A Harlot High and Low - Part Four - In Which Jacques Collins Abdicates as Deb - conclusion

[Deborah, Moderator]

This week we conclude our reading.

[Deborah, Moderator]

Phew. I just finished. What did you think about Balzac's statement that women are men's downfall? No other questions as this is an opportunity to discuss the entire book.

[Frances, Moderator]

Again, the final sections left me convinced that Collin had in fact been in love with Lucien, and before him with Calvi, so I found it somewhat ironic that he stated that women are men's downfall, without seeing the role that his attachments to young men had had in his own difficulties.

Certainly I think that love and loss and jealousy can all be the downfall of men. There was also a very poignant passage about the absence of love:

A man who, moreover, had reached the age of fifty-three without ever having succeeding in inspiring love, M. de Granville admired sensitive natures, like all men who had never been loved. It was perhaps that despair, the lot of many men to whom women grant only their esteem and friendship, whose intimate bond secretly united Messieurs de Bauvan, de Granville and de Serisy; for a shared misfortune, like a shared happiness, tunes souls to its own diapason.

Interesting to see his sympathy to these powerful men, who can sense that their wives and mistresses, though drawn to them for their wealth and power, do not love them. This is contrasted by the many relationships, which clearly survive imprisonments and difficult times, which are formed between so many of the criminals/convicts that we meet.

Well, if I'd lived in the 19th century in a position in which I had enough time on my hands to read this series I might try it again from the beginning. I wonder if Balzac is still widely read in the french-speaking world the way Dickens is?

[Deborah, Moderator]

Frances wrote: "Again, the final sections left me convinced that Collin had in fact been in love with Lucien, and before him with Calvi, so I found it somewhat ironic that he stated that women are men's downfall, ..."

Great points. Thanks for sticking with it.

[Amy]

It's funny he should say woman are men's downfall when Carlos relied so heavily on his aunt, and was trained by her. Also, if Carlos hadn't gotten so greedy exploiting Nucingen, he probably wouldn't have been caught.
I was expecting Carlos to set a trap for Europe. Was anyone else surprised he rewarded her?

[Deborah, Moderator]

Amy wrote: "It's funny he should say woman are men's downfall when Carlos relied so heavily on his aunt, and was trained by her. Also, if Carlos hadn't gotten so greedy exploiting Nucingen, he probably wouldn'..."

It seemed out of character