Honoré De Balzac

A new translation of one of Balzac’s finest novels, this tale of misguided passion centers on a young aristocrat who falls into a cloaked, coded entanglement with an older countess—a relationship that is upended when he becomes involved with a new lover. A story of baffled and irrepressible desire, Balzac's The Lily in the Valley opens with a scene of desire unleashed. His protagonist, Felix de Vandenesse, the shy teenage scion of an aristocratic family, has been sent by his family to a ball in honor of a local dignitary. A wallflower at the party, his eyes are drawn to a beautiful woman in fashionable undress. She turns away from him, and, helpless, he stands, covering her bare back with kisses. In shock, she pushes him off. He leaves the party in shame. The woman at the party is Henriette de Montsauf, married to a much older count, the mother of two children whose health has been compromised by their father's past debauchery. Time passes, and Felix is reintroduced to her. Nothing is said of what transpired, though nothing is forgotten, and a courtship begins between the younger man and the still young mother, a courtship whose premise is that Felix will worship her without displaying the least sign of desire. He waits upon her. He plays endless board games with her impossible husband. He developes a language of flowers and presents her with elaborately coded bouquets. Felix and Henriette are in a swoon, until he departs for Paris to pursue a career in politics and takes up with the all too unconventional and uninhibited Arabella Dudley. Returning to the provinces, he learns Henriette is dying. She writes him, "Do you still today remember your kisses? They have dominated my life. They cut a furrow through my soul.... I am dying because of them." Balzac the great realist is an incomparable witness to the fantasies that are the stuff of ordinary life and of the countless excuses that so-called virtue makes for eagerly imagined vice. The Lily in the Valley is a terrible fairy tale of two people lost in a game of love—and hate. Peter Bush's new translation, the first in over a century, brings out psychological dynamics of one of Balzac's masterpieces.

The Lily of the Valley

Charles Dickens

Virginia Woolf

Anton Chekhov

Jack London

H. P. Lovecraft

H.G. Wells

O. Henry

Joseph Conrad

Aldous Huxley

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nikolay Gogol

Katherine Mansfield

Ambrose Bierce

Mark Twain

Arthur Conan Doyle

Stendhal

Edgar Allan Poe

Guy de Maupassant

Ernest Hemingway

Leo Tolstoy

Ivan Turgenev

Franz Kafka

Francis Scott Fitzgerald

Fyodor Dostoevsky

The short story is to-day our most common literary product. It is read by everyone. Not every boy or girl will read novels after leaving school, but every boy or girl is certain to read short stories. It is important in the high school to guide taste and appreciation in short story reading, so that the reading of days when school life is over will be healthful and upbuilding. Here is a collection that is entirely modern. The authors represented are among the leading authors of the day, the stories are principally stories of present-day life, the themes are themes of present-day thought. The students who read this book will be more awake to the present, and will be better citizens of to-day. The great number of stories presented has given opportunity to illustrate different types of short story writing: Washington Irving: Rip Van Winkle Edgar Allan Poe: The Murders In The Rue Morgue Fyodor Dostoevsky: Notes From The Underground Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis Charles Dickens: The Chimes Ivan Turgenev: Mumu Francis Scott Fitzgerald: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button Joseph Conrad: Heart Of Darkness Ambrose Bierce: Chickamauga Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study In Scarlet H. P. Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness Nathaniel Hawthorne: Roger Malvin's Burial Guy de Maupassant: Necklace Leo Tolstoy: God Sees The Truth, But Waits Anton Chekhov: The Lottery Ticket Virginia Woolf: The Mark On The Wall Katherine Mansfield: The Garden Party H.G. Wells: The Star Stendhal: Vanina Vanini Honoré De Balzac: The Unknown Masterpiece Mark Twain: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Aldous Huxley: Crome Yellow Ernest Hemingway: Up In Michigan Nikolay Gogol: A May Night O. Henry: The Ransom Of Red Chief Jack London: To Build a Fire

Roger Malvin's Burial, Notes from Underground, The Mark on the Wall, Heart of Darknes and others

25+ The World's Greatest Short Stories.Vol 2. Illustrated

Honor� de Balzac (20 May 1799 - 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Com�die humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multifaceted characters, who are morally ambiguous. His writing influenced many subsequent novelists such as Marcel Proust, �mile Zola, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, E�a de Queir�s, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gustave Flaubert, Benito P�rez Gald�s, Marie Corelli, Henry James, William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, and Italo Calvino, and philosophers such as Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Many of Balzac's works have been made into or have inspired films, and they are a continuing source of inspiration for writers, filmmakers and critics.In this book:Father GoriotTranslator: Ellen MarriageThe Magic SkinTranslator: Ellen MarriageEugenie GrandetTranslator: Katharine Prescott WormeleyCousin BettyTranslator: James WaringThe girl with the golden eyesTranslator: Ellen Marriage

Honore De Balzac, Best Novels

The novel is set around the year 1820. Auguste de Maulincour, a young cavalry officer, walking in a Parisian district of ill repute, sees from afar a young married woman, Clemence, with whom he is secretly in love. He sees her enter a house of ill repute. The young married woman is widely recognized in Parisian society as a paragon of marital virtue-what is her secret? Auguste decides to spy on the woman to find out. He finds her in the company of a man named Ferragus...

Histoire Des Treize: Ferragus

Ferragus, Chief of the Devorants

"The Atheist's Mass" is a short story written by Honor� de Balzac in 1836, that was later included in "The Human Comedy (orig. "La Com�die Humaine"), a comprehensive novels and short story collection. Although a short text (around 20 pages long), this story contains a variety of powerful messages, ranging from social aspects, to morals and religion. Balzac allies with his two main characters - Doctors Horace Bianchon and Desplain - and delivers a refined insight into the integration of belief and knowledge in the context of humanity.

La Comédie Humaine: la Messe de L'Athée

The Atheist?s Mass

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.

Letters to Madame Hanska Born Countess Rzewuska Afterward Madame Honore de Balzac 1833-1846

The novel takes place during the Bourbon Restoration, which brought profound changes to French society; the struggle by individuals to secure a higher social status is a major theme in the book. The city of Paris also impresses itself on the characters - especially young Rastignac, who grew up in the provinces of southern France. Balzac analyzes, through Goriot and others, the nature of family and marriage, providing a pessimistic view of these institutions.

La Comédie Humaine: Le Père Goriot

Father Goriot

Ce document, écrit par Balzac à un moment où il avait du mal à vendre ses romans, se présente comme un mode d'emploi contre le vol et la tromperie. Il est indéniable qu'il s'agit d'un livre de circonstance, dans un genre à la mode à ce moment là. Mais, cela reste du Balzac...

Code des gens honnêtes ou L’art de ne pas être dupe des fripons

One of the unifying themes that wends its way through Honore de Balzac's immense body of work is the corrupting danger of greed-and the often-absurd lengths to which people will go to secure material wealth. In the wonderful novel Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau, the title character starts out as a successful perfume-maker who is gradually lured to the dark side by the promise of ill-gotten gains.

The Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau

Two old friends banter near the end of a long day of walking and hunting. The younger, Colonel Philippe de Sucy, had served in Siberia. His host, Marquis d'Albon is a plump magistrate who desires to rest and eat. A remark by d'Albon causes the Colonel to shudder and he says, "Some day I will tell you my story." The sight of a house and the thought of sustenance causes d'Albon to plunge through the undergrowth. They see a fascinating but run-down building and grounds. Just as d'Albon likens it to the palace of Sleeping Beauty, he sees a slender, light, shadowy woman. The two men hear a cry as if a bird were caught in a snare.

La Comédie Humaine: Adieu

Farewell

Father Goriot, today considered one of Balzac's most important works, is part of his novel sequence The Human Comedy. It's the first of Balzac's novels to feature recurring characters, a technique that he famously developed in his subsequent novels.Set in Paris during the Bourbon Restoration of the early 1800s, Father Goriot follows Eug�ne de Rastignac, a student born to noble roots but little means, as he tries to climb the social ladder in Paris. The impoverished Goriot is staying at the same boardinghouse as Rastignac--and Rastignac sees opportunity in Goriot's richly-married and elegant daughters.The novel has been widely praised for its realist portrayal of Parisian life of various social classes, and its deep influence on French literature is still felt today. While it had chapter breaks when it was initially serialized, Balzac removed them when compiling his definitive edition of The Human Comedy, a change that is preserved in this edition.

By Honoré de Balzac

FATHER GORIOT (English Edition)

Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy.

La Comédie Humaine: la Peau de Chagrin

The Magic Skin

The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan

Sekretet e Te Princess e Cadignan

Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) was one of the premiere French novelists. This is a collection of his stories.

A Woman of Thirty, the Seamy Side of History, and Other Stories

Paryż, rok 1819. Eugeniusz de Rastignac studiuje prawo i liczy na awans społeczny, w czym wspiera go kuzynka, wicehrabina Madame de Beauséant. Jan Joachim Goriot jest emerytowanym producentem makaronu, który poświęcił majątek, by pomóc swoim córkom. Vautrin to tajemniczy propagandzista. Losy trójki różniących się od siebie mężczyzn splatają się w paryskim pensjonacie Maison Vaquer. Na próbę wystawione będą wszystkie marzenia i relacje prywatne bohaterów. Autor poddaje analizie istotę rodziny i małżeństwa, a wyniki jego dociekań nie napawają optymizmem. „Ojciec Goriot" powszechnie uważany jest za najważniejszy utwór Balzaka. Wchodzi w skład „Scen z życia prywatnego" cyklu „Komedia ludzka", w którym pisarz przedstawił czasy od rewolucji francuskiej do rządów Ludwika Filipa. Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) – francuski pisarz określany mianem „mistrza realizmu". Dzieciństwo spędził na prowincji, studiował prawo w Paryżu, ale swoje życie poświęcił pisaniu. Był tytanem pracy, pisał po kilkanaście godzin dziennie. Czynnie uczestniczył w życiu literackim. Jego największe dzieło to cykl Komedia ludzka, w którym przedstawił czasy od rewolucji francuskiej do rządów Ludwika Filipa. W prozie łączył elementy realizmu z romantyzmem. Portretował kobiety po trzydziestce, mężatki – stąd popularne sformułowanie „kobiety w wieku balzakowskim". W Polsce pisarstwo Balzaca upowszechnił Tadeusz Boy Żeleński, który przetłumaczył i wydał znaczną część Komedii ludzkiej.

Honoré De Balzac

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