What do you think?
Rate this book
La Comédie Humaine #23
Père Goriot
Père Goriot is the tragic story of a father whose obsessive love for his two daughters leads to his financial and personal ruin. Interwoven with this theme is that of the impoverished young aristocrat, Rastignac, who came to Paris from the provinces to hopefully make his fortune. He befriends Goriot and becomes involved with the daughters. The story is set against the background of a whole society driven by social ambition and lust for wealth.
384 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1835
About the author
Honoré de Balzac
8,237 books4,141 followersFrench writer Honoré de Balzac (born Honoré Balzac), a founder of the realist school of fiction, portrayed the panorama of society in a body of works, known collectively as
La comédie humaine
.
Honoré de Balzac authored 19th-century novels and plays. After the fall of Napoléon I Bonaparte in 1815, his magnum opus, a sequence of almost a hundred novels and plays, entitled, presents life in the years.
Due to keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation, European literature regards Balzac. He features renowned multifaceted, even complex, morally ambiguous, full lesser characters. Character well imbues inanimate objects; the city of Paris, a backdrop, takes on many qualities. He influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles John Huffam Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac as well as important philosophers, such as Friedrich Engels. Many works of Balzac, made into films, continue to inspire.
An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac adapted with trouble to the teaching style of his grammar. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. Balzac finished, and people then apprenticed him as a legal clerk, but after wearying of banal routine, he turned his back on law. He attempted a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician before and during his career. He failed in these efforts. From his own experience, he reflects life difficulties and includes scenes.
Possibly due to his intense schedule and from health problems, Balzac suffered throughout his life. Financial and personal drama often strained his relationship with his family, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; five months later, he passed away.
Honoré de Balzac authored 19th-century novels and plays. After the fall of Napoléon I Bonaparte in 1815, his magnum opus, a sequence of almost a hundred novels and plays, entitled, presents life in the years.
Due to keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation, European literature regards Balzac. He features renowned multifaceted, even complex, morally ambiguous, full lesser characters. Character well imbues inanimate objects; the city of Paris, a backdrop, takes on many qualities. He influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles John Huffam Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac as well as important philosophers, such as Friedrich Engels. Many works of Balzac, made into films, continue to inspire.
An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac adapted with trouble to the teaching style of his grammar. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. Balzac finished, and people then apprenticed him as a legal clerk, but after wearying of banal routine, he turned his back on law. He attempted a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician before and during his career. He failed in these efforts. From his own experience, he reflects life difficulties and includes scenes.
Possibly due to his intense schedule and from health problems, Balzac suffered throughout his life. Financial and personal drama often strained his relationship with his family, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; five months later, he passed away.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,256 reviews
February 14, 2019
Our heart is a treasury; if you spend all its wealth at once you are ruined. We find it as difficult to forgive a person for displaying his feelings in all its nakedness as we do to forgive a man for being penniless.
Old Goriot is the first book I have read by Balzac and it took me completely by surprise. I must confess that the irony of the series title - La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy) - was initially lost on me and I had no idea I was about to open one of the most depressing books I have ever read.
Star ratings always feel woefully inadequate. Did I like this book? Did I enjoy it? Not in the slightest. It made me miserable and anxious. The detailed descriptions of places and people are dreary, or else grotesque. This story of an ageing man who is losing everything, growing older and poorer and more ridiculed by those around him, all as a result of his own selflessness, well, it's painful to read. It is a story which feels just so terribly... unfair.
That's what it is. It's not fair. I felt a bit like a foot-stomping, wailing toddler reading this book because everything seemed so very unfair. And yet, I guess I must in some way like wallowing in this misery because I could not stop reading in wide-eyed horror. Enjoyable it may not be, but compelling it definitely was.
Balzac begins with a richly-detailed description of Madame Vaquer's dismal boarding house. Into this wander our characters. A couple of older men and women, a young woman cut off from her father's fortune, a criminal in hiding, Eugène de Rastignac - a young and ambitious student, and Monsieur Goriot, who is known by the more mocking name of "Old Goriot". This latter is regarded with ridicule by his fellow boarders as someone who has blown his money on mistresses and other frivolities.
Eugène de Rastignac's social ambitions lead him to uncover the truth about Old Goriot, a truth which he uses to his own advantage.
Balzac was writing about a very interesting time in French society, offering not-so-subtle criticisms of the ruthless social ambitions people held. Madame de Beauseant tells us:
The more cold-blooded your calculations, the further you will go. Strike ruthlessly; you will be feared. Men and women for you must be nothing more than post-horses; take a fresh relay, and leave the last to drop by the roadside; in this way you will reach the goal of your ambition.
Old Goriot is a victim of this emerging culture, blinded by an unconditional love for those too concerned with social climbing to give him the time of day.
It is a bleak picture that the author paints-- one where money, social status, fancy clothes and upper-class balls have become far more important than love and kindness. Expect misery from start to finish, and one instance of particularly revolting racism. I'm making it sound wonderful, aren't I? I guess it all depends whether you read to feel good or read to have your heart ripped out.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube
August 10, 2021
(Book 920 from 1001 Books) - Le Père Goriot = Father Goriot = Old Goriot = Old Man Goriot, Honoré de Balzac
Old Goriot or Father Goriot, is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), included in the Scenes of privacy section of his novel sequence The Human Comedy.
Set in Paris in 1819, it follows the intertwined lives of three characters: the elderly doting Goriot; a mysterious criminal-in-hiding named Vautrin; and a naive law student named Eugène de Rastignac.
بابا گوریو - اونوره دو بالزاک؛ انتشاراتیها: (امیرکبیر، کتابهای جیبی، ققنوس، دوستان، بنگاه نشر و ترجمه، علمی فرهنگی؛ فرخی، گلشائی - ارغوان، نشر مرکز، ...) ادبیات فرانسه؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: در ماه دسامبر سال 1978میلادی
عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: م.ا به آذین؛ تهران، سازمان کتابهای جیبی، چاپ چهارم 1341،در 329ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، دوستان، 1382، در 280ص، چاپ یازدهم 1389، شابک 9789646207219؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، امیرکبیر، چاپ پنجم 1391، در 295ص، شابک 9789640014943؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان فرانسه - سده 19م
عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: ادوارد ژزف؛ تهران، بنگاه ترجمه و نشر کتاب، چاپ دوم 1341،در 359ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، علمی فرهنگی، چاپ ششم 1393، شابک 9786001216343؛
عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: بهروز بهزاد؛ تهران، فرخی، 1347،در 444ص؛
عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: شهرام پورانفر؛ تهران، گلشائی - ارغوان، 1368،در 408ص؛
عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: مهدی سحابی؛ تهران، نشر مرکز، 1388، در 352ص؛ شابک 9789642130566؛
اثری گرانقدر از نویسنده ی «فرانسوی»، «اونوره دو بالزاک» است، داستان پدری فداکار، و از خود گذشته، در شهر «پاریس»، و محافل و مجالس اعیان و ثروتمندان، تا پانسیونهای اجاره ای، در بدترین کوچه های شهر را، با واژه های خویش، به تماشای چشم خوانشگران خویش میگذارند؛ «راستینیاک»، نماینده ی «بالزاک»، در این داستان است، برخی خواسته اند «بابا گوریو» را، داستان پدر بدبختی بدانند، که دخترانش همه ی محبت، و فداکاری پدر خویش را، با ناسپاسی پاسخ میگویند؛ «گوریو»، بدی، و زشتکاری دخترانش را، به جان میخرد، تا چهره ی آن دو را پاک، و تابناک، در دل خویش نگاه دارد؛ به موازات سرگذشت «گوریو»؛ داستان دیگری نیز، پیش میرود، که همچون داستان نخست، شورانگیز است؛ داستان آشنایی «راستینیاک»، جوان ساده ی شهرستانی، با زندگی در شهر «پاریس»...؛
نقل از متن: («راستانیاک» با بی صبری مختص خلقیات روستایی اش، نهایت سعی خود را، برای آشنایی با «کنتس» زیبا کرده بود، و از هر فرصتی که «مادام» برای گفتگو، در اختیارش گذاشته بود، استفاده میکرد؛ زمانی که به «کنتس» گفته بود، از اقوام «مادام دوبوزیان» است، وی نیز به او اجازه داده بود، برای دیدارش به منزل او برود، و با لبخندی پر معنا مجلس را ترک کرده، و «راستانیاک» را متقاعد، و مصمم برای دیدارش رها کرده بود؛ «یوژین» بسیار خوش شانس بود، که در آن مهمانی، با مردی آشنا شده بود، که سادگی روستایی او را، تحقیر و تمسخر نمیکرد؛ در آن زمان بیشتر افرادی که در ناز و نعمت زندگی اشرافی، رشد کرده بودند، مثل خانواده های «مولنکورت»، «ماکسیم دوتریه»، «دومارسی»، «رونکروله»، «آیودا پینتوس»، و «واندنس»؛ و با بانوان اشرافی و محترم «پاریس» مثل «لیدی براندون»، «دوشس دولانژیو»، «کنتس دوکرگاروه»، «مادام دو سریزی»،«دوشس دوکاریلیانو»، «کنتس فرو»، «مادام دولانتی»، «مارکیز داژلمون»، «مادام فیرمیانی»، «مارکیز دولیستومر»، «مارکیز دسپارد»، «دوشس دومافرینیو»، و خاندان «گراندلیو» معاشرت کرده بودند، همواره اصل و نسب رعایای دیگران را مسخره کرده، و سادگی آنها را تحقیر میکردند؛ خوشبختانه از شانس خوبش، «راستانیاک» با «ماکریز دومونت مرویو» نامزد «دوشس دولانژیو» آشنا شده بود، یک ژنرال ارتشی با خلق و خوی پاک، و همچون کودکان بی آلایش، و همین آقا محل زندگی «کنتس» در خیابان «دوهدلر» را به «راستانیاک» گفته بود.)؛ پایان
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 10/06/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 18/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Old Goriot or Father Goriot, is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), included in the Scenes of privacy section of his novel sequence The Human Comedy.
Set in Paris in 1819, it follows the intertwined lives of three characters: the elderly doting Goriot; a mysterious criminal-in-hiding named Vautrin; and a naive law student named Eugène de Rastignac.
بابا گوریو - اونوره دو بالزاک؛ انتشاراتیها: (امیرکبیر، کتابهای جیبی، ققنوس، دوستان، بنگاه نشر و ترجمه، علمی فرهنگی؛ فرخی، گلشائی - ارغوان، نشر مرکز، ...) ادبیات فرانسه؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: در ماه دسامبر سال 1978میلادی
عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: م.ا به آذین؛ تهران، سازمان کتابهای جیبی، چاپ چهارم 1341،در 329ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، دوستان، 1382، در 280ص، چاپ یازدهم 1389، شابک 9789646207219؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، امیرکبیر، چاپ پنجم 1391، در 295ص، شابک 9789640014943؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان فرانسه - سده 19م
عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: ادوارد ژزف؛ تهران، بنگاه ترجمه و نشر کتاب، چاپ دوم 1341،در 359ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، علمی فرهنگی، چاپ ششم 1393، شابک 9786001216343؛
عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: بهروز بهزاد؛ تهران، فرخی، 1347،در 444ص؛
عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: شهرام پورانفر؛ تهران، گلشائی - ارغوان، 1368،در 408ص؛
عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: مهدی سحابی؛ تهران، نشر مرکز، 1388، در 352ص؛ شابک 9789642130566؛
اثری گرانقدر از نویسنده ی «فرانسوی»، «اونوره دو بالزاک» است، داستان پدری فداکار، و از خود گذشته، در شهر «پاریس»، و محافل و مجالس اعیان و ثروتمندان، تا پانسیونهای اجاره ای، در بدترین کوچه های شهر را، با واژه های خویش، به تماشای چشم خوانشگران خویش میگذارند؛ «راستینیاک»، نماینده ی «بالزاک»، در این داستان است، برخی خواسته اند «بابا گوریو» را، داستان پدر بدبختی بدانند، که دخترانش همه ی محبت، و فداکاری پدر خویش را، با ناسپاسی پاسخ میگویند؛ «گوریو»، بدی، و زشتکاری دخترانش را، به جان میخرد، تا چهره ی آن دو را پاک، و تابناک، در دل خویش نگاه دارد؛ به موازات سرگذشت «گوریو»؛ داستان دیگری نیز، پیش میرود، که همچون داستان نخست، شورانگیز است؛ داستان آشنایی «راستینیاک»، جوان ساده ی شهرستانی، با زندگی در شهر «پاریس»...؛
نقل از متن: («راستانیاک» با بی صبری مختص خلقیات روستایی اش، نهایت سعی خود را، برای آشنایی با «کنتس» زیبا کرده بود، و از هر فرصتی که «مادام» برای گفتگو، در اختیارش گذاشته بود، استفاده میکرد؛ زمانی که به «کنتس» گفته بود، از اقوام «مادام دوبوزیان» است، وی نیز به او اجازه داده بود، برای دیدارش به منزل او برود، و با لبخندی پر معنا مجلس را ترک کرده، و «راستانیاک» را متقاعد، و مصمم برای دیدارش رها کرده بود؛ «یوژین» بسیار خوش شانس بود، که در آن مهمانی، با مردی آشنا شده بود، که سادگی روستایی او را، تحقیر و تمسخر نمیکرد؛ در آن زمان بیشتر افرادی که در ناز و نعمت زندگی اشرافی، رشد کرده بودند، مثل خانواده های «مولنکورت»، «ماکسیم دوتریه»، «دومارسی»، «رونکروله»، «آیودا پینتوس»، و «واندنس»؛ و با بانوان اشرافی و محترم «پاریس» مثل «لیدی براندون»، «دوشس دولانژیو»، «کنتس دوکرگاروه»، «مادام دو سریزی»،«دوشس دوکاریلیانو»، «کنتس فرو»، «مادام دولانتی»، «مارکیز داژلمون»، «مادام فیرمیانی»، «مارکیز دولیستومر»، «مارکیز دسپارد»، «دوشس دومافرینیو»، و خاندان «گراندلیو» معاشرت کرده بودند، همواره اصل و نسب رعایای دیگران را مسخره کرده، و سادگی آنها را تحقیر میکردند؛ خوشبختانه از شانس خوبش، «راستانیاک» با «ماکریز دومونت مرویو» نامزد «دوشس دولانژیو» آشنا شده بود، یک ژنرال ارتشی با خلق و خوی پاک، و همچون کودکان بی آلایش، و همین آقا محل زندگی «کنتس» در خیابان «دوهدلر» را به «راستانیاک» گفته بود.)؛ پایان
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 10/06/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 18/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
July 14, 2020
By page 130 I ran out of patience with this thing so I channeled my inner irritable 14 year old and composed the following review:
This Ballsack is a great writer I am told but one problem is that he wrote 4,578 novels, so which one should I read. I saw that Old Goriot has mostly 4 and 5 star reviews, so it looked like a good choice, but I was so so wrong. For the first 70 pages Ballsack describes buildings and characters, as if nobody knows what anything looks like or has ever met a student or an old dame or a boring old fart before. Everyone has met those types before, I meet them every day. No one needs 5 pages about what an old fart does. So nothing happens. Then after 70 pages people start to go into rooms and make speeches and go out of rooms. Not so often but sometimes, they take a carriage which is French for taxi to another house so they can go in another room and make a speech.
There is no story but if there is it is about this old Goriot who gave all his dough to his daughters who surprise turned into ungrateful bitches and don’t give a stuff about their old dad anymore and it breaks his heart but he should of thought of that earlier. Like King Leer, another windbag.
But then I read ten pages more and found – wait! – a little bit of plot appeared, and then some more, and pretty soon Old Goriot was bowling along spiffily, there were evil schemes, criminals were unmasked, there were huge rows, there was police involvement, there were gold lame dresses… it was most entertaining!
There is a fabulous villain named Vautrin - here he is being very cheeky to some old dear who has just squeezed herself into a dress two sizes too small :
“Ah! Here comes Ma Vauquerre, fair as a star-r-r, decked like a Christmas tree – do we not feel just a shade too tight, Ma?” he asked, laying a hand on the lady at the place where her corset took most strain. “Our little front is well squeezed in. If we get worked up there will be an explosion; but I will gather up all the fragments with an antiquary’s care.”
Now and then Balzac throws in some zingers like
You can do without a King but you can’t do without your dinner
and most of the time (after page 130) he writes with great comic energy, but he still doesn’t know when to shut up, so that when the big dramatic scene rolls round at the end we have to put up with a whole lot of eyerollingly ridiculous wildly overstated camped-up drama-queening
He stopped abruptly looking like a thunderbolt had struck him
He fell on his bed as if a bullet had struck him
“Papa! Papa!” the two young women cried, clinging to him to prevent him dashing his head against the walls
I cannot risk meeting your husband again, I should kill him on the spot
And perhaps the most ridiculous line in all of French literature
I wish I were God so that I could throw the universe at your feet
So..... this is a fairly infuriating mixture of the tedious and the fabulous. You may need amphetamines to get through the first 100 pages but after that this is pretty much a bittersweet tragicomical King Learish hoot.
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 to make me look better
This Ballsack is a great writer I am told but one problem is that he wrote 4,578 novels, so which one should I read. I saw that Old Goriot has mostly 4 and 5 star reviews, so it looked like a good choice, but I was so so wrong. For the first 70 pages Ballsack describes buildings and characters, as if nobody knows what anything looks like or has ever met a student or an old dame or a boring old fart before. Everyone has met those types before, I meet them every day. No one needs 5 pages about what an old fart does. So nothing happens. Then after 70 pages people start to go into rooms and make speeches and go out of rooms. Not so often but sometimes, they take a carriage which is French for taxi to another house so they can go in another room and make a speech.
There is no story but if there is it is about this old Goriot who gave all his dough to his daughters who surprise turned into ungrateful bitches and don’t give a stuff about their old dad anymore and it breaks his heart but he should of thought of that earlier. Like King Leer, another windbag.
But then I read ten pages more and found – wait! – a little bit of plot appeared, and then some more, and pretty soon Old Goriot was bowling along spiffily, there were evil schemes, criminals were unmasked, there were huge rows, there was police involvement, there were gold lame dresses… it was most entertaining!
There is a fabulous villain named Vautrin - here he is being very cheeky to some old dear who has just squeezed herself into a dress two sizes too small :
“Ah! Here comes Ma Vauquerre, fair as a star-r-r, decked like a Christmas tree – do we not feel just a shade too tight, Ma?” he asked, laying a hand on the lady at the place where her corset took most strain. “Our little front is well squeezed in. If we get worked up there will be an explosion; but I will gather up all the fragments with an antiquary’s care.”
Now and then Balzac throws in some zingers like
You can do without a King but you can’t do without your dinner
and most of the time (after page 130) he writes with great comic energy, but he still doesn’t know when to shut up, so that when the big dramatic scene rolls round at the end we have to put up with a whole lot of eyerollingly ridiculous wildly overstated camped-up drama-queening
He stopped abruptly looking like a thunderbolt had struck him
He fell on his bed as if a bullet had struck him
“Papa! Papa!” the two young women cried, clinging to him to prevent him dashing his head against the walls
I cannot risk meeting your husband again, I should kill him on the spot
And perhaps the most ridiculous line in all of French literature
I wish I were God so that I could throw the universe at your feet
So..... this is a fairly infuriating mixture of the tedious and the fabulous. You may need amphetamines to get through the first 100 pages but after that this is pretty much a bittersweet tragicomical King Learish hoot.
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 to make me look better
September 27, 2024
Nothing is Black and White in the world of Balzac.
Hence his towering stature in the French Literary Pantheon, as evinced in the commemorative statue by the admittedly idolatrous Auguste Rodin. Balzac was a genius. Slightly mad, but very gifted.
You know, I guess each one of us is often pained and shamed by our own very spontaneous - and alas, often very public - displays of our own fallible humanity.
And Balzac’s poor characters ooze their humanity from their very pores, for better or for worse.
In Father Goriot’s case, it is patently for worse - for his open trust in people propels him ineluctably into personal tragedy.
Goriot is a naïf - as we ALL seem so clearly to ourselves when suddenly caught dead to rights. But Goriot doesn’t do like we do and hold his cards ever tighter to his chest.
No, for he has been broken on the wheel of unrequited love: for you see, his affections are unreturned by HIS OWN ARRIVISTE DAUGHTERS.
Enters, then, another jeune arriviste: Eugène de Rastignac. And yes, his appellation denotes nobility, but it is a noblesse manqué.
Financial scarcity has turned his family’s provincial paucity into penny-pinching. Except for the great rising family star, dashing Eugene.
For him, the world.
And so his assisted star rises (on Goriot’s back), as that old man’s luck falls flat.
Balzac here weaves a hauntingly sad and beautiful fable of the bitter fruits of naïve love.
Bipolar like myself, he sees the world from both its good and evil sides simultaneously. He enchants and he horrifies.
Because he can so terrify us, it’s best to start out in our reading of La Comédie Humaine with the sunnier and less appalling works. Goriot seems about midpoint in his manic spectrum, hence a good place to start.
When I rated this book after reading it, I gave it four stars.
But now, shocked into stunned silence by B’s Cousin Bette, I give Goriot the full five, knowing now that it doesn’t get any better than THIS.
It’s the Creation of a True Master.
Hence his towering stature in the French Literary Pantheon, as evinced in the commemorative statue by the admittedly idolatrous Auguste Rodin. Balzac was a genius. Slightly mad, but very gifted.
You know, I guess each one of us is often pained and shamed by our own very spontaneous - and alas, often very public - displays of our own fallible humanity.
And Balzac’s poor characters ooze their humanity from their very pores, for better or for worse.
In Father Goriot’s case, it is patently for worse - for his open trust in people propels him ineluctably into personal tragedy.
Goriot is a naïf - as we ALL seem so clearly to ourselves when suddenly caught dead to rights. But Goriot doesn’t do like we do and hold his cards ever tighter to his chest.
No, for he has been broken on the wheel of unrequited love: for you see, his affections are unreturned by HIS OWN ARRIVISTE DAUGHTERS.
Enters, then, another jeune arriviste: Eugène de Rastignac. And yes, his appellation denotes nobility, but it is a noblesse manqué.
Financial scarcity has turned his family’s provincial paucity into penny-pinching. Except for the great rising family star, dashing Eugene.
For him, the world.
And so his assisted star rises (on Goriot’s back), as that old man’s luck falls flat.
Balzac here weaves a hauntingly sad and beautiful fable of the bitter fruits of naïve love.
Bipolar like myself, he sees the world from both its good and evil sides simultaneously. He enchants and he horrifies.
Because he can so terrify us, it’s best to start out in our reading of La Comédie Humaine with the sunnier and less appalling works. Goriot seems about midpoint in his manic spectrum, hence a good place to start.
When I rated this book after reading it, I gave it four stars.
But now, shocked into stunned silence by B’s Cousin Bette, I give Goriot the full five, knowing now that it doesn’t get any better than THIS.
It’s the Creation of a True Master.
April 22, 2024
I had to grow up to fully appreciate Balzac. I've tried reading several of his books as teenager but I surrendered in frustration and boredom. Not this time. Yes, the writing is still flowery, although realistic, and there way too many lengthly descriptions. However, I was not bored and I was actually mesmerised by the prose. Also, it is hard to remain untouched by the fate of poor Father Goriot and not to be enraged by the Paris society of those times. A novel about love, indifference, the perils of wanting too much too soon, criminality an so much more. Sad and beautiful.
December 27, 2023
در سمفونی مردگان بود که برایم سوال شد!
چرا آیدین باباگوریو میخواند؟
چرا پدرش کتاب باباگوریو را به آتش کشید؟
(بن جنسون می گفت: ادبیات باز آفرینی دقیق آن چیزی است که به راستی وجود دارند و آن کنش هایی که به راستی رخ داده اند.)
و چه کسی بهتر از نویسندگانی مثل تولستوی،چخوف،بالزاک ، والتر که قلمشان رِالیسم انتقادی بود.
این نویسندگان آنچه در روزگارشان میگذشت را در آثار خود منعکس میکردند.و بالزاک در این رمان جامعه جاه طلب فرانسه را مورد خطاب قرار میدهد.و به راستیناک و باباگوریو و حتی به فرانسه نشان میدهد که جامعه چقدر تغییر میکند وقتی پول ماده اصلی و چاشنی زندگی باشد.
رمان باباگوریو با زمان مکان شروع میشود مانند دیگر آثار رالیسم .اما نویسنده کتاب پیاز داغ مکان را زیاد تر از زیاد .زیاد میکند.
چرا که بالزاک واقعگرایی را مدیون مکان میداند.
بالزاک میگوید رمان های بورژوایی من از درام های حزن آلود شما غمانگیز تر است.و واقعا هم تراژدی باباگوریو چیزی کمتر از تراژدیهای فلان کس ندارد...
توصیفات کتاب از یک پانسیون شروع میشود و یک سری آدم با استخوان بندی محکم مزاجی که در مقابل طوفانهای زندگی مقاومت کرده بودن .چند عدد آدم که به
مقیاس کوچک تر عناصر یک جامعه فرانسه بودند.
سراسر کتاب چیزی نیست جز درد و رنج و غم و غصه و جامعه متوسط به پایین فرانسه که زیر چرخ دندههای سرمایه گیر کرده...
مکان های ترسناک وسیاه وغمگینی که بالزاک ترسیم میکند همه شان ختم میشوند به لجنزاری به اسم پاریس
و اینکه پاریس مانند جنگلیاست با قبیله هایی وحشی.
رمان را انگار بچه ای 10 ساله نوشته چرا که ناعادلانه است بشدت ناعادلانه و پارادوکسی وار
فکر کنم آنکه دوستش ندارم یعنی داستایوفسکی بود که میگفت :تناقص سرچشمه رالیسم است.
قشنگ ترین نکته کتاب برای من :
تلفیق دو زندگیِ
باباگوریو و راستیناک بود
بعد کتاب فهمیدم که بالزاک از بین علوم عاشق شیمی بوده و در این کتاب به مثال یک شیمیدان دو زندگی، دو نسل ،دو فرمول را قاطی کرده و آنچه به دست آمده شده شاهکار ادبیات جهان...
اگر هنوز این شاهکار ادبیات را نخوانده اید!
پس چه خوانده اید؟؟
...
از قلب های خشکیده
و
جمجمه های خالی
کدام یک نفرت انگیز تر است؟
چرا آیدین باباگوریو میخواند؟
چرا پدرش کتاب باباگوریو را به آتش کشید؟
(بن جنسون می گفت: ادبیات باز آفرینی دقیق آن چیزی است که به راستی وجود دارند و آن کنش هایی که به راستی رخ داده اند.)
و چه کسی بهتر از نویسندگانی مثل تولستوی،چخوف،بالزاک ، والتر که قلمشان رِالیسم انتقادی بود.
این نویسندگان آنچه در روزگارشان میگذشت را در آثار خود منعکس میکردند.و بالزاک در این رمان جامعه جاه طلب فرانسه را مورد خطاب قرار میدهد.و به راستیناک و باباگوریو و حتی به فرانسه نشان میدهد که جامعه چقدر تغییر میکند وقتی پول ماده اصلی و چاشنی زندگی باشد.
رمان باباگوریو با زمان مکان شروع میشود مانند دیگر آثار رالیسم .اما نویسنده کتاب پیاز داغ مکان را زیاد تر از زیاد .زیاد میکند.
چرا که بالزاک واقعگرایی را مدیون مکان میداند.
بالزاک میگوید رمان های بورژوایی من از درام های حزن آلود شما غمانگیز تر است.و واقعا هم تراژدی باباگوریو چیزی کمتر از تراژدیهای فلان کس ندارد...
توصیفات کتاب از یک پانسیون شروع میشود و یک سری آدم با استخوان بندی محکم مزاجی که در مقابل طوفانهای زندگی مقاومت کرده بودن .چند عدد آدم که به
مقیاس کوچک تر عناصر یک جامعه فرانسه بودند.
سراسر کتاب چیزی نیست جز درد و رنج و غم و غصه و جامعه متوسط به پایین فرانسه که زیر چرخ دندههای سرمایه گیر کرده...
مکان های ترسناک وسیاه وغمگینی که بالزاک ترسیم میکند همه شان ختم میشوند به لجنزاری به اسم پاریس
و اینکه پاریس مانند جنگلیاست با قبیله هایی وحشی.
رمان را انگار بچه ای 10 ساله نوشته چرا که ناعادلانه است بشدت ناعادلانه و پارادوکسی وار
فکر کنم آنکه دوستش ندارم یعنی داستایوفسکی بود که میگفت :تناقص سرچشمه رالیسم است.
قشنگ ترین نکته کتاب برای من :
تلفیق دو زندگیِ
باباگوریو و راستیناک بود
بعد کتاب فهمیدم که بالزاک از بین علوم عاشق شیمی بوده و در این کتاب به مثال یک شیمیدان دو زندگی، دو نسل ،دو فرمول را قاطی کرده و آنچه به دست آمده شده شاهکار ادبیات جهان...
اگر هنوز این شاهکار ادبیات را نخوانده اید!
پس چه خوانده اید؟؟
...
از قلب های خشکیده
و
جمجمه های خالی
کدام یک نفرت انگیز تر است؟
November 25, 2024
O poveste extraordinară, un Rege Lear burghez. Din păcate:
Nu m-am împăcat niciodată cu grandilocvența lui Balzac. Și nici cu aceea a lui Victor Hugo. Știu, era stilul epocii (bombastic cît încape) și consecința claselor de retorică din învățămîntul francez. Pe patul de moarte, sărmanul Goriot, fostul negustor de grîne și făină, nu găsește nimic mai bun de făcut decît să-și exprime durerea în figuri de stil: „A, Doamne, mor, sufăr prea mult! Tăiaţi-mi capul, lăsaţi-mi numai inima”.
Continui să cred că un muribund (oricît de îndurerat ar fi, și, în acest ceas solemn, nu are cum să nu fie îndurerat) se cuvine a fi minimalist. Două-trei cuvinte sînt de ajuns. O propoziție simplă mai merge. Dar moș Goriot rostește, in articulo mortis, un adevărat discurs politic. Cu vremea am ajuns să nu mai dau atîta importanță stilului. Există romane proaste scrise excelent și romane bune scrise infernal. De la o vreme, intransigența mea s-a tocit, caninii și-au pierdut ascuțișul. Sînt mai interesat de poveste decît de stil. Iar povestea din Moș Goriot rămîne valabilă, în pofida exceselor autorului. Citim o dramă.
Balzac a lucrat 4 luni la acest roman, cîte 18 ore pe zi. L-a terminat prin octombrie 1834. Cînd a pus tocul jos, a fost cuprins de exaltare: nimeni nu scrisese ceva mai bun. Exclamă satisfăcut: „Depășește toate operele mele de dinainte. Eugénie Grandet, Căutarea absolutului, totul este întrecut... Dușmanii mei cei mai îndîrjiți au îngenuncheat. Am triumfat față de toți și de toate, de prieteni ca și de invidioși”. Unul dintre invidioși se numea Sainte-Beuve.
Ideea de a redacta un roman pe tema Regelui Lear (mutatis mutandis) i-a venit pe la începutul anului. A meditat, și-a făcut note. Una dintre ele sună precum urmează:
N-am găsit în literatura critică un rezumat mai bun. Fiicele lui Jean-Joachim Goriot se numesc Anastasie și Delphine, s-au măritat cu bancheri și nobili putred de bogați, au amanți chipeși (cea mai tînără, Delphine, îl preferă pe studentul Eugène de Rastignac) și, din iubire și devotament, și-au ruinat tatăl. Ar fi bine să precizez că acțiunea romanului se petrece între noiembrie 1819 și februarie 1820.
Am văzut mai sus orgoliul lui Balzac. El n-a fost știrbit de judecata negativă a lui Sainte-Beuve (Balzac este „un scriitor mediocru, stilul lui este lamentabil”) și nici de antipatia urmașilor (printre ei, Flaubert: „Săracul Balzac, da tare prost mai scrie!”).
Mulți s-au întrebat ce este balzacianismul. Cred că este credința în determinism. Cum e pensiunea văduvei Vauquer așa e și plebea care locuiește acolo. Esența balzacianismului rezultă din portretul teribilului Vautrin (zis și „Păcălește-Moartea”), om de suflet, ucigaș și tîlhar:
P. S. Titlul Le Père Goriot nu are un echivalent potrivit în română. S-a încercat și Taica Goriot, dar nu merge...
Nu m-am împăcat niciodată cu grandilocvența lui Balzac. Și nici cu aceea a lui Victor Hugo. Știu, era stilul epocii (bombastic cît încape) și consecința claselor de retorică din învățămîntul francez. Pe patul de moarte, sărmanul Goriot, fostul negustor de grîne și făină, nu găsește nimic mai bun de făcut decît să-și exprime durerea în figuri de stil: „A, Doamne, mor, sufăr prea mult! Tăiaţi-mi capul, lăsaţi-mi numai inima”.
Continui să cred că un muribund (oricît de îndurerat ar fi, și, în acest ceas solemn, nu are cum să nu fie îndurerat) se cuvine a fi minimalist. Două-trei cuvinte sînt de ajuns. O propoziție simplă mai merge. Dar moș Goriot rostește, in articulo mortis, un adevărat discurs politic. Cu vremea am ajuns să nu mai dau atîta importanță stilului. Există romane proaste scrise excelent și romane bune scrise infernal. De la o vreme, intransigența mea s-a tocit, caninii și-au pierdut ascuțișul. Sînt mai interesat de poveste decît de stil. Iar povestea din Moș Goriot rămîne valabilă, în pofida exceselor autorului. Citim o dramă.
Balzac a lucrat 4 luni la acest roman, cîte 18 ore pe zi. L-a terminat prin octombrie 1834. Cînd a pus tocul jos, a fost cuprins de exaltare: nimeni nu scrisese ceva mai bun. Exclamă satisfăcut: „Depășește toate operele mele de dinainte. Eugénie Grandet, Căutarea absolutului, totul este întrecut... Dușmanii mei cei mai îndîrjiți au îngenuncheat. Am triumfat față de toți și de toate, de prieteni ca și de invidioși”. Unul dintre invidioși se numea Sainte-Beuve.
Ideea de a redacta un roman pe tema Regelui Lear (mutatis mutandis) i-a venit pe la începutul anului. A meditat, și-a făcut note. Una dintre ele sună precum urmează:
„Subiectul lui Moș Goriot - un bătrîn cumsecade - pensiune burgheză - 600 de franci rentă - care s-a despuiat de toate pentru fiicele sale, care au, fiecare, 50.000 de franci rentă, moare ca un cîine”.
N-am găsit în literatura critică un rezumat mai bun. Fiicele lui Jean-Joachim Goriot se numesc Anastasie și Delphine, s-au măritat cu bancheri și nobili putred de bogați, au amanți chipeși (cea mai tînără, Delphine, îl preferă pe studentul Eugène de Rastignac) și, din iubire și devotament, și-au ruinat tatăl. Ar fi bine să precizez că acțiunea romanului se petrece între noiembrie 1819 și februarie 1820.
Am văzut mai sus orgoliul lui Balzac. El n-a fost știrbit de judecata negativă a lui Sainte-Beuve (Balzac este „un scriitor mediocru, stilul lui este lamentabil”) și nici de antipatia urmașilor (printre ei, Flaubert: „Săracul Balzac, da tare prost mai scrie!”).
Mulți s-au întrebat ce este balzacianismul. Cred că este credința în determinism. Cum e pensiunea văduvei Vauquer așa e și plebea care locuiește acolo. Esența balzacianismului rezultă din portretul teribilului Vautrin (zis și „Păcălește-Moartea”), om de suflet, ucigaș și tîlhar:
„În ciuda înfăţişării lui de om cumsecade, avea un fel de a te privi, adînc şi neînduplecat, care stîrnea atîta teamă, încît datornicii lui ar fi înfruntat mai degrabă primejdia morţii decît pe aceea de a nu-i înapoia banii împrumutaţi. Iar felul cum zvîrlea scuipatul dintr-o ţîşnitură, arăta că are o fire rece şi neclintită, care nu s-ar fi dat înapoi nici de la o crimă ca să iasă dintr-o încurcătură”.
P. S. Titlul Le Père Goriot nu are un echivalent potrivit în română. S-a încercat și Taica Goriot, dar nu merge...
May 20, 2017
Πρόκειται για ένα αριστούργημα της κλασικής λογοτεχνίας.
Εντάσσεται στο πλαίσιο της "Ανθρώπινης κωμωδίας" του συγγραφέα μια ομάδα εκπληκτικών μυθιστορημάτων- αν κρίνω απο αυτό-όπου με απόλυτο και σκληρό ρεαλισμό αλλα και ασύλληπτο συναισθηματικό πλούτο περιγράφει με τροπο άμεσο και μεγαλειώδη χαρακτηρες,νοοτροπίες,συνήθειες,πράξεις και ψυχοσυνθεσεις ποικίλων ανθρώπων και καταφέρνει απόλυτη ταύτιση αλλα και διάκριση των ηρώων αυτών με τους αναγνώστες.
Η ανθρώπινη ιστορία τοσο αληθινά αποτυπωμένη,όσο και η ανθρώπινη φύση μέσα σε ένα κλίμα απαξίωσης - ατομισμού- ματαιοδοξίας και αποσύνθεσης στο βωμό του πλούτου και των υλικών αγαθών.
Σε όλη αυτή τη μοιραία εγκλωβισμένη στη φθορά και την εξαθλίωση ζωή υπάρχει η τραγική ουτοπία της ύπαρξης του Μπάρμπα-Γκοριό ενός δύστυχου γέρου πατέρα που λατρεύει όσο τίποτα άλλο τις κόρες του και παραμένει ζωντανός επειδή μπορεί να τους προσφέρει ότι υλικό του έχει απομείνει. Εκείνες απομυζούν τα ελάχιστα ευτελή υπάρχοντα του πατέρα τους και παίζουν θέατρο με όλη την ψυχική και πνευματική του υπόσταση με τροπο πρόστυχο που θα πλήγωνε κάθε ανθρώπινη καρδιά.
Είναι συγκλονιστικός ο τρόπος που ο συγγραφέας περιγράφει την λατρεία του πατέρα προς τις κόρες του.
Τα λόγια αυτά ειλικρινά θα μπορούσε να τα πει και να τα νιώσει μόνο μια γυναίκα που ειναι μάνα.
Τέτοιο μεγαλείο λατρείας τέτοια απέραντη, ανιδιοτελή, ακούραστη αγάπη ειναι μόνο η μητρική.
Κι όμως εδω εκφράζεται αριστουργηματικά απο έναν πατέρα.
Τέτοια συγκίνηση είχα να νιώσω συγκριτικά με την αγάπη μάνας - παιδιού και τη θαυμαστή περιγραφή απο μια αντρική ψυχή απο τότε που διάβασα τον "επιτάφιο"του Γ.Ριτσου.
Ο " Μπάρμπα-Γκοριό"
ειλικρινά πρέπει να διαβαστεί απο όλους.
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς!!
Εντάσσεται στο πλαίσιο της "Ανθρώπινης κωμωδίας" του συγγραφέα μια ομάδα εκπληκτικών μυθιστορημάτων- αν κρίνω απο αυτό-όπου με απόλυτο και σκληρό ρεαλισμό αλλα και ασύλληπτο συναισθηματικό πλούτο περιγράφει με τροπο άμεσο και μεγαλειώδη χαρακτηρες,νοοτροπίες,συνήθειες,πράξεις και ψυχοσυνθεσεις ποικίλων ανθρώπων και καταφέρνει απόλυτη ταύτιση αλλα και διάκριση των ηρώων αυτών με τους αναγνώστες.
Η ανθρώπινη ιστορία τοσο αληθινά αποτυπωμένη,όσο και η ανθρώπινη φύση μέσα σε ένα κλίμα απαξίωσης - ατομισμού- ματαιοδοξίας και αποσύνθεσης στο βωμό του πλούτου και των υλικών αγαθών.
Σε όλη αυτή τη μοιραία εγκλωβισμένη στη φθορά και την εξαθλίωση ζωή υπάρχει η τραγική ουτοπία της ύπαρξης του Μπάρμπα-Γκοριό ενός δύστυχου γέρου πατέρα που λατρεύει όσο τίποτα άλλο τις κόρες του και παραμένει ζωντανός επειδή μπορεί να τους προσφέρει ότι υλικό του έχει απομείνει. Εκείνες απομυζούν τα ελάχιστα ευτελή υπάρχοντα του πατέρα τους και παίζουν θέατρο με όλη την ψυχική και πνευματική του υπόσταση με τροπο πρόστυχο που θα πλήγωνε κάθε ανθρώπινη καρδιά.
Είναι συγκλονιστικός ο τρόπος που ο συγγραφέας περιγράφει την λατρεία του πατέρα προς τις κόρες του.
Τα λόγια αυτά ειλικρινά θα μπορούσε να τα πει και να τα νιώσει μόνο μια γυναίκα που ειναι μάνα.
Τέτοιο μεγαλείο λατρείας τέτοια απέραντη, ανιδιοτελή, ακούραστη αγάπη ειναι μόνο η μητρική.
Κι όμως εδω εκφράζεται αριστουργηματικά απο έναν πατέρα.
Τέτοια συγκίνηση είχα να νιώσω συγκριτικά με την αγάπη μάνας - παιδιού και τη θαυμαστή περιγραφή απο μια αντρική ψυχή απο τότε που διάβασα τον "επιτάφιο"του Γ.Ριτσου.
Ο " Μπάρμπα-Γκοριό"
ειλικρινά πρέπει να διαβαστεί απο όλους.
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς!!
March 16, 2023
A classic French novel written in 1834 but set in Paris in 1819.
Pere in the title means Father, and it’s in part a story of an old man’s obsessive love for his two married daughters. He was once a wealthy flour merchant but he gave all his money to his daughters while he lives in penury in a squalid pension run by a penny-pinching nasty lady.
Pere has a few pieces of silver left that he sells when his daughters need a new gown for their high-society lives. Both have wealthy, controlling husbands who are stingy with their money. Both daughters and their husbands are embarrassed by the shabby old man. Pere seldom sees them and spends his days sitting in parks waiting to wave at them when their carriages go by. That’s about all the interaction he has with them.
There’s a cast of 18 quirky Dickens-like characters, men and women of all ages, also resident in the pension. We have a young male medical student (whose skills come in handy at various times), a young woman disowned by her wealthy father, a vicious wanted criminal in disguise, and many others.
Eugene, a young man resident in the pension, really becomes the main character in the story. Supposedly he’s a student but mostly he leaves classes after roll call. His goal is to leave his impoverished small-town background behind by marrying a wealthy woman and becoming a member of high society. Eugene has a well-placed cousin who is a high society queen and he works on her and Goriot's daughters to worm his way in.
We are presented with a very jaded and cynical outlook on the upper levels of French society filled with artificiality and deceit. All three society women Eugene gets involved with have other men in their lives besides their husbands, apparently with their husbands’ knowledge. And we know the husbands are not sitting by the fire reading Balzac. I say French society, but I should say Parisian society. It comes across very strongly in this book, as in many of Balzac’s novels, that Paris is the center, not just of France, but of the world.
One of the boarders makes a point of tutoring Eugene on the ways of the world. The boarder’s philosophy of society is basically ‘cheat him before he cheats you; kill him before he kills you.’
Combined with what Eugene sees himself, the young man grows to accept this sour view of society. He tells the medical student “Whatever evil you are told about society, you can be sure it’s true. It would take more than a Juvenal to describe the horror under the gold and the jewels.” [Juvenal was a Roman poet who wrote satires of society.] And Eugene thinks: “Finer spirits can’t stay long in this world. And how indeed can deep feeling reconcile itself with a society so shabby and petty and superficial?”
Balzac (1799 – 1850) was a prolific author, publishing almost 70 novels and novellas with a goal of writing about every type of human character. Balzac called this endeavor The Human Comedy. The author praises Eugene at one point saying that as he matured he was learning to “distinguish the strata that compose human society.” His writing influenced Emile Zola, Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, and Henry James.
Balzac was an early realist writer who is credited with introducing the idea of using characters in multiple novels. The character of Eugene de Rastignac ended up in 22 novels. In fact, the French use the term ‘Rastignac’ to mean an ambitious social climber. Balzac spent much of his life banging out books to pay off debts. He didn’t get married until age 50 and then died, supposedly from overwork, six months later.
Balzac was paid by the word and it shows in this story which comes across as somewhat bloated and sometimes repetitive. For example, we get five pages on the urban setting of the pension and the physical description of the house and rooms. Although I must also say it is a well-written lush description. Characters are left dangling at the end of the book, so that you wonder ‘well what happened to her?’ But still a great story.
Paris photo by Julien Tondu on unsplash.com
A daguerreotype of the author in 1842 from Wikipedia
Pere in the title means Father, and it’s in part a story of an old man’s obsessive love for his two married daughters. He was once a wealthy flour merchant but he gave all his money to his daughters while he lives in penury in a squalid pension run by a penny-pinching nasty lady.
Pere has a few pieces of silver left that he sells when his daughters need a new gown for their high-society lives. Both have wealthy, controlling husbands who are stingy with their money. Both daughters and their husbands are embarrassed by the shabby old man. Pere seldom sees them and spends his days sitting in parks waiting to wave at them when their carriages go by. That’s about all the interaction he has with them.
There’s a cast of 18 quirky Dickens-like characters, men and women of all ages, also resident in the pension. We have a young male medical student (whose skills come in handy at various times), a young woman disowned by her wealthy father, a vicious wanted criminal in disguise, and many others.
Eugene, a young man resident in the pension, really becomes the main character in the story. Supposedly he’s a student but mostly he leaves classes after roll call. His goal is to leave his impoverished small-town background behind by marrying a wealthy woman and becoming a member of high society. Eugene has a well-placed cousin who is a high society queen and he works on her and Goriot's daughters to worm his way in.
We are presented with a very jaded and cynical outlook on the upper levels of French society filled with artificiality and deceit. All three society women Eugene gets involved with have other men in their lives besides their husbands, apparently with their husbands’ knowledge. And we know the husbands are not sitting by the fire reading Balzac. I say French society, but I should say Parisian society. It comes across very strongly in this book, as in many of Balzac’s novels, that Paris is the center, not just of France, but of the world.
One of the boarders makes a point of tutoring Eugene on the ways of the world. The boarder’s philosophy of society is basically ‘cheat him before he cheats you; kill him before he kills you.’
Combined with what Eugene sees himself, the young man grows to accept this sour view of society. He tells the medical student “Whatever evil you are told about society, you can be sure it’s true. It would take more than a Juvenal to describe the horror under the gold and the jewels.” [Juvenal was a Roman poet who wrote satires of society.] And Eugene thinks: “Finer spirits can’t stay long in this world. And how indeed can deep feeling reconcile itself with a society so shabby and petty and superficial?”
Balzac (1799 – 1850) was a prolific author, publishing almost 70 novels and novellas with a goal of writing about every type of human character. Balzac called this endeavor The Human Comedy. The author praises Eugene at one point saying that as he matured he was learning to “distinguish the strata that compose human society.” His writing influenced Emile Zola, Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, and Henry James.
Balzac was an early realist writer who is credited with introducing the idea of using characters in multiple novels. The character of Eugene de Rastignac ended up in 22 novels. In fact, the French use the term ‘Rastignac’ to mean an ambitious social climber. Balzac spent much of his life banging out books to pay off debts. He didn’t get married until age 50 and then died, supposedly from overwork, six months later.
Balzac was paid by the word and it shows in this story which comes across as somewhat bloated and sometimes repetitive. For example, we get five pages on the urban setting of the pension and the physical description of the house and rooms. Although I must also say it is a well-written lush description. Characters are left dangling at the end of the book, so that you wonder ‘well what happened to her?’ But still a great story.
Paris photo by Julien Tondu on unsplash.com
A daguerreotype of the author in 1842 from Wikipedia
May 13, 2021
SCHMIDT: Last thing, if Mueller was looking at your finances and your family finances, unrelated to Russia — is that a red line?
HABERMAN: Would that be a breach of what his actual charge is?
TRUMP: I would say yeah. I would say yes. By the way, I would say, I don’t — I don’t — I mean, it’s possible there’s a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows? I don’t make money from Russia. In fact, I put out a letter saying that I don’t make — from one of the most highly respected law firms, accounting firms. I don’t have buildings in Russia. They said I own buildings in Russia. I don’t. They said I made money from Russia. I don’t. It’s not my thing. I don’t, I don’t do that. Over the years, I’ve looked at maybe doing a deal in Russia, but I never did one.
- Interview with Donald Trump, 2017
We have all the funding we need out of Russia. We've got some guys that really, really love golf, and they're really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.
- Interview with Eric Trump, 2014
Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait.
- Honoré de Balzac, Le père Goriot, 1835
___________________________
[But seriously...]
I just finished rereading Le Père Goriot. I first read it over twenty years ago, and whether it was due to insufficient French or insufficient understanding of La Comédie humaine, I didn't properly appreciate it. This time, having read ten Balzacs over the last year, I was blown away.
For other people who are thinking of getting into Balzac, here's a piece of practical advice that might be helpful. I am surprised this doesn't seem to be generally known, but the core of the series is the loose trilogy that starts with Le Père Goriot and then continues with Illusions perdues and Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes. Most of the other books feed into this story in one way or another (there are some standalones like Eugénie Grandet and Le Médecin de campagne). I read these books in the wrong order, but I'm pretty sure I would have made more rapid progress if I'd started off with the trilogy - all three books are really excellent novels - and then read others as backstory. Now that I've caught up, I'm going to continue with that program. Coming up next, L'Interdiction, La Duchesse de Langeais (again, read it before I understood its place in the series and need to reread), La Maison de Nucingen and Gobseck.
HABERMAN: Would that be a breach of what his actual charge is?
TRUMP: I would say yeah. I would say yes. By the way, I would say, I don’t — I don’t — I mean, it’s possible there’s a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows? I don’t make money from Russia. In fact, I put out a letter saying that I don’t make — from one of the most highly respected law firms, accounting firms. I don’t have buildings in Russia. They said I own buildings in Russia. I don’t. They said I made money from Russia. I don’t. It’s not my thing. I don’t, I don’t do that. Over the years, I’ve looked at maybe doing a deal in Russia, but I never did one.
- Interview with Donald Trump, 2017
We have all the funding we need out of Russia. We've got some guys that really, really love golf, and they're really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.
- Interview with Eric Trump, 2014
Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait.
- Honoré de Balzac, Le père Goriot, 1835
___________________________
[But seriously...]
I just finished rereading Le Père Goriot. I first read it over twenty years ago, and whether it was due to insufficient French or insufficient understanding of La Comédie humaine, I didn't properly appreciate it. This time, having read ten Balzacs over the last year, I was blown away.
For other people who are thinking of getting into Balzac, here's a piece of practical advice that might be helpful. I am surprised this doesn't seem to be generally known, but the core of the series is the loose trilogy that starts with Le Père Goriot and then continues with Illusions perdues and Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes. Most of the other books feed into this story in one way or another (there are some standalones like Eugénie Grandet and Le Médecin de campagne). I read these books in the wrong order, but I'm pretty sure I would have made more rapid progress if I'd started off with the trilogy - all three books are really excellent novels - and then read others as backstory. Now that I've caught up, I'm going to continue with that program. Coming up next, L'Interdiction, La Duchesse de Langeais (again, read it before I understood its place in the series and need to reread), La Maison de Nucingen and Gobseck.
April 21, 2023
“I'm a great poet. I don't put my poems on paper: they consist of actions and feelings.”
Pere Goriot (1835), Honore de Balzac's novel centered on French society after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo and subsequent restoration of the Bourbons is impressively detailed. Through an analysis of families, marriage and institutions, Balzac presents fully realized characters from diverse backgrounds. When reading this novel, you do feel immersed in the upheaval of French society. That immersion extends to the characters, so many characters--their motivations, social climbing (here a major theme), virtues and pettiness. In the end, you (I) want to scream at Goriot to not give all his money to his daughters. Ah, wasted breath! and (2) feel like you've lived through the upheaval yourself. Overall, I found Pere Goriot an exhausting but very rewarding experience.
Pere Goriot (1835), Honore de Balzac's novel centered on French society after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo and subsequent restoration of the Bourbons is impressively detailed. Through an analysis of families, marriage and institutions, Balzac presents fully realized characters from diverse backgrounds. When reading this novel, you do feel immersed in the upheaval of French society. That immersion extends to the characters, so many characters--their motivations, social climbing (here a major theme), virtues and pettiness. In the end, you (I) want to scream at Goriot to not give all his money to his daughters. Ah, wasted breath! and (2) feel like you've lived through the upheaval yourself. Overall, I found Pere Goriot an exhausting but very rewarding experience.
March 19, 2011
No doubts on my part. This novel deserves a 5-star rating. Challenge my rating if you want and I know I can defend it, tooth and nail.
At first, this seems to be just a story of an old man, Pere Goriot and how he ends up in the pupper's grave despite being a rich businessman when he's still strong. His fault is that he loves and cares for his 2 spoiled uncaring ungrateful daughters who get all his riches and in the end don't even care going to his deathbed. However, that plot seems to be just secondary to the story of a young man, Eugene de Rastignac who uses all the opportunities for him to climb the social ladder. That makes this novel partly a bildungsroman and should have inspired James Joyce to write A Portrait of a Young Man as an Artist. Part of this climb is one of Goriot's daughters, Delphine. The good thing about Rastignac is that even if he uses other people, he is also a caring and sensitive man. He and the houseboy, Christophe are the ones who stay by Goriot's side and finance his burial.
Maybe I am already old and a father myself so I felt so sad reading the lamentations of the dying poor Goriot. My heart ached while he says this to Eugene about his daughters refusing to visit him: "God, if I could only hold their hands in mine, I would not feel any pain at all. Do you think they'll come?" I have read stories where a dying person asked somebody, usually a loved one, to hold his hand while he breathed his last because he was afraid. It should be the same feeling when we were kids and we wanted our parents to hold our hands as we walked outside for the first time. We were afraid.
As for literary significance, Le Pere Goriot started the use of recurring characters and the story goes that the eureka moment happened when Balzac was writing this and declared that he thought we would be rich because of the idea. In this novel, the characters of Eugene de Rastignac and Vautrin, among others, appear in his succeeding works. Le Pere Goriot is also said to be the finest of Balzac's other works and it also started the idea of grouping these works into what he termed as La Comedie Humaine or Human Comedy which was a parody of Dante's Divine Comedy. The Human Comedy is composed of 90+ works by Balzac and they depict the slices of Parisian lives during Balzac's time (1799-1850).
Surprisingly, the writing is easy to understand and definitely not archaic. The parts involving Vautrin particularly the plot to kill the husband of a rich wife that Rastignac can marry at first gave me that feeling that this would be a crime thriller but it was just used to illustrate what Rastignac could be capable of doing to be rich. In the end, true to the bildungsroman form, when he looks back at Paris, having shed a tear for Old Goriot, he says: "Now, it's between you and me" and we know that he has just transformed to a better man.
Oh dear, my first Balzac and definitely will not be my last. My only problem is that he has 90+ more like this in his Le Comedie Humaine and how I could finish all those before I die. Considering that I still have 800+ 1001 books to read, I need to live up to 100 to finish everything.
At first, this seems to be just a story of an old man, Pere Goriot and how he ends up in the pupper's grave despite being a rich businessman when he's still strong. His fault is that he loves and cares for his 2 spoiled uncaring ungrateful daughters who get all his riches and in the end don't even care going to his deathbed. However, that plot seems to be just secondary to the story of a young man, Eugene de Rastignac who uses all the opportunities for him to climb the social ladder. That makes this novel partly a bildungsroman and should have inspired James Joyce to write A Portrait of a Young Man as an Artist. Part of this climb is one of Goriot's daughters, Delphine. The good thing about Rastignac is that even if he uses other people, he is also a caring and sensitive man. He and the houseboy, Christophe are the ones who stay by Goriot's side and finance his burial.
Maybe I am already old and a father myself so I felt so sad reading the lamentations of the dying poor Goriot. My heart ached while he says this to Eugene about his daughters refusing to visit him: "God, if I could only hold their hands in mine, I would not feel any pain at all. Do you think they'll come?" I have read stories where a dying person asked somebody, usually a loved one, to hold his hand while he breathed his last because he was afraid. It should be the same feeling when we were kids and we wanted our parents to hold our hands as we walked outside for the first time. We were afraid.
As for literary significance, Le Pere Goriot started the use of recurring characters and the story goes that the eureka moment happened when Balzac was writing this and declared that he thought we would be rich because of the idea. In this novel, the characters of Eugene de Rastignac and Vautrin, among others, appear in his succeeding works. Le Pere Goriot is also said to be the finest of Balzac's other works and it also started the idea of grouping these works into what he termed as La Comedie Humaine or Human Comedy which was a parody of Dante's Divine Comedy. The Human Comedy is composed of 90+ works by Balzac and they depict the slices of Parisian lives during Balzac's time (1799-1850).
Surprisingly, the writing is easy to understand and definitely not archaic. The parts involving Vautrin particularly the plot to kill the husband of a rich wife that Rastignac can marry at first gave me that feeling that this would be a crime thriller but it was just used to illustrate what Rastignac could be capable of doing to be rich. In the end, true to the bildungsroman form, when he looks back at Paris, having shed a tear for Old Goriot, he says: "Now, it's between you and me" and we know that he has just transformed to a better man.
Oh dear, my first Balzac and definitely will not be my last. My only problem is that he has 90+ more like this in his Le Comedie Humaine and how I could finish all those before I die. Considering that I still have 800+ 1001 books to read, I need to live up to 100 to finish everything.
August 27, 2019
I will confess that my obsession with Balzac in my early twenties equalled Père Goriot's unconditional and quite blind love for his daughters!
When I read Père Goriot, quickly followed by Les Illusions Perdues and many other novels in the Comédie Humaine, I lacked the complete cynicism to understand a Rastignac or Vautrin and the mechanisms behind the tragedy of exploitation of those who love with a passion by those who celebrate their own self-indulgence and instant gratification most of all.
Therefore, I read Balzac with a sense of surreal pain, stunned by the outlandish ruthlessness of his main characters, taking what they needed when they needed it and leaving pain and destruction in their path. Truly, in my eyes they were pirates in the charmingly mythical and colourful sense of a Jack Sparrow.
Fast forward twenty years: I have lived through my share of the human comedy by now, and what I took for literary exaggeration has morphed into deep understanding of Balzac's knowledge of the human soul, or lack thereof, as the case may be. A Père Goriot can't help loving his daughters any more than they can help falling for the villains of the world, having been spoiled to the point of losing their hearts and their empathy.
That is the paradox of the tragicomedy of life. You can destroy as much by unconditional love as by hatred or indifference. If you remain blind and emotionally dependent in your personal relationships, predators will sense that and make their moves without ever stopping to consider your position. Tragically, a loving and caring person rarely understands the fact that there are people who actually do not have empathy. Therefore, they set themselves up for victimhood over and over again, expecting others to think like they do themselves. The strength of the predator lies in his or her carelessness.
Balzac wrote a masterpiece of parental failure based on overprotective and helpless love. And he wrote a masterpiece of soulless exploitation of the weak links in society as well. Rastignac is Dorian Grey's portrait walking the streets and celebrating its ugliness!
When I read Père Goriot, quickly followed by Les Illusions Perdues and many other novels in the Comédie Humaine, I lacked the complete cynicism to understand a Rastignac or Vautrin and the mechanisms behind the tragedy of exploitation of those who love with a passion by those who celebrate their own self-indulgence and instant gratification most of all.
Therefore, I read Balzac with a sense of surreal pain, stunned by the outlandish ruthlessness of his main characters, taking what they needed when they needed it and leaving pain and destruction in their path. Truly, in my eyes they were pirates in the charmingly mythical and colourful sense of a Jack Sparrow.
Fast forward twenty years: I have lived through my share of the human comedy by now, and what I took for literary exaggeration has morphed into deep understanding of Balzac's knowledge of the human soul, or lack thereof, as the case may be. A Père Goriot can't help loving his daughters any more than they can help falling for the villains of the world, having been spoiled to the point of losing their hearts and their empathy.
That is the paradox of the tragicomedy of life. You can destroy as much by unconditional love as by hatred or indifference. If you remain blind and emotionally dependent in your personal relationships, predators will sense that and make their moves without ever stopping to consider your position. Tragically, a loving and caring person rarely understands the fact that there are people who actually do not have empathy. Therefore, they set themselves up for victimhood over and over again, expecting others to think like they do themselves. The strength of the predator lies in his or her carelessness.
Balzac wrote a masterpiece of parental failure based on overprotective and helpless love. And he wrote a masterpiece of soulless exploitation of the weak links in society as well. Rastignac is Dorian Grey's portrait walking the streets and celebrating its ugliness!
August 12, 2023
توی سریال زیرخاکی یه جا یکی از فریبرز (پژمان جمشیدی) میپرسه کتاب باباگوریو رو خوندی؟ داستانش چیه؟ فریبرز هم میگه آره باباگوریو با مامانگوریو ازدواج میکنه. حالا اگه شما کتاب باباگوریو رو واقعا خونده باشید هم داستانش رو در همین حد به سادگی میتونید در یک جمله توضیح بدید، باباگوریو تمام ثروت و زندگیش رو به پای دو تا دختر بی چشم و روش ریخته با دو تا داماد پفیوز، و هر کاری هم دخترا میکنن ایشون ماله میکشه عمیقاً. اما در خلال این داستان بالزاک یه گریزی هم به کثافت و لجن زندگی اشرافی اون زمان پاریس زده و نقدش رو در این مورد بیان کرده، که البته من فکر میکنم در حال حاضر هم چنین کثافت و لجنی در یک قشر ثروتمند نوکیسه در ایران و شاید همهجای جهان وجود داره متاسفانه. اگر ترجمهی خوبی رو بخونید داستان روان و جالبیه اما در بیست سی صفحهی اول جز تعریف و توصیف آدمها و در و دیوار و ساختمان هیچی نیست و به نظرم خیلی حوصله سر بر بود و شاید بهتر بود این توصیفات پخش بشه توی کتاب.ه
October 26, 2020
These relics are historical artifacts to be marveled at for prolonged semi-meditative snatches of time, are essential to readers' educations. I found much of value in this, my first novel by Balzac, mostly in how sad sociological circumstances can be, & how nothing much changes when money is the main ingredient in how a person's life shall be.
This is a tragedy, perhaps not as Shakespearean as one would like (or ironic--it naturally follows its predestined course the entire time), but it IS full of woe-is-meisms & melancholy in the treatment of one human from one class to another. & the surplus description that's a signature of Balzac, is no detractor; in being so faithful with his worlds & rooms of wondrous decrepitude it paints a world no longer alive (though themes are eternal) as well as a type of novel no longer being written.
This is a tragedy, perhaps not as Shakespearean as one would like (or ironic--it naturally follows its predestined course the entire time), but it IS full of woe-is-meisms & melancholy in the treatment of one human from one class to another. & the surplus description that's a signature of Balzac, is no detractor; in being so faithful with his worlds & rooms of wondrous decrepitude it paints a world no longer alive (though themes are eternal) as well as a type of novel no longer being written.
October 22, 2021
پول یعنی زندگی، همهچیز بسته به پول است.
گفتار اندر توصیف باباگوریو از زبان نویسنده
اثر بزرگی را شروع کردهام.
باباگوریو کتابی است که کاملا خلاف انتظارتان خواهد بود.
دوستانم معتقدند که با هیچ کار دیگری قابل مقایسه نیست و ورای همهی کتابهاییست که تا به حال نوشتهام.
این کتاب اثری بنیادی است و شما پس از خواندنش به باباگوریو افتخار خواهید کرد، بعید است کسی پس از خواندن باباگوریو «بالزاکی» نشود.
گفتار اندر توصیف باباگوریو به قلم استاد مهدی سحابی
باباگوریو شعرِ مهرِ پدری است، حماسهی پدری.
از دوجهت: اول از جنبهی شخصیِ انسانیِ احساسها، انگیزهها و اعمالی که ریشه در عمیقترین فعل و انفعالهای تن و ذهن آدمی دارند، گسترهای از سادهترین تپیدنهای یاختههای جانوری تا اعلای عواطفی که همین جانور را سرمدی میکنند. دوم از جنبهی آنچه شاید از جملهی کمیابترین دستاوردهای کاملِ انسانِ اندیشمند آفرینندهي نوآور باشد و آنرا به نام «کمدی انسانی» میشناسیم.
گوریو، پیرمردِ رشتهفروشِ سابق، هیچ��چیز نیست جز پدر. مفهوم همهی وجودش، انگیزهی گذران امروز و فردا و همهی عمرش این است که پدر دو دختر است.
گفتار اندر داستان کتاب
باباگوریو کیست؟
باباگوریو پیرمردیست ۶۹ ساله که در سال ۱۸۱۳ پس از ترک کار و فعالیت در پانسیون خانم ووکر گوشه گرفته بود، همسرش فوت کرده و دو دخترش را با عشقی ناب و بیانتها دوست میداشت و تا آخرین لحظات عمرش خود را موظف به بخشیدن تکتک سلولهای بدنش به آنها میدانست اما در عین حال دخترانش پس از ازدواج برخوردی با او داشتند که ... .
این رمان کلاسیک فقط در مورد زندگی این پیرمرد نیست و بالزاک به طور همزمان به داستان پردازی در مورد شخصیتهای دیگری نیز پرداخته که از مهمترین آنان داستان یک دانشجوی جوان که همسایهی گوریو در آن پانسیون بود و داستان زندگی او و پیوندش به گوریو نیز به شدت خواندنی بود.
بیش از این به داستان کتاب نمیپردازم و شما را دعوت به خواندن خود کتاب مینمایم اما در جایی از کتاب از زبان باباگوریو خواندم:
«آرزوی اینکه کاش ثروت داشتم تا آنرا به فرزندم بدهم، تازه به من فهماند که فقیر بودن یعنی چه.»
و در این لحظه کتاب را بستم و آرزو کردم کاش باباگوریو پدرم بود و آنوقت نشانش میدادم عشق فرزند به پدری که عاشقش است یعنی چه!
و حال متوجه میشوم که چرا آیدین(مخلوق عباس آقای معروفی در رمان سمفونی مردگان) چرا انقدر باباگوریو را دوست داشت و حالا میفهمم چرا موراکامی عزیزم بیش از ۶ بار باباگوریو را به من لینک کرد چون میدانم او هم چهها از پدرش کشیده.
بله همه پدرها و مادرها خوب نیستند و اینکه قانون نانوشته بدانیم همهی پدرها و مادرها فرشتهاند مزخرفی بیش نیست، نمونهاش پدرِ جانی و بیعاطفهی من که تک فرزند و همسرش را رها کرد و رفت... تا اینکه روزی خبر مرگش رسید.
ای پدر بیوجدان و بیعاطفه، هیچ وقت تو را نمیبخشم. و آرزو میکنم روحت در عذاب باشد.
نقلقول نامه
«چه کسی میتواند بگوید دیدن کدامیک از این دو دهشتناکتر است، دلهای خشکیده یا جمجمههای تهی شده؟»
«شاید در ذات بشر باشد که به سر کسیکه بر اثر افتادگیِ واقعی یا ضعف یا بیاعتنایی رنج میکشد تا آنجا که می تواند بلا بیاورد. مگر نه اینکه همهی ما خوش داریم زورمان را سر کسی یا چیزی امتحان کنیم؟»
«دل آدم وقت بالا رفتن از بلندیهای محبت گهگاه استراحتی میکند ولی در سراشیب تندِ احساساتِ نفرتآلود بندرت میایستد.»
«ثروت حرف آخر دنیاست.»
«بررسی اوضاع این دنیای خاکی به این نتیج�� رسیده که فقط دو راه پیش پای آدم هست: یا فرمانبرداریِ ابلهانه یا شورش»
«برای ثروتمند شدن باید کلان بازی کرد، وگرنه میشود گدابازی کرد و مرحمت زیاد.»
«عشق یک مذهب است و برگزاریِ آییناش باید از هر مذهب دیگری گرانتر تمام شود، زود میگذرد، مثل کودکی که خوش دارد سرِ راهش از خود ویرانیها به جا بگذارد.»
«هیچچیز بدتر از این نیست که آدم عیبهای خودش را برملا کند.»
کارنامه
این کتاب نخستین اثری بود که از بالزاک می خواندم اما حقیقتا اعتراف میکنم درست همانطور که نویسنده در مورد کتابش گفته، پس از خواندن این کتاب میتوانم بگویم من نیز یک «بالزاکی» هستم.
قلم بالزاک را دوست داشتم و توصیفها و شخصیت پردازیهایش را قوی دیدم.
من هیج ایرادی در کتاب ندیدم که بخواهم نمرهای از کتاب کسر نمایم و به همین جهت بدون در نظر گرفتن هرگونه لطف یا ارفاق به نویسنده پنج ستاره را برایش منظور و ضمن اینکه کتاب را به لیست کتابهای مورد علاقهام منتقل میکنم، خواندن آن را به تمام دوستانم پیشنهاد میکنم.
بیست و چهارم شهریورماه یکهزار و چهارصد
گفتار اندر توصیف باباگوریو از زبان نویسنده
اثر بزرگی را شروع کردهام.
باباگوریو کتابی است که کاملا خلاف انتظارتان خواهد بود.
دوستانم معتقدند که با هیچ کار دیگری قابل مقایسه نیست و ورای همهی کتابهاییست که تا به حال نوشتهام.
این کتاب اثری بنیادی است و شما پس از خواندنش به باباگوریو افتخار خواهید کرد، بعید است کسی پس از خواندن باباگوریو «بالزاکی» نشود.
گفتار اندر توصیف باباگوریو به قلم استاد مهدی سحابی
باباگوریو شعرِ مهرِ پدری است، حماسهی پدری.
از دوجهت: اول از جنبهی شخصیِ انسانیِ احساسها، انگیزهها و اعمالی که ریشه در عمیقترین فعل و انفعالهای تن و ذهن آدمی دارند، گسترهای از سادهترین تپیدنهای یاختههای جانوری تا اعلای عواطفی که همین جانور را سرمدی میکنند. دوم از جنبهی آنچه شاید از جملهی کمیابترین دستاوردهای کاملِ انسانِ اندیشمند آفرینندهي نوآور باشد و آنرا به نام «کمدی انسانی» میشناسیم.
گوریو، پیرمردِ رشتهفروشِ سابق، هیچ��چیز نیست جز پدر. مفهوم همهی وجودش، انگیزهی گذران امروز و فردا و همهی عمرش این است که پدر دو دختر است.
گفتار اندر داستان کتاب
باباگوریو کیست؟
باباگوریو پیرمردیست ۶۹ ساله که در سال ۱۸۱۳ پس از ترک کار و فعالیت در پانسیون خانم ووکر گوشه گرفته بود، همسرش فوت کرده و دو دخترش را با عشقی ناب و بیانتها دوست میداشت و تا آخرین لحظات عمرش خود را موظف به بخشیدن تکتک سلولهای بدنش به آنها میدانست اما در عین حال دخترانش پس از ازدواج برخوردی با او داشتند که ... .
این رمان کلاسیک فقط در مورد زندگی این پیرمرد نیست و بالزاک به طور همزمان به داستان پردازی در مورد شخصیتهای دیگری نیز پرداخته که از مهمترین آنان داستان یک دانشجوی جوان که همسایهی گوریو در آن پانسیون بود و داستان زندگی او و پیوندش به گوریو نیز به شدت خواندنی بود.
بیش از این به داستان کتاب نمیپردازم و شما را دعوت به خواندن خود کتاب مینمایم اما در جایی از کتاب از زبان باباگوریو خواندم:
«آرزوی اینکه کاش ثروت داشتم تا آنرا به فرزندم بدهم، تازه به من فهماند که فقیر بودن یعنی چه.»
و در این لحظه کتاب را بستم و آرزو کردم کاش باباگوریو پدرم بود و آنوقت نشانش میدادم عشق فرزند به پدری که عاشقش است یعنی چه!
و حال متوجه میشوم که چرا آیدین(مخلوق عباس آقای معروفی در رمان سمفونی مردگان) چرا انقدر باباگوریو را دوست داشت و حالا میفهمم چرا موراکامی عزیزم بیش از ۶ بار باباگوریو را به من لینک کرد چون میدانم او هم چهها از پدرش کشیده.
بله همه پدرها و مادرها خوب نیستند و اینکه قانون نانوشته بدانیم همهی پدرها و مادرها فرشتهاند مزخرفی بیش نیست، نمونهاش پدرِ جانی و بیعاطفهی من که تک فرزند و همسرش را رها کرد و رفت... تا اینکه روزی خبر مرگش رسید.
ای پدر بیوجدان و بیعاطفه، هیچ وقت تو را نمیبخشم. و آرزو میکنم روحت در عذاب باشد.
نقلقول نامه
«چه کسی میتواند بگوید دیدن کدامیک از این دو دهشتناکتر است، دلهای خشکیده یا جمجمههای تهی شده؟»
«شاید در ذات بشر باشد که به سر کسیکه بر اثر افتادگیِ واقعی یا ضعف یا بیاعتنایی رنج میکشد تا آنجا که می تواند بلا بیاورد. مگر نه اینکه همهی ما خوش داریم زورمان را سر کسی یا چیزی امتحان کنیم؟»
«دل آدم وقت بالا رفتن از بلندیهای محبت گهگاه استراحتی میکند ولی در سراشیب تندِ احساساتِ نفرتآلود بندرت میایستد.»
«ثروت حرف آخر دنیاست.»
«بررسی اوضاع این دنیای خاکی به این نتیج�� رسیده که فقط دو راه پیش پای آدم هست: یا فرمانبرداریِ ابلهانه یا شورش»
«برای ثروتمند شدن باید کلان بازی کرد، وگرنه میشود گدابازی کرد و مرحمت زیاد.»
«عشق یک مذهب است و برگزاریِ آییناش باید از هر مذهب دیگری گرانتر تمام شود، زود میگذرد، مثل کودکی که خوش دارد سرِ راهش از خود ویرانیها به جا بگذارد.»
«هیچچیز بدتر از این نیست که آدم عیبهای خودش را برملا کند.»
کارنامه
این کتاب نخستین اثری بود که از بالزاک می خواندم اما حقیقتا اعتراف میکنم درست همانطور که نویسنده در مورد کتابش گفته، پس از خواندن این کتاب میتوانم بگویم من نیز یک «بالزاکی» هستم.
قلم بالزاک را دوست داشتم و توصیفها و شخصیت پردازیهایش را قوی دیدم.
من هیج ایرادی در کتاب ندیدم که بخواهم نمرهای از کتاب کسر نمایم و به همین جهت بدون در نظر گرفتن هرگونه لطف یا ارفاق به نویسنده پنج ستاره را برایش منظور و ضمن اینکه کتاب را به لیست کتابهای مورد علاقهام منتقل میکنم، خواندن آن را به تمام دوستانم پیشنهاد میکنم.
بیست و چهارم شهریورماه یکهزار و چهارصد
November 3, 2020
رواية فيها نماذج انسانية واقعية مختلفة, ومشاهد من الحياة الباريسية في القرن التاسع عشر, وطبيعة الصراعات والعلاقات في طبقات المجتمع الثرية
المال هو أساس الرواية, هو المحرك لكل الشخصيات على اختلافهم باعتباره المُحدد لقيمة ومكانة الانسان في المجتمع
الحصول على المال بأي وسيلة, وفكرة الأخلاق والتنازع الذي يحدث داخل نفس الانسان بين ضميره ورغباته
وحتى في التعبير عن الحب والعطاء في حالة الأب جوريو لبناته الجاحدات كان المال أيضا هو الشيء الوحيد الذي يقدمه لهم
أسلوب بارع في وصف الأماكن والشخصيات, وكأن الملامح والشكل الخارجي لكل شخصية بيحدد طبائعها وتصرفاتها
المال هو أساس الرواية, هو المحرك لكل الشخصيات على اختلافهم باعتباره المُحدد لقيمة ومكانة الانسان في المجتمع
الحصول على المال بأي وسيلة, وفكرة الأخلاق والتنازع الذي يحدث داخل نفس الانسان بين ضميره ورغباته
وحتى في التعبير عن الحب والعطاء في حالة الأب جوريو لبناته الجاحدات كان المال أيضا هو الشيء الوحيد الذي يقدمه لهم
أسلوب بارع في وصف الأماكن والشخصيات, وكأن الملامح والشكل الخارجي لكل شخصية بيحدد طبائعها وتصرفاتها
May 28, 2023
قصه ى پدرى فراتر از مهربان كه خود راقربانى دختراتش مى كند
قربانى دخترانى مثل ديگر دختران وزنان ومردمان پاريس اوايل قرن ١٩
كه دچار تظاهر و خيانت و حسادت هستند
توصيفى از جامعه بيمار و انسانى هايي مانند گوريو و و راستينياك كه در اين جامعه سعى در زنده نگه داشتن عواطف انسانى و روح پاك خود هستند.
رمانى كه ارزش خواندن داشت
و صفحات آخر اين اثر بزرگ بالزاك كه بى نهايت تاثير گذار روى احساسات درونى انسان وخواننده كتاب است.
قربانى دخترانى مثل ديگر دختران وزنان ومردمان پاريس اوايل قرن ١٩
كه دچار تظاهر و خيانت و حسادت هستند
توصيفى از جامعه بيمار و انسانى هايي مانند گوريو و و راستينياك كه در اين جامعه سعى در زنده نگه داشتن عواطف انسانى و روح پاك خود هستند.
رمانى كه ارزش خواندن داشت
و صفحات آخر اين اثر بزرگ بالزاك كه بى نهايت تاثير گذار روى احساسات درونى انسان وخواننده كتاب است.
May 27, 2014
The Importance of Being Cynical
Rastignac’s education is the theme of the novel — provided at the expense of Père Goriot, who built up a fortune from nothing, married his daughters into wealth and was duly ignored and left to die a lonely death. This clear tragedy tells Rastignac, and perhaps France itself, what it takes to succeed in a Capitalist World: ruthlessness and a complete apathy to moral sentiments.
As Vautrin explains to Rastignac, it is illusory to think that social success can be achieved through study, talent, and effort — you can never get anywhere worthwhile by slaving your life away earning an honest living out of your education and skills. All you need is cynicism. Père Goriot was a great teacher. Nothing else could have convinced Rastignac.
P.S. This short review is inspired by Thomas Piketty’s analysis of the novel in Capital in the Twenty-First Century, to help explain the structure of wealth in Europe in the era under study:
“… the structure of the income and wealth hierarchies in nineteenth-century France was such that the standard of living the wealthiest French people could attain greatly exceeded that to which one could aspire on the basis of income from labor alone. Under such conditions, why work? And why behave morally at all? Since social inequality was in itself immoral and unjustified, why not be thoroughly immoral and appropriate capital by whatever means are available?”
This clarified the unease the reviewer had felt towards Balzac’s message. Was it that Rastignac should be pitied? Or was he a hope that even a complete cynic once had hope and could have taken a different turn? Or was it that if only the Goriots could be treated better the Rastignacs might find more motivation to stick it out in honorable professions? Or was it that all pretensions to live a up-and-comer middle-class life is buying into the capitalist illusion? Piketty’s small piece on the novel helped this reviewer finally place the novel.
September 9, 2010
Years ago my mum was an English literature professor and my dad a linguist at an university. Ever since I could read beyond the alphabet books I was spoon fed 'serious classic literature'. Mum had a particular passion for all things French, and I read things like The Red and the Black and Madame Bovary before Harry Potter was even published. Like most normal children, I did not enjoy anything over 200 pages with dense text about poverty and woman's fashion and instead resorted to large amount of 'serious classic science fiction' and Gothic literature instead. As a result, I've always carried this fear and 'Urgh, not another painting on the cover Penguin classic again' attitude towards well, 'serious things'.
So the other day I came across Pere Goriot and thought, hey, now that I'm over 20, I should maybe grow up and read 'serious' things again. I vaguely recall skimming through my dad's copy when I was 8, but quickly gave up when the afternoon cartoon came on TV.
First of all, this is nothing like those old hardcover dust mite infested books my mum used to keep (and still keeps, I suspect). Rather, this is like an episode of Home and Away - a lot of things happen, a lot of drama, internal monologues, speeches, great dialogues and MORE DRAMA. I remember thinking 'Wow, this is great. People used to have such interesting lives.' I was genuinely surprised by how melodramatic yet entertaining the novel was. It has duels, romance, ambitious young man, conspiracy and woman's fashion (now I can actually appreciate it). The characters are fun and even the minor ones are well considered. The last 50 pages are literally mind blowing - the voices were yelling inside my head, everything was a bit delirious and OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING IN A FRENCH 19TH CENTURY NOVEL!!!
Now, I must call dad and let him know how much I love Balzac and that one day I may even attempt Proust. One day.
So the other day I came across Pere Goriot and thought, hey, now that I'm over 20, I should maybe grow up and read 'serious' things again. I vaguely recall skimming through my dad's copy when I was 8, but quickly gave up when the afternoon cartoon came on TV.
First of all, this is nothing like those old hardcover dust mite infested books my mum used to keep (and still keeps, I suspect). Rather, this is like an episode of Home and Away - a lot of things happen, a lot of drama, internal monologues, speeches, great dialogues and MORE DRAMA. I remember thinking 'Wow, this is great. People used to have such interesting lives.' I was genuinely surprised by how melodramatic yet entertaining the novel was. It has duels, romance, ambitious young man, conspiracy and woman's fashion (now I can actually appreciate it). The characters are fun and even the minor ones are well considered. The last 50 pages are literally mind blowing - the voices were yelling inside my head, everything was a bit delirious and OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING IN A FRENCH 19TH CENTURY NOVEL!!!
Now, I must call dad and let him know how much I love Balzac and that one day I may even attempt Proust. One day.
July 31, 2023
صفحات آخر رمانِ باباگوریو را با جان کندن خواندم. انگار که ادم به تماشای مسیرِ صلیب نشسته قدم به قدم عیسی را دنبال می کند، هنگامی که گناهان بشر را به دوش کشیده، تا به جلجتا برسد و تقدیرش را رقم بزند. گوریو می گفت من زمانی که پدر شده ام خدارا شناختم. حق دارد. تنها از پدر برمی اید که خودش را برای گناهان فرزندانش قربانی کند و بی شک گوریو این نکته را از همه بهتر می داند.
بالزاک، پاریسِ اوایل قرن ۱۹ را روایت می کند. چنان که خودش می گوید آنچه که نوشته نه قصه است و نه رمان بلکه سراپا حقیقت است. بابا گوریوی بالزاک، انجیل دنیای جدیدمان است و روایتی از قربانی شدن پدری دیگر به پای گناهان بشر. این بار نیز چنان گذشته، قصه، قصهی ذات فرومایه و پلید و شرور بشر است. ووتر یکی از شخصیت های داستان می گوید: "بشر نقص دارد. گاهی تزویرش کم و گاهی زیاد می شود و آن وقت احمق ها می گویند که به اخلاق پایبند است یا که نیست. بشر چه بالا باشد چه پایین چه وسط یکی است." اما این بار می توان پرسید که گناه بشر چیست؟ و بالزاک در یک کلمه خواهد گفت: پاریس
پاریس در هیبت اقیانوسی ژرف به تصویر کشیده می شود. اقیانوسی که هیچ کاشفی هیچ گاه نخواهد توانست که به کنه آن پی ببرد. شهر در رمان بالزاک، بیش از خیابان ها و کاخ ها و خانه هاست. شهر تمام آن چیز هایی است که بشر می سازد اما بر بشر چیره می شود. شهر این بار چنان نیرویی است که تمام ادمیان را فاسد می خواهد. فرقی نمی کند. در پاریس شرافت نصفه نیمه نخواهیم داشت. شرافت یا هست یا نیست و در پاریس، ��رافت، از همه چیز کمتر تحمل می شود. شهر هر احساس شریف و والایی را زیر چرخ دنده هایش خرد میکند تا آن را با باقی چیز ها همسطح گرداند. در پاریس نیز شرافت به چشم می خورد، اما شرافتی که با جنایت تفاوتی ندارد. "چیزی به اسم اخلاق وجود ندارد. هر چه هست رویداد است."
البته که می توان در پاریس با خوشحالی زیست. با لبخند. با وجدانی آسوده. گوریو گمان می کرد "جامعه و دنیا روی پایه پدری می چرخد، همه چیز از هم می پاشد اگر بچه ها، پدرهاشان را دوست نداشته باشند." اما پدر ها هرروز در پاریس، در شهر، تلف می شوند و کک هیچ کس نمی گزد. یکی از امتیازهای این شهر خوب این است میشود ادم در آن به دنیا بیاید، زندگی کند و بمیرد، بدون آنکه هیچ کس کاری به کارش داشته باشد. گوریو شاید نمی دانست که ذات ناقص بشری با بیشرفی، راحت تر از هر چیز دیگری کنار می آید. اما بی شرفی ای از نوع جدید: از نوع معصومانه. انسان هایی بی شرف که در منجلاب شهر زندگی می کنند و می توانند با همه چیز کنار بیایند. حواسشان به چایشان باشد که خدای ناکرده یخ نکند. در پاریس هیچ کس نمی تواند خود را گولبزند که بی گناه است. این بزرگترین درسی است که بالزاک به ما می دهد.
بالزاک، پاریسِ اوایل قرن ۱۹ را روایت می کند. چنان که خودش می گوید آنچه که نوشته نه قصه است و نه رمان بلکه سراپا حقیقت است. بابا گوریوی بالزاک، انجیل دنیای جدیدمان است و روایتی از قربانی شدن پدری دیگر به پای گناهان بشر. این بار نیز چنان گذشته، قصه، قصهی ذات فرومایه و پلید و شرور بشر است. ووتر یکی از شخصیت های داستان می گوید: "بشر نقص دارد. گاهی تزویرش کم و گاهی زیاد می شود و آن وقت احمق ها می گویند که به اخلاق پایبند است یا که نیست. بشر چه بالا باشد چه پایین چه وسط یکی است." اما این بار می توان پرسید که گناه بشر چیست؟ و بالزاک در یک کلمه خواهد گفت: پاریس
پاریس در هیبت اقیانوسی ژرف به تصویر کشیده می شود. اقیانوسی که هیچ کاشفی هیچ گاه نخواهد توانست که به کنه آن پی ببرد. شهر در رمان بالزاک، بیش از خیابان ها و کاخ ها و خانه هاست. شهر تمام آن چیز هایی است که بشر می سازد اما بر بشر چیره می شود. شهر این بار چنان نیرویی است که تمام ادمیان را فاسد می خواهد. فرقی نمی کند. در پاریس شرافت نصفه نیمه نخواهیم داشت. شرافت یا هست یا نیست و در پاریس، ��رافت، از همه چیز کمتر تحمل می شود. شهر هر احساس شریف و والایی را زیر چرخ دنده هایش خرد میکند تا آن را با باقی چیز ها همسطح گرداند. در پاریس نیز شرافت به چشم می خورد، اما شرافتی که با جنایت تفاوتی ندارد. "چیزی به اسم اخلاق وجود ندارد. هر چه هست رویداد است."
البته که می توان در پاریس با خوشحالی زیست. با لبخند. با وجدانی آسوده. گوریو گمان می کرد "جامعه و دنیا روی پایه پدری می چرخد، همه چیز از هم می پاشد اگر بچه ها، پدرهاشان را دوست نداشته باشند." اما پدر ها هرروز در پاریس، در شهر، تلف می شوند و کک هیچ کس نمی گزد. یکی از امتیازهای این شهر خوب این است میشود ادم در آن به دنیا بیاید، زندگی کند و بمیرد، بدون آنکه هیچ کس کاری به کارش داشته باشد. گوریو شاید نمی دانست که ذات ناقص بشری با بیشرفی، راحت تر از هر چیز دیگری کنار می آید. اما بی شرفی ای از نوع جدید: از نوع معصومانه. انسان هایی بی شرف که در منجلاب شهر زندگی می کنند و می توانند با همه چیز کنار بیایند. حواسشان به چایشان باشد که خدای ناکرده یخ نکند. در پاریس هیچ کس نمی تواند خود را گولبزند که بی گناه است. این بزرگترین درسی است که بالزاک به ما می دهد.
June 8, 2020
از خیلیها شنیدهام «کلاسیکها سختخوانند، آدم صبور میخواهند»، در این سالها خودم هم زیاد ادعا کردم که «من کلاسیک خوان نیستم».
از سوی دیگر تمام اتفاقات قرن 19 از تغییر شهرها و روابط و مناسبات شهری و نوع حضور و ذهنیت مردم تا هنری که شکل و سویی جدید گرفت برایم چیز دیگری است ، این مسیر مرا به سوی ادبیات فرانسه قرن ۱۹ و برای شروع باباگوریوی بالزاک جذب کرد. درست است خواندن کلاسیکها صبر میخواهد. قدرت تصور میخواهد، اینکه بتوانی خودت را تمام قد در پاریسی که بالزاک به ظریفترین و دقیقترین نحو توصیف میکند ببینی؛ آنگاه شخصیتها را نیز در مییابی، راستینیاک و گوریو و ووترن و باقی افراد را... . برایم عجیب است که نمیتوانم داد سخن بدهم، نمیتوانم بگویم از این کتاب خوشم آمد یا بدم آمد، حتی دوست ندارم خلاصهای از داستان کتاب بگویم مطمینم پیش از من خیلی ها گفتنیها را گفتهاند. این نکته را میدانم که به لطف خواندن بالزاک متوجه شدم چیزی که بیشتر از همه میتواند به روح قرن۱۹ و حال و هوای آن نزدیکم کند قلم اوست. قلم او معنای تمام ادبیات و داستانپردازی بود، به معنای تمام و کلاسیکش. به همان معنا که خودت را غرق شده در مکان و زمان و آدمها ببینی و تمام مدت خواندن داستان دنیای آنها را زندگی کنی. به جرات این اصیلترین جوهرهی ادبیات بود که از سطور باباگوریو درون روحم جاری شد. بالزاک کمی متقاعدم کرد که سپرم را زمین بگذارم, که کلاسیک ادبیات فرانسه چیز دیگری است.
از سوی دیگر تمام اتفاقات قرن 19 از تغییر شهرها و روابط و مناسبات شهری و نوع حضور و ذهنیت مردم تا هنری که شکل و سویی جدید گرفت برایم چیز دیگری است ، این مسیر مرا به سوی ادبیات فرانسه قرن ۱۹ و برای شروع باباگوریوی بالزاک جذب کرد. درست است خواندن کلاسیکها صبر میخواهد. قدرت تصور میخواهد، اینکه بتوانی خودت را تمام قد در پاریسی که بالزاک به ظریفترین و دقیقترین نحو توصیف میکند ببینی؛ آنگاه شخصیتها را نیز در مییابی، راستینیاک و گوریو و ووترن و باقی افراد را... . برایم عجیب است که نمیتوانم داد سخن بدهم، نمیتوانم بگویم از این کتاب خوشم آمد یا بدم آمد، حتی دوست ندارم خلاصهای از داستان کتاب بگویم مطمینم پیش از من خیلی ها گفتنیها را گفتهاند. این نکته را میدانم که به لطف خواندن بالزاک متوجه شدم چیزی که بیشتر از همه میتواند به روح قرن۱۹ و حال و هوای آن نزدیکم کند قلم اوست. قلم او معنای تمام ادبیات و داستانپردازی بود، به معنای تمام و کلاسیکش. به همان معنا که خودت را غرق شده در مکان و زمان و آدمها ببینی و تمام مدت خواندن داستان دنیای آنها را زندگی کنی. به جرات این اصیلترین جوهرهی ادبیات بود که از سطور باباگوریو درون روحم جاری شد. بالزاک کمی متقاعدم کرد که سپرم را زمین بگذارم, که کلاسیک ادبیات فرانسه چیز دیگری است.
January 17, 2025
It's not every day that you wake up at 1am because you wonder how the book will end.
June 10, 2021
60th book of 2021. Artist for this review is French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
My first Balzac, and I am left impressed. Starting it, I wondered if this would be those fairly short novels that feel 100 pages longer, but that fear quickly disappeared. It does begin with a lengthy (in true 19thC fashion) description of a boarding-house and its inhabitants, which makes for slow progress, especially attempting to commit the French names to memory, but as soon as the story begins, the narrative becomes readable and enjoyable. Balzac (or rather, Krailsheimer) surprised me with its readability. Set in 1819, just three years after the Battle of Waterloo, the backdrop to Balzac's novel is a Paris in love with money, affluence and social status.
"Pont Neuf"—1872
The titular Père Goriot doesn't hold down the narrative in the beginning, instead we follow Eugène de Rastignac, a law student. Rastignac is in the boarding-house with Goriot though, and the mysterious ex-convict Vautrin. Père Goriot is book 23 of his 89 (give or take, depending) book/story multi-volume collection, La Comédie humaine. Balzac divided the novels into subcatergories, so to speak, within the collection. He first placed Père Goriot into "Scènes de la vie parisienne" [Scenes of Life in Paris, one translation says], but later moved it, perhaps more aptly I would agree into, "Scènes de la vie privée" [Scenes of private life]. Above all, this is a personal novel about Goriot and his daughters, in true Lear fashion.
Goriot is an old man, the butt of many jokes, mocked and ridiculed, and misunderstood. He appears to be obsessed with two young and beautiful women who walk in the high social classes of Parisian life, but of course, they are his daughters. Where they are rich, finely-dressed, respected members of society, Goriot lives in the dilapidated boarding-house with no curtains over his windows. His obsessive love for them has led him to financial and personal ruin. In a Paris that is drawn by Balzac as caring only for money, status, Goriot stands alone. Rastignac attempts to enter the social-circles of Paris to win one of Goriot's daughters and all the while the mysterious Vautrin lurks on the fringe.
Vautrin's character was one of the highlights of the novel and his long monologue to Rastignac in the second part, "Entry on the Social Scene" was the best part of the novel. Being a French realist work, similar to that of Les Misérables (I'll come back to this point in a moment), I actually found Balzac's work better, at times. Vaurtin's speech is brilliant. I wish I could transcribe the lot.
"Le Pont des Arts"—1867
Eventually the novel comes around to Goriot, and we see his misfortune played out, or, his sacrifice. His selflessness almost appears ridiculous. The final chapter is quite slow, after the climax of Vautrin's role in the narrative. Which is where, I would like to mention something else. I want to avoid using the dreaded spoiler-tag, but I do think there are huge similarities between this novel and Hugo's Les Misérables. I'll keep it fairly vague but Goriot reminded me slightly of Jean Valjean when he is the subject of great intrigue for a town, walking around, the mysterious old man, with seemingly a lot of money. And Vautrin is an ex-convict, just like Jean Valjean, and there is a scene in the middle of Père Goriot that is so similar to a scene in Les Misérables that I was getting my wires crossed. Père Goriot was published thirty years prior and Jean Valjean seemed to me like a combination of both Goriot's and Vautrin's character.
I will read more Balzac in the coming years. If I could have a whole novel of Vautrin's speeches then I would probably read it. Brilliant. I cared less about the sentimentality of Goriot, but that's because I'm an unromantic cynic myself. It can't be helped.
He saw society as an ocean of mire into which one had only to dip a toe to be buried in it up to the neck.
My first Balzac, and I am left impressed. Starting it, I wondered if this would be those fairly short novels that feel 100 pages longer, but that fear quickly disappeared. It does begin with a lengthy (in true 19thC fashion) description of a boarding-house and its inhabitants, which makes for slow progress, especially attempting to commit the French names to memory, but as soon as the story begins, the narrative becomes readable and enjoyable. Balzac (or rather, Krailsheimer) surprised me with its readability. Set in 1819, just three years after the Battle of Waterloo, the backdrop to Balzac's novel is a Paris in love with money, affluence and social status.
"Pont Neuf"—1872
The titular Père Goriot doesn't hold down the narrative in the beginning, instead we follow Eugène de Rastignac, a law student. Rastignac is in the boarding-house with Goriot though, and the mysterious ex-convict Vautrin. Père Goriot is book 23 of his 89 (give or take, depending) book/story multi-volume collection, La Comédie humaine. Balzac divided the novels into subcatergories, so to speak, within the collection. He first placed Père Goriot into "Scènes de la vie parisienne" [Scenes of Life in Paris, one translation says], but later moved it, perhaps more aptly I would agree into, "Scènes de la vie privée" [Scenes of private life]. Above all, this is a personal novel about Goriot and his daughters, in true Lear fashion.
Goriot is an old man, the butt of many jokes, mocked and ridiculed, and misunderstood. He appears to be obsessed with two young and beautiful women who walk in the high social classes of Parisian life, but of course, they are his daughters. Where they are rich, finely-dressed, respected members of society, Goriot lives in the dilapidated boarding-house with no curtains over his windows. His obsessive love for them has led him to financial and personal ruin. In a Paris that is drawn by Balzac as caring only for money, status, Goriot stands alone. Rastignac attempts to enter the social-circles of Paris to win one of Goriot's daughters and all the while the mysterious Vautrin lurks on the fringe.
Vautrin's character was one of the highlights of the novel and his long monologue to Rastignac in the second part, "Entry on the Social Scene" was the best part of the novel. Being a French realist work, similar to that of Les Misérables (I'll come back to this point in a moment), I actually found Balzac's work better, at times. Vaurtin's speech is brilliant. I wish I could transcribe the lot.
'Fifty thousand young men in the same position as you are all trying to solve the problem of how to get rich quick. You are just one of all that number. Imagine the efforts that will demand and how bitter the struggle will be. You'll have to devour each other like crabs in a pot, since there aren't fifty thousand jobs going. Do you know the way to get on here? Through brilliant intelligence or skilful corruption. Either plough into the mass of mankind like a cannonball, or infiltrate them like a plague. It's no good being honest. Men yield to the power of intelligence, though they hate it and try to decry it, because it takes but does not share. But they yield if it is persistent. In a word they kneel before it in worship once they have failed to bury it in mud. Corruption thrives, talent is rare, so corruption is the weapon of mediocre majority, and you will feel it pricking you wherever you go. You will see women whose husbands earn sixty thousand francs all told spending more than ten thousand on clothes. You will see clerks on twelve hundred a year buying land. You will see women selling themselves so that they can ride in a carriage with the son of a peer of the realm and go bowling off to Longchamp down the middle of the road. You have seen that poor old ninny Père Goriot obliged to pay off the bill of exchange endorsed by his daughter, whose husband has an income of fifty thousand a year. I defy you to go two steps in Paris without running across some diabolical fiddle.'
"Le Pont des Arts"—1867
Eventually the novel comes around to Goriot, and we see his misfortune played out, or, his sacrifice. His selflessness almost appears ridiculous. The final chapter is quite slow, after the climax of Vautrin's role in the narrative. Which is where, I would like to mention something else. I want to avoid using the dreaded spoiler-tag, but I do think there are huge similarities between this novel and Hugo's Les Misérables. I'll keep it fairly vague but Goriot reminded me slightly of Jean Valjean when he is the subject of great intrigue for a town, walking around, the mysterious old man, with seemingly a lot of money. And Vautrin is an ex-convict, just like Jean Valjean, and there is a scene in the middle of Père Goriot that is so similar to a scene in Les Misérables that I was getting my wires crossed. Père Goriot was published thirty years prior and Jean Valjean seemed to me like a combination of both Goriot's and Vautrin's character.
I will read more Balzac in the coming years. If I could have a whole novel of Vautrin's speeches then I would probably read it. Brilliant. I cared less about the sentimentality of Goriot, but that's because I'm an unromantic cynic myself. It can't be helped.
May 6, 2018
Another of the great books written by Balzac with one of his favourite characters, the ambitious Rastignac and the mega-villain Vautrin (who would give the Joker a run for his money!) is a page turner. It was also an inspiration to Mario Puzo when he wrote The Godfather. Like Illusions Perdues, it is a bildungsroman where Rastignac rises to power (and later as an old man becomes the protagonist of Le Peau de Chagrin). One of the high points of 19th C French literature, this book is a fascinating and fun read not to be missed!
August 1, 2024
نوع نگاه بالزاک رو به قضیه میشه گفت قابل درک میدونم، ولی باید بگم در روند و پیاده سازی ایده و داستان زیاده روی کرده و شخصیت ها و اتفاقات پی در پی رنگ و بویی مصنوعی گرفته که برای من ارتباط گرفتن با شخصیت ها و المان های داستان چندان راحت نبود.
March 28, 2018
"Poate că stă în firea omului de a-l face să îndure totul pe cel care suferă totul din umilință adevărată, din slăbiciune sau din nepăsare. Oare nu ne place tuturora să ne dovedim puterea pe seama unuia sau altuia?"
"-Providența își are căile ei tăinuite, ea pătrunde în adâncul sufletelor și inimilor, rosti el cu glas tare. Văzându-vă uniți, copiii mei, uniți prin aceeași condiție, prin toate simțămintele omenești, îmi spun că nu e chip să fiți vreodată despărțiți în viitor. Dumnezeu e drept."
"
"-Providența își are căile ei tăinuite, ea pătrunde în adâncul sufletelor și inimilor, rosti el cu glas tare. Văzându-vă uniți, copiii mei, uniți prin aceeași condiție, prin toate simțămintele omenești, îmi spun că nu e chip să fiți vreodată despărțiți în viitor. Dumnezeu e drept."
"
December 23, 2016
شاید اگر فرانسوی بودم، این کتاب را می پسندیدم . خوانش کتاب بسیار سخت و خسته کننده بود.
کتاب نقدی است از جامعه ی اشرافی فرانسه و خباثت هایی که در پس چهره های زیبا و عوام فریبشان دارند.
باباگوریو داستان زندگی ساکنین پانسیونی ارزان و فقیرانه در یکی از خیابانهای پاریس است در اوایل قرن نوزدهم. دانشجوی رشتهی حقوقی ساکن این پانسیون است. او با آرزوهایی بلند در سر، راهی پاریس شده تا در آن به مدارج عالی اجتماعی برسد. در مواجهه با دنیای پاریس، او تنها راه سریع طی کردن پلههای ترقی را در ارتباط با زنان سرشناس و ثروتمند این شهر میبیند. با نوشتن نامهای، تمام سرمایهی خانوادهاش را وام میگیرد تا ظاهر خود را چنان افراد متشخص بیاراید، زیرا که دروازه ورود به دنیای اشراف ظاهری آراسته داشتن است. او با توصیهی یکی از بستگان در میهمانی زنی از طبقهی اشراف وارد شده و مجذوب میهمانیها و زندگی این طبقه از جامعه میشود. سرگذشت این جوان، تلاشهایش برای ورود و برقراری رابطه با اعضای طبقهی مرفه جامعه محمل روایت داستان باباگوریو است.
بابا گوریو شعر مهر پدری است.علیرغم اینکه گوریو می بیند که به مدت ده سال دختران او را فریب می داده اند ولی هنوز آنها را دوست دارد. در اینجا گوریو با دریای بی کران عشق بالاخره از رنج بودن آسوده می شود و بقول خودش می رود تا روحی شود و دوباره به این کره خاکی باز گردد و در کنار دخترانش باشد.
آثار بالزاک بالاخص این اثر که از آنها به سرآغاز سبک رئالیسم یاد میشود هنوز قویاً متاثر از سبک غالب آن دوران یعنی رمانتیسم است و رد پای این سبک را در بیشتر نقاط داستان میتوان دید. بعنوان مثال از رفتار احساسی کاراکترها مخصوصاً باباگوریو در قبال دخترانش میتوان یاد کرد و تصویر افعال و احوال و سرنوشت او در برانگیختن احساسات خواننده. بعنوان مثال جایی در داستان یکی از دختران گوریو از پدر برای فاسقش پول میخواهد و در جواب از زبان باباگوریو میخوانیم «من جانم را میدهم، کافی نیست، پس خونم را هم میدهم! آیا این هم کافی نیست؟!» ورود بیپیرایه، آشکار و مستقیم احساسات نویسنده در جای جای داستان از دیگر نشانههای وجود سایهی سنگین رمانتیسم در باباگوریو است.
قهرمان داستان در نظر برخی از منتقدان " لیر شاه " دیگری است و واقع گرایی نیرومند كتاب ، یادآور بهترین داستان های چارلز دیكنز است .
برخی از منتقدان، بابا گوریو را شاهكار بالزاک می دانند و معتقدند كه بالزاک با انتشار این اثر در سال 1835 پیروزمندانه قدرت خود را به عنوان آفریننده دنیای داستان سرایی نشان داد .برخی هم آن را نمی پسندند و بر این باورند كه "بابا گوریو " نه تنها شاهكار نیست بلكه از دیگر كتاب های متعارف بالزاک پایین تر است و دلیل این ضعف را در آن می دانند كه داستان سرا نباید با تلقین ، خواننده را در موضعی قرار دهد كه بخندد یا بگرید؛ زیرا ارزش یک كار بزرگ به خنده و گریه ی خواننده نیست بلكه به محتوای فكری آن اثر است .
از نگاه بالزاک ، دنیا لجن زار است و انسان باید تا آن جا كه می تواند خود را در بلندی ها نگه دارد.دنیا جولانگاهی از افراد فریب خورده و کلاه بردار است .باید کوشید تا نه در میان فریب خوردگان بود و نه در میان کلاه برداران .
محتوای کتاب به قدری یکنواخت بود که به راحتی می توانستیم از خواندن صفحات زیاد آن بگذریم و آنهارا بدون اینکه چیزی را از دست داده باشیم فراموش کنیم.
ترجمه ی کتاب از جناب مهدی سحابی، فوق العاده قوی و خوب بود.
منابع : کمدی انسانی بالزاک، ابوالفضل بصیری
عشق با باباگوریو، محسن کلینی
نقد اجتماعی و نگاه انسان شناسانه در «باباگوریو»، خبرگزاری شبستان
گذری در باباگوریو، محمد خلیلی
November 23, 2019
اینترنت، یک هفته در ایران قطع بود و هنوز هست.
بماند یادگاری.
بماند یادگاری.
October 27, 2021
آش دهنسوزی هم نبود راستش
فکر میکنم یکی از بزرگترین انگیزههای هر ایرانی کتابخوان از خوندن "باباگوریو"، این باشه که آیدین توی "سمفونی مردگان" این کتاب رو میخوند. یا لااقل برای من اینطور بود :)) به هر ترتیب، با تموم شدن کتاب باید بگم چیزی بر این انگیزه اضافه نشد و اصلا چیزی نبود که بخوام به کسی توصیهاش کنم.
خلاصه خیلی کوتاه این کتاب میشه داستان پدری که تمام دار و ندارش رو به پای دو دخترش میریزه و بچههایی که پشیزی برای پدرشون ارزش قائل نیستن
کتاب البته به شکلی کاملا متفاوت شروع میشه و عمده کتاب رو ما با داستان پسری به نام "اوژن راستینیاک" همراه میشیم که پسری فقیر اما شرافتمنده و سودای ورود به محافل اشرافی پاریس رو داره. تقریبا بیشتر اوقات رو ما با اوژن همراه هستیم و باباگوریو رو هم از منظر آشنایی اوژن با این آدم میشناسیم.
نمیدونم واقعا چرا داستان از اواسط کتاب آنچنان چرخشی میکنه و روی داستان باباگوریو و دختراش متمرکز میشه. حقیقتا جز یک داستان هندی بیمزه و بیقواره چیز خاصی در این داستان ندیدم. آیا قرار بود نقدی به سرمایه و ذات انسان باشه؟ اصلا نبود. آیا قرار بود ابراز اشمئزازی از محافل توخالی و اشرافی پاریس باشه؟ چندان موثر نبود و بیشتر با ظواهر درگیر شده بود. در عوض خرده داستان اوژن و کاراکتری به نام "ووترن" که در واقع یک زندانی فراری هست، از نظر من زمینه به مراتب بهتر، عمیقتر و جدیتر داشت که متاسفانه عقیم رها شد
سوالاتی که ووترن از اوژن میپرسه و چالشهای اخلاقی که اوژن در مواجهه با ووترن با اونها مواجه میشه، به مراتب برای من جذابتر بودند و من تا اواسط کتاب رو خیلی دوست داشتم. اما متاسفانه تمام اون چالشها ناگهان با محو شدن مسخره و بیمزه ووترن از جریان داستانی، حذف میشن و چیزی جز یک فیلم هندی از کتاب باقی نمیمونه.
سه ستاره، اونم فقط بخاطر "ووترن"ا
فکر میکنم یکی از بزرگترین انگیزههای هر ایرانی کتابخوان از خوندن "باباگوریو"، این باشه که آیدین توی "سمفونی مردگان" این کتاب رو میخوند. یا لااقل برای من اینطور بود :)) به هر ترتیب، با تموم شدن کتاب باید بگم چیزی بر این انگیزه اضافه نشد و اصلا چیزی نبود که بخوام به کسی توصیهاش کنم.
خلاصه خیلی کوتاه این کتاب میشه داستان پدری که تمام دار و ندارش رو به پای دو دخترش میریزه و بچههایی که پشیزی برای پدرشون ارزش قائل نیستن
کتاب البته به شکلی کاملا متفاوت شروع میشه و عمده کتاب رو ما با داستان پسری به نام "اوژن راستینیاک" همراه میشیم که پسری فقیر اما شرافتمنده و سودای ورود به محافل اشرافی پاریس رو داره. تقریبا بیشتر اوقات رو ما با اوژن همراه هستیم و باباگوریو رو هم از منظر آشنایی اوژن با این آدم میشناسیم.
نمیدونم واقعا چرا داستان از اواسط کتاب آنچنان چرخشی میکنه و روی داستان باباگوریو و دختراش متمرکز میشه. حقیقتا جز یک داستان هندی بیمزه و بیقواره چیز خاصی در این داستان ندیدم. آیا قرار بود نقدی به سرمایه و ذات انسان باشه؟ اصلا نبود. آیا قرار بود ابراز اشمئزازی از محافل توخالی و اشرافی پاریس باشه؟ چندان موثر نبود و بیشتر با ظواهر درگیر شده بود. در عوض خرده داستان اوژن و کاراکتری به نام "ووترن" که در واقع یک زندانی فراری هست، از نظر من زمینه به مراتب بهتر، عمیقتر و جدیتر داشت که متاسفانه عقیم رها شد
سوالاتی که ووترن از اوژن میپرسه و چالشهای اخلاقی که اوژن در مواجهه با ووترن با اونها مواجه میشه، به مراتب برای من جذابتر بودند و من تا اواسط کتاب رو خیلی دوست داشتم. اما متاسفانه تمام اون چالشها ناگهان با محو شدن مسخره و بیمزه ووترن از جریان داستانی، حذف میشن و چیزی جز یک فیلم هندی از کتاب باقی نمیمونه.
سه ستاره، اونم فقط بخاطر "ووترن"ا
Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,256 reviews