Human Comedy: Scenes from Private Life

You know that feeling when you have just sent a text or an email to the wrong person? Well, in the 19th century the equivalent was a wrongly-directed letter - and there is no 'delete' button for pen and paper. The faux pas happens after Eugene de Rastignac briefly meets married society woman Madame de Listomere at a soiree. The following day, Rastignac writes a love letter to his sweetheart - but accidentally sends it to Mme Listomere! Beneath the surface, souls are searched. Was it really an accident or was it subconscious desire? Was Mme Listomere actually pleased to receive the letter? Balzac skillfully shows the strong emotional currents that pull beneath the calm surface of society. Fans of Jane Austen's novels, including 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Sense and Sensibility' will love this.

"The Marriage Contract" is included in "Scenes from Private Life" and follows the marriage of a Parisian gentleman to beautiful Spanish girl, who comes into a lot of money. Presenting an intriguing portrait of the relationships between people, their romantic adventures, and marriage contracts in general, the novel abounds in philosophical, ethical, and financial dialogues. The naiveté of the characters and their illusions of married life clash with a bang against reality, resulting in unnecessary and often humorous suffering.

Once bitten, twice shy sometimes rings true. Madame de Beauseant must have been bitten very hard, for she became a hermit in her Normandy castle due to humiliation after being cast aside by her aristocratic lover. However, when Baron Gaston de Nueil, a far younger and very persistent man, comes to town, he cannot resist seeking out this mysterious and notorious woman. He falls for her but she, being "twice shy", first rejects his advances and then runs away to Geneva. The lovesick Baron follows her, melts her heart and they live happily....for a few years. The age gap spooks the Baron's fearsome mother, who lines up a younger woman for him to marry. Mme de Beauseant fears a second humiliation, while the Baron contends with the call of his heart and the fear of his mother. What will he decide to do? Fans of Jane Austen's 'Mansfield Park' and 'Emma' will love this exquisite story of lost love and social propriety.

The old, abandoned manor of La Grande Bretèche stands between the trees like a secret. Uncovered one day by Dr. Horace Bianchon whilst visiting the nearby town of Vendme, the ruins will beckon any wandering visitor in. Full of intrigue, the doctor simply can't resist entering the house. But night after night, he fails. Why can't La Grande Bretèche be accessed? And what do the locals know of this mysterious shelter? Adapted into 3 films, 2 episodes, an opera, and a BBC Radio 4 play, Balzac's gripping 'The Human Comedy' short story, 'The Grand Bretèche´, is ideal for fans of Xavier Giannolli's 2021 'Lost Illusions' film.

The Ball at Sceaux' is one of the oldest books in Balzac's 'The Human Comedy' series. It tells the story of Émilie de Fontaine, a pretentious and spoiled young lady who refuses to love anyone who is not known in French high society. At the ball she falls in love with a handsome and mysterious young man, who is revealed to be the taciturn Maximilien Longueville. Émilie's family later discovers that Maximilien is concealing the fact that he is a shopkeeper at a Paris marketplace, which horrifies Émilie. But all is not what it seems, as Émilie is soon to find out after she abandons Maximilien for a rich man she does not love. Inspired by Aleksandr Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin' and the fables of La Fontaine, in particular 'The Girl' and 'The Heron'. This Balzacian novella is a wonderful and enthralling read, where the mysterious and unknown tightly grips the reader well past the final page. It is one of the sheer joys of 'The Human Comedy' that we will meet these characters again in other stories.

An ambitious lawyer, a scandalous family secret, and a loan shark. Take these three elements and paint them onto a backdrop of upper-class Paris and you have Honore de Balzac's 'Gobseck'. The lawyer just happens to act for the loan shark, and he knows the secret that Anastasie de Restaud, who has married into the aristocracy, is having an affair and blowing her money on her lover. Which financial strings can the lawyer and loan shark pull? And who will be tied up by them? If you like Charles Dickens 'Bleak House' and Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice', you will love this.

Exquisitely deploying the story-within-a-story narrative, 'Honorine' is a tale casting piercing insight into the fabric of the human condition. Comtesse Honorine de Bauvan was married off to the Comte at the age of nineteen. After being unfaithful, she is abandoned by her lover when she falls pregnant. She leads a simple but comfortable life and earns a living by crafting artificial flowers. What she doesn't know is that her comfort is assured by way of her husband paying exorbitant prices to buy her flowers. Described as a psychological novel that delves into the differences between a man's love and a woman's love, it is one of Balzac's more mature works. Guy de Maupassant, Flaubert and Emile Zola were naturalist writers who were directly influenced by Balzac. A must-read for fans of the 2004 movie 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet which explores similar themes of lost love from a psychological perspective.

When Colonel Chabert marries a prostitute named Rose Chapotel, he doesn't know yet how the marriage will affect the rest of his life. Chabert leaves for a war in Russia, where he is seriously wounded. Everyone thinks he is dead. Chabert, however, has enough strength to survive – and after being away for years, he is about to return to Paris. But nothing is the same in Paris. Chabert's property is gone, but he is not the kind of man who would easily give up – he is ready to fight for his rights.

It begins with the undignified scene of two young men on a Parisian stagecoach, boasting about their love affairs with older, married women. Hubris turns to tragedy when the coach overturns, leaving one of the men with fatal injuries. However, drama dictates that there is always time for some final words before death. The dying man gives his travelling companion a mission - collect love letters from his house and deliver them to his lover, a countess. How will the countess react to the news of her lover's death? And how will the count take the news that she was betraying him? If you like this classic short story by Honoré de Balzac about betrayal, try 'Anna Karenina' by Leo Tolstoy or 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier.

Countess Marie de Vandenesse, bored out of her mind in a marriage to a good man, decides to adopt an up-and-coming young playwright, Raoul Nathan, as her lover. Mistakenly believing his fortune is made, Nathan quickly finds himself wading into deep waters... One of Balzac's most delightful and happy-go-lucky tales, this is certainly a recommended rainy day read. Written by the French author who, along with Flaubert, is widely regarded to be one of the founding fathers of realism in European fiction.

Judges receive legal training, but they cannot automatically be given courage and the wisdom of Solomon. That is what is needed when larger-than-life socialite the Marquise d'Espard petitions Judge Jean-Jules Popinot to declare her husband mad. He is not mad, of course. But she is - mad that he is spending their money on another family. As the judge digs deeper, he discovers the heartbreaking reason why the Marquis was helping the Jeanrenauds. With the pressure building, he prepares to deliver his verdict... Fans of the courtroom dramas in Charles Dickens' 'Bleak House' and Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' will love 'The Commission in Lunacy'.

Fans of 'The Godfather' trilogy and 'The Sopranos' will know a thing or two about vendettas. In Honore de Balzac's ´The Vendetta´, tragic consequences are laid bare. What begins as a love story between two Corsican immigrants, Ginevra and Luigi, soon becomes a tale of misery. Luigi is the sole survivor of a blood feud with Ginevra's family. And Ginevra's father Bartolomeo is determined to finish the job by killing Luigi. However, when the love-sick couple marries, he has to stay his hand - but he cuts them off, leaving them poverty-stricken. As Bartolomeo has an epiphany, his daughter is locked in a life-and-death struggle as she gives birth. Will she survive? And will her father get the chance to make things right? 'The Vendetta' is an excoriating attack on the nature of honour and a tale of tragic romance that calls to mind 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare.

Colonel Victor d'Aiglemont is a tall, slender and very handsome man in his early thirties. When young Julie lays her eyes on Victor, she is fascinated by the charming man. Julie's father, however, is not so thrilled about Victor – he thinks Julie has fallen in love with her own daydream. Julie ignores her father's comments, and Victor and Julie end up marrying – but the marriage is not anything like Julie expected it to be.