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A Woman of Thirty
It was a Sunday morning in the beginning of April 1813, a morning which gave promise of one of those bright days when Parisians, for the first time in the year, behold dry pavements underfoot and a cloudless sky overhead. It was not yet noon when a luxurious cabriolet, drawn by two spirited horses, turned out of the Rue de Castiglione into the Rue de Rivoli, and drew up be...more
Paperback, 252 pages
Published
October 1st 2008
by 1st World Publishing
(first published 1832)
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Une oeuvre mésestimée de Balzac, considérée même parfois comme mineure parce qu'assemblée à la hâte par l'auteur à partir de plusieurs nouvelles distinctes pour les besoins de son éditeur. Et pourtant, quelle puissance, quelle vérité se dégage de ce tragique portrait de femme en cinq épisodes (20, 30, 40, 50 ans, puis son décès) ! Cette femme de trente ans, ce sont toutes les femmes du 19ème, grandes délaissées de la révolution de 1789. Ses révoltes intérieures sont opprimées par une société bou...more
This book was beautifully written and provided some interesting commentary on the position of women in marriage in the early 1800s. However, I found it difficult to really engage for a few reason. Firstly, the author seemed to make many strange assumptions about the mental and emotional lives of women that at best rang false and at worst seemed insulting. Secondly, the story as a whole felt uneven. The events seemed only tied together by the fact that they happened to the same character and by t...more
Hmm, Part I is not a good start. It's melodramatic and the characterisation is not at all convincing. Julie, Marquise d'Aiglemont, is warned by her father not to marry the dashing officer that she admires when they go to farewell Napoleon's troops but she does and, well, gosh, daddy was right and so is his auntie, the guy is a dolt and a cad. The discovery that he is Not a Nice Man makes Julie take to her bed with the vapours, but somehow she manages to get pregnant and have a child, Helene. ...more
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I read Balzac first, when I was very young, and I enjoyed the stories very much. The second time was when I became interested in history. That was even better. One (who?) has said that ”for better understanding France in 19. century, you’d better read Balzac”. He is the auther of ”Studies of Manners in the 19th. century”!
بار اول بی آن که به تاریخ علاقمند باشم، از خواندن بالزاک لذت بردم. سال ها بعد که تاریخ برایم به شیرینی رمان بود، خواندن دوباره ی بالزاک چندین برابر لذت داشت. "ک...more
بار اول بی آن که به تاریخ علاقمند باشم، از خواندن بالزاک لذت بردم. سال ها بعد که تاریخ برایم به شیرینی رمان بود، خواندن دوباره ی بالزاک چندین برابر لذت داشت. "ک...more
'Tis a strangely paced book, but satisfying nonetheless. It also contains a bizarre instance of first person narration in Chapter Three which, in all honesty, comes from nowhere. Poor translation? Or Herr Balzac once again not giving a damn for pesky, superfluous details?
good...but not balzac's best. He really spoils it when he leaves the everyday story of marital discord, illicit love, unloved children, and goes off on a weird flight of fancy with Helene's unbelievable elopement with an axe murderer and her escapades thereafter!
كان نفسي أقرأ لكاتب فرنسي .. والفرنسيون جميلون في تقدير المرأه ، وهنا يصوّر أحلام وهواجس امرأة فرنسيه بين عذابات الحب والخيانه وغيرو وغيرو ، أذكر أني أخدت الرواية من عمتي وكنت أقرأها في الشغل
~_~
~_~
nay nay, definitely not the best Balzac could do. I dearly love his writing style: you feel as if he knew everything there is to know about human nature. But in A Woman of Thirty his writing tone sometimes falls into a simple condition of 'I-Know-All-About-Women-And-What-They-Feel'.
Pft. Pft. Pft.
And that bit about pirates? And Julie's daughter falling for a man with a single glance? Honoré, you can do better than that.
Pft. Pft. Pft.
And that bit about pirates? And Julie's daughter falling for a man with a single glance? Honoré, you can do better than that.
I really did not like the book, nor the character. I was really disappointed, as Balzac has great reviews. He is surely not the right author for me. I felt he was many times defending the character for not being a good mother.
” جولي ” بطلة الرواية تقع
فريسة تحت زواج فاشل ، وتمر
حياتها الزوجية في تقلبات ومنعطفات
خطيرة كالحب الفاسق ، و تستمر معانأتها
حتى بعد أنجاب أطفالها الذين كتبوا الفصل الأخير لتعاستها
بناء أدبي فني متكامل ، تصوير لعادات و
أخلاق المجتمع الإنساني ، لا يقتصر هذا العمل
على تلك الحقبة في التاريخ
الفرنسي ، بل هو موجود في كل عصر
وكل تاريخ ، فلسفات رائعة حول الحب
و الزواج و عادات المجتمعات
فريسة تحت زواج فاشل ، وتمر
حياتها الزوجية في تقلبات ومنعطفات
خطيرة كالحب الفاسق ، و تستمر معانأتها
حتى بعد أنجاب أطفالها الذين كتبوا الفصل الأخير لتعاستها
بناء أدبي فني متكامل ، تصوير لعادات و
أخلاق المجتمع الإنساني ، لا يقتصر هذا العمل
على تلك الحقبة في التاريخ
الفرنسي ، بل هو موجود في كل عصر
وكل تاريخ ، فلسفات رائعة حول الحب
و الزواج و عادات المجتمعات
decided to read it because i, ahem, identified with the title. simply awful. balzac's politics are beyond thinly veiled. i was hoping for a story instead of a screed, but i was disappointed.
A book should not be a cross to bear. how boring! It is like The Lady of the Camellias but with no prostitute. I'll be (too) soon balzacian, but I cannot see myself any close to Julie.
I really like the writing style of Balzac. The character development really makes this accessible to all. I enjoyed the perspective of the mother and daughter both looking back at their lives and deciding to move forward despite the difficult choices made and the turns their lives took.
On a l'impression de lire un patchwork étrange de plusieurs nouvelles. Au final, je n'ai pas trouvé ce roman très intéressant.
It was considered an old age for women, back then ....such a pity.
La Femme de trente ans by Honor de Balzac (1977)
I'm still reading...
A mulher de trinta anos by Honor de Balzac (?)
Boy, did she suffer. I read this book on a long plane ride. Had I not been on the plane I wouldn't have read it at all. Yes, she definitely suffered. Did I mention that she suffered? I hated the fact that Balzac always had to point out the obvious. I say: let the characters speak for themselves!
could be beautiful at times, at other times it was hard to understand what was going on and you had to just lose yourself in the language. unfortunately my enjoyment of the language was tainted by the knowledge that it's meant to be read in french :(
توصیف هایی عالی. وقتی بالزاک با مهارت و زیبا نویسی گذر زمان رو از دیدی یک مسافر نشان می ده..برایم شگفت آور بود.
had a sense of ambiguity.
I read it in the first year of high school, and considering its R rating(Wink) did it quite stealthy
I read it in the first year of high school, and considering its R rating(Wink) did it quite stealthy
sophisticate, descriptive and inquisitive into the life and adventures of a woman.
This book makes a lot of sense when you turn 30... Love it.
not bad not good, generally I do not like his writin'.
Good entertainment...
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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 th...more
More about Honoré de Balzac...
Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of th...more
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“В самом деле, не ошибается ли тот, кто воображает, что чувства умирают и рождаются вновь? Возникнув, они живут вечно в глубине нашего сердца. Они дремлют и пробуждаются по воле случая; но навсегда остаются в душе и меняют ее.”
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