Jeffrey’s Reviews > A Distinguished provincial at Paris > Status Update

The ruin of poor lucien

He’s poor and discovering how difficult it is to be published

Ch 5 - After Lucien arrives in Paris & finds himself lacking, Mme de Bargeton is throwing off this country mouse (balzac develops all this so adroitly) , she has snubbed him feigning illness, he sees her with her cousin riding, His competitor watches Lucien reaction and when he becomes aware, his voyeur drops his spectacles into his lap, to Lucien like a guillotine - a sort of social decapitation! So clever, bravo!