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101st out of 385 books
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643 voters
Eugénie Grandet (La Comédie Humaine)
'Who is going to marry Eugénie Grandet?'
This is the question that fills the minds of the inhabitants of Saumur, the setting for Eugénie Grandet (1833), one of the earliest and most famous novels in Balzac's Com die humaine. The Grandet household, oppressed by the exacting miserliness of Grandet himself, is jerked violently out of routine by the sudden arrival of Eugénie'...more
This is the question that fills the minds of the inhabitants of Saumur, the setting for Eugénie Grandet (1833), one of the earliest and most famous novels in Balzac's Com die humaine. The Grandet household, oppressed by the exacting miserliness of Grandet himself, is jerked violently out of routine by the sudden arrival of Eugénie'...more
Paperback, 200 pages
Published
August 28th 2003
by Oxford University Press
(first published 1833)
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This was a delight! Eugenie is no conniving female, spoiled brat, or cynical woman of the world. Living in a small town in the wine region far from Paris, she is a sheltered girl, completely without artifice and eventually to become a very wealthy woman. She doesn't know that however. Her father is as miserly as they get. His only goal in life is to acquire further wealth, and yes, he loves to see and count his gold. Some of his financial shenanigans, as well as the currency references, went ove...more
Having never read Balzac, I had no sense of how human and intimate this story would be. The delicacy of Balzac's descriptions of his heroine--the way in which he tries to capture, without judgment, her emotional universe--was really quite surprising and affecting. To be able to document the first blush of love felt by a provincial, perhaps rather small-minded, young woman with sensitivity and care is no simple task. This felt far more complex and thoughtful a treatment of that subject than anyth...more
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مثل هر اثر دیگر بالزاک، شخصیت ها با ابعاد کاملن روشنی معرفی می شوند. بنظر می رسد اوژنی گرانده هدف اصلی بالزاک برای تالیف "کمدی انسانی" است. فلیکس پدر اوژنی، که از چند ارثیه، ثروتمند شده، خسیس است و با همسرش، دخترش اوژنی و خدمتکارشان نانون در خانه ی ویرانی که سخت به تعمیر نیاز دارد، زندگی می کنند. گراسین بانکدار، بخاطر پسرش به اوژنی چشم دارد، و کروچوی وکیل اوژنی را برای پسرخواهرش در نظر دارد، و هر دو نظرشان به ثروت فلیکس است و پیوسته به دیدار خانواده ی گرانده می آیند. فلیکس نیز آنها را به نفع خود...more
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Brilliant novel -- miser, sheltered young daughter, downtrodden wife, early 1800s, provincial France. Translated by Sylvia Raphael. Outstanding forward by Christopher Prendergast. Magnificent characterizations.
3 likes · like · see review
Uma das leituras mais saborosas que tive. Adoro Balzac. Poucos autores tem a própria narrativa na mão como ele. Sua fisionomia de bonachão sempre me passou a impressão de um tipo sem pressa com o trato e com a vida; que sentia enorme prazer numa longa conversa, numa boa comida, etc. Esse olho clínico a gente já sente de início quando B. se demora descrevendo com minúcias a fachada de um casario de Saumur, comparando-o à história acabada da França de então. Faz isso logo após com a descrição da v...more
Much of Balzac is free on the Kindle, and this is one of the world's great boons. I'd never read "Eugenie Grandet" and I was having a bad time with my own writing, so I grabbed "Eugenie" as being as different as anything could be from the book I was trying to finish.
"Eugenie Grandet" is apparently early Balzac, but it's the work of a master. In terms of events, there's barely a story, but emotionally the book is a saga. Monsieur Grandet, the richest man in a provincial town, is a miser who's bee...more
"Eugenie Grandet" is apparently early Balzac, but it's the work of a master. In terms of events, there's barely a story, but emotionally the book is a saga. Monsieur Grandet, the richest man in a provincial town, is a miser who's bee...more
Felix Grandet is a cooper from provincial Suamur in the times of Napolean and the restoration in France. A combination of business savvy and some fortuitous inheritances have made him rich, which he builds on, driven by his worship of wealth and miserly habits.
His only heir will be his daughter Eugenie, which makes her the centre of local attention and the Cruchot and Des Grassins families vie for her affections.
Into the mix arrives her cousin Charles, a Paris dandy of gentle manners and gracef...more
His only heir will be his daughter Eugenie, which makes her the centre of local attention and the Cruchot and Des Grassins families vie for her affections.
Into the mix arrives her cousin Charles, a Paris dandy of gentle manners and gracef...more
Since I had to spend hours sitting in the doctor's office this morning with my daughter, I took my kindle and got caught up in this story. Talk about a love story full of intrigue and backstabbing and heartache.
Eugenie is a lovely girl with an awful father. He was a cask maker in a town that depended on the vineyards for survival. From cask maker he progressed up society's ladder and soon was a wealthy man. His big problem was he was so tight with his money. His wife had brought money into the m...more
Eugenie is a lovely girl with an awful father. He was a cask maker in a town that depended on the vineyards for survival. From cask maker he progressed up society's ladder and soon was a wealthy man. His big problem was he was so tight with his money. His wife had brought money into the m...more
A great novel by a great novelist! It captures you from the first page, taking you slowly into the depth of the Grandet’s life. It is a novel about a miser person, Felix Grandet, whose negative trait affects all the people around him, his family, the tenants in his lands, even the people of the village. I loved the dramatic air and the ebb and flow of emotions in the novel, as well as the round characters that changed along the course of the events. The most favorable character was Eugenie, with...more
Balzac’s Eugenie Grandet is a wonderful novel that describes the consequences of extreme greed. Pierre Grandet is shrewd businessman who lives for money. Eugenie although, extremely rich lives like a pauper because her father refuses to even provide basic necessities of life. Her hand in marriage is being sought by two candidates M. Cruchot and M des Grassin. Unexpectedly, her 23 year cousin arrives from Paris. He grew up in affluent household and flaunted his wealth. His father went bankrupted...more
A heartclenching pain-turner of a classic, a perfect manifesto for choosing love over money. The French do desolation and hopelessness so well! Must be the heat. In certain respects, Eugénie gets off lightly. She steals a kiss with her cousin before her bastard father packs him off to the Indies to get rich off slave plantations, and stays a virgin her whole life for that one moment of stolen love. Nowadays, anyone marrying their cousin would be hounded out the hamlet, Daily Mails flung at their...more
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Balzac was a good observer and commentator on the social conditions of his times, diving into the private lives of citizens of different classes within French society. In this short novel we see the "us vs. them" play of city vs. provincial citizens, with money being the measure of victory.
Papa Grandet, Eugenie's father, is by far the most colourful character, a sort of Scrooge on Steroids, out to amass his wealth in the provinces without investing a penny of his own money but by getting others...more
Papa Grandet, Eugenie's father, is by far the most colourful character, a sort of Scrooge on Steroids, out to amass his wealth in the provinces without investing a penny of his own money but by getting others...more
Very, very realistic! Balzac doesn't romanticise it and for me, the real hero of this book is Katherine Prescott Wormeley who translated it SO beautifully that I fell in love with it!
I just couldn't read this book without a pencil in my hand! It had so many beautiful and poetic things that I HAD TO underline and make notes on the margins and I rarely do that to a book! Also, I couldn't help imagining how beautiful the original version would've been considering it's French--the most poetic lang...more
I just couldn't read this book without a pencil in my hand! It had so many beautiful and poetic things that I HAD TO underline and make notes on the margins and I rarely do that to a book! Also, I couldn't help imagining how beautiful the original version would've been considering it's French--the most poetic lang...more
It's not quite as good as Pere Goriot or Lost Illusions, but I really liked Eugenie Grandet. I can hardly believe that Balzac wrote nearly a hundred of these novels. Balzac's powers of description are superb. He can compare a woman to a piece of dried fruit, and you can see her perfectly in your mind. Who would think of comparing a person to dried fruit? But it works.
You could call this a morality tale: avarice leads to unhappiness. Eugenie's father is the epitome of greed. Even on his deathbed...more
You could call this a morality tale: avarice leads to unhappiness. Eugenie's father is the epitome of greed. Even on his deathbed...more
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Jun 11, 2008
Paddy Docherty
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
absolutely everyone
This is a masterpiece! It's a very gripping read, and has fantastic characters drawn with great skill and economy. The heroine, Eugenie Grandet, is one of Balzac's feminine models of virtue and a deeply sympathetic character. There is plenty of rivalry, plotting & scheming and a touching love story - all the elements of a great book...
Clunky. Pere Goriot is better. Balzac likes caricatures of people, but he also likes realism, and that creates problems I think. But I liked it. The French do this "society novel" thing better than the English. Because in France it ends in tears.
Of all the French scribes including Proust, Stendahl, Flaubert, Zola, Camus et al, Balzac wields the sharpest quill IMHO. They are all superior but Balzac's works stand out. At this stage, I have dined on a few apertifs ... Pere Goirot, Lost Illusions and now Eugenie Grandet. A whole world of great reading awaits.
This portrait of a strong-willed heroine who endures a cruel, miserly father is stunning. Balzac is at his best when he describes settings and characters. He spends pages drilling down...more
This portrait of a strong-willed heroine who endures a cruel, miserly father is stunning. Balzac is at his best when he describes settings and characters. He spends pages drilling down...more
Considered one of Balzac's masterpieces--and deservedly so. The character of Monsieur Grandet, the title character's father, can be reduced to a single quality: avarice. For him it is not what money can buy that brings happiness, but just the accumulation of money itself. While his obsession destroys his wife and injures his daughter Eugenie, the latter is ultimately a victim not of her father but of her own obsessive love for her Cousin Charles, a Parisian with morals the simple girl from Saumu...more
Sep 01, 2012
Mayra Correa e Castro
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
ficção
Mais um Balzac (1799-1850, França) que deve ser lido, esta pequena joia de romance que delata a mesquinharia e a cobiça. Eugênia Grandet, lançado em partes em 1833 e, em volume, em 1834, foi integrado à Comédia Humana dentro da seção Cenas da Vida Provinciana, quer dizer, fora das histórias que se passam em Paris. Em sua época, ficou tão famoso quanto O Pai Goriot e A Mulher de Trinta Anos e deve ter dado algum alívio financeiro ao sempre endividado autor.
A história é simples. O jeito de contar...more
A história é simples. O jeito de contar...more
Eugenie Grandet is a quiet tragedy.
The eponymous character is the quiet and industrious daughter of a miser. His entire life is devoted to making more money, even faking a stutter to put other people off their guard in business transactions. Eugenie has known no other life - every day, she and her mother sit in their freezing sitting room (the fire can only be lit between November and April), mending and sewing. For her, this is not unusual, and she accepts at face value her father's complaints...more
The eponymous character is the quiet and industrious daughter of a miser. His entire life is devoted to making more money, even faking a stutter to put other people off their guard in business transactions. Eugenie has known no other life - every day, she and her mother sit in their freezing sitting room (the fire can only be lit between November and April), mending and sewing. For her, this is not unusual, and she accepts at face value her father's complaints...more
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Mar 09, 2013
Maria Grazia
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
grandi-classici,
narrativa-francese
Ci vuole, ogni tanto, un Balzac, per ricordarsi come si costruiscono personaggi e trame, per apprezzare la più raffinata psicologia e il più autentico, soddisfacente realismo.
Eugenia Grandet, ovvero dell'avarizia, quella più vera e piena che coinvolge tutti i sentimenti, quella che fa' sacrificare gli esseri umani in nome dell'oro. Tutto il romanzo è magistrale, e il punto più alto nel descrivere l'abiezione morale dell'avaro è il momento in cui, morente, viene richiamato per un attimo alla vita...more
Eugenia Grandet, ovvero dell'avarizia, quella più vera e piena che coinvolge tutti i sentimenti, quella che fa' sacrificare gli esseri umani in nome dell'oro. Tutto il romanzo è magistrale, e il punto più alto nel descrivere l'abiezione morale dell'avaro è il momento in cui, morente, viene richiamato per un attimo alla vita...more
- بههرحال، زن در دنیا بیشتر از مرد غُصّه میخورد و جنس زن بیشتر از مرد رنج میبرد؛ مرد زور دارد و قدرتِ خود را بهکار میبرد و دست به عمل میزند، سرگرم میشود، طرح میریزد، آینده را در آغوش میگیرد و دلداریها مییابد... شارل چنین کرد. امّا زن در جای خود میماند. در مقابل غمی که دارد مینشیند و هیچچیز برای او مایهی انصرافِ خاطر نمیشود، تا اعماق پرتگاهی که غم و درد باز کرده است فرو میرود، عمق آن را اندازه میگیرد و اغلب این پرتگاه را را با آرزوها و اشکهایِ خود پر میکند... و کار اوژنی چ...more
Balzac è un autore che mi è sempre piaciuto. Sono ben lontana, anzi, lontanissima dall’aver percorso l’intero cammino dal lui offertoci con La commedia umana e sicuramente non ne arriverò alla fine, perché, benché non sia decrepita, di certo non sono giovane e troppe altre letture e curiosità mi attirano per potervi dedicare la mia esclusiva attenzione.
Tuttavia, è sempre un piacere incontrarlo ed Eugenia Grandet non ha fatto eccezione. Vividissimo il quadro sociale che fa da cornice alla storia...more
Tuttavia, è sempre un piacere incontrarlo ed Eugenia Grandet non ha fatto eccezione. Vividissimo il quadro sociale che fa da cornice alla storia...more
“Gli avari non credono nella vita futura, poiché per essi il presente è tutto, e questo stesso concetto diffonde una luce orribile sul mondo odierno, ove più che mai il denaro domina leggi, politica e costumi. Istituzioni, libri, uomini e dottrina cospirano insieme a scuotere la fede in un’altra vita, fede su cui da diciotto secoli si basa l’edifizio sociale...”
Dopo “illusioni perdute”, un altro romanzo balzachiano in cui i protagonisti, al termine delle vicende narrate, si ritrovano senza illus...more
Dopo “illusioni perdute”, un altro romanzo balzachiano in cui i protagonisti, al termine delle vicende narrate, si ritrovano senza illus...more
Classic story of a pretty young woman who is treated as property by her miserly father and denied a normal social life. She falls for the first handsome man to enter her life and struggles to help har Prince Charming. Her father, and hs attitude to money is the protagonist in this tale of a small town in 19th century France. The way the father Grandet conducts his household is full sf splendid comic moments. I sympathised with Eugenie and the tribulations she goes through. The ending is fresh an...more
Jun 17, 2008
Yusi Asnidar
added it
A classic story of love n hope...
TRISTE!!!
TRISTE!!!
Много харесвам начина на писане на Балзак. Винаги има хем интересна история с поука, хем тема, която разнищва из основи. Изключително умело писане, дълбоко познание на хората, тяхната природа и навици. Уникален разказвач е Балзак. И съвършено проницателен.
Йожени Гранде е жертва на алчността и на любовта (а може би и на сляпата си добротата, която поражда от наивност?). Интересно ми беше да прочета история за чак толкова алчни и пресметливи хора и последиците от тази алчност. За пореден път се уб...more
Йожени Гранде е жертва на алчността и на любовта (а може би и на сляпата си добротата, която поражда от наивност?). Интересно ми беше да прочета история за чак толкова алчни и пресметливи хора и последиците от тази алчност. За пореден път се уб...more
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I was surprised at how unbalanced this book was. In form, it comes across as a character study, but the characters for the most part lack depth. That's especially so with the father, who seems to be nothing more than a personification of avarice. Eugenie has her moments, but they are few. The remaining characters are even thinner than the father.
On top of this, the story was also unbalanced. About 80% of the plot occurs in the last 20% of the book. The beginning feels like a very long set-up, an...more
On top of this, the story was also unbalanced. About 80% of the plot occurs in the last 20% of the book. The beginning feels like a very long set-up, an...more
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تا آنجا که یادم است، داستان سه زن در برابر تعداد زیادی آدم است. توی داستان آدم ها سه دسته شده اند. سه زن، که اوژنی و مادرش و خدمتکار خانه هستند و دسته دوم باباگرانده و آدم هایی که مگسانند گرد شیرینی و مردم عادی که همیشه نگاهشان به باباگرانده و اوژنی است و حسرت باباگرانده بودن را می خورند نه اوژنی بودن را.
بابا گرانده و دار و دسته اش و مردمی که همیشه حرفشان را می زنند، آدم هایی هستند که چسبیده اند به دنیا و دنیا و دنیا و از آن لذت می برند، اما خیلی چیزهای دیگر را فراموش کرده اند. فقط پول و پول و...more
بابا گرانده و دار و دسته اش و مردمی که همیشه حرفشان را می زنند، آدم هایی هستند که چسبیده اند به دنیا و دنیا و دنیا و از آن لذت می برند، اما خیلی چیزهای دیگر را فراموش کرده اند. فقط پول و پول و...more
Another worthless, boring classic with all the minuses the classics have, and much more. I've read half of it.
It's a long-long story about an obsessed with money, pathetic old man, that thinks wealth is more important than l-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y anything, and plans to get more and more money until he dies, even though he's old and rich already, and doesn't even care about his offspring, and it's all incredibly pointless.
Basically all you'll read about is this. The book contains few "side-stories" wh...more
It's a long-long story about an obsessed with money, pathetic old man, that thinks wealth is more important than l-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y anything, and plans to get more and more money until he dies, even though he's old and rich already, and doesn't even care about his offspring, and it's all incredibly pointless.
Basically all you'll read about is this. The book contains few "side-stories" wh...more
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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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“La flatterie n'émane jamais des grandes âmes, elle est l'apanage des petits esprits qui réussissent à se rapetisser encore pour mieux entrer dans la sphère vitale de la personne autour de laquelle ils gravitent. La flatterie sous-entend un intérêt. (p.239/317)”
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“Affreuse condition de l'homme ! Il n'y a pas un de ses bonheurs qui ne vienne d'une ignorance quelconque.”
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