حين يكتب فيكتور هيجو عن باريس، يشبهها بفتاة مغناج، تنفجر ضاحكة في وجه الجنس البشري وتقول أأنا بلهاء؟! لها ابتهاج هو بمثابة الصاعقة، وضحكتها فوهة بركان يصيب رشاشه الأرض. ولها الحق في أن تكون كذلك حسب تصوره، إذ أن لها يوم 14 تموز، وهي تحمل جميع الأمم على أن تقسم يمين ملعب التنس. كتبها ومسرحها وفنها...
«A vida é uma singular comédia.» (p. 72)São escritores como Balzac que elevam a prosa ao estatuto de arte e tornam o simples ato de ler num enorme prazer. Foi então pela escrita do autor que me rendi a «A Rapariga dos Olhos de Ouro», mais do que propriamente pelo melodramático romance. Gostei mui...
4.5 stars. I have jumped around quite a bit while reading Balzac’s The Human Comedy, starting with The Unknown Masterpiece and Gambara, and then going back to what is probably his best known work, Père Goriot. Last year was my year of Shakespeare. This is my year of Proust. I think that my next a...
Ok, first of all, some info about Catherine de' Medici because Balzac begins by taking issue with her reputation, and I don't know much about her (even though I've visited the Château de Chenonceau from which she ruled, and admired her bedroom.)So, to Wikipedia: Catherine de' Medici (13 April 151...
A Angoulême, David Séchard, un jeune poète idéaliste, embauche dans son imprimerie un ami de collège, Lucien Chardon, qui prendra bientôt le nom de sa mère, Rubempré. Poète lui aussi, il bénéficie d'une sorte de gloire locale et fréquente le salon de Louise de Bargeton à qui le lie bientôt une in...
The love of money and a passionate pursuit of it are seen as a driving force in post-Revolutionary France, and are studied in detail in the character of Grandet.
Be careful what you wish for!, February 3, 2015This review is from: The Vicar of Tours (Kindle Edition)The wonderfully told story of chubby, innocent Abbe Birotteau, the eponymous vicar. He yearns for promotion to canon, but also to live in the luxurious boarding house, run for clergymen by embit...
His heart beat fast, half with happiness, half with fear, at the sight of the familiar handwriting. Those two little scraps of paper contained life or death for his hopes. But while he felt a shiver of dread as he remembered their dire poverty at home, he knew their love for him so well that he c...