Lesser Bourgeoisie , livre ebook

The Floating Press - De Balzac Honore ,
traduit par Prescott Wormeley Katharine

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634 pages

English

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Throughout his entire literary career, French writer Honore de Balzac was fascinated by the many ways in which social class can impact the trajectory of a life. In the early novel The Lesser Bourgeoisie, an ambitious young lawyer named Theodose de la Peyrade tries every trick in the book to ingratiate himself with the affluent Thuillier family -- and finds his integrity threatened along the way.

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 juillet 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776539383
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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THE LESSER BOURGEOISIE

* * *

HONORE DE BALZAC

Translated by

KATHARINE PRESCOTT WORMELEY

While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike.

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Con

Dedication PART I - THE LESSER BOURGEOIS OF PARIS Chapter I - Departing Paris Chapter II - The History of a Tyranny Chapter III - Colleville Chapter IV - The Circle of Monsieur and Madame Thuillier Chapter V - A Principal Personage Chapter VI - A Keynote Chapter VII - The Worthy Phellions Chapter VIII - Ad Majorem Theodosis Gloriam Chapter IX - The Banker of the Poor Chapter X - How Brigitte was Won Chapter XI - The Reign of Theodose Chapter XII - Devils Against Devils Chapter XIII - The Perversity of Doves Chapter XIV - One of Cerizet's Female Clients Chapter XV - The Difficulties that Crop up in the Easiest of Thefts Chapter XVI - Du Portail Chapter XVII - In Which the Lamb Devours the Wolf Chapter XVIII - Set a Saint to Catch a Saint PART II - THE PARVENUS Chapter I - Phellion, Under a New Aspect Chapter II - The Provencal's Present Position Chapter III - Good Blood Cannot Lie Chapter IV - Hungary Versus Provence Chapter V - Showing How Near the Tarpeian Rock is to the Capitol

Chapter VI - 'Twas Thus They Bade Adieu Chapter VII - How to Shut the Door in People's Faces Chapter VIII Chapter IX - Give and Take Chapter X - In Which Cerizet Practises the Healing Art and the Art of Poisoning on the Same Day Chapter XI - Explanations and What Came of Them Chapter XII - A Star Chapter XIII - The Man Who Thinks the Star Too Bright Chapter XIV - A Stormy Day Chapter XV - At du Portail's Chapter XVI - Checkmate to Thuillier Chapter XVII - In the Exercise of His Functions Translator's Note Addendum Endnotes

Dedication

To Constance-Victoire.

Here, madame, is one of those books which come into the mind, whence no one knows, giving pleasure to the author before he can foresee what reception the public, our great present judge, will accord to it. Feeling almost certain of your sympathy in my pleasure, I dedicate the book to you. Ought it not to belong to you as the tithe formerly belonged to the Church in memory of God, who makes all things bud and fruit in the fields and in the intellect?

A few lumps of clay, left by Moliere at the feet of his colossal statue of Tartuffe, have here been kneaded by a hand more daring than able; but, at whatever distance I may be from the greatest of comic writers, I shall still be glad to have used these crumbs in showing the modern Hypocrite in action. The chief encouragement that I have had in this difficult undertaking was in finding it apart from all religious questions,—questions which ought to be kept out of it for the sake of one so pious as yourself; and also because of what a great writer has lately called our present "indifference in matters of religion."

May the double signification of your names be for my book a prophecy! Deign to find here the respectful

gratitude of him who ventures to call himself the most devoted of your servants.

De Balzac.

PART I - THE LESSER BOURGEOIS OF PARIS

Chapter I - Departing Paris

The tourniquet Saint-Jean, the narrow passage entered through a turnstile, a description of which was said to be so wearisome in the study entitled "A Double Life" (Scenes from Private Life), that naive relic of old Paris, has at the present moment no existence except in our said typography. The building of the Hotel-de-Ville, such as we now see it, swept away a whole section of the city.

In 1830, passers along the street could still see the turnstile painted on the sign of a wine-merchant, but even that house, its last asylum, has been demolished. Alas! old Paris is disappearing with frightful rapidity. Here and there, in the course of this history of Parisian life, will be found preserved, sometimes the type of the dwellings of the middle ages, like that described in "Fame and Sorrow" (Scenes from Private Life), one or two specimens of which exist to the present day; sometimes a house like that of Judge Popinot, rue du Fouarre, a specimen of the former bourgeoisie; here, the remains of Fulbert's house; there, the old dock of the Seine as it was under Charles IX. Why should not the historian of French society, a new Old Mortality, endeavor to save these curious expressions of the past, as Walter Scott's old man rubbed up the tombstones? Certainly, for the last ten years the outcries of literature in this direction have not been superfluous; art is beginning to disguise beneath its floriated ornaments those ignoble facades of what are called in Paris "houses of product," which one of our poets has jocosely compared to chests of drawers.

Let us remark here, that the creation of the municipal commission "del ornamento" which superintends at Milan the architecture of street facades, and to which every house owner is compelled to subject his plan, dates from the seventeenth century. Consequently, we see in that charming capital the effects of this public spirit on the part of nobles and burghers, while we admire their buildings so full of character and originality. Hideous, unrestrained speculation which, year after year, changes the uniform level of storeys, compresses a whole apartment into the space of what used to be a salon, and wages war upon gardens, will infallibly react on Parisian manners and morals. We shall soon be forced to live more without than within. Our sacred private life, the freedom and liberty of home, where will they be?—reserved for those who can muster fifty thousand francs a year! In fact, few millionaires now allow themselves the luxury of a house to themselves, guarded by a courtyard on a street and protected from public curiosity by a shady garden at the back.

By levelling fortunes, that section of the Code which regulates testamentary bequests, has produced these huge stone phalansteries, in which thirty families are often lodged, returning a rental of a hundred thousand francs a year. Fifty years hence we shall be able to count on our fingers the few remaining houses which resemble that occupied, at the moment our narrative begins, by the Thuillier family,—a really curious house which deserves the honor of an exact description, if only to compare the life of the bourgeoisie of former times with that of to-day.

The situation and the aspect of this house, the frame of our present Scene of manners and morals, has, moreover, a flavor, a perfume of the lesser bourgeoisie, which may attract or repel attention according to the taste of each reader.

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