The Duchesse of Langeais (The Thirteen #2)
By the French author, who, along with Flaubert, is generally regarded as a founding-father of realism in European fiction. His large output of works, collectively entitled The Human Comedy (La Comidie Humaine), consists of 95 finished works (stories, novels and essays) and 48 unfinished works. His stories are an attempt to comprehend and depict the realities of life in con...more
Paperback, 148 pages
Published
May 5th 2006
by Dodo Press
(first published 1839)
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- Good morning young man. Mr... Allen, I think it was?
- Please call me Woody, sir.
- Woody. Well, sit down. Make yourself comfortable. Now, why don't you tell me about your screenplay?
- Thank you, sir. It's called Blame it on Balzac...
- Balzac? Like the French author?
- Yes sir. So the hero, he's this nerdy young student. I was thinking I would play him. He's writing a dissertation on Balzac's La Duchesse de Langeais...
- I'm n...more
- Please call me Woody, sir.
- Woody. Well, sit down. Make yourself comfortable. Now, why don't you tell me about your screenplay?
- Thank you, sir. It's called Blame it on Balzac...
- Balzac? Like the French author?
- Yes sir. So the hero, he's this nerdy young student. I was thinking I would play him. He's writing a dissertation on Balzac's La Duchesse de Langeais...
- I'm n...more
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This is one of the three novelettes that are grouped together as The History of the Thirteen, along with Ferragus: Chief of the Companions of Duty and The Girl with the Golden Eyes. The whole notion is that there is a secret society of wealthy gentlemen in Paris called The Thirteen which has powers approaching the supernatural.
In this book, Antoinette, the Duchesse de Langeais trifles with the feelings of General Armande de Montriveau, who is a member of the Thirteen. On the advice o...more
In this book, Antoinette, the Duchesse de Langeais trifles with the feelings of General Armande de Montriveau, who is a member of the Thirteen. On the advice o...more
Belle et triste histoire d'amour, intrigues des Treize, et aussi critique des coquettes du faubourg-Saint-Germain, . De magnifiques descriptions :
"La religion dominant la vie, en en offrant sans cesse aux hommes la fin et les moyens, image tout espagnole d'ailleurs ! Jetez ce paysage au milieu de la Méditerranée, sous un ciel brûlant ; accompagnez-le de quelques palmiers, de plusieurs arbres rabougris, mais vivaces qui mêlaient leurs vertes frondaisons agitées aux feuillages sculptés ...more
"La religion dominant la vie, en en offrant sans cesse aux hommes la fin et les moyens, image tout espagnole d'ailleurs ! Jetez ce paysage au milieu de la Méditerranée, sous un ciel brûlant ; accompagnez-le de quelques palmiers, de plusieurs arbres rabougris, mais vivaces qui mêlaient leurs vertes frondaisons agitées aux feuillages sculptés ...more
Neste romance, Balzac escreveu um primeiro capítulo fenomenal. E um epílogo formidável. É uma narrativa da qual o cinema se apropriou com maestria. O primeiro capítulo conta uma situação dramática que, misteriosa, demanda do escritor uma explicação retrospectiva. O problema é que a retrospectiva é maçante. Balzac, como sempre, faz um panorama social (curiosamente, não tão inspirado como em outras obras), depois foca em alguns personagens, destrincha-os, para depois se confundir com eles, e se es...more
Mmm..? one third decent narrative, two thirds padding. Somewhat disappointing. Could Balzac have been trying to emulate Dumas? If so it simply didn't work. Yes, love is interesting, love spurned, even more so, but this just goes on and on and ends tragically. Perhaps all will become clear when I've read the last volume of the trilogy.
Les personnages sont à la fois sinistres et peu crédibles. Dommage!
re-read
Muito mais do que a história, gosto da análise da nobreza de seu tempo que Balzac faz no primeiro capítulo. Dito isso, gosto, na história, de como Balzac consegue criar um história que parece clichê, o amor da duquesa e de Montriveau, para subvertê-la completamente. O final cumpre bem esse papel.
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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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“Yes,' Montriveau went on in an unsteady voice, 'this Catholic faith to which you wish to convert me is a lie that men make for themselves; hope is a lie at the expense of the future; pride, a lie between us and our fellows; and pity, and prudence, and terror are cunning lies. And now my happiness is to be one more lying delusion; I am expected to delude myself, to be willing to give gold coin for silver to the end. If you can so easily dispense with my visits; if you confess me neither as your friend nor your love, you do not care for me! And I, poor fool that I am, tell myself this, and know it, and love you!”
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