναγνώστη του σήμερα τέτοιου είδους έμφαση. Το έργο συνολικά είναι βαθιά ανθρώπινο άρα πάντα επίκαιρο.

[Tim Potier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short novella in Balzac's Human Comedy. Essentially it is the story of a young mother and her two sons, living close to the banks of the Loire. The story focusses on the mother and her having to come to terms with her terminal illness and the consequences it will have on her boys. This is a warm and gentle story. It provides good relief if one has preceded it (as is recommended) with the harsh, jarring, but brilliant Lost Illusions.

[Fazackerly Toast · Rating 3 out of 5]

really just a sketch on Balzac's favourite romantic subject of a saintly dazzlingly beautiful fallen woman.

[Jaime Fernández Garrido · Rating 3 out of 5]

Augusta Willemses, condesa de Brandon, se retira a vivir a La Grenadière, una pequeña residencia en el Loira, cerca de la ciudad de Tours. Allí se enclaustra con sus dos hijos y, aparte de dar cortos paseos por los alrededores, no espera más que una muerte que le acecha por una enfermedad que desconocemos, pero que la va consumiendo poco a poco.

Este decimoquinto relato de "La comedia humana" de Honoré de Balzac es realmente corto, y en él vemos cómo la protagonista va desapareciendo de nuestra vista, mientras que su hijo mayor, de apenas 14 años, se va haciendo un hombre que gobernará a la familia cuando la madre muera.

A lo largo del relato no conocemos las razones del destierro de la condesa, pero nos podemos imaginar que algo ha ocurrido con su marido. Sólo lo descubriremos en la lacónica carta que ella misma le dicta a su hijo en su lecho de muerte: "Señor conde, vuestra esposa, lady Brandon, ha muerto en Saint-Cyr, cerca de Tours, departamento de Indre-et-Loire. Os ha perdonado". De esa manera tan sutil Balzac nos hace imaginar una historia de desamor (probablemente una infidelidad) que sólo acaba con la muerte de la protagonista.

Como dato curioso, mencionar que La Grenadière es el nombre de una finca que el propio Balzac estuvo a punto de comprar para irse a vivir con su primer gran amor, pero al fallecer esta, el proyecto desapareció y se convirtió en el escenario de este texto.

[Alex-Mot-à-Mots · Rating 4 out of 5]

La Grenadière est une petite habitation sur la rive droite de la Loire à un mile du pont de Tours. C’est un ancien vendangeoir qui est loué.

S’installe Mme de Willemsens et ses deux fils ainsi qu’une femme de charge.

Mme la Comtesse de Brandon est bien malade et son fils aîné, Louis-Gaston, se prépare à sa vie d’adulte.

Nous ne saurons jamais pourquoi cette femme et mère est partie de Hyde Park en laissant tout derrière elle, mari et fortune. Mais ses derniers jours sur les bords de Loire à La Grenadière ont été très beaux.

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un cuento sentimental, melancólica e idealista en el que destaca la capacidad paisajística de Balzac.

La reseña https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... de Classic Reverie aclara la vinculación de los personajes del cuento con otro relato de La Comedia Humana.

[David Bisset · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not Balzac at his best.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una hermosa y triste historia en un hermoso lugar.

[myriam kisfaludi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Triste Histoire. Mais les descriptions de la Touraine par Balzac sont sublimissimes.

[Kelli Bacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this story was longer. I was enjoying it.

[Naira · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...flores nacidas en una tempestad, destruidas por el rayo y arrastradas a una sima de la que nada volverá jamás. "

[Gláucia Renata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conto de 1832, traz como personagem central uma inglesa, a sra. Willemsens, viúva e seus dois filhos: Luís Gastão e Maria Gastão que alugam uma casa num idílico local paradisíaco apelidado O Romeiral. A vida em torno da família é um mistério aos habitantes locais que tentam especular sobre o passado da moça e logo se descobre que ela esta gravemente doente e o local foi escolhido para sua recuperação.
O conto é bem delicado e as descrições do local são perfeitas, Balzac conseguiu me transportar para aquele local belíssimo, criou um quadro cheio de perfumes, cores e muita tranquilidade. Esse local realmente existiu, o autor costumava aluga-lo a fim de repousar.
O problema é que o conto deixa um mistério não revelado, tanto em relação ao passado da senhora quanto ao futuro dos garotos, com exceção de Maria Gastão que aparece em memórias de Duas Jovens Esposas pois como Balzac não conseguiu concluir toda sua CH, esse foi um dos títulos que não foi retomado em nenhum momento.
Valeu pela beleza descritiva.



Histórico de leitura

96% (46 de 48)

"O sorriso exprimia as delícias do sentimento maternal quando as duas crianças, que sempre a acompanhavam, fitavam-na ou dirigiam-lhe uma dessas perguntas inesgotáveis e ociosas, que sempre tem um sentido para uma mãe."

81% (39 de 48)

"O Romeiral é uma pequena vivenda situada à margem direita do Loire, abaixo e mais ou menos a uma milha de distância da ponte de Tours."

[Yves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une femme arrive à la propriété nommée La Grenadière avec ses deux fils. Les trois vivent une vie parfaite. Tout va bien jusqu'au jour où elle apprend à son ainé qu'elle souffre d'une maladie incurable et qu'elle va mourir d'ici la fin de l'année. Le plus vieux, ayant 14 ans devra se retrousser les manche pour apprendre tout ce qu'il a besoin de savoir avant la mort de sa mère pour pouvoir bien prendre soin du cadet.

J'ai trouvé cette histoire très touchante. Tout au long de cette courte histoire, on ne sait pas où ça s'en va jusqu'au moment où on apprend la maladie de la mère et que l'on voit le monde idéal de la famille commencer à se briser. C'est une belle histoire mais combien triste.

[Kevin Kazmierczak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among the most beautiful, touching stories I have ever had the privilege to read.