Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac is our 2025 First Quarter (January - March) Long Reads Group Read.

This is the Spoiler Thread.

We have three months to read and discuss this book. I hope many of you will join in the discussion with us.

llusions perdues — in English, Lost Illusions — is a serial novel written by the French writer Honoré de Balzac between 1837 and 1843. It consists of three parts, starting in provincial France, thereafter moving to Paris, and finally returning to the provinces. The book resembles another of Balzac's greatest novels, La Rabouilleuse (The Black Sheep, 1842), that is set in Paris and in the provinces. It forms part of the Scènes de la vie de province in La Comédie humaine.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusio...

I haven't read Balzac before, and I'd planned to start with Old Goriot. For those of you who have read this, do you think this would be a good place to start with him, or would I be better off waiting till I've read OG, and maybe some others?

I understand this is a very loosely related series, and I'm not bothered by spoilers or a few references from previous books that I don't understand. Thanks for your opinions!

Teri-k, I liked Lost Illusions more than Old Goriot, the latter is shorter though. I’m not reading Balzac in any particular order and I find he’s a mixed bag. My favourite so far is Le Colonel Chabert which is quite short and he has plenty of shorter works if you don’t want to dive into a long book like Lost Illusions to start.

Part 1 : Two Poets
-Chapter 1, in which we get the (detailed!) history of David (printer's son) and Lucien (pharmacist's son) up to the formation of their friendship - very nicely done
-Chapter 2 will introduce Madame Bargeton...

Janelle wrote: "Teri-k, I liked Lost Illusions more than Old Goriot, the latter is shorter though. I’m not reading Balzac in any particular order and I find he’s a mixed bag. My favourite so far is [book:Le Colone..."

Thanks! I may read a shorter one first, as I have a couple of long books going already. I hadn't heard of Le Colonel Chabert , so I'll go check that out.

Enjoy your book!

just read the first half of chapter 2, which is a superb example of Balzac's ability to provide background/motivation/character and plot all seamlessly blended together, with humorous satirical barbs and enlightening metaphor/simile

just read the first half of chapter 3, as Lucien makes his debut at Madame de Bargeton's "salon" evening - Balzac's little "potted descriptions" of the guests as they arrive are wonderfully concise/evocative, and we then get a good feel for the overall soiree atmosphere as they gossip between themselves
I think we also get a sniff of the first sighting of a "Lost Illusion" as Lucien realises that not everybody is going to be as bowled over by his poetic abilities (or as tolerant of his social background/position) as MmeB

I agree with Janelle; I loved Lost Illusions but wasn't a big fan of Goriot =)

Part One brought nicely to a close with Monsieur Bargeton showing unexpected mettle, and Lucien relocating to Paris...

onwards to Part Two, titled "A Great Man In Embryo" in my Penguin/Herbert J. Hunt translation

I finished Part One as well and agree with Darren. Does anyone care to comment on what English translation they are using? I was using the Ellen Marriage version so I could take advantage of an audiobook, and was crosschecking the Hunt version from Penguin Classics and recently released MacKenzie version for notes, but I soon tired of the crosschecking and just started using the Marriage version, which isn't that satisfactory. I was thinking of ignoring the audio and moving to a different translator of Part II. Any thoughts on what you are reding?

I was honestly going to start this one at the first of the month - life happens. I will get to it this weekend, and start reading. I always have more books than I can read lined up each month and this one ended up on the bottom of the stack.

I will be starting Part 2 v.shortly, intending to read all of it in February, then Part 3 in March...

Darren wrote: "I will be starting Part 2 v.shortly, intending to read all of it in February, then Part 3 in March..."

That was my plan, but now I'll need to speed up my February reading. I don't think I can get all of Part 1 read in two days.

amazing (40 page) first chapter of Part 2, in which Lucien (and even Mme Bargeton herself!) finds Parisian society almost overwhelming (not to mention expensive!), but he steels himself to become a success as a poor writer/poet...

I finished Part 2 by the end of Feb and am now into Part 3
Part 2 was an extraordinary tour-de-force of Balzac just having a go at every aspect of Parisian literary/journalistic/theatrical/publishing/societal manners... everything! which I think he knew mostly very well first-hand, and how Lucien is eaten up/spat out back to the provinces

I am just posting that I am starting to read today.

Mela wrote: "I am just posting that I am starting to read today."

I haven't started this one yet, debating whether to start or just skip it.

Katy - you could just read Part One which is only 150 pages long...
(then see if youcan bear to stop there!)

I have finished the whole shebang, and thought it was excellent (especially the middle section in Paris), but I was already a big fan of Balzac's

I've seen the movie of this one, which was actually pretty good, although I would preffer to have read the book first. Anyway, someday I will read the sequel to this, A Harlot High and Low . Honoré de Balzac is one of my all-time favorite writers.

Yeah, I put this to rest for the month of February after reading part one. Ready and looking forward to part two in March.

I kind of let time slip away on this and came back for part two today. As Darren said, it is better than part one and exceptional so far. I probably won't post here again since the read is past but i recommend it.

Sam wrote: "I kind of let time slip away on this and came back for part two today. As Darren said, it is better than part one and exceptional so far. I probably won't post here again since the read is past but..."

Feel free to keep posting, one never knows who is still reading.