Lost Illusions contains a biography of the author and an active table of contents edition by Honoré de Balzac Ellen Marriage Literature Fiction eBooks
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The story of Lucien Chardon, a young poet from Angoulême who tries desperately to make a name for himself in Paris, is a brilliantly realistic and boldly satirical portrait of provincial manners and aristocratic life. Handsome and ambitious but naïve, Lucien is patronized by the beau monde as represented by Madame de Bargeton and her cousin, the formidable Marquise d'Espard, only to be duped by them. Denied the social rank he thought would be his, Lucien discards his poetic aspirations and turns to hack journalism; his descent into Parisian low life ultimately leads to his own death.
Lost Illusions contains a biography of the author and an active table of contents edition by Honoré de Balzac Ellen Marriage Literature Fiction eBooks
Beginning in the provinces of France in the early 19th century, this novel describes the humble situation of David Sechard, the owner of a small printing shop and son of a miser who nonetheless dreams of an invention that will revolutionize the production of paper just in time for the great surge in printed communication in mid-1800s France. Following his marriage to Eve Chardon the focus of the story shifts to her brother Lucien, a poet who lusts for urban glory and aristocratic titles. He accompanies an upper-class woman to Paris only to be abandoned there and his dirty existence in a garret followed by a sensational career in journalism and letters makes up the middle section of the novel. For the ending, Balzac takes his characters back to the provinces where there is avarice, scheming, forged letters, and an abundance of plot.The whole novel is teeming with life. It’s a panoramic portrait of Paris with unscrupulous publishers, cynical journalists, and libertine showgirls where Lucien falls and rises and falls again. Life is shown in the gutter, the cafe, the theater. There are marvelous digressions into 19th century debt laws and printing technology and there are lengthy how-to speeches on writing book reviews.
The lost illusions come about when the characters must face life after they have devoted considerable time and energy building up their dreams. Paris looks like an intellectual capital friendly to genius from the provinces but the inner workings of the world of letters there proves to be the undoing of Lucien. In the meantime, David faces his own obstacles in his small home town including competing printers, unsavory lawyers, and a stingy parent who conspire to frustrate his efforts to invent a new paper-making method and profit by it. A part of Balzac’s Human Comedy, an enormous cycle of novels about his time, the novel begins and ends in the midst of lives and communities which have both a past and a future and it is merely one rich, eventful section of those lives, fit between two covers, made into a book.
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Lost Illusions contains a biography of the author and an active table of contents edition by Honoré de Balzac Ellen Marriage Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Balzac's Lost Illusions is a massive literary undertaking, and an attempt to delve deep into the world of humanity with all its great deeds and basest desires. Yet, taking the entire volume of Balzac's Human Comedy into perspective, Lost Illusions is nothing but a small piece of the enormous mosaic this author created in the short span of a decade.
Like with all his works I read to date, Lost Illusions offers its readers spectacular writing, well developed characters, just enough but not too much backstory, and a purely human conflict with multitude of players affecting the final outcome.
While most of the works in the Human Comedy take place in Paris, Lost illusions offers a glimpse of the life in the countryside; nevertheless, the ambitions there are not much different, the nobles are just as bad (if not worse) than their Parisian counterparts, and the long-reaching allure of the Parisian society finds a fertile ground amidst the country nobles.
The story opens quite simply with an old man, a printing press, and a child in the beautiful French countryside. The child goes to study the art of printing in Paris, the father sees him as his successor, and there is the making of a bright future, of growing business, of independence, and a happy life.
Readers familiar only with contemporary genre works will likely expect a happy-ever-after, and probably wonder why there are five hundred pages yet to be read in the book. Ha, they do not know Balzac.
In a few pages, the printing press turns out to be an aging building with antiquated technology, the father shows his darker side and his avarice, and the son, while educated and humble, lacks any balls whatsoever.
As the pages turn, more and more characters make their appearance, some nice, some mean, and some downright ugly. The list of main players quickly grows to more than a few, and the plot thickens.
Without disclosing any of the plot (and there are several plots running at once), I must bow and show my respect to M. Balzac. Lost Illusions is one heck of a novel, and one heck of a study of humanity, at its best and at its worst. Balzac, as expected, throws some unexpected punches, stirs some unforeseen troubles, and lets you get down to the muck and get dirty while you are at it. He knows humanity, he knows what makes us tick, and he knows how to shine the light from just the right angle.
Bravo, sir!
That being said . . . there are those who connect with Lucien and disregard David. I could not. Lucien is his own character, and yes, he plays a large part in this story. David, however, David is the story. I can relate to David better than I can relate to any character in this work.
I'm still a bot torn between Pere Goriot and Lost Illusions. If I had to make a choice, I would not know which one I liked better. The two works are very different, and yet very similar at the same time. Both books are on my 'favorites' list.
One final note - some reviews mentioned how different Rastignac was in this novel from how he was portrayed in Pere Goriot. Balzac has some two thousand characters circulating throughout his work, and making appearances here and there, sometimes playing a major, yet other time a very minor, part. Balzac's narrators are describing the characters, and each narrator sees a person differently. Also, we must keep in mind the transformation Rastignac underwent following Goriot's funeral, and the last lines of the novel.
Beginning in the provinces of France in the early 19th century, this novel describes the humble situation of David Sechard, the owner of a small printing shop and son of a miser who nonetheless dreams of an invention that will revolutionize the production of paper just in time for the great surge in printed communication in mid-1800s France. Following his marriage to Eve Chardon the focus of the story shifts to her brother Lucien, a poet who lusts for urban glory and aristocratic titles. He accompanies an upper-class woman to Paris only to be abandoned there and his dirty existence in a garret followed by a sensational career in journalism and letters makes up the middle section of the novel. For the ending, Balzac takes his characters back to the provinces where there is avarice, scheming, forged letters, and an abundance of plot.
The whole novel is teeming with life. It’s a panoramic portrait of Paris with unscrupulous publishers, cynical journalists, and libertine showgirls where Lucien falls and rises and falls again. Life is shown in the gutter, the cafe, the theater. There are marvelous digressions into 19th century debt laws and printing technology and there are lengthy how-to speeches on writing book reviews.
The lost illusions come about when the characters must face life after they have devoted considerable time and energy building up their dreams. Paris looks like an intellectual capital friendly to genius from the provinces but the inner workings of the world of letters there proves to be the undoing of Lucien. In the meantime, David faces his own obstacles in his small home town including competing printers, unsavory lawyers, and a stingy parent who conspire to frustrate his efforts to invent a new paper-making method and profit by it. A part of Balzac’s Human Comedy, an enormous cycle of novels about his time, the novel begins and ends in the midst of lives and communities which have both a past and a future and it is merely one rich, eventful section of those lives, fit between two covers, made into a book.
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