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An Historical Mystery
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An Historical Mystery (La Comédie Humaine)
Characterized by amoral ruthlessness, the politics of A Murky Business would seem to bear out Balzac's questionable precept.
Set earlier than most of Balzac's Comedie Humaine, the novel covers the years 1803-6, when Napolean was making himself first Consul and then Emperor. The inclusion of Napoliean himself, as well as figures like Talleyrand and Fouche, makes this a histo
...moreHardcover, 216 pages
Published
July 1st 2006
by IndyPublish.com
(first published 1841)
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The story opens on a beautiful November evening. Michu is cleaning his rifle and muttering to his wife about spies. There follows a brief history of the families of Simeuse and Cinq-Cygne. Michu's dog barks furiously as two strangers from Paris appear on the side road. Aristocratic fugitives of the French Revolution are hiding in the area and there is a kidnapping of an important person. An intrepid young woman, Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, is heavily involved in various plots without her family's kn...more
The author of the introduction, Mr. Hunt, calls this book a 'mystery.' It is true, the narrative does have somewhat of a "who-done-it?" feel. I believe it would be more accurately described as a novel which depicts the circumstances surrounding political persecution, anti-government activism, and the trials, executions/murders which follow such maneuvers. The text can be a bit boring at times: Balzac relies heavily on his audience knowing the political players he was bringing into this little pl...more
I read, not the edition of The Gondreville Mystery cited by Goodreads, but a much older edition in which Gondreville [Une ténébreuse affaire] was packaged with the novellas Massimilla Doni and Maître Cornélius. Gondreville, set in the period after the French Revolution, is said to be a forerunner of Poe and hence of the modern mystery novel. Although there are many mysterious elements, it is in fact an intriguing novel about the adversities of an aristocratic French family in the changing politi...more
Well, to be honest, I read this 20 years ago and can not remember a darn thing about it. I'm guessing it was about some sort of business that was murky.
So why list a book I can't remember? Well, I have to have all my books posted somewhere on the web so if I get hit by a bus I will have a cyber legacy beyond a very nice farm in Farmville.
So why list a book I can't remember? Well, I have to have all my books posted somewhere on the web so if I get hit by a bus I will have a cyber legacy beyond a very nice farm in Farmville.
Mais um livro que usa os eventos iniciados pela Revolução Francesa como pano de fundo. Tal como todos os seus congéneres está muito bem escrito e aposta forte nos dramas das relações interpessoais, contudo, certas secções são entediantes para a média dos leitores e outras requerem alguns conhecimentos sobre o período em questão para serem verdadeiramente apreciadas.
Did Balzac write anything crummy? I'm not expert enough to know. This is another good one, though you really need a working knowledge of revolutionary and Napoleonic France to follow the plot.
An interesting early entry in detective stories, though it is also a historical novel.
Balzac's tale of a noble family undermined by a conspiracy to depose Napolean. Once involved in an earlier such plot, the household is easily framed to cover-up the true culprits. Balzac uses both real & fictional characters (some used in other works by the author) in one of his lesser known novels.
It does help to know a little about the French Revolution and the rise of Bonaparte, but Balzac does give enough historic information so that a reader, unfamiliar with the period will still not be...more
It does help to know a little about the French Revolution and the rise of Bonaparte, but Balzac does give enough historic information so that a reader, unfamiliar with the period will still not be...more
Historical fiction. Balzac. Excellence. Check.
Jun 17, 2008
Kelli
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people with a puerile sense of humor, royalists
i've been reading a lot of balzac, mostly because i find his last name hilarious. 'cousin bette' still remains my favorite so far, although i have to say i found it refreshing to read a balzac novel where he didn't add a footnote referring me to a description of a person/place/emotion in another balzac novel. what kind of tool does that? hint: his last name is hilarious.
Leído en la colección Biblioteca Básica Salvat, Libro RTV nº 37
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Honoré de Balzac was a nineteenth-century French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815.
Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders o...more
More about Honoré de Balzac...
Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders o...more
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