検索キーワード： 著者 ""Honoré de Balzac"" すべてのカテゴリー

Balzac’s novel “The Marriage Contract” (1835) is part of his “Scenes of Private Life,” which is one section of “The Human Comedy,” his great fiction series. A wealthy gentleman wishes to marry a beautiful heiress, whose mother is a Spanish Creole. (In this context, “Creole” refers to a person who is genetically European, but born in a New World colony.) As was common for wealthy families of that time, notaries are hired to negotiate a prenuptial agreement. The details of 19th-century financial arrangements may well seem obscure for modern readers. What remains true throughout...

This novella was first published in French in 1830, with the title “La femme vertueuse” (“The virtuous woman”). In an 1842 edition, the title was changed to “Une double famille” (“A double family”). For Balzac, success in marital relations depended on partners being well matched both in temperament and in social class. In this story, a young lawyer marries a childhood friend, only to discover too late that she has become narrow-mindedly religious. She is described as a “bigot.” (In French, the word specifically suggests religious prudery more than it does in English.) To ...

“The Commission in Lunacy” is a short novel first published in 1836 with the French title “L’interdiction” (i.e., “The Ban” or “The Prohibition”). An aristocratic woman wants the courts to declare her estranged husband mentally incompetent to manage his own affairs. To achieve this, the petition must pass through the hands of an examining judge — a man of old-fashioned integrity and conscience. In this story of Parisian society, we see Balzac developing techniques of rich character portrayal and psychological realism. - Summary by Bruce Pirie

Scenes from a Courtesan's Life is one of the last great works completed by Balzac for his huge novel series entitled The Human Comedy. Sections of this book, in various groupings and with various titles, were published between 1838 and 1847. It eventually settled into the four sections found in the present edition. The French title — Splendeurs et misères des courtesanes — literally, Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans — has also been translated as A Harlot High and Low. The story picks up at the end of Lost Illusions (1843), an earlier novel by Balzac. At the end of that book, Lucien ...

Two Poets (1837) is the first book in Balzac’s Lost Illusions trilogy, which is part of his sweeping set of novels collectively titled La Comédie Humaine. The story is set in post-Napoleonic France, when the new bourgeoisie was jostling for position alongside the old aristocracy. We meet Lucien Chardon, a young provincial who romantically aspires to be a poet, and his friend David Séchard, who struggles to manage his father’s printing shop and falls in love with Lucien’s sister Ève. The picture of provincial life that emerges is laced with greed, ambition, and duplicity. Balzac’s ...

Ève and David (1843) is the final book in Balzac’s Lost Illusions trilogy, which is part of his sweeping set of novels collectively titled La Comédie Humaine. The story is set in post-Napoleonic France. In the first volume of the trilogy (Two Poets, 1837), we meet Lucien Chardon, an aspiring poet frustrated by the pettiness of provincial life. In the second volume (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, 1839) Lucien, now using the more aristocratic-sounding surname "de Rubempré," leaves his family in order to seek fame and fortune in the literary world of Paris. By the end of that book, he ...

Deux récits enchâssés, au croisement du réalisme et du fantastique ; une nouvelle presque oubliée, que sa redécouverte classa parmi les plus grands textes de la littérature ; un jeu complexe d'imbrications entre sculpture, musique et littérature : Sarrasine est un des textes les plus séduisants de Balzac. Une jeune femme ne peut s'empêcher de remarquer le vieillard décharné, pareil à un spectre, qui hante un coin d'une brillante soirée parisienne.

Quitteriez-vous tout ce que vous possédez en échange de l'éternité ? C'est la question existentielle que pose Balzac dans son roman sulfureux, "La Peau de chagrin". Raphaël de Valentin, un jeune homme désabusé, découvre un étrange objet : une peau d'animal capable d'exaucer tous ses désirs. Mais à chaque vœu réalisé, la peau rétrécit inexorablement, raccourcissant ainsi la vie de son propriétaire.

Le jeune Nicolas Poussin, encore inconnu, rend visite au peintre Franz Porbus, le portraitiste officiel du roi Henri IV. Poussin y rencontre le vieux maître Frenhofer. Frenhofer a appris l'art de la peinture auprès des plus grands maîtres, et semble en connaître tous les secrets. Il travaille depuis de longues années sur un mystérieux chef-d'œuvre, qui sera le couronnement de sa carrière. Poussin et Porbus tentent de persuader Frenhofer de leur présenter ce mystérieux chef-d'œuvre.

Dans "La Peau de chagrin", un de ses premiers romans à coloration fantastique, Balzac nous dévoile le mythe sans doute le plus central dans "La Comédie Humaine"...

One of the greatest of French novelists, Balzac, trained as a lawyer, was a great judge of human nature. In 1833 he conceived the idea of linking together his novels so that they would comprehend the whole society in a series of books. This plan eventually led to 90 novels and novellas (including more than 2,000 characters) that he called "The Human Comedy". Balzac's huge and ambitious plan drew a picture of the customs, atmosphere, and habits of the bourgeois France.

Rastignac est un jeune homme de petite noblesse. Il vient à Paris espérant y rencontrer la fortune. Mais il n'a ni l'argent, ni la connaissance de la société parisienne nécessaire. Une de ses cousines lointaines, Madame de Beauséant, une des dernières grandes dames, le prend sous son aile pour l'aider à appréhender ce monde qu'il ne connait pas. Grâce aux femmes, il va apprendre les mœurs de cette société pervertie et en s'adaptant parviendra à en gravir les échelons.

Rastignac, resté seul, fit quelques pas vers le haut du cimetière et vit Paris tortueusement couché le long des deux rives de la Seine où commençaient à briller les lumières. Ses yeux s'attachèrent presque avidement entre la colonne Vendôme et le dôme des Invalides, là où vivait ce beau monde dans lequel il avait voulu pénétrer. Il lança sur cette ruche bourdonnante un regard qui semblait par avance pomper le miel, et dit ces mots grandioses : "À nous deux maintenant !"

"The possession of power, no matter how enormous, does not bring the knowledge how to use it." Raphael, a failed writer, deep in debt, and unrequited in love, is about to take a suicidal plunge into the Seine River. Just in time, he discovers the "Magic Skin" in an antiquity shop. Its supernatural powers grant every wish but it extracts a terrible toll! This parable depicts the malaise of 19th century France.

"The Conscript" is one of the stories from the great collection making up "The Human Comedy"; it captures the human cost of revolution in a terribly touching way. Madame de Dey is a noble, rich widow whose son, an officer in the dragoons, has chosen to follow the princes into exile. She remains behind in a precarious position to look after his fortune. She is now awaiting her son's arrival in disguise.

En 1799, sous la Révolution française, des paysans bretons s'arment pour le retour du roi et contre la troupe républicaine du commandant Hulot. Une aristocrate, Marie de Verneuil, est envoyée par Joseph Fouché pour séduire et capturer leur chef, le Marquis de Montauran, dit le Gars. Elle doit être aidée par un policier habile, ambitieux et peu scrupuleux, Corentin. Cependant, elle tombe amoureuse de sa cible.

In diesem Text in Hörbuchform wird eine humoristische Analyse der Spezies Rentner und Beamte vorgenommen und der Gegenstand von Balzacs schmunzelnder Betrachtung ist im Allgemeinen gesprochen der Alltag. Der Titel hält also, was er verspricht: Teil 4 der Aufsätze des Alltags.

Felix Grandet, having married well and become a wealthy landowner and wine-grower, is a miser who watches like a hawk the sugar lumps and the bread slices. The question of who will marry his daughter and inherit his fortune fuels endless speculation in the town of Saumur. The arrival of Eugénie’s cousin sparks feelings and a resolve that puts her on a collision course with her father’s control. As the years pass and she must navigate the self-interest of potential suitors, we see how habits manifest themselves in a new generation.

Dalla provincia francese di Angoulême alle strade tumultuose di Parigi si consuma il destino di Lucien Chardon, giovane poeta deciso a trasformare il proprio talento in gloria. Ma la capitale, scintillante e crudele, lo trascinerà in un mondo di seduzioni, intrighi e rivalità spietate, dove il successo ha un prezzo e le illusioni si pagano care. Accanto a lui, nell'ombra della provincia, David Séchard, tipografo onesto e idealista, lotta per perfezionare un'invenzione capace di cambiare il loro futuro.

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris (Un grand homme de province à Paris, 1839) is the second book in Balzac’s Lost Illusions trilogy, which is part of his sweeping set of novels collectively titled La Comédie Humaine. The story is set in post-Napoleonic France, when the new bourgeoisie was jostling for position alongside the old aristocracy. In the first volume of the trilogy (Two Poets, 1837), we met Lucien Chardon, an aspiring poet who feels stymied by the pettiness of provincial life. In the present volume, Lucien, now using the more aristocratic-sounding surname "de Rubempré," leaves ...