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La Comédie Humaine #30
Eugénie Grandet (A TOT VENT-TELA Book 218)
Eugénie Grandet és la novel·la més cèlebre -i, per molts crítics, la millor- del conjunt monumental que constitueix la «Comèdia humana» de Balzac. El cèlebre escriptor presenta, en aquestes pàgines, el conflicte provocat per l'enfrontament entre dues personalitats igualment fortes: Félix Grandet, un boter ric i posseït per l'avarícia, i la seva filla única Eugénie, inspirada pels sentiments més purs i despresos. Dues famílies poderoses de la població assetjaran la jove Eugénie amb la intenció d'aconseguir un enllaç matrimonial econòmicament profitós. Però Eugénie no es mostra sensible a segons quina mena de raons.Novel·la d'amor i novel·la de reflexió sobre el poder del diner, Eugénie Grandet és també la història d'un destí, en aparença gris i dolorós, que troba el seu acompliment en el rebuig de l'egoisme i el materialisme.
221 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1833
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About the author
Honoré de Balzac
9,539 books4,369 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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November 9, 2023
"Era imposible no reconocer en el acento de esas palabras las esperanzas de un corazón apasionado sin saberlo. Por ello, la señora Grandet dirigió a su hija una mirada impregnada de espíritu maternal. Después le dijo muy bajo al oído: cuidado Eugénie, vas a enamorarte."
Siempre sostuve que "Eugénie Grandet" es, junto a "Rojo y negro" de Stendhal y a "Madame Bovary" de Gustave Flaubert una de las tres obras clásicas más representativas del Realismo Francés, que justamente en el país galo se instauró para derrocar definitivamente las predilecciones de los lectores europeos por el Romanticismo, e iniciando así una nueva forma de escribir novelas y cuentos.
Dominando ampliamente las primeras décadas del siglo XIX, logró cortar el efecto idealista caótico y descontroladamente sentimental del Romanticismo para ir apagando la pasión desenfrenada del hombre de sus días e introduciendo otros elementos mucho más terrenales y menos etéreos.
La pasión comienza a teñirse de intereses materiales, ya no es el corazón el que manda en los personajes sino el cerebro y con este las ansias de ambición y poder, utilizando al amor como arma y herramienta para lograr los objetivos planteados. El caso más emblemático es el de Julien Sorel en "Rojo y negro".
Y queda muy claro que en la Francia de Balzac los jóvenes ya no se suicidan por las penas del amor; en realidad lo usan para granjearse una posición sólida en la sociedad, porque para Balzac, la posición social y marital lo es todo y muy especialmente entra en juego un personaje afín al ser humano a través de todas las épocas: el dinero. Y es aquí a partir de aquí donde se basa la historia de Eugénie, esta joven muchacha, no tan idealista como Emma Bovary aunque soñadora también.
Esta novela puede analizarse desde diferentes aspectos como los son la propia Eugénie, el dinero simbolizado en el oro puntualmente y muy claramente en el padre de Eugénie al que conoceremos como el tío Grandet. Este es el personaje que dominará tres cuartos de novela y que forjará la imagen de lo que un hombre codicioso y avaro puede llegar a ser en todas sus formas.
Grandet, es EL avaro. Su avaricia es llevada a límites extremos, prácticamente a la perfección y Balzac se encarga de diferenciarlo de Harpagón, el avaro de Moliére cuando afirma contundentemente: "Moliére ha hecho el avaro; yo he hecho la Avaricia."
Es indudable que lo de Grandet va mucho más allá y la perfección de la avaricia reflejada en este hombre es lograda con creces por el autor, a punto tal que Grandet sucumbe totalmente al oro que lo encandila: "Nadie en Saumur dejaba de estar convencido de que el señor Grandet tenía un tesoro privado, un escondrijo lleno de luises, y de que por la noche se entregaba a los difíciles deleites que proporciona una gran masa de oro. Los avarientos lo daban casi por cierto al ver los ojos del buen señor, a los que el metal amarillo parecía haber comunicado sus reflejos."
Es esta una manera brillante de definir lo que la Avaricia, como Pecado Capital representa y seguramente el tío Grandet estará condenado a la quinta etapa del Purgatorio de Dante, en la Divina Comedia, atado de pies y manos y con la cara pegada al suelo donde debe pagar toda esa desesperación por el oro mientras estaba vivo.
Un gran humorista e ilustrador argentino, Roberto Fontanarrosa, supo decir alguna vez "El dinero es el único dios sin ateos". Vaya que don Grandet cumple con esta premisa...
De hecho, ya casi al final de la novela, Grandet, sobre el final de su vida le enseña todas las artimañas del manipuleo del oro y el dinero a su hija quien, desengañada por el desplante amoroso de su primo Charles, se vuelve más fría y calculadora, aunque no tanto como su padre.
Otro aspecto muy marcado en la novela es el contraste que Balzac instala entre el refinamiento de París, capital de Francia y su mirada marcadamente despectiva de sobre la burguesía de provincias, temática que también aparece en la novela "Madame Bovary" de Flaubert, cuyo subtítulo es precisamente "Costumbres de provincia".
En esta novela Balzac diferencia y crea una marcada mirada casi despectiva acerca de los habitantes de Saumur, un típico pueblito de provincias donde la definición "pueblo chico, infierno grande" cobra vida y notoriedad.
Todo allí se sabe. Cada movimiento de sus habitantes es conocido por la pequeña sociedad, ávida de chismerío y noticias frívolas.
El forcejeo entre los Cruchot y los Des Grassins, dos familias de poder que se disputan el corazón de Eugénie para sus hijos es sacudido por la llegada del primo Charles desde Paris, quien rápidamente conquistará a Eugénie y a partir de allí suscitará cierto giro en la historia narrada.
Eugénie se debate entre el trato férreo que le impone su avaro padre y las penas de su primo Charles a quien ya se le ha entregado su alma y su corazón.
Balzac es un tanto inflexible, tanto en las características de los provincianos como de extremado protagonismo que le imprime al oro y a los bienes materiales, ya que en lo que a Gradnet se refiere, todo lo que leemos está relacionado con oro, fortunas, acciones, monedas, billetes, tierras, francos, capitales, intereses, en fin... materialismo por sobre el corazón destrozado de los Románticos, pero que marcó a fuego lo que el Realismo en la literatura le daba a los franceses, especialmente a partir de 1830.
"Eugénie Grandet" es una novela corta en la que Balzac despliega su narrativa impecable para pintarnos un momento de época con el brillo enceguecedor del oro y sabor amargo de las lágrimas que surgen de las penas de amor de Eugénie y sigue siendo hoy una maravillosa novela para leer junto al fuego una noche de invierno.
Siempre sostuve que "Eugénie Grandet" es, junto a "Rojo y negro" de Stendhal y a "Madame Bovary" de Gustave Flaubert una de las tres obras clásicas más representativas del Realismo Francés, que justamente en el país galo se instauró para derrocar definitivamente las predilecciones de los lectores europeos por el Romanticismo, e iniciando así una nueva forma de escribir novelas y cuentos.
Dominando ampliamente las primeras décadas del siglo XIX, logró cortar el efecto idealista caótico y descontroladamente sentimental del Romanticismo para ir apagando la pasión desenfrenada del hombre de sus días e introduciendo otros elementos mucho más terrenales y menos etéreos.
La pasión comienza a teñirse de intereses materiales, ya no es el corazón el que manda en los personajes sino el cerebro y con este las ansias de ambición y poder, utilizando al amor como arma y herramienta para lograr los objetivos planteados. El caso más emblemático es el de Julien Sorel en "Rojo y negro".
Y queda muy claro que en la Francia de Balzac los jóvenes ya no se suicidan por las penas del amor; en realidad lo usan para granjearse una posición sólida en la sociedad, porque para Balzac, la posición social y marital lo es todo y muy especialmente entra en juego un personaje afín al ser humano a través de todas las épocas: el dinero. Y es aquí a partir de aquí donde se basa la historia de Eugénie, esta joven muchacha, no tan idealista como Emma Bovary aunque soñadora también.
Esta novela puede analizarse desde diferentes aspectos como los son la propia Eugénie, el dinero simbolizado en el oro puntualmente y muy claramente en el padre de Eugénie al que conoceremos como el tío Grandet. Este es el personaje que dominará tres cuartos de novela y que forjará la imagen de lo que un hombre codicioso y avaro puede llegar a ser en todas sus formas.
Grandet, es EL avaro. Su avaricia es llevada a límites extremos, prácticamente a la perfección y Balzac se encarga de diferenciarlo de Harpagón, el avaro de Moliére cuando afirma contundentemente: "Moliére ha hecho el avaro; yo he hecho la Avaricia."
Es indudable que lo de Grandet va mucho más allá y la perfección de la avaricia reflejada en este hombre es lograda con creces por el autor, a punto tal que Grandet sucumbe totalmente al oro que lo encandila: "Nadie en Saumur dejaba de estar convencido de que el señor Grandet tenía un tesoro privado, un escondrijo lleno de luises, y de que por la noche se entregaba a los difíciles deleites que proporciona una gran masa de oro. Los avarientos lo daban casi por cierto al ver los ojos del buen señor, a los que el metal amarillo parecía haber comunicado sus reflejos."
Es esta una manera brillante de definir lo que la Avaricia, como Pecado Capital representa y seguramente el tío Grandet estará condenado a la quinta etapa del Purgatorio de Dante, en la Divina Comedia, atado de pies y manos y con la cara pegada al suelo donde debe pagar toda esa desesperación por el oro mientras estaba vivo.
Un gran humorista e ilustrador argentino, Roberto Fontanarrosa, supo decir alguna vez "El dinero es el único dios sin ateos". Vaya que don Grandet cumple con esta premisa...
De hecho, ya casi al final de la novela, Grandet, sobre el final de su vida le enseña todas las artimañas del manipuleo del oro y el dinero a su hija quien, desengañada por el desplante amoroso de su primo Charles, se vuelve más fría y calculadora, aunque no tanto como su padre.
Otro aspecto muy marcado en la novela es el contraste que Balzac instala entre el refinamiento de París, capital de Francia y su mirada marcadamente despectiva de sobre la burguesía de provincias, temática que también aparece en la novela "Madame Bovary" de Flaubert, cuyo subtítulo es precisamente "Costumbres de provincia".
En esta novela Balzac diferencia y crea una marcada mirada casi despectiva acerca de los habitantes de Saumur, un típico pueblito de provincias donde la definición "pueblo chico, infierno grande" cobra vida y notoriedad.
Todo allí se sabe. Cada movimiento de sus habitantes es conocido por la pequeña sociedad, ávida de chismerío y noticias frívolas.
El forcejeo entre los Cruchot y los Des Grassins, dos familias de poder que se disputan el corazón de Eugénie para sus hijos es sacudido por la llegada del primo Charles desde Paris, quien rápidamente conquistará a Eugénie y a partir de allí suscitará cierto giro en la historia narrada.
Eugénie se debate entre el trato férreo que le impone su avaro padre y las penas de su primo Charles a quien ya se le ha entregado su alma y su corazón.
Balzac es un tanto inflexible, tanto en las características de los provincianos como de extremado protagonismo que le imprime al oro y a los bienes materiales, ya que en lo que a Gradnet se refiere, todo lo que leemos está relacionado con oro, fortunas, acciones, monedas, billetes, tierras, francos, capitales, intereses, en fin... materialismo por sobre el corazón destrozado de los Románticos, pero que marcó a fuego lo que el Realismo en la literatura le daba a los franceses, especialmente a partir de 1830.
"Eugénie Grandet" es una novela corta en la que Balzac despliega su narrativa impecable para pintarnos un momento de época con el brillo enceguecedor del oro y sabor amargo de las lágrimas que surgen de las penas de amor de Eugénie y sigue siendo hoy una maravillosa novela para leer junto al fuego una noche de invierno.
May 30, 2024
In Eugénie Grandet, Honoré de Balzac paints an eloquent portrait of nineteenth-century French society and the prevailing materialism of the time.
The story centers on the life of Grandet's family, circumscribed to the little avarice of their progenitor, characterized as a petty man who values the brilliance and tinkling of money to the point of exhaustion, symbolically of his social and financial ascent. The sobriety of Eugenia's father is such that he rations all the expenses of the house, causing the family to go through necessities.
However, one day, a cousin from Eugenia arrives in Paris who thinks of pleasing her cousin since a relationship between the two would allow him to live openly.
Meanwhile, Mr. Grandet receives a suicide note from his bankrupt brother. He asks his brother to take care of his nephew, who is unaware of the correct reason for his presence at his uncle's house.
The arrival of Carlos in the bosom of this family causes Eugenia to feel something that she did not know until then, motivated mainly by its refinement and good taste. Eugenia feels, therefore, the desire to please Carlos; she does not want her father.
Still, Mr. Grandet receives a suicide note from his brother, who was in bankruptcy, where he asks his brother to take care of his nephew, who is unaware of the valid reason for his presence at his uncle's house.
Upon learning of his cousin's marriage, Eugenia marries a friend of her father. However, she becomes a widow a short time later and discovers that her husband is not the noble and honest person she thought.
The novel is an audacious picture of a materialistic society in broad strokes, enclosing man in a web of deception, obsession with money, and lack of ethics. However, as the reader will see, money can not buy everything or bring true happiness.
The story centers on the life of Grandet's family, circumscribed to the little avarice of their progenitor, characterized as a petty man who values the brilliance and tinkling of money to the point of exhaustion, symbolically of his social and financial ascent. The sobriety of Eugenia's father is such that he rations all the expenses of the house, causing the family to go through necessities.
However, one day, a cousin from Eugenia arrives in Paris who thinks of pleasing her cousin since a relationship between the two would allow him to live openly.
Meanwhile, Mr. Grandet receives a suicide note from his bankrupt brother. He asks his brother to take care of his nephew, who is unaware of the correct reason for his presence at his uncle's house.
The arrival of Carlos in the bosom of this family causes Eugenia to feel something that she did not know until then, motivated mainly by its refinement and good taste. Eugenia feels, therefore, the desire to please Carlos; she does not want her father.
Still, Mr. Grandet receives a suicide note from his brother, who was in bankruptcy, where he asks his brother to take care of his nephew, who is unaware of the valid reason for his presence at his uncle's house.
Upon learning of his cousin's marriage, Eugenia marries a friend of her father. However, she becomes a widow a short time later and discovers that her husband is not the noble and honest person she thought.
The novel is an audacious picture of a materialistic society in broad strokes, enclosing man in a web of deception, obsession with money, and lack of ethics. However, as the reader will see, money can not buy everything or bring true happiness.
January 27, 2018
A tragedy in disguise.
This story takes place in the town of Saumur. That is where Eugénie and her normal family live. Her father is a miserly former cooper who hides his fortune from her wife and daughter and forces them to live in an old and frozen house, which he doesn't want to repair because, well, money must be spent and that is exactly what he tries to avoid. Reading this novel made me chuckle several times because let's face it, we have all met a Felix Grandet in real life, at least once. A person who accumulates money simply to see its splendor on the table. He needs to know money is there so he can feel safe. He doesn't have a coat to cope with a freezing afternoon but he sure feels secure while contemplating a pile of money somewhere under his roof. The way those people think it is truly remarkable. They want to make a lot of money, they don't want to spend a dime and before they realize, their lives are over. They merely existed, for they have never lived. Unfortunately, they can't take their wealth to the grave — or wherever we go after we part from this world. If there is such a place. From a practical point of view, only the heirs might be grateful for that kind of life.
Well, I don't know what I was talking about exactly, but it seems like a good time to say that Balzac described places, situations and characters to the last detail, dexterously escaping from tedium, most of the times. His vivid writing allowed me to feel as if I were there, living in an ancient house, sharing moments with poor Eugénie, chatting about how every man who approaches her has an agenda. For that is the other side of this story: people being around other people only to see what profit they might find, since life is a business transaction. Some young men were sent to visit Eugénie as to transmit their marriage proposals, because their families knew about her wealth. Naturally, such thoughtful and hypocrite maneuvers are not something that only appear in the upper class, just as real friendship might be found in every social sphere.
In the end, Eugénie's kindness and noble spirit had to coexist with the avarice of her father, with the materialism of her world. Regardless of the selfish atmosphere in which she had to breathe, she learned that another source of happiness lies in the act of helping others.
This wonderful novel discloses many interesting aspects of our nature. The impact of money on people and their relationships. The superficiality it often helps to attain. The constant search for love in a world of possessions.
Aug 18, 2013
* Edited on March 2017
** Also on my blog.
This story takes place in the town of Saumur. That is where Eugénie and her normal family live. Her father is a miserly former cooper who hides his fortune from her wife and daughter and forces them to live in an old and frozen house, which he doesn't want to repair because, well, money must be spent and that is exactly what he tries to avoid. Reading this novel made me chuckle several times because let's face it, we have all met a Felix Grandet in real life, at least once. A person who accumulates money simply to see its splendor on the table. He needs to know money is there so he can feel safe. He doesn't have a coat to cope with a freezing afternoon but he sure feels secure while contemplating a pile of money somewhere under his roof. The way those people think it is truly remarkable. They want to make a lot of money, they don't want to spend a dime and before they realize, their lives are over. They merely existed, for they have never lived. Unfortunately, they can't take their wealth to the grave — or wherever we go after we part from this world. If there is such a place. From a practical point of view, only the heirs might be grateful for that kind of life.
Well, I don't know what I was talking about exactly, but it seems like a good time to say that Balzac described places, situations and characters to the last detail, dexterously escaping from tedium, most of the times. His vivid writing allowed me to feel as if I were there, living in an ancient house, sharing moments with poor Eugénie, chatting about how every man who approaches her has an agenda. For that is the other side of this story: people being around other people only to see what profit they might find, since life is a business transaction. Some young men were sent to visit Eugénie as to transmit their marriage proposals, because their families knew about her wealth. Naturally, such thoughtful and hypocrite maneuvers are not something that only appear in the upper class, just as real friendship might be found in every social sphere.
In the end, Eugénie's kindness and noble spirit had to coexist with the avarice of her father, with the materialism of her world. Regardless of the selfish atmosphere in which she had to breathe, she learned that another source of happiness lies in the act of helping others.
This wonderful novel discloses many interesting aspects of our nature. The impact of money on people and their relationships. The superficiality it often helps to attain. The constant search for love in a world of possessions.
Prisoner, tell me
[...]
'I thought I could outdo everybody in the world in wealth and power, and I amassed in my own treasure-house the money due to my king. When sleep overcame me I lay upon the bed that was for my lord, and on waking up I found I was prisoner in my own treasure-house.'
Gitanjali or Song Offerings: Introduced by W. B. Yeats, Rabindranath Tagore
Aug 18, 2013
* Edited on March 2017
** Also on my blog.
June 29, 2023
Classic English literature has seen some memorable stone-hearted misers in it's time, but they pale in comparison to Balzac's provincial Midas, Monsieur Grandet, father of the long-suffering Eugénie. Grandet's wealth is legendary in status and, inevitably, when plucky Charles, his elegant, dapper nephew from Paris, turns up, Eugénie, accustomed to her father's spartan frugality, is hopelessly smitten with him. One of the Granddaddies of realist literature, Balzac paints a tragic figure at the centre of the novel, the sweet and titular Eugénie, the miser’s once innocent offspring and her sad story is a cautionary one about what happens when an obsession with lucre and social position supplants human affection. She inherits her father’s financial savvy and avaricious ways along with his fortune but is miserably short-changed in the love department. Charles arrives at their woefully rundown house in the Loire Valley town of Saumur, where Eugénie lives with her pathologically tight-fisted short and stocky father, downtrodden mother who felt like an old cobweb, and their overworked panic-stricken servant, Nanon. While Eugénie and her mother have no idea how rich Félix Grandet actually is, his banker, des Grassins, and his notary, Cruchot, aren’t quite so clueless. The two men and their families jockey shamelessly for the old man’s favour and Eugénie’s hand.
Eugénie regards herself, her gloomy home, and even her father in a newly critical light after Charles’s arrival, and emboldened by her surge of feelings for her cousin, she dares to indulge him with real wax candles, free-range eggs, and extra sugar for his sweet tooth, but alas, if she thinks the sun will shine down on them for all eternity, she is mistaken. This provocative, entertaining moral tale about avarice written all the way back in 1833 remains astonishingly relevant today. Balzac, like Dickens, zeroes in on the dark side of rampant capitalism, but instead of focusing pityingly on the have-nots, he skewers his era’s crass characters through with more humour than moral outrage. Money is a vast topic in literature, probably second only to love. Perhaps Balzac manages to combine both in a remarkably incisive tale pitted with tragedy. Eugénie Grandet ultimately is about unscrupulous people, and while Balzac has prepared us for Charles’s dastardly behaviour toward the fluttering Eugénie, it still comes as a shock to learn that this sweet-faced dandy, who wept over his father’s demise, makes his fortune in the slave trade. Even in 1833, decades before the American Civil War, Balzac’s damning portrait of Charles’s descent into unscrupulous selfishness is unequivocal.
July 24, 2023
Η "Ευγενία Γκραντέ" είναι μια ιστορία που αποτυπώνει το ταπεινό και ταυτόχρονα επαναστατικό πνεύμα μιας γυναίκας που εάν είχε υπάρξει αληθινή, θα συμπεριλαμβανόταν με βεβαιότητα στα μακριά κατάστιχα των γυναικών που έγραψαν ιστορία.
Εδώ αντιπαραβάλλονται δυο στάσεις ζωής: η μία που, γονυπετής και άνευ όρων, υποτάσσεται στο χρήμα, τ��ν περιουσία και την κοινωνική καταξίωση, με βουλωμένη ερμητικά κάθε χαραμάδα που δύναται να αφήσει τα συναισθήματα να πιάσουν τον παραμικρό χώρο και η άλλη, η οποία καθοδηγείται από τα πιο λεπτά και ευγενικά αισθήματα, που μόνο η καρδιά τής υποδεικνύει τον δρόμο.
Η καρδιά της Ευγενίας δεν μπουμπουκιάζει παρά μόνο μέσα στον ωκεανό της αγάπης. Αδιαφορεί και απαξιώνει τον χρυσό του πατέρα της και του κοινωνικού σκυλολογιού που περιβάλλει την οικογένειά της, το άντρο του περίφημου βαρελοποιού Γκραντέ.
Θεωρώ το μυθιστόρημα του Balzac ένα λογοτεχνικό αριστούργημα του 19ου αιώνα, ένα κλασικό έργο που δεν χάνει σε αξία με το πέρασμα του χρόνου παρά κερδίζει έδαφος με την προσθήκη της πατίνας του χρόνου στο περιεχόμενό του, το στιλ και τη γλώσσα του. Μερικά βιβλία είναι απλώς έργα τέχνης που χαίρεσαι να τα κατέχεις, σαν μια κρυστάλλινη καράφα με παλαιωμένο καλό λικέρ, του οποίου η αξία δεν αμφισβητείται. Ο Balzac εμπλέκει τον αναγνώστη σε μια λεπτοκεντημένη εταμίνα όπου οι χαρακτήρες αναλύονται διεξοδικά και έντεχνα∙ από τις πρώτες κιόλας σελίδες, είχα την αίσθηση πως εισέβαλα στο σπίτι των Γκραντέ και καθισμένη σε μια άνετη πολυθρόνα του κρύου και αυστηρού αυτού σπιτικού, παρακολούθησα την κάθε λεπτομέρεια του χώρου αλλά και ήμουν μάρτυρας της κάθε σύσπασης και έκφρασης του προσώπου αυτού του δεσπότη που δεν ανάσαινε παρά μόνο μέσα από τη συσσώρευση του πλούτου του. Ναι, διαβάζοντας, μπορεί όντως κανείς να δει τη φιλαργυρία και την τσιγκουνιά αυτού του πατριάρχη, του πατέρα Γκραντέ, να εκτείνονται σε ένα διηνεκές υπερβολής∙ άλλωστε τα μάτια του έχουν πάρει την κίτρινη απόχρωση του χρυσού καθώς αφιερώνει τελετουργικά τον χρόνο του για να βουτήξει στο σαγηνευτικό οφθαλμόλουτρο του χρυσού που η συσσώρευσή του είναι η κύρια πηγή της βαθύτερης ευτυχίας του. Κανένας συναισθηματισμός δεν μπορεί να του παρέχει τη ζεστασιά που του παρέχει ο χρυσός. Στο άλλο άκρο των ανθρώπινων δυνατοτήτων, η κόρη του Ευγενία ανακαλύπτει τον πιο αγνό των ερώτων στο πρόσωπο του ξαδέλφου της Σαρλ και τάσσεται μια για πάντα στα τρυφερά αισθήματα που γεννιούνται για πρώτη φορά στην καρδιά της. Και ο Μπαλζάκ περιγράφει:
«Από εκείνη τη μέρα, η ομορφιά της δεσποινίδας Γκραντέ πήρε νέο χαρακτήρα. Οι σοβαρές σκέψεις αγάπης από τις οποίες σιγά σιγά κατακλύστηκε η ψυχή της, η αξιοπρέπεια της γυναίκας που αγαπήθηκε έδωσαν στα χαρακτηριστικά της αυτό το είδος της λάμψης που απεικονίζεται από τους ζωγράφους με το φωτοστέφανο. Πριν την άφιξη του ξαδέλφου της, η Ευγενία μπορούσε να συγκριθεί με την Παρθένο πριν τη σύλληψη• όταν αυτός έφυγε έμοιαζε με την Παρθένο Μητέρα: είχε συλλάβει την αγάπη. Αυτές οι δύο Μαρίες, τόσο διαφορετικές και τόσο καλά αποτυπωμένες από κάποιους Ισπανούς ζωγράφους, αποτελούν μια απ' τις πιο λαμπρές φιγούρες που βρίθουν στον χριστιανισμό.»
Από κει και πέρα, τα πορτραίτα των πρωταγωνιστών του βιβλίου παρουσιάζονται ακέραια από τον λογοτέχνη. Κλείνει κανείς το βιβλίο και γνωρίζει πολύ καλά και σε βάθος τα πρόσωπα, τις συνήθειες και τον εσωτερικό τους κόσμο. Ειδική μνεία στη μητέρα Γκραντέ, η οποία έχοντας το προφίλ που χαρακτηρίζει τον είλωτα –λέξη που χρησιμοποιεί ο Balzac- είναι η κλασική υποτακτική σύζυγος, που ξέρει να σωπαίνει και να ακολουθεί ευλαβικά και υπομονετικά τα επιβεβλημένα από τον σύζυγο εθιμοτυπικά της καθημερινής ρουτίνας του σπιτιού, τίποτα όμως δεν την εμποδίζει να συμπάσχει και να προσφέρει τρυφερά τον μητρικό της ώμο στην μοναχοκόρη της, που υποφέρει τον βαθύτερο των πόνων, αυτόν του πρώτου και μοναδικού έρωτα.
Το βιβλίο αυτό, παρόλο τον χώρο που ασύδοτα, καταχρηστικά και ιερόσυλα έχει πιάσει ο πατέρας Γκραντέ και τα χρυσά του νομίσματα, είναι αναντίρρητα το βιβλίο της Ευγενίας. Ο χαρακτήρας της είναι αυτός που κερδίζει τελικά τις εντυπώσεις και τον θαυμασμό∙ η αγάπη, η παρρησία και το μεγαλείο των κινητήριων δυνάμεων του πνεύματός της –στις οποίες έμεινε με θρησκευτική αφοσίωση πιστή μέχρι το τέλος- είναι αυτά τα στοιχεία που ανυψώνουν την Ευγενία Γκραντέ στο βάθρο των αξιομνημόνευτων λογοτεχνικών ηρωίδων.
Εδώ αντιπαραβάλλονται δυο στάσεις ζωής: η μία που, γονυπετής και άνευ όρων, υποτάσσεται στο χρήμα, τ��ν περιουσία και την κοινωνική καταξίωση, με βουλωμένη ερμητικά κάθε χαραμάδα που δύναται να αφήσει τα συναισθήματα να πιάσουν τον παραμικρό χώρο και η άλλη, η οποία καθοδηγείται από τα πιο λεπτά και ευγενικά αισθήματα, που μόνο η καρδιά τής υποδεικνύει τον δρόμο.
Η καρδιά της Ευγενίας δεν μπουμπουκιάζει παρά μόνο μέσα στον ωκεανό της αγάπης. Αδιαφορεί και απαξιώνει τον χρυσό του πατέρα της και του κοινωνικού σκυλολογιού που περιβάλλει την οικογένειά της, το άντρο του περίφημου βαρελοποιού Γκραντέ.
Θεωρώ το μυθιστόρημα του Balzac ένα λογοτεχνικό αριστούργημα του 19ου αιώνα, ένα κλασικό έργο που δεν χάνει σε αξία με το πέρασμα του χρόνου παρά κερδίζει έδαφος με την προσθήκη της πατίνας του χρόνου στο περιεχόμενό του, το στιλ και τη γλώσσα του. Μερικά βιβλία είναι απλώς έργα τέχνης που χαίρεσαι να τα κατέχεις, σαν μια κρυστάλλινη καράφα με παλαιωμένο καλό λικέρ, του οποίου η αξία δεν αμφισβητείται. Ο Balzac εμπλέκει τον αναγνώστη σε μια λεπτοκεντημένη εταμίνα όπου οι χαρακτήρες αναλύονται διεξοδικά και έντεχνα∙ από τις πρώτες κιόλας σελίδες, είχα την αίσθηση πως εισέβαλα στο σπίτι των Γκραντέ και καθισμένη σε μια άνετη πολυθρόνα του κρύου και αυστηρού αυτού σπιτικού, παρακολούθησα την κάθε λεπτομέρεια του χώρου αλλά και ήμουν μάρτυρας της κάθε σύσπασης και έκφρασης του προσώπου αυτού του δεσπότη που δεν ανάσαινε παρά μόνο μέσα από τη συσσώρευση του πλούτου του. Ναι, διαβάζοντας, μπορεί όντως κανείς να δει τη φιλαργυρία και την τσιγκουνιά αυτού του πατριάρχη, του πατέρα Γκραντέ, να εκτείνονται σε ένα διηνεκές υπερβολής∙ άλλωστε τα μάτια του έχουν πάρει την κίτρινη απόχρωση του χρυσού καθώς αφιερώνει τελετουργικά τον χρόνο του για να βουτήξει στο σαγηνευτικό οφθαλμόλουτρο του χρυσού που η συσσώρευσή του είναι η κύρια πηγή της βαθύτερης ευτυχίας του. Κανένας συναισθηματισμός δεν μπορεί να του παρέχει τη ζεστασιά που του παρέχει ο χρυσός. Στο άλλο άκρο των ανθρώπινων δυνατοτήτων, η κόρη του Ευγενία ανακαλύπτει τον πιο αγνό των ερώτων στο πρόσωπο του ξαδέλφου της Σαρλ και τάσσεται μια για πάντα στα τρυφερά αισθήματα που γεννιούνται για πρώτη φορά στην καρδιά της. Και ο Μπαλζάκ περιγράφει:
«Από εκείνη τη μέρα, η ομορφιά της δεσποινίδας Γκραντέ πήρε νέο χαρακτήρα. Οι σοβαρές σκέψεις αγάπης από τις οποίες σιγά σιγά κατακλύστηκε η ψυχή της, η αξιοπρέπεια της γυναίκας που αγαπήθηκε έδωσαν στα χαρακτηριστικά της αυτό το είδος της λάμψης που απεικονίζεται από τους ζωγράφους με το φωτοστέφανο. Πριν την άφιξη του ξαδέλφου της, η Ευγενία μπορούσε να συγκριθεί με την Παρθένο πριν τη σύλληψη• όταν αυτός έφυγε έμοιαζε με την Παρθένο Μητέρα: είχε συλλάβει την αγάπη. Αυτές οι δύο Μαρίες, τόσο διαφορετικές και τόσο καλά αποτυπωμένες από κάποιους Ισπανούς ζωγράφους, αποτελούν μια απ' τις πιο λαμπρές φιγούρες που βρίθουν στον χριστιανισμό.»
Από κει και πέρα, τα πορτραίτα των πρωταγωνιστών του βιβλίου παρουσιάζονται ακέραια από τον λογοτέχνη. Κλείνει κανείς το βιβλίο και γνωρίζει πολύ καλά και σε βάθος τα πρόσωπα, τις συνήθειες και τον εσωτερικό τους κόσμο. Ειδική μνεία στη μητέρα Γκραντέ, η οποία έχοντας το προφίλ που χαρακτηρίζει τον είλωτα –λέξη που χρησιμοποιεί ο Balzac- είναι η κλασική υποτακτική σύζυγος, που ξέρει να σωπαίνει και να ακολουθεί ευλαβικά και υπομονετικά τα επιβεβλημένα από τον σύζυγο εθιμοτυπικά της καθημερινής ρουτίνας του σπιτιού, τίποτα όμως δεν την εμποδίζει να συμπάσχει και να προσφέρει τρυφερά τον μητρικό της ώμο στην μοναχοκόρη της, που υποφέρει τον βαθύτερο των πόνων, αυτόν του πρώτου και μοναδικού έρωτα.
Το βιβλίο αυτό, παρόλο τον χώρο που ασύδοτα, καταχρηστικά και ιερόσυλα έχει πιάσει ο πατέρας Γκραντέ και τα χρυσά του νομίσματα, είναι αναντίρρητα το βιβλίο της Ευγενίας. Ο χαρακτήρας της είναι αυτός που κερδίζει τελικά τις εντυπώσεις και τον θαυμασμό∙ η αγάπη, η παρρησία και το μεγαλείο των κινητήριων δυνάμεων του πνεύματός της –στις οποίες έμεινε με θρησκευτική αφοσίωση πιστή μέχρι το τέλος- είναι αυτά τα στοιχεία που ανυψώνουν την Ευγενία Γκραντέ στο βάθρο των αξιομνημόνευτων λογοτεχνικών ηρωίδων.
Read
October 8, 2020Of the countless volumes that passed through my hands, only a few remained attached to my soul and mind. But that is normal, I think, how would be to stuck to every book ? I'm talking about good books, certainly.
Amoung them, this disturbing radiograph of human psychology, but also a blunt painting of a begone society, but whose moral strengths have been perpetuated in eternity. Having the action placed in the west of France, at the beginning of the 19th century, after the restoration of the monarchy, "Eugénie Grondet" - is a terrible social fresco, in which Balzac manages to combine the portrayal of rural French with urban life.
Unlike " Le Père Goriot" - here Balzac pays more attention to country life, and is more of a novel of state, of atmosphère , in which the action does not matter as much as the introspection and analysis of All the characters. It is amazing, how, in just 200 pages, the author manages to draw with such ease, but at the same time - with such depth, the portrait of each person he mentions. Balzacian realism is not a picture of reality, even if its long descriptions might make you believe that. More than anything, the realist novelist is an illusionist.
It is necessary to analyse the composition of the novel, in order to reveal the writing strategies, that promote the refferential illusion, more precisely - the way in which the writer brings all the necessary elements to the reader, to believe that he is discovering reality. In order to make a mirror of the soul, Balzac selects symbolic details.
Reflection of national or social origins, whether it charms or arouses laughter, the character's words are fully part of their being, and are magic, thanks to the style , hence the concern in Balzac to give an account for linguistic peculiarities.
Speaking of the novel protagonists, the central character could be considered the heroine's father, however, Eugénie remains, arguably, the most interesting character of the novel.
If I were to say that "Eugénie Grandet" - was one of the first feminist novel, maybe it would be too much. But I thought how much Balzac would have been glad, knowing that females representatives finally won...
Amoung them, this disturbing radiograph of human psychology, but also a blunt painting of a begone society, but whose moral strengths have been perpetuated in eternity. Having the action placed in the west of France, at the beginning of the 19th century, after the restoration of the monarchy, "Eugénie Grondet" - is a terrible social fresco, in which Balzac manages to combine the portrayal of rural French with urban life.
Unlike " Le Père Goriot" - here Balzac pays more attention to country life, and is more of a novel of state, of atmosphère , in which the action does not matter as much as the introspection and analysis of All the characters. It is amazing, how, in just 200 pages, the author manages to draw with such ease, but at the same time - with such depth, the portrait of each person he mentions. Balzacian realism is not a picture of reality, even if its long descriptions might make you believe that. More than anything, the realist novelist is an illusionist.
It is necessary to analyse the composition of the novel, in order to reveal the writing strategies, that promote the refferential illusion, more precisely - the way in which the writer brings all the necessary elements to the reader, to believe that he is discovering reality. In order to make a mirror of the soul, Balzac selects symbolic details.
Reflection of national or social origins, whether it charms or arouses laughter, the character's words are fully part of their being, and are magic, thanks to the style , hence the concern in Balzac to give an account for linguistic peculiarities.
Speaking of the novel protagonists, the central character could be considered the heroine's father, however, Eugénie remains, arguably, the most interesting character of the novel.
If I were to say that "Eugénie Grandet" - was one of the first feminist novel, maybe it would be too much. But I thought how much Balzac would have been glad, knowing that females representatives finally won...
October 8, 2020
Screen Rant pitch meeting: Eugénie Grandet
- So, you have a movie for me?
- Yes sir I do! It's called Eugénie Grandet and it's #30 in the ever-popular Balzac series. It—
- Does the public need another Balzac movie after Une ténébreuse affaire?
- Absolutely. This one's different, it's funny and it's got a twist.
- Nice. So what happens?
- I'm going to tell you.
October 30, 2018
دوستانِ گرانقدر، داستانِ این کتاب در موردِ زندگیِ سرتاسر شکستِ عشقیِ دختری به نامِ <اوژنی گرانده> میباشد... در زیر چکیده ای از این داستان را برایِ شما عزیزان مینویسم
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بابا گرانده یا همان گراندهٔ پیر، چلیک سازی خسیس و ثروتمند در شهرِ سومور میباشد (چلیک: بشکه و خمرهٔ چوبی) .... این پیرمردِ خسیس، به جایِ آنکه از ثروتش استفاده کرده و از زندگی لذت ببرد، سکه رویِ سکه گذاشته و با طلاهایِ جمع کرده اش، عشق میکند و با خساستِ خویش، زندگی را به کامِ خانواده اش تلخ کرده است
گراندهٔ پیر و خسیس، دختری زیبارو و مهربان به نامِ <اوژنی> دارد... <کروشو> رئیسِ دادگاه و <دگراسن> از خانواده ای بورژوازی و مشهور، هر دو طمع کار و فریبکارهایی هستند که برایِ دست یافتن به ثروتِ وارثِ گراندهٔ پیر، هرکدام در شهر اینگونه شایعه کرده اند که خواستگارِ اوژنی بوده و ازدواجشان با او، قطعی میباشد... ولی اوژنی اهمیتی برایِ آنها قائل نبوده و به همراهِ مادرش و خدمتکارش <نانون> به زندگی ادامه میدهد
در این میان، جوانی به نامِ <شارل> که پسرعمویِ اوژنی میباشد و در پاریس زندگی کرده است، به خانهٔ عمویِ خود، بابا گراندهٔ پیر و خسیس می آید که در همان زمان باخبر میشود که پدرش، یعنی برادرِ گراندهٔ خسیس، خودکشی کرده و مغزِ خویش را با گلولهٔ اسلحه، متلاشی کرده است و دلیلِ این خودکشی، ورشکستگیِ وی بوده که نزدیک به چهار میلیون فرانک از سرمایهٔ خود را از دست داده است
پدرِ شارل، برایِ برادرِ خسیسِ خود، نامه ای نوشته و درخواست میکند که به دارایی و حساب و کتابِ اموالِ او رسیدگی کرده و امکاناتِ لازم برایِ سفرِ شارل به هندوستان را فراهم آورد.. ولی بابا گراندهٔ خسیس، اهمیتی برایِ درخواستِ برادرِ خویش و وصیتِ او، قائل نمیباشد
چند روزی از اقامتِ شارل در خانهٔ عمویش میگذرد و در این میان، اوژنی یک دل نه صد دل، عاشق و دلباختهٔ پسرعمویش <شارل> میشود و سکه هایِ طلایی را که از بابا گراندهٔ خسیس گرفته است را به شارل داده، تا شارل با خیالِ آسوده به هندوستان سفر کند... پیش از سفر، شارل و اوژنی با یکدیگر پیوندِ عشقی بسته و به یکدیگر وعدهٔ پایبندی بر عشق و دلداگی میدهند
زمان میگذرد و بابا گراندهٔ خسیس، متوجه میشود که دخترش طلاهایش را به شارل داده است، بنابراین عصبانی شده و هر روز با دخترِ بیچاره به بهانه هایِ گوناگون، کژ رفتاری میکند... خلاصه آنکه با گذشتِ زمان، پیرمردِ خسیس، جان باخته و ثروتش به دخترِ وی، اوژنی گرانده میرسد... از سویِ دیگر، شارل نیز در هندوستان کار و تجارتش خوب پیش رفته و ثروتمند میشود و پس از مدتی باز میگردد... ولی نکته آنجاست که شارل، دیگر آن جوانی که به هندوستان رفته بود، نمیباشد و راهِ مال اندوزی و خساست را از عمویِ خویش به ارث برده و راهِ او را ادامه میدهد... خساست و مال اندوزی، سبب میشود تا شارل، عشق و وعدهٔ خود به اوژنی گرانده را فراموش کند و البته بدونِ آنکه بداند اوژنی از بابا گرانده، ثروتِ فراوان به ارث برده و ثروتمند شده است، برایِ منفعت و شهرت، با دخترِ یکی از نامدارانِ شهر، ازدواجِ ساده ای میکند
در سویِ دیگرِ داستان، اوژنی گرانده نیز به ناچار به ازدواج با کروشو، رئیسِ دادگاهِ شهر، تن میدهد
عزیزانم، بهتر از خودتان این داستان را خوانده و از سرانجامِ اوژنی گرانده، آگاه شوید
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امیدوارم این ریویو در جهتِ آشنایی با این کتاب، کافی و مفید بوده باشه
<پیروز باشید و ایرانی>
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بابا گرانده یا همان گراندهٔ پیر، چلیک سازی خسیس و ثروتمند در شهرِ سومور میباشد (چلیک: بشکه و خمرهٔ چوبی) .... این پیرمردِ خسیس، به جایِ آنکه از ثروتش استفاده کرده و از زندگی لذت ببرد، سکه رویِ سکه گذاشته و با طلاهایِ جمع کرده اش، عشق میکند و با خساستِ خویش، زندگی را به کامِ خانواده اش تلخ کرده است
گراندهٔ پیر و خسیس، دختری زیبارو و مهربان به نامِ <اوژنی> دارد... <کروشو> رئیسِ دادگاه و <دگراسن> از خانواده ای بورژوازی و مشهور، هر دو طمع کار و فریبکارهایی هستند که برایِ دست یافتن به ثروتِ وارثِ گراندهٔ پیر، هرکدام در شهر اینگونه شایعه کرده اند که خواستگارِ اوژنی بوده و ازدواجشان با او، قطعی میباشد... ولی اوژنی اهمیتی برایِ آنها قائل نبوده و به همراهِ مادرش و خدمتکارش <نانون> به زندگی ادامه میدهد
در این میان، جوانی به نامِ <شارل> که پسرعمویِ اوژنی میباشد و در پاریس زندگی کرده است، به خانهٔ عمویِ خود، بابا گراندهٔ پیر و خسیس می آید که در همان زمان باخبر میشود که پدرش، یعنی برادرِ گراندهٔ خسیس، خودکشی کرده و مغزِ خویش را با گلولهٔ اسلحه، متلاشی کرده است و دلیلِ این خودکشی، ورشکستگیِ وی بوده که نزدیک به چهار میلیون فرانک از سرمایهٔ خود را از دست داده است
پدرِ شارل، برایِ برادرِ خسیسِ خود، نامه ای نوشته و درخواست میکند که به دارایی و حساب و کتابِ اموالِ او رسیدگی کرده و امکاناتِ لازم برایِ سفرِ شارل به هندوستان را فراهم آورد.. ولی بابا گراندهٔ خسیس، اهمیتی برایِ درخواستِ برادرِ خویش و وصیتِ او، قائل نمیباشد
چند روزی از اقامتِ شارل در خانهٔ عمویش میگذرد و در این میان، اوژنی یک دل نه صد دل، عاشق و دلباختهٔ پسرعمویش <شارل> میشود و سکه هایِ طلایی را که از بابا گراندهٔ خسیس گرفته است را به شارل داده، تا شارل با خیالِ آسوده به هندوستان سفر کند... پیش از سفر، شارل و اوژنی با یکدیگر پیوندِ عشقی بسته و به یکدیگر وعدهٔ پایبندی بر عشق و دلداگی میدهند
زمان میگذرد و بابا گراندهٔ خسیس، متوجه میشود که دخترش طلاهایش را به شارل داده است، بنابراین عصبانی شده و هر روز با دخترِ بیچاره به بهانه هایِ گوناگون، کژ رفتاری میکند... خلاصه آنکه با گذشتِ زمان، پیرمردِ خسیس، جان باخته و ثروتش به دخترِ وی، اوژنی گرانده میرسد... از سویِ دیگر، شارل نیز در هندوستان کار و تجارتش خوب پیش رفته و ثروتمند میشود و پس از مدتی باز میگردد... ولی نکته آنجاست که شارل، دیگر آن جوانی که به هندوستان رفته بود، نمیباشد و راهِ مال اندوزی و خساست را از عمویِ خویش به ارث برده و راهِ او را ادامه میدهد... خساست و مال اندوزی، سبب میشود تا شارل، عشق و وعدهٔ خود به اوژنی گرانده را فراموش کند و البته بدونِ آنکه بداند اوژنی از بابا گرانده، ثروتِ فراوان به ارث برده و ثروتمند شده است، برایِ منفعت و شهرت، با دخترِ یکی از نامدارانِ شهر، ازدواجِ ساده ای میکند
در سویِ دیگرِ داستان، اوژنی گرانده نیز به ناچار به ازدواج با کروشو، رئیسِ دادگاهِ شهر، تن میدهد
عزیزانم، بهتر از خودتان این داستان را خوانده و از سرانجامِ اوژنی گرانده، آگاه شوید
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امیدوارم این ریویو در جهتِ آشنایی با این کتاب، کافی و مفید بوده باشه
<پیروز باشید و ایرانی>
August 11, 2019
“Gli avari non credono nella vita futura, poiché per essi il presente è tutto, e questo stesso concetto diffonde una luce orribile sul mondo odierno, ove più che mai il denaro domina leggi, politica e costumi. Istituzioni, libri, uomini e dottrina cospirano insieme a scuotere la fede in un’altra vita, fede su cui da diciotto secoli si basa l’edifizio sociale...”
Dopo “illusioni perdute”, un altro romanzo balzachiano in cui i protagonisti, al termine delle vicende narrate, si ritrovano senza illusioni. E’ la società scaltra e avida che porta a questo risultato, ci dice Balzac. Scaltra e avida come papà Grandet, un odioso personaggio più avaro del protagonista dell’omonima opera di Moliere, l’unico che nel corso della storia rimane sempre uguale a sé stesso, avido, despota con la moglie e la figlia, incapace di sentimenti veri, tanto da arrivare a dire alla figlia Eugenie, sul letto di morte, di amministrare bene il patrimonio che le lascia perché gliene chiederà conto nell’aldilà.
“Il cristianesimo è la religione degli avari” dice Balzac.
Eugenie invece vive la sua illusione d’amore, crede nella forza e nella bontà dei sentimenti, per nulla interessata al denaro paterno. Purtroppo la vita la costringerà a perdere l’illusione che la anima, obbligandola ad una esistenza scialba e incolore come la casa paterna di Saumur, in attesa della felicità che solo fede religiosa promette e mantiene.
Due figure “universali” magistralmente disegnate dalla penna di Balzac.
Dopo “illusioni perdute”, un altro romanzo balzachiano in cui i protagonisti, al termine delle vicende narrate, si ritrovano senza illusioni. E’ la società scaltra e avida che porta a questo risultato, ci dice Balzac. Scaltra e avida come papà Grandet, un odioso personaggio più avaro del protagonista dell’omonima opera di Moliere, l’unico che nel corso della storia rimane sempre uguale a sé stesso, avido, despota con la moglie e la figlia, incapace di sentimenti veri, tanto da arrivare a dire alla figlia Eugenie, sul letto di morte, di amministrare bene il patrimonio che le lascia perché gliene chiederà conto nell’aldilà.
“Il cristianesimo è la religione degli avari” dice Balzac.
Eugenie invece vive la sua illusione d’amore, crede nella forza e nella bontà dei sentimenti, per nulla interessata al denaro paterno. Purtroppo la vita la costringerà a perdere l’illusione che la anima, obbligandola ad una esistenza scialba e incolore come la casa paterna di Saumur, in attesa della felicità che solo fede religiosa promette e mantiene.
Due figure “universali” magistralmente disegnate dalla penna di Balzac.
March 5, 2025
Pubblicato nel 1833 dal trentaquattrenne Honoré de Balzac [1799-1850], questo romanzo, ambientato nella provincia francese ipocrita, moralista e bigotta, racconta la vita difficile della famiglia Grandet in cui il capofamiglia è dedito esclusivamente all’accumulo di ricchezze e la moglie e la giovane figlia Eugénie, succube della volontà intransigente del padrone di casa, si sottomettono di buon grado a ristrettezze economiche e morali, prive di qualsivoglia accenno di ribellione o insofferenza; intorno alla bella Eugénie, futura ereditiera di un patrimonio incalcolabile intanto, calano gli avvoltoi in cerca di un matrimonio redditizio per i loro congiunti ma la giovane donna si mostra sorda e cieca a questi richiami finché sulla scena non compare l’avvenente cugino Charles, colpito da una grave sciagura personale e familiare… romanzo che ha come punto cardine il disinganno e la delusione piuttosto che l’amore e l’abbandono sentimentale, quest’opera di Balzac è un’opera orchestrata in maniera eccellente che centellina speranze e amarezze, sconforto e aspettative in un crescendo drammatico che sembra non avere fine e continua a permanere nella testa del lettore anche dopo averne terminato la lettura.
December 15, 2025
De Balzac downed six cups of joe
Rolled up his ample sleeves
Spent the whole night composing yet
Another masterpiece
This time about a miser who
Cares more about his gold
Than his unhappy wife and daughter
A-quaking in the cold
Of a dark room and a stone heart
And calculating eyes
Computing every speck of dust
Upon the legs of flies
A man whose only passion is
Accumulating wealth
Who of the fox does imitate
The cunning and the stealth
Amassing sixteen million
By wily sleight of hand
Acting like a simpleton
Without a single franc
Little thinking the gold he hoards
Weighs down his daughter’s heart
Made of a far more precious metal
Unimproved by art
The old cliché will never die:
True love cannot be bought
If money makes the world go round
Without love—it will rot
January 5, 2018
What a brilliant piece of writing. The detail used to describe each scene by Blazac paints a picture in your mind. I am reminded of Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
The story of the saintly Eugenie trying to live under the thumb of her Miser father is pitiable but a solid read. The life of Monsieur Grandet and his love of gold above all else seems painfully apt in this early part of the 21st century.
A classic that holds a place of reverence on my bookshelf.
My Rating: 5 stars
This review first appeared: https://princessofthelight.wordpress.com
The story of the saintly Eugenie trying to live under the thumb of her Miser father is pitiable but a solid read. The life of Monsieur Grandet and his love of gold above all else seems painfully apt in this early part of the 21st century.
A classic that holds a place of reverence on my bookshelf.
My Rating: 5 stars
This review first appeared: https://princessofthelight.wordpress.com
August 20, 2019
Greed, greed and more greed and a miser with the Midas touch. Grandet rules his family and faithful servant Nanon in a regimen of rations and lies. He has no ethics and becomes completely obsessed with making money. Grandet makes Scrooge look benevolent. Then his nephew arrives whose father has gone bankrupt and blown his brains out.
Eugenie his daughter falls madly in love with Charles the nephew and he promises her his heart as he departs to the Indies to make his fortune. Of course the true path of love is never easy and Charles is a weak character.
What follows is estrangement of father and daughter and then a sort of reconciliation. The whole of their lives revolves around money, greed and materialism of theirs and of course all their friends and acquaintances.
Years later Grandet’s wife is a martyr and two families vie for Eugenie’s hand in marriage. Without spoiling the ending Charles returns but ultimately as another reviewer eloquently put money cannot buy happiness.
Eugenie his daughter falls madly in love with Charles the nephew and he promises her his heart as he departs to the Indies to make his fortune. Of course the true path of love is never easy and Charles is a weak character.
What follows is estrangement of father and daughter and then a sort of reconciliation. The whole of their lives revolves around money, greed and materialism of theirs and of course all their friends and acquaintances.
Years later Grandet’s wife is a martyr and two families vie for Eugenie’s hand in marriage. Without spoiling the ending Charles returns but ultimately as another reviewer eloquently put money cannot buy happiness.
April 23, 2023
خوانش چند صفحه ابتدایی برای من با اون همه توصیفات خیلی سخت بود و این احتمال را میدادم که کتاب را نصف و نیمه رها کنم. بعد چند صفحه مجذوب شیوه روایت بالزاک و نحوه ارجاع او در متن داستان به سایر کتابها و اساطیر شدم.
August 24, 2023
Well, this book was kind of hard for me. I guess I liked it, but I would have certainly appreciated it more if I hadn't read others of Balzac's Comédie Humaine. I definitely liked Père Goriot, followed by Cousin Bette. Balzac belongs to the school of European Realism. He excellently draws French life of the first half of the 1800s. In detail. Every room and every face and every everything is described. Nothing wrong with that, but third time around I didn't get anything new.
It was while writing this book that Balzac came up with the idea of the Comédie Humaine. In the book's second publication names were changed so characters here would appear again in other books.
I liked Père Goriot best because more of the characters were of the less affluent classes. Aspiring characters or criminals or medical students or landlords …. In that book there are quite simply characters from many different walks of life. This book has fewer characters and there is one VERY central point being made. The emphasis here is the importance of m-o-n-e-y! You get nowhere without money. Bonds and currency and gold and how money makes money is a central theme. Bankruptcy versus liquidation. Avarice and greed and miserliness. Respectability is tied to money. It gives you power. It keeps you in control. It usually is tied to deception and cheating and bending of rules. Am I talking too much about the same thing? Well that IS what the book is about. OK, also about social mores and the rights of women versus men. Balzac clearly saw that women have two choices - marry or take the veil. Here, in this book, you have one of the lower class to observe, the miserly Felix Grandet's servant Nanon.
The characters may be fully realized, but they remain caricatures! None of them really change. None of them learn from mistakes. Is a child destined to take after their mother, their father?
Not much humor.
One thing that bothers me quite a bit is that the book describes typical human rather than proferring a different path. It is classified as European realism. I cannot help but object and say not everybody behaves so.
More could have been done to distinguish between provincial versus Parisian life. This would have added interest. I learned very little about Saumur, which is a beautiful town in the region of the Loire valley.
The narration by Jonathan Fried was fine. Not bad or exceptionally good. I could hear all the words and the speed was fine too.
I just cannot get terribly enthused by the book. Its message is so damn clear. There is not much left to think about. I mean if it had shown a possible way of escaping fate, of a battle to be overcome. Most people do not take up such battles. This is and remains a book of realism. It gives a description of a time and place.
It was while writing this book that Balzac came up with the idea of the Comédie Humaine. In the book's second publication names were changed so characters here would appear again in other books.
I liked Père Goriot best because more of the characters were of the less affluent classes. Aspiring characters or criminals or medical students or landlords …. In that book there are quite simply characters from many different walks of life. This book has fewer characters and there is one VERY central point being made. The emphasis here is the importance of m-o-n-e-y! You get nowhere without money. Bonds and currency and gold and how money makes money is a central theme. Bankruptcy versus liquidation. Avarice and greed and miserliness. Respectability is tied to money. It gives you power. It keeps you in control. It usually is tied to deception and cheating and bending of rules. Am I talking too much about the same thing? Well that IS what the book is about. OK, also about social mores and the rights of women versus men. Balzac clearly saw that women have two choices - marry or take the veil. Here, in this book, you have one of the lower class to observe, the miserly Felix Grandet's servant Nanon.
The characters may be fully realized, but they remain caricatures! None of them really change. None of them learn from mistakes. Is a child destined to take after their mother, their father?
Not much humor.
One thing that bothers me quite a bit is that the book describes typical human rather than proferring a different path. It is classified as European realism. I cannot help but object and say not everybody behaves so.
More could have been done to distinguish between provincial versus Parisian life. This would have added interest. I learned very little about Saumur, which is a beautiful town in the region of the Loire valley.
The narration by Jonathan Fried was fine. Not bad or exceptionally good. I could hear all the words and the speed was fine too.
I just cannot get terribly enthused by the book. Its message is so damn clear. There is not much left to think about. I mean if it had shown a possible way of escaping fate, of a battle to be overcome. Most people do not take up such battles. This is and remains a book of realism. It gives a description of a time and place.
March 15, 2012
Having never read Balzac, I had no sense of how human and intimate this story would be. The delicacy of Balzac's descriptions of his heroine--the way in which he tries to capture, without judgment, her emotional universe--was really quite surprising and affecting. To be able to document the first blush of love felt by a provincial, perhaps rather small-minded, young woman with sensitivity and care is no simple task. This felt far more complex and thoughtful a treatment of that subject than anything I've read that was published in the past ten years--the supposed Golden Age of "young adult fiction featuring 'complex' heroines."
Otherwise, the rather small scenes of private life in the country, clearly influenced by Austen and her working of that "little bit of Ivory," speak of much larger political, cultural, and social transformations in Restoration France. Not knowing much about French history, I suppose I had never really stopped to consider the cynicism and disappointment that attended the period after the fall of Napoleon. Witnessing the ways in which the Revolution scrambled political and social categories, then watching a Corsican military officer become Emperor, and, finally, seeing France humbled by the other Great Powers of Europe would really have been quite the mindf&@!, wouldn't it have been? And, Balzac's almost post-modern suspicion of and boredom with "Progress" and its effects on morality, the family, and the small town were surprising to me.
All to say, this was a happy surprise. Now, onto Pere Goriot. Allons-y.
Otherwise, the rather small scenes of private life in the country, clearly influenced by Austen and her working of that "little bit of Ivory," speak of much larger political, cultural, and social transformations in Restoration France. Not knowing much about French history, I suppose I had never really stopped to consider the cynicism and disappointment that attended the period after the fall of Napoleon. Witnessing the ways in which the Revolution scrambled political and social categories, then watching a Corsican military officer become Emperor, and, finally, seeing France humbled by the other Great Powers of Europe would really have been quite the mindf&@!, wouldn't it have been? And, Balzac's almost post-modern suspicion of and boredom with "Progress" and its effects on morality, the family, and the small town were surprising to me.
All to say, this was a happy surprise. Now, onto Pere Goriot. Allons-y.
March 20, 2025
Il mestiere dell’avaro
Fisionomie, amori, giuramenti, dispiaceri e per finire “così va il mondo”.
In mezzo un cugino bellissimo.
Di quella bellezza che solo i parigini sembrano avere: un’aurea da intoccabili adoni, plateali don Giovanni che nonostante la sfrontata ricerca di una rendita cospicua vengono perdonati ed accolti.
Un incipit così, vi basta per farvi capire da subito dove vi state andando a caccciare?
” In alcune città di provincia si trovano delle case la cui vista ispira una malinconia pari a quella che destano i chiostri più tetri, le lande più brulle e le rovine più tristi. Forse in queste case sono presenti allo stesso tempo il silenzio del chiostro, l’aridità delle lande e l’ossatura delle rovine: la vita e il movimento sono così placidi che uno straniero le potrebbe credere disabitate, se all’improvviso non incontrasse lo sguardo spento e freddo di una persona immobile la cui figura per metà monastica si affacci dal davanzale della finestra, al rumore di un passo sconosciuto. Questi principi di malinconia sono presenti nella fisionomia di una casa situata a Saumur,
Saumur, per l’appunto è il luogo dove si svolge questa storia.
Qui abita Grandet, vignaiolo arricchito e di un’avarizia leggendaria a cui moglie, figlia e serva sono sottomesse giorno dopo giorno in stanze buie, fredde e con il cibo contato.
Una storia talmente tragica da sembrare comica nel solco di quella grande discrepanza tra vita di provincia, fatta di risparmi, e i tentacoli della Parigi avida e corruttrice.
I due poli si muovono ai loro estremi: da un lato l’ossessione di accumulare l’oro, dall’altro quella di spendere e spandere il più possibile.
Un gioco degli eccessi a cui la giovane Eugénie si sottomette con una spiazzante ingenuità:
”Non c’è una delle sue felicità che non provenga dall’ignoranza.”
Forse il cugino Charles sarà colui che la farà aprire gli occhi?
Sono convinta che molti (non tutti) nascono con uno scopo.
Balzac è nato per lasciarci questa meraviglia..
”Nella pura e monotona vita delle fanciulle giunge un’ora deliziosa in cui il sole diffonde i propri raggi nella loro anima, dove il fiore esprime loro dei pensieri, e le palpitazioni del cuore comunicano al cervello la loro calda potenza fecondatrice, e fondono le idee in un vago desiderio; giorno d’innocente malinconia e di soavi gioie! Quando i bambini cominciano a vedere sorridono, quando una fanciulla intravede il sentimento della natura, sorride come sorrideva da bambina. Se la luce è il primo amore della vita, l’amore non è la luce del cuore? Per Eugénie era giunto il momento di vedere con chiarezza le cose di questo mondo. “
June 11, 2014
Eugenie Grandet is a quiet tragedy.
The eponymous character is the quiet and industrious daughter of a miser. His entire life is devoted to making more money, even faking a stutter to put other people off their guard in business transactions. Eugenie has known no other life - every day, she and her mother sit in their freezing sitting room (the fire can only be lit between November and April), mending and sewing. For her, this is not unusual, and she accepts at face value her father's complaints that they are poor and need to scrimp.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
The eponymous character is the quiet and industrious daughter of a miser. His entire life is devoted to making more money, even faking a stutter to put other people off their guard in business transactions. Eugenie has known no other life - every day, she and her mother sit in their freezing sitting room (the fire can only be lit between November and April), mending and sewing. For her, this is not unusual, and she accepts at face value her father's complaints that they are poor and need to scrimp.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
November 3, 2015
If you are to believe Balzac and Zola, how depressing life must have been in 19th century France. This book is titled for Eugenie, the daughter of the Grandet family, but it should have been titled "Grandet the Miser", because this was really his story, the story of Eugenie's father Felix. He was a miser that even surpasses Dickens Scrooge in his miserliness. You're thinking I didn't like this novel, but I did. Like Zola, Balzac establishes his characters so vividly you can't help but become interested. That's the case in this book with Felix and Eugenie. So real that you can feel the greed of the father and the suffering of the daughter. Beautifully written, the pages fly by as you need to learn the fates of these tragic characters.
December 19, 2020
.
در داستان خوب، آناتی وجود دارد که تمام ایده داستان و حتی فشرده درام را در خود ذخیره دارد. در چنین لحظاتی، به صورت معمول، ما (یعنی خواننده) همراه نویسنده یا یکی از شخصیت های داستاندر معرض انتخاب قرار داریم. انتخابی کاملا برابر که دو امکان پیش روی ما قرار دارد و سرنوشت داستان را تعیین می کند. داستان خوب، داستانی است که به همان اندازه که برابری این دو امکان را نشان می دهد (و بنابراین رجحانِ منطقی هرکدام بر دیگری را نفی می کند) در پیشینه درام و ساختارد استانی، چیزی را قرار بدهد که مویدِ انتخاب نویسنده یا شخصیت از میان آن دو امرِ برابر باشد. اگر نویسنده یا شخصیت یکی از امکان ها را برگزید و خواننده در انتهای داستان متوجه شد که این امکان با کلیت ساختار کار و پیشینه شخصیت همراهی ندارد، ما با اثری متوسط یا کوچک و نویسنده ای ایدئولوژیک مواجهیم نه یک اثر بزرگ.
در اوژنی گرانده، بعد از مرگ پدر، زمانی که اوژنی تنهای تنهاست، بی نهایت ثروتمند و در انتظار شارل است، نقطه طلایی داستان پدیدار می شود. ما از خودمان می پرسیم که داستان به کدام سو می رود؟ شارل بر می گردد و پاس فداکاری اوژنی را می دهد یا... بله، همان «یا...» اتفاق می افتد. شارل اوژنی را فراموش می کند، در پاریس زنی می یابد که ازدواج با او موقعیتش را بالا می برد، و به قول کتاب یک پاریسی تمام عیار می شود. ما دوست داریم شقّ اول پایان بندی را ببینیم تا بعد از این همه رنج و تعب، اوژنی به شیرینی زندگی سعادتمندانه برسد؛ اما بالزاک در پاریس و شیوه زندگی جدیدش هیچ خیری نمی بیند. پاریس همه شر است و پاریسی، شروری که جز قربانی کردن فضیلت ها به پای پیشرفت، ویژگی دیگری ندارد. بنابراین شارل آنی می شود که دوست نداریم و اوژنی، به جبر تقدیری ناخوشایند تن می دهد.
در داستان اوژنی گرانده مسأله تأثیر وراثت و وابستگی زندگی انسان به تاریخ گذشته نیز نشان داده شده است اما بیشتر از هرچیز، اوژنی گرانده داستان شکست همه فضایل در برابر پول و جاه پرستی است... دنیای امروز ما هم پر از قربانیانی نظیر اوژنی گرانده و عناصر پستی چون شارل گرانده است که به قصد تقرب و ارتقاء مقام به همه چیز پشت پا می زنند.
بخش هایی از متن کتاب:
در سایه چهار جمله که مثل فرمول جبری درست و دقیق بود، برحسب معمول به همه مسائل و دشواری های زندگی و بازرگانی خود می پرداخت و همه را می گشود و آن چهار جمله عبارت از: نمی دانم- نمی توانم- نمی خواهم- تا ببینیم بود. مسیو گرانده هرگز در عمر خود نه آری می گفت نه نه... و هیچ نمی نوشت... وقتی کسی با او حرف می زد، به سردی گوش می داد.
خسیس به زندگی فردا ایمان ندارد و حال برای او در حکم همه چیز است... این فکر روشنایی دهشت باری بر عصر حاضر می افگند، عصری که در آن پول بیشتر از هر زمان دیگر بر قوانین و رسوم و اخلاق تسلط دارد. از نظام و کتاب گرفته تا اعمال و عقاید مردم بر سر این است که بنای اعتقاد و ایمان به زندگی آینده را که اساس اجتماع از هزار و هشتصد سال پیش بر آن استوار است، ویران کند. در حال حاضر تابوت پلی است که چندان مایه وحشت نیست. آینده که در آن سوی «نماز مردگان» در انتظار ما بود، به زمان حال انتقال یافته است. از طریق مشروع یا غیرمشروع به بهشت زمینی تجمل و خوشی های سراپا خودپسندی دست یافتن، دل خود را به صورت سنگ درآوردن، جسم را برای برای چیزهای زودگذر رنج دادن و مثل ایام گذشته که انسان در راه چیزهای جاودانی شکنجه می دید، در این راه شکنجه دیدن فکری شایع و سایر است... و از این گذشته، فکری است که در همه جا نوشته شده است و دامنه آن تا قوانینی که از مقنن می پرسد: «چه قدر پول می دهی؟» به جای آنکه بگوید «چه عقیده ای داری» گسترش یافته است. و وقتی که این مسلک و مرام از طبقه توانگران به توده مردم برسد سرنوشت کشور چه خواهد شد؟
فقر مادر مساوات است. و زن این شباهت و شراکت را با فرشضته دارد که رنج دیدگان و غم زدگان به او می رسند.
اخلاق مردم فرانسه این است که برای شهاب زودگذر، برای چیزهای به ظاهر بزرگ شیفته شود، خشمگین گردد و به شور و هیجان آید. عجب! مگر افراد اجتماع و ملت ها را حافظه ای نیست؟
در داستان خوب، آناتی وجود دارد که تمام ایده داستان و حتی فشرده درام را در خود ذخیره دارد. در چنین لحظاتی، به صورت معمول، ما (یعنی خواننده) همراه نویسنده یا یکی از شخصیت های داستاندر معرض انتخاب قرار داریم. انتخابی کاملا برابر که دو امکان پیش روی ما قرار دارد و سرنوشت داستان را تعیین می کند. داستان خوب، داستانی است که به همان اندازه که برابری این دو امکان را نشان می دهد (و بنابراین رجحانِ منطقی هرکدام بر دیگری را نفی می کند) در پیشینه درام و ساختارد استانی، چیزی را قرار بدهد که مویدِ انتخاب نویسنده یا شخصیت از میان آن دو امرِ برابر باشد. اگر نویسنده یا شخصیت یکی از امکان ها را برگزید و خواننده در انتهای داستان متوجه شد که این امکان با کلیت ساختار کار و پیشینه شخصیت همراهی ندارد، ما با اثری متوسط یا کوچک و نویسنده ای ایدئولوژیک مواجهیم نه یک اثر بزرگ.
در اوژنی گرانده، بعد از مرگ پدر، زمانی که اوژنی تنهای تنهاست، بی نهایت ثروتمند و در انتظار شارل است، نقطه طلایی داستان پدیدار می شود. ما از خودمان می پرسیم که داستان به کدام سو می رود؟ شارل بر می گردد و پاس فداکاری اوژنی را می دهد یا... بله، همان «یا...» اتفاق می افتد. شارل اوژنی را فراموش می کند، در پاریس زنی می یابد که ازدواج با او موقعیتش را بالا می برد، و به قول کتاب یک پاریسی تمام عیار می شود. ما دوست داریم شقّ اول پایان بندی را ببینیم تا بعد از این همه رنج و تعب، اوژنی به شیرینی زندگی سعادتمندانه برسد؛ اما بالزاک در پاریس و شیوه زندگی جدیدش هیچ خیری نمی بیند. پاریس همه شر است و پاریسی، شروری که جز قربانی کردن فضیلت ها به پای پیشرفت، ویژگی دیگری ندارد. بنابراین شارل آنی می شود که دوست نداریم و اوژنی، به جبر تقدیری ناخوشایند تن می دهد.
در داستان اوژنی گرانده مسأله تأثیر وراثت و وابستگی زندگی انسان به تاریخ گذشته نیز نشان داده شده است اما بیشتر از هرچیز، اوژنی گرانده داستان شکست همه فضایل در برابر پول و جاه پرستی است... دنیای امروز ما هم پر از قربانیانی نظیر اوژنی گرانده و عناصر پستی چون شارل گرانده است که به قصد تقرب و ارتقاء مقام به همه چیز پشت پا می زنند.
بخش هایی از متن کتاب:
در سایه چهار جمله که مثل فرمول جبری درست و دقیق بود، برحسب معمول به همه مسائل و دشواری های زندگی و بازرگانی خود می پرداخت و همه را می گشود و آن چهار جمله عبارت از: نمی دانم- نمی توانم- نمی خواهم- تا ببینیم بود. مسیو گرانده هرگز در عمر خود نه آری می گفت نه نه... و هیچ نمی نوشت... وقتی کسی با او حرف می زد، به سردی گوش می داد.
خسیس به زندگی فردا ایمان ندارد و حال برای او در حکم همه چیز است... این فکر روشنایی دهشت باری بر عصر حاضر می افگند، عصری که در آن پول بیشتر از هر زمان دیگر بر قوانین و رسوم و اخلاق تسلط دارد. از نظام و کتاب گرفته تا اعمال و عقاید مردم بر سر این است که بنای اعتقاد و ایمان به زندگی آینده را که اساس اجتماع از هزار و هشتصد سال پیش بر آن استوار است، ویران کند. در حال حاضر تابوت پلی است که چندان مایه وحشت نیست. آینده که در آن سوی «نماز مردگان» در انتظار ما بود، به زمان حال انتقال یافته است. از طریق مشروع یا غیرمشروع به بهشت زمینی تجمل و خوشی های سراپا خودپسندی دست یافتن، دل خود را به صورت سنگ درآوردن، جسم را برای برای چیزهای زودگذر رنج دادن و مثل ایام گذشته که انسان در راه چیزهای جاودانی شکنجه می دید، در این راه شکنجه دیدن فکری شایع و سایر است... و از این گذشته، فکری است که در همه جا نوشته شده است و دامنه آن تا قوانینی که از مقنن می پرسد: «چه قدر پول می دهی؟» به جای آنکه بگوید «چه عقیده ای داری» گسترش یافته است. و وقتی که این مسلک و مرام از طبقه توانگران به توده مردم برسد سرنوشت کشور چه خواهد شد؟
فقر مادر مساوات است. و زن این شباهت و شراکت را با فرشضته دارد که رنج دیدگان و غم زدگان به او می رسند.
اخلاق مردم فرانسه این است که برای شهاب زودگذر، برای چیزهای به ظاهر بزرگ شیفته شود، خشمگین گردد و به شور و هیجان آید. عجب! مگر افراد اجتماع و ملت ها را حافظه ای نیست؟
June 25, 2024
این شد یه پایان واقع بینانه و عالی 😌
April 17, 2017
[Note: I read this novel in March/April 2013 and posted a review in my Asia Sentinel blog on April 12, 2013. I've just dug out the review from my files and am posting it here with some minor changes. Date: April 17, 2017.]
What is a miser? The dictionary says it means either one of two types of persons: (1) one who lives very meagerly in order to hoard money; or (2) a greedy or avaricious person. I’ve lately read Honore de Balzac’s famous novel Eugenie Grandet and am impressed with the author’s perspicacious insight into the traits of misers.
This is an excerpt from the novel that illustrates Balzac’s perception:-
A miser’s life is a constant exercise of every human faculty in the service of his own personality. He considers only two feelings, vanity and self-interest; but as the achievement of his interest supplies to some extent a concrete and tangible tribute to his vanity, as it is a constant attestation of his real superiority, his vanity and the study of his advantage are two aspects of one passion – egotism. That is perhaps the reason for the amazing curiosity excited by misers skillfully presented upon the stage. Everyone has some link with these persons, who revolt all human feelings and yet epitomize them. Where is the man without ambition? And what ambition can be attained in our society without money?.......
Like all misers he had a constant need to pit his wits against those of other men, to mulct them of their crowns by fair legal means. To get the better of others, was that not exercising power, giving oneself with each new victim the right to despise those weaklings of the earth who were unable to save themselves from being devoured? Oh! Has anyone properly understood the meaning of the lamb lying peacefully at God’s feet - that most touching symbol of all the victims of this world - and of their future, the symbol of which is suffering and weakness glorified? The miser lets the lamb grow fat, then he pens, kills, cooks, eats and despises it. Misers thrive on money and contempt.
In the novel, Felix Grandet is depicted as the stingy, egotistic and mean-spirited money hoarder in suburban France, against a money-grubbing social backdrop with the rise of the bourgeoisie. He rations everyday food for his weak-minded wife, his only daughter Eugenie and his loyal house servant, and purposely keeps his house in shabby disrepair, while making immense fortunes secretively. He almost seems to derive sadistic pleasure in ruling his domestic household with an iron fist.
The only two persons who have knowledge of his true worth are his lawyer and his banker. Knowing that these two are trying to get their respective nephew/son to win the hand of Eugenie, he plays one against the other to extract the greatest monetary advantage. He employs devious means to cheat and fleece his deceased brother’s creditors and insists on Eugenie breaking romantic ties with his own nephew Charles, who is left penniless by his deceased father’s bankruptcy. Charles is forced to go off to the Indies to find his fortune and Eugenie gives him all her gold coins that her father has given her over the years, to the miser’s furious dismay.
When Charles comes back to France a rich man, having made his fortune from dealing in slaves, he forsakes Eugenie for a wealthy aristocrat, mistaken that the former is now poor.
Eugenie, by nature a kind-hearted country girl, faces the music after having her heart broken by Charles and discovering her father’s base deeds. She becomes disgusted with the wealthy class as she learns about its hypocrisy and shallowness. Upon inheriting both her father’s and her husband’s fortunes (the husband being the lawyer’s nephew, who dies shortly after their loveless marriage), she chooses to live a modest and philanthropic life on her own terms.
The novel makes one ponder on whether there is an effective cure for avarice and excessive materialism in our society of today.
What is a miser? The dictionary says it means either one of two types of persons: (1) one who lives very meagerly in order to hoard money; or (2) a greedy or avaricious person. I’ve lately read Honore de Balzac’s famous novel Eugenie Grandet and am impressed with the author’s perspicacious insight into the traits of misers.
This is an excerpt from the novel that illustrates Balzac’s perception:-
A miser’s life is a constant exercise of every human faculty in the service of his own personality. He considers only two feelings, vanity and self-interest; but as the achievement of his interest supplies to some extent a concrete and tangible tribute to his vanity, as it is a constant attestation of his real superiority, his vanity and the study of his advantage are two aspects of one passion – egotism. That is perhaps the reason for the amazing curiosity excited by misers skillfully presented upon the stage. Everyone has some link with these persons, who revolt all human feelings and yet epitomize them. Where is the man without ambition? And what ambition can be attained in our society without money?.......
Like all misers he had a constant need to pit his wits against those of other men, to mulct them of their crowns by fair legal means. To get the better of others, was that not exercising power, giving oneself with each new victim the right to despise those weaklings of the earth who were unable to save themselves from being devoured? Oh! Has anyone properly understood the meaning of the lamb lying peacefully at God’s feet - that most touching symbol of all the victims of this world - and of their future, the symbol of which is suffering and weakness glorified? The miser lets the lamb grow fat, then he pens, kills, cooks, eats and despises it. Misers thrive on money and contempt.
In the novel, Felix Grandet is depicted as the stingy, egotistic and mean-spirited money hoarder in suburban France, against a money-grubbing social backdrop with the rise of the bourgeoisie. He rations everyday food for his weak-minded wife, his only daughter Eugenie and his loyal house servant, and purposely keeps his house in shabby disrepair, while making immense fortunes secretively. He almost seems to derive sadistic pleasure in ruling his domestic household with an iron fist.
The only two persons who have knowledge of his true worth are his lawyer and his banker. Knowing that these two are trying to get their respective nephew/son to win the hand of Eugenie, he plays one against the other to extract the greatest monetary advantage. He employs devious means to cheat and fleece his deceased brother’s creditors and insists on Eugenie breaking romantic ties with his own nephew Charles, who is left penniless by his deceased father’s bankruptcy. Charles is forced to go off to the Indies to find his fortune and Eugenie gives him all her gold coins that her father has given her over the years, to the miser’s furious dismay.
When Charles comes back to France a rich man, having made his fortune from dealing in slaves, he forsakes Eugenie for a wealthy aristocrat, mistaken that the former is now poor.
Eugenie, by nature a kind-hearted country girl, faces the music after having her heart broken by Charles and discovering her father’s base deeds. She becomes disgusted with the wealthy class as she learns about its hypocrisy and shallowness. Upon inheriting both her father’s and her husband’s fortunes (the husband being the lawyer’s nephew, who dies shortly after their loveless marriage), she chooses to live a modest and philanthropic life on her own terms.
The novel makes one ponder on whether there is an effective cure for avarice and excessive materialism in our society of today.
December 13, 2019
توصیفات دقیق بالزاک از ساختمانها و معماری قرن نوزدهم فرانسه و شرح و پرداخت شخصیتهای داستانهایش در بین هیچ نویسندهای همتا ندارد.
تسلط کامل و بیچون و چرا بر دقایق روح انسانی از مهمترین شاخصههای نوشتههای بالزاک است.
خلق حدود ۲۰۰۰ شخصیت مختلف تقریباً در عرض ۲۰ سال کاری است بس بزرگ.
اوژنی گرانده شروع خوبی داشت با سیر داستانی پرکشش اما پس از خروج یکی از شخصیتهای اصلیِ داستان کمی ماجراها شتابزده دنبال شد.
تسلط کامل و بیچون و چرا بر دقایق روح انسانی از مهمترین شاخصههای نوشتههای بالزاک است.
خلق حدود ۲۰۰۰ شخصیت مختلف تقریباً در عرض ۲۰ سال کاری است بس بزرگ.
اوژنی گرانده شروع خوبی داشت با سیر داستانی پرکشش اما پس از خروج یکی از شخصیتهای اصلیِ داستان کمی ماجراها شتابزده دنبال شد.
April 13, 2020
ساعت از ۴ گذشته است، اوژنیگرانده را تمام کردهام و همانطور که به دیلمان بنان گوش میدهم، به این فکر میکنم بهگفتهی مادام گرانده، زندگی یعنی رنجکشیدن و مردن!
حالا هر کس به سیاق و مشی خودش، به توان خودش، به دست خودش.
حالا هر کس به سیاق و مشی خودش، به توان خودش، به دست خودش.
January 23, 2016
"La vida es un negocio", dice el padre a su hija. La vida, diría yo, es un negocio en el que los intereses están llamados a sepultarnos. Balzac ha tocado todas las fibras de una vida anodina, cualquiera, como es la mía. Violento relato. Con sabiduría profunda, Honoré de Balzac se permite evidenciar mediante un personaje monstruoso (Grandet padre), como diría Huxley, lo que implica el ideal burgués in extremis: desde la vida del tonelero Grandet, viejo avaro y despreciable que vive su vida en función de acumular riqueza sin siquiera disfrutar de las ventajas de la misma (más allá de sentir pasiones libidinosas al sentir oro y plata en sus manos), hasta la existencia de Eugenié, su hija, mujer destinada de manera inconsciente a reproducir un estilo de vida que repudia pero que la condiciona más allá del límite de sus fuerzas y las trampas propias de lo que sería su paso por el mundo de los vivos.
En el mundo de Eugenié, las personas "funcionales" sólo mantienen relaciones instrumentales con sus pares: les interesa el dinero de aquellos, todas las ventajas que representan para sus vidas egoístas y mezquinas. Los otros, esos que nunca logran acomodarse del todo (que pueden resumirse a Nanón, la sirvienta y amiga de Eugenié, su marido y las otras dos ayudantes de la casa) a las peripecias de la instrumentalización del prójimo, viven sus vidas encerrados en la comedia del transcurrir de los días: se está para cumplir con un destino infame, con una sola posibilidad de vida que es absolutamente deleznable, pero que no deja escapatoria alguna.
Debo decir que he quedado muy, pero muy complacido con esta obra. Intentaré conseguir pronto algo más de "La Comedia Humana", conjunto de casi todas las novelas de este francés que, en su afán literario, pretendía no menos que retratar la vida de la Francia del siglo XIX. Qué bella es la literatura. Qué bello es vivir para sentirse así luego de leer un libro.
En el mundo de Eugenié, las personas "funcionales" sólo mantienen relaciones instrumentales con sus pares: les interesa el dinero de aquellos, todas las ventajas que representan para sus vidas egoístas y mezquinas. Los otros, esos que nunca logran acomodarse del todo (que pueden resumirse a Nanón, la sirvienta y amiga de Eugenié, su marido y las otras dos ayudantes de la casa) a las peripecias de la instrumentalización del prójimo, viven sus vidas encerrados en la comedia del transcurrir de los días: se está para cumplir con un destino infame, con una sola posibilidad de vida que es absolutamente deleznable, pero que no deja escapatoria alguna.
Debo decir que he quedado muy, pero muy complacido con esta obra. Intentaré conseguir pronto algo más de "La Comedia Humana", conjunto de casi todas las novelas de este francés que, en su afán literario, pretendía no menos que retratar la vida de la Francia del siglo XIX. Qué bella es la literatura. Qué bello es vivir para sentirse así luego de leer un libro.
June 14, 2020
تذكرت بعد عشرين صفحة إني قارئها قبل عشر سنوات :)))))))
June 16, 2022
هر کسی که منو میشناسه میدونه من عاشق رمانای کلاسیکم! اگه میتونستم قطعا میرفتم اون دوره و همونجا زندگی میکردم. همونجا کتاب میخونم و مینوشتم...
ولی این کتاب، به معنی واقعی کلمه، حداقل از نظر من، بد بود. حتی دلم نمیخواد از واژههای نرمتر استفاده کنم. بی معناترین و پوچترین رمان کلاسیکی بود که تا حالا خوندم! از بدترین کتابایی بود که تا حالا خوندم.
داستان نه پیامی داشت، نه پیرنگ درستی، نه خط زمان درستی، نه شخصیت پردازی خوب، نه توصیفات خوب، نه منطق!
اسم کتاب "اوژنی گرانده"ست. کتاب بیشتر از اینکه درباره اوژنی باشه درباره باباشه. اینقدر که جزئیات تکتک معاملات و پولی که میده و میگیره و سودش رو میگه. برای چی؟ من تا آخر کتابم نفهمیدم.
اوژنی به عنوان شخصیت اصلی (مثلا شخصیت اصلی! حداقل شخصیتی که اسمش روی کتابه) خنثیترین و بدون رشدترین و بدون "شخصیت"ترین، شخصیت ممکن بود.
این دختر توی زندگیش هدفی نداشت. به هیچی اعتراضی نداشت. واکنشش به همه چیز صفر بود. حتی عاشق شدنش بی مزه و خنثی بود. هرچند من خیلی به کتاب لطف کردم که گفتم عاشق شدن.
اوژنی و البته مامانش توهین مستقیم به زنا بودن. مامانش تمام عمرش زیر سلطه شوهرش زندگی کرد. برای یه ذره قند و شکر سرزنش شد. برای یه آتیش التماس کرد و بعد با یه دعوا مرد.
و اوژنی...هیچ شخصیتی برای خودش نداشت. نه علاقیش توی داستان توصیف شده بود. نه حتی حالت موهاش یا چهرش. از اول کتاب به عنوان دختری که میخوان شوهرش بدن شد. بعد مثلا عاشق شد. "عشق" برای اون رابطه چند روزه خیلی اسم زیادیایه. همه داراییشو داد. به خاطر یه بوسه سالها منتظر موند. وقتی هم که در واقع به اعتمادش خیانت شد به خنثیترین حالت ممکن کنار اومد و یه تصمیم خیلی یهویی گرفت و خودشو داد و تمام!
ببخشید، چی؟!
پلات داستان...وای عذاب! بی منطق. نه عشقی. نه هدفی. نه پیامی. میخواستن بگن خسیسی بده؟ واو!
واقعا نمیتونم حرف بزنم فقط میتونم بگم اصلا خوب نبود.
پ.ن: فکر کنم این اولین ۱ ستارهایه که تا حالا دادم😐
ولی این کتاب، به معنی واقعی کلمه، حداقل از نظر من، بد بود. حتی دلم نمیخواد از واژههای نرمتر استفاده کنم. بی معناترین و پوچترین رمان کلاسیکی بود که تا حالا خوندم! از بدترین کتابایی بود که تا حالا خوندم.
داستان نه پیامی داشت، نه پیرنگ درستی، نه خط زمان درستی، نه شخصیت پردازی خوب، نه توصیفات خوب، نه منطق!
اسم کتاب "اوژنی گرانده"ست. کتاب بیشتر از اینکه درباره اوژنی باشه درباره باباشه. اینقدر که جزئیات تکتک معاملات و پولی که میده و میگیره و سودش رو میگه. برای چی؟ من تا آخر کتابم نفهمیدم.
اوژنی به عنوان شخصیت اصلی (مثلا شخصیت اصلی! حداقل شخصیتی که اسمش روی کتابه) خنثیترین و بدون رشدترین و بدون "شخصیت"ترین، شخصیت ممکن بود.
این دختر توی زندگیش هدفی نداشت. به هیچی اعتراضی نداشت. واکنشش به همه چیز صفر بود. حتی عاشق شدنش بی مزه و خنثی بود. هرچند من خیلی به کتاب لطف کردم که گفتم عاشق شدن.
اوژنی و البته مامانش توهین مستقیم به زنا بودن. مامانش تمام عمرش زیر سلطه شوهرش زندگی کرد. برای یه ذره قند و شکر سرزنش شد. برای یه آتیش التماس کرد و بعد با یه دعوا مرد.
و اوژنی...هیچ شخصیتی برای خودش نداشت. نه علاقیش توی داستان توصیف شده بود. نه حتی حالت موهاش یا چهرش. از اول کتاب به عنوان دختری که میخوان شوهرش بدن شد. بعد مثلا عاشق شد. "عشق" برای اون رابطه چند روزه خیلی اسم زیادیایه. همه داراییشو داد. به خاطر یه بوسه سالها منتظر موند. وقتی هم که در واقع به اعتمادش خیانت شد به خنثیترین حالت ممکن کنار اومد و یه تصمیم خیلی یهویی گرفت و خودشو داد و تمام!
ببخشید، چی؟!
پلات داستان...وای عذاب! بی منطق. نه عشقی. نه هدفی. نه پیامی. میخواستن بگن خسیسی بده؟ واو!
واقعا نمیتونم حرف بزنم فقط میتونم بگم اصلا خوب نبود.
پ.ن: فکر کنم این اولین ۱ ستارهایه که تا حالا دادم😐
August 23, 2019
O capodoperă nemaipomenită!
"Mulți oameni preferă să nege deznodămintele decât să măsoare puterea legăturilor care sudează, în taină, un fapt de un altul în ordinea morală."
"Iubirea este cea de-a doua transformare a noastră."
"- (...)! Ar trebui să mă săruți pe ochi pentru că îți spun tainele și misterele vieții și morții banilor. Ei trăiesc și forfotesc ca și oamenii: se duc, vin, asudă, se înmulțesc."
"Mulți oameni preferă să nege deznodămintele decât să măsoare puterea legăturilor care sudează, în taină, un fapt de un altul în ordinea morală."
"Iubirea este cea de-a doua transformare a noastră."
"- (...)! Ar trebui să mă săruți pe ochi pentru că îți spun tainele și misterele vieții și morții banilor. Ei trăiesc și forfotesc ca și oamenii: se duc, vin, asudă, se înmulțesc."
December 18, 2022
For a book with many perceivable defects, this is a strangely successful work of fiction. This is what I mean: Large chunks of the book are taken up with descriptions; the prose is rather clunky; the characters are types rather than individuals; the titular protagonist is mostly passive; and the plot seems more like a morality play than a human drama. In short, this book seems more alike to Candide than to, say, David Copperfield—the illustration of an intellectual point, rather than a story told for its own sake.
Nevertheless, it is perhaps the genius of Balzac that he makes it work as a novel and not just a piece of social criticism. This is owed, I think, to his genius for realistic details—from decoration, to dress, to modes of speech, to diet, to details of finance. Even if the characters themselves are one-dimensional, they inhabit a richly conceived world. And the final effect, I think, it to show us that these absurd people—the horrid miser, the long-suffering wife, the avaricious hangers-on, the vain and ruthless cousin, and the submissive daughter—are not really so different from the people we know. Perhaps we have never met a miser as extreme as Monsieur Grandet, but his miserly instincts are all around us and within us. Are we so much better than this narrow-minded creature?
In the end, the book is successful, not because it is exquisitely pleasurable literature (frankly, it isn’t), but because we can immediately see how it reflects our own world so accurately.
Nevertheless, it is perhaps the genius of Balzac that he makes it work as a novel and not just a piece of social criticism. This is owed, I think, to his genius for realistic details—from decoration, to dress, to modes of speech, to diet, to details of finance. Even if the characters themselves are one-dimensional, they inhabit a richly conceived world. And the final effect, I think, it to show us that these absurd people—the horrid miser, the long-suffering wife, the avaricious hangers-on, the vain and ruthless cousin, and the submissive daughter—are not really so different from the people we know. Perhaps we have never met a miser as extreme as Monsieur Grandet, but his miserly instincts are all around us and within us. Are we so much better than this narrow-minded creature?
In the end, the book is successful, not because it is exquisitely pleasurable literature (frankly, it isn’t), but because we can immediately see how it reflects our own world so accurately.
December 14, 2019
خساستِ تهوع آورِ پدر، چنان فضای سرد و سنگینی به وجود آورده بود که هیچ ماجرای عاشقانه ای نمیتونست از سردی اون فضا کم کنه... هرچند قسمت رمانتیکش هم اونقدرها گرم و پرحرارت نبود...
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