History of the Thirteen (Penguin Classics)

History of the Thirteen (Penguin Classics)

Honoré de Balzac

Language: English

Pages: 391

ISBN: 0140443010

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


Passionate and perceptive, the three short novels that make up Balzac's History of the Thirteen are concerned in part with the activities of a rich, powerful, sinister and unscrupulous secret society in nineteenth-century France. While the deeds of 'The Thirteen' remain frequently in the background, however, the individual novels are concerned with exploring various forms of desire. A tragic love story, Ferragus depicts a marriage destroyed by suspicion, revelation and misunderstanding. The Duchess de Langeais explores the anguish that results when a society coquette tries to seduce a heroic ex-soldier, while The Girl with the Golden Eyes offers a frank consideration of desire and sexuality. Together, these works provide a firm and fascinating foundation for Balzac's many later portrayals of Parisian life in his great novel-cycle The Human Comedy.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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away, tears of despair streamed from her eyes for hours and hours. ‘Madame la Duchesse,’ her chambermaid said to her, ‘does not perhaps realize that it is two in the morning. I feared that Madame was not feeling well.’ ‘You are right, I am going to bed. But remember, Suzette,’ said Madame de Langeais, wiping away her tears, ‘never to let anyone in without my orders. I shall not tell you this a second time.’ For a whole week, Madame de Langeais went to all the houses in which she might hope to

so convinced that they are in love, their whole being is so immediately and powerfully concentrated on the woman of whom they are enamoured that they draw from her very presence an emotional delight which often they do not succeed in communicating to her. This kind of egoism is the most flattering of all for a woman who is able to divine the passion that may be hidden behind apparent immobility, one which may strike so deep that some time is needed before it can come to the surface. People in

learn?’ ‘Well, he can’t tell you anything at his house that I can’t tell you now,’ she replied. Then, with the feminine subtlety which always takes a little of its lustre from virtue, Madame Jules waited for him to probe further. He turned his glance aside to the houses and continued his study of the carriage entrances. Would not any further interrogation have been equivalent to a suspicion, a challenge? To suspect a woman one loves is a crime. Jules had already killed one man without having

such a posture, the duchess was stronger, more dominant, more secure. Her ladies defended her from calumny and helped her to play the odious role of a woman of fashion. She was free to mock at men and passions as she liked, excite them, win the homage on which all feminine nature feeds and yet remain mistress of herself. In Paris, even in the highest social circles, a woman is always a woman: she thrives on incense, flattery and attentions. Of what avail is beauty, however unchallengeable, or a

comes there at nine in the evening, the conjectures which an observer will allow himself to make may lead him to fearful conclusions. Lastly, if this woman is young and pretty, if she enters some house or other in one of these streets; if the approach to this house is a long, dark and stinking alley; if at the end of this alley the pale glimmer of a lamp is flickering and this glimmer outlines the hideous face of an old woman with bony fingers – I say this truly in the interest of young and

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