The first serious piece of literature I ever read was Hemmingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls. But it was with the second, Balzac's Pere Goriot, that I hit pay dirt. I had a school vacation job as a ward orderly (hospital assistant) at the time and remember the book absolutely gripped me. I read it in the evening and then had it concealed in the pocket of my work coat and used to sneak into empty rooms in order to read a page.
It ignited a lifelong passion for Balzac. Even now I scan bookshops for a translation of a work of his I have not read - unfortunately his huge vocabulary means I cannot read them in French although I do own them all in the original and it will be one of my unfulfilled ambitions in life to have read everything he wrote.
The next time I had such an experience as with Pere Goriot was when I read Jane Austen. After reading Sense and Sensibility I started to read Pride and Prejudice. I was so gripped I literally couldn't put it down and read it in a single day.
I read Pere Goriot again thirty years later and it gripped me just as much. For me only Tolstoy is a greater novelist than Balzac and Austen remains an abiding passion. But Balzac opened my eyes to the great world of literature.
About Me
- John Ross
- Visiting Professor at Antai College of Economics and Management, Jiao Tong University, Shanghai
2 comments:
It is such a pleasure to discover that there are fellow Balzac enthusiasts. About the time of your posting, I came across a fairly complete collection of the human comedy, 44 volumes, on ebay for 36.00 including shipping. The only other bidders had requested shipping fees to Europe. I was ecstatic when they arrived. All due to having read Old Goriot 20 years ago.
I found in it an appendix with the suggested order of reading, and the task required a lot of research on events of the French Revolution. After that, I found the reading more interesting.
It has been such a joy, I only wish he was a bit more popular, there's rarely anyone out there who share's my enthusiasm for Balzac, so It was nice to find your post.
Linda,
I am totally green with envy. Who published anything like a complete collection of the Human Comedy - I assume in English? If I know I can make a determined effort to track it down. I have the entire Human Comedy in French but Balzac's huge vocabulory (I once read he used 40,000 words compared to 19,000 for Shakespeare who is considered to have a big vocabulory) makes it very difficult to read anything except short passages as using the dictionary so much takes time - and I can read a French newspaper without trouble.
It is one of my great ambitions to read all of Balzac (and to re-read the 20 or so novels I have read).
I am aware of the shortage of Balzac fans in English speaking countries. Searching on Facebook finds only 16 people who list Pere Goriot among their favourite books, and only 9 who list Lost Illusions compared to hundreds who list War and Peace for example. So Balzac fans must help each other.
I would therefore be very grateful if you could let me know who published the the edition you refer to.
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