"Little Miseries of Conjugal Life" was published three years after "Lost Illusions" 1843 and Balzac's "Physiologie du Mariage" was in 1829. "Physiologie du Mariage" was dull reading, I enjoyed "Little Miseries of Conjugal Life" so much more because it was concentrated on a married couple, Adolphe and Caroline. The first half is from the male perspective and the later part the female with regards to marriage. I bring up "Lost Illusions" because Adolphe has a kind of Lucien biography but quite different. Both looking to make their way in Paris with regards to written materials but Lucien was so desirable, whereas it seems depending on the viewer, Adolphe it depends. Caroline is no real beauty but neither is she the opposite. Their feelings at the start of the marriage and as they grow more accustomed to each other. Kind of depressing look at marriage but with some reality in it. Lol, Doctor Biachion is mentioned in this, treating Caroline.
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PETITES MISÈRES DE la vie conjugale was initially published in 1846. It is composed of thirty-seven chapters, published separately in various magazines and journals, offering a series of burlesque sketches centred in a young bourgeois household, belonging to Adolphe and Caroline.
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1. — As to your wife. Your wife is to inherit the property of a maternal uncle, a gouty old fellow whom she humors, nurses, caresses, and muffles up; to say nothing of her father’s fortune. Caroline has always adored her uncle, — her uncle who trotted her on his knee, her uncle who — her uncle whom — her uncle, in short,
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— whose property is estimated at two hundred thousand.
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“You can marry Caroline,” says Adolphe’s mother to your future son-in-law; “Caroline will be the sole heiress of her mother, of her uncle, and her grandfather.” 2. — As to yourself. You are also the heir of your maternal grandfather, a good old man whose possessions will surely fall to you, for he has grown imbecile, and
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is therefore incapable of making a will.
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III. — A dowry of three hundred thousand. IV. — Caroline’s only sister, a little dunce of twelve, a sickly child, who bids fair to fill an early grave. V. — Your own fortune, father-in-law (in certain kinds of society
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they say papa father-in-law) yielding an income of twenty thousand, and which will soon be increased by an inheritance. VI. — Your wife’s fortune, which will be increased by two inheritances — from her uncle and her grandfather.
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The majority of the relatives have had a word to say about this marriage. Those on the side of the bridegroom: “Adolphe has made a good thing of it.” Those on the side of the bride: “Caroline has made a splendid match. Adolphe is an only son, and
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will have an income of sixty thousand, some day or other!”
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Your wife also is an expectant mother! The news spreads like lightning, and your oldest college friend says to you laughingly: “Ah! so you are trying to increase the population again!” You have some hope in a consultation that is to take place to-morrow. You, kind-hearted man that you are, you turn red, you hope it is merely the dropsy; but the doctors
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confirm the arrival of a little last one! In such circumstances some timorous husbands go to the country or make a journey to Italy. In short, a strange confusion reigns in your household; both you and your wife are in a false position.
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Adolphe is looking to Madame de Fischtaminel, and Caroline finally finds a lover for herself, after finding her husband not too interested in herself.
The mother and the daughter are put to bed nine days apart. Caroline’s first child is a pale, cadaverous little girl that will not live. Her mother’s last child is a splendid boy, weighing twelve pounds, with two teeth and luxuriant hair.
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For sixteen years you have desired a son. This conjugal annoyance is the only one that makes you beside yourself with joy. For your rejuvenated wife has attained what must be called the Indian Summer of women; she nurses, she has a full breast of milk! Her complexion is fresh, her color is pure pink and white. In her forty- second year, she affects the young woman, buys little baby stockings, walks about followed by a nurse, embroiders caps and tries on the cunningest headdresses.
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GENERALLY SPEAKING, A young woman does not exhibit her true character till she has been married two or three years. She hides her faults, without intending it, in the midst of her first joys, of her first parties of pleasure.
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Your wife, the young lady in whom the first pleasures of life and love supplied the place of grace
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and wit, so arch, so animated, so vivacious, whose least movements spoke with delicious eloquence, has cast off, slowly, one by one, her natural artifices. At last you perceive the truth! You try to disbelieve it, you think yourself deceived; but no: Caroline lacks intellect, she is dull, she can neither joke nor reason, sometimes she has little tact. You are frightened. You find yourself forever obliged to lead this darling through the thorny paths, where you must perforce leave your self-esteem in tatters.
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You have already been annoyed several times by replies that, in society, were politely received: people have held their tongues instead of smiling; but you were certain that after your departure the women looked at each other and said: “Did you hear Madame Adolphe?” “Your little woman, she is — ” “A regular cabbage-head.” “How could he, who is certainly a man of sense, choose — ?” “He should educate, teach his wife, or make her hold her tongue.”
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She begins to think you are cross-grained, moody. The fact is, you are watching her, that’s all! In short, you keep her within a small circle of friends, for she has already embroiled you with people on whom your interests depended.