tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

Eugenie Grandet (1833) was one of the first great works to emerge from Balzac’s grand survey of French society, a collection to which he gave the general title La Comedie Humaine. It’s a short novel, but one that signals all the themes he was to explore in the many volumes that followed. Principal issues include social ambition, thwarted dreams, disappointed love, greed, and underpinning everything else the accumulation of property and the yearning for social status.

If you have not read Balzac before, this is a good place to start. The story is quite simple. A young provincial girl Eugenie is dominated by her tyrannical father, the miser Felix Grandet. She falls in love with her playboy cousin Charles, and when he is suddenly left penniless she gives him all her money and waits seven years for him to make his fortune abroad. Events do not turn out quite as she hopes – or as the reader might think.

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Eugenie Grandet – commentary

Characterisation

This is an early work by Balzac, and some of the characters are not particularly well defined. It is difficult to tell the difference between the members of the Grassins and the Cruchots for instance, the two families who are both hoping to marry a son to the heiress Eugenie. But one character dominates the entire narrative – the miser Felix Grandet. He is relentlessly mean, penny-pinching, acquisitive, and pathologically obsessed with money – gold in particular. His character dominates the entire novel, from first page to last.

He not only apportions the meagre rations for the family meals every day, but he puts out the fire in one room so as to save fuel when going into another. He doles out the lumps of sugar for people’s coffee – and even cuts up the lumps into smaller pieces in his spare time.

This petty domestic tyranny is quite amusing, yet at the level of commercial enterprise he is enormously successful. From his origins as a humble cooper, he acquires vineyards; he sells his wine at a profit; he outsmarts his competitors; he buys and sells commodities at the right time, and he calculates the profitability of his land to maximise its return on investment.

However, the extent of his greed reaches far more serious depths. He eventually defrauds his own daughter by arranging a legal document in which she signs over control of her own inheritance to him. And he remains au fond a study in pathological avarice – obsessed by gold, which he hoards in his closely guarded room and gloats over at night in private. He is memorable because he is so much larger than life figure.

His daughter Eugenie on the other hand is the innocent victim of his psychological sadism and domestic tyranny. Eugenie and her mother suffer his bullying without complaint for the major part of the novel. There is an element of Cordelia and King Lear in their relationship.

But Eugenie’s provincial Calvary is interrupted by a major occurrence in her otherwise uneventful life. She falls in love with her dashing cousin Charles. This at first has all the appearance of a fairy tale – the princess in her metaphorical tower rescued by the arrival of a handsome prince.

Balzac continues to exploit reader expectations in pursuit of this portrayal of virtuous innocence. Eugenie and Charles seal their mutual love with a pact of fidelity, Eugenie gives him all her money to fund his colonial expedition, and she then waits for him patiently for seven years. It is at this point that Balzac reveals his creative genius with a double irony and a dramatic shift in Eugenie’s characterisation.

The double irony

Charles turns out to be a shallow-minded adventurer. He is revealed as an unscrupulous slave trader who on return to Europe seeks to marry into the lower echelons of the aristocracy. His letter to Eugenie renouncing their pact of eternal love strikes her like a hammer blow.

But she does not capitulate to the shock in a conventional manner. Instead, she contracts a marriage of convenience to someone else – on the explicit condition that it is never consummated. She does this still bearing what she calls ‘an inextinguishable love in [her] heart’- for the memory of what Charles once was to her. That is part one of the double irony.

Part two comes in successive phases. First Eugenie marries her wealthy suitor the President de Bonfons. She thereby enhances her social status, and then on his early demise (and because they have by her design no children) she inherits his personal fortune to add to her own. Even after paying off her uncle’s bad debts she is still in possession of seventeen million Francs – a fact whose significance is not lost on the greedy and ambitious Charles.

But a further twist is yet to come – less dramatic, though just as significant in terms of the novel’s major themes. This immensely rich Eugenie, a widow at thirty-three, then lives on in the drab house where she was raised. Furthermore, she voluntarily adopts the frugal lifestyle of her earlier years, even dressing in her mother’s clothes. She becomes, in one sense, not unlike her father.

The Napoleonic Code

There is one feature to the background of events in the novel which may not be immediately apparent to readers unfamiliar with French society and its conventions. Following the revolution of 1793 there was a radical overhauling of the legal system. This included a law that required property and capital to be inherited solely via family connections.

If you are English with a million Pounds in the bank, you can leave this money to whomever you wish by making a will. You can nominate as legatees your children, your friends, or the Battersea Dogs Home. But in France, your money (and property) can only be willed to your children. [This is an over-simplification of a very complex system.]

In Eugenie Grandet the gold-obsessed Felix Grandet has made everyone suffer whilst amassing his considerable wealth. But fortunately for the sake of poetic justice, the entire property and its income from rents and dividends on government bonds reverts to Eugenie following her father’s death. She also increases her net worth by marrying the President – and because it is a marriage of convenience with no consummation and no possible children – she inherits all the President’s wealth on his demise.

The intrusive narrator

This is a term used to describe stories or novels in which the person telling the story (the narrator) intrudes his or her own opinions into the account of events. The narrator might be a fictional character, or it might be the author. Many narratives are presented by neutral or ‘invisible’ narrators who remain absent from the story they are telling.

Balzac on the other hand is one of literature’s most famously intrusive narrators. He pretends to be offering a neutral and unbiased account of events. This is in keeping with his claim that he is acting like a scientist or a professional sociologist, recording the history of French manners in the post-revolutionary epoch.

But he intrudes regularly and quite blatantly into his own stories to deliver his opinions on French history, to give mini-lectures on the workings of the financial markets, and homilies on ‘behalf’ of his own characters. He generalises wildly on the nature of men and women and their ‘place’ in society; he volunteers his opinions on famous works of art; and he proselytises repeatedly on behalf of the Catholic Church and the need to retain a Monarchy

This is a feature of Balzac’s style which some of his critics have found very irritating, but his defenders (and I am one of them) point out that many of his opinions reflect a well-founded knowledge of the way society worked at the time of his writing. His personal beliefs (Catholicism and Monarchism) can safely be ignored, because they do not seriously affect the logic of his narratives. And many of his aesthetic judgements have been substantiated by subsequent commentators and have stood the test of time. If there are occasional infelicities, this is a small price to pay for the entertaining exuberance of his volcanic creativity.

Balzac was a prodigiously productive novelist – but he was also a failed businessman. He knew how the markets worked. He knew that contracts drawn up by lawyers in one generation could influence the destinies of characters in the next. He knew the connections between the law, the stock market, and the lifestyles people could afford.

We read him not just as a great story teller, but also as a perceptive sociologist and even a political philosopher. When he reveals exactly the sources and extent of each character’s income, this is his method of showing how morals and manners were closely related to economics. It is not surprising that Balzac was one of Karl Marx’s favourite novelists.

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Eugenie Grandet – study resources

Eugenie Grandet – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Eugenie Grandet – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Eugenie Grandet – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Eugenie Grandet – Oxford Classics – Amazon US

Eugenie Grandet – Everyman – Amazon UK

Eugenie Grandet – Everyman – Amazon US

Cambridge Companion to Balzac – Cambridge UP – Amazon UK

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Eugenie Grandet – plot synopsis

Portrait of Bourgeois

An old miser Felix Grandet becomes a wealthy landowner and vine grower in Saumur. The locals speculate enviously on the extent of his wealth and wonder who will marry his daughter Eugenie. Grandet imposes a frugal and cheese-paring regime on the whole household, which is run by his faithful servant Big Nanon.

On Eugenie’s birthday the house is visited by the Grassis and the Grachots who bring presents. Both families are trying to marry a son into the Grandet family. Suddenly, a dashing young cousin Charles Grandet arrives from Paris.

The Cousin from Paris

Charles is a playboy and a dandy. Eugenie is overwhelmed by his charm and novelty. Grandet receives a letter from his brother Guillaume consigning the boy to his care. The brother is bankrupt and about to commit suicide. Charles wonders why his father has sent him to such a wretched and miserable house.

Provincial Love

Eugenie falls in love with Charles. She and Nanon start to break the frugal house rules to provide Charles with some lunch. Grandet arrives and is outraged by their extravagance. Grandet reveals to Charles the fact of his father’s death. He then sells off his wine stock and plans to invest in government bonds. He also devises a scheme to rescue his brother’s honour and the family name – but without spending any money.

A Miser’s Promises and Lovers’ Vows

Grandet pretends he is going to recover his brother’s debts and recruits the Grassins to act for him. He then travels secretly at night to sell all his gold. Eugenie reads Charles’ goodbye letter to his lover Annettte. She then gives him all the gold coins she has saved.

Grandet makes a lot of money from the sale of his gold. Eugenie and Charles enjoy the innocent birth of their love whilst he prepares to depart for the Indes. Grandet buys up all of Charles’s gold and arranges legal papers that renounce any claims Charles has on his father’s estate. Grandet then delays payments of his brother’s debts for the next five years.

Family Sorrows

Grandet discovers that Eugenie has given all her gold to Charles. He imprisons her in her room, and her mother becomes ill with the worry. The town’s people get to know and disapprove of Grandet. The lawyer Gruchot intercedes to point out that if Mme Grandet dies, Eugenie will inherit all her estate, depleting Grandet’s capital and property. Because of this, Grandet lifts his ban on Eugenie, but it is too late to save Mme Grandet, who dies. Grandet then cheats Eugenie out of her inheritance.

For the next five years Grandet instructs Eugenie on the running of his estates, then he too dies. As a result, Eugenie inherits seventeen million Francs, from which she pays Nanon a generous annuity. Nanon marries the gamekeeper, who becomes steward for the whole Grandet estates.

The Way of the World

For seven years Eugenie simply endures her fate. But Charles meanwhile has been a slave trader and an unscrupulous trader in the Indes. He has made his fortune, and is planning a loveless marriage into the fallen aristocracy in order to acquire a name and status. Eugenie receives his letter of dismissal from Paris and is devastated.

With her hopes crushed, she contracts an unconsummated marriage to the President de Bonfons. When he dies shortly afterwards, she becomes a widow at thirty-three, and the heiress to an even greater fortune. She devotes her life to charitable works, and goes on living a frugal life in the house of her father.

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Eugenie Grandet – prinipal characters

Felix Grandet	a wine-grower, land-owner, miser, dealer in currency and government stocks
Mme Grandet	his timid and long-suffering wife
Eugenie Grandet	his innocent and virtuous daughter
Guillaume Grandet	his brother, who becomes bankrupt and commits suicide
Charles Grandet	Eugenie’s dashing and handsome cousin, with whom she falls in love
Big Nanon	the tall and strong household servant
Mr Conoillier	the gamekeeper who becomes the estate steward
President de Bonfons	suitor to Eugenie, who she eventually marries

© Roy Johnson 2017

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More on literature
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories

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tutorial, commentary, study resources, further reading

Lost Illusions (Illusions Perdues) (1837-1843) is one of Balzac’s greatest novels. It is in three parts and originally appeared in serial form. The three volumes which make up the whole work are The Two Poets (1837), A Great Man in Embryo (1839) and Eve and David (1843). The story begins in the provinces, moves to Paris, then returns to provincial life. There is also a sequel in the equally outstanding A Harlot High and Low (1838-1847).

Honore de Balzac

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Lost Illusions – commentary

Structure

The basic structure of the whole work is quite simple – but it has subtle and complex relationship to the main themes of the narrative.

Part One begins in the provinces – the south-west city of Angouleme, where two ambitious young friends David and Lucien are keen to pursue their ambitions. David stays at home to develop research into the printing industry and he lives a settled domestic life. Lucien takes the opposite approach and elopes with a married woman in search of literary fame in Paris (which the critic Walter Benjamin called ‘the capital of the nineteenth century’).

Part Two is entirely given up to Lucien’s rise and fall as a writer and a socialite. It presents an excoriating critique of journalism, newspapers, the theatre, and literary commerce in general. Lucien is feted and lionised on a very flimsy basis – largely on the strength of his good looks. He struggles to survive because he lacks income, and when his money runs out he is thrown on the social scrap heap.

Part Three returns to the provinces where these two themes are merged again. Lucien becomes the prodigal son back home: David is on the verge of commercial success. But both are struggling against superior forces. David is the innocent victim of legal and commercial sharks, and he is lucky to survive in time to collect his rightful legacy. Lucien makes matters worse for his family, and after deciding to commit suicide is rescued only by falling into the clutches of a master criminal.

At first sight, the three parts do not seem to be well integrated. Part Two is so long it appears to overwhelm the two adjacent parts. And the narrative in Part Three is forced to jump backwards chronologically to explain what has been happening in Angouleme whilst Lucien was in Paris. But there is an important compositional factor which should be taken into account on the issue of overall coherence.

Balzac’s writing method

Balzac conceived and wrote his novels as the separate minor parts of a gigantic undertaking, La Comedie Humaine. This enormous compilation is an attempt to render the whole of French society and its development in the early part of the nineteenth century. It was a fictional world generated in what the critic George Saintsbury calls a ‘somewhat haphazard and arbitrary’ manner.

In any given year, Balzac might be working on two or even three separate parts of La Comedie Humaine. He would write (and publish) one novel, then later write another separate book dealing with a minor character from the first. It was rather like the completion of a huge literary jigsaw puzzle – one which progressively expanded the more he wrote.

To make matters more complex, he often changed the titles of the separate parts when they were transferred from serial publication in newspapers and magazines into single volume book format. All of these factors tend to militate against structural consistency. It is a miracle that La Comedie Humaine is as coherent as it is.

Names

There is an interesting reflection of social manners in the use of names throughout the novel. Lucien is the most obvious example. His name is not Lucien Rubempré, but Lucien Chardon. He has adopted a new patronymic because it disguises his origins as the son of a chemist, and the borrowed name has more aristocratic associations. But as soon as this deception is uncovered in fashionable society, he is ostracised as a parvenu and social climber – which is what he is.

Anais de Bargeton privately adopts the name of Louise for Lucien alone as a flirtatious link between them. She wants the pleasure of a mild affair without endangering her social reputation. She drops this affectation as soon they elope to Paris then go their separate ways

Baron Sixte du Chatelet, the dilettante ‘tax collector’ is a social fraud. He has adopted the ‘aristocratic particle’ de quite illegitimately to enhance his social standing. It is significant that Mme de Bargeton introduces him as Monsieur Chatelet at her salon in order to humiliate him before the other guests. However, it does not stop her eventually marrying him.

It is also worth noting in this regard that Balzac himself did exactly the same thing. He called himself Honore de Balzac without any legitimate claim to this distinction.

The business of literature

Balzac was intensely conscious of all aspects of what might be crudely termed ‘the book trade’. Lost Illusions contains scenes and even explanatory essays on all aspects of what is called ‘literary production’ – particularly its commercial elements. These range from the printing of books and even the production of the paper from which they are made.

It also includes the distribution of literary products and their reception into the marketplace. In addition he deals with the establishment of literary reputations via criticism and popular journalism, and the manner in which these are manipulated via very dubious commercial practices.

The novel starts with a study in printing technology as old miser Sechard sells his antiquated hand press equipment and cheats his son in doing so. There are full accounts of typography, setting type in cases, and the laborious process of proof-reading and editing text.

When Lucien reaches Paris he is confronted by all sorts of good and bad practices. His literary friends in the Cénacle have high ideals, but they live in poverty and earn their livings through odd-jobbing.

Perhaps the most amusing example of Balzac’s scathingly ironic view of the literary world comes when Lucien visits the offices of a newspaper. The naive young literary would-be expects to find grand premises, staffed by hard-working editors and creative journalists. Instead he finds a shabby one-man office concerned only with ‘subscriptions’. The newspaper is run by an editor who visits only occasionally, and it is written by journalists who do not exist. Copy for the publication is cobbled together on the fly from various sources, produced by writers unpaid and unseen.

Lucien’s friends in the Céacle and his colleague Etienne Lousteau give him warnings that represent Balzac’s extremely negative views on the business of journalism and the establishment of literary reputations. Reviewers accept bribes and produce their sycophantic criticism accordingly; they even extract favours from publishers and writers in exchange for favourable mention; and if refused, they will turn and pour scorn on the very same production.

The seedy side of the book trade is also exposed, with both reviewers and booksellers exhorting free copies from publishers, then selling them on at a profit. Wholesalers are motivated entirely by per item discounts and percentage reductions – with the actual value of the work in question completely disregarded.

The implications of all the literary activities to which Lucien is introduced are that books are a commodity like anything else such as cabbages or sacks of coal. Publishers are only interested in milking established literary reputations or whatever happens to be fashionable at the moment.

This seemingly cynical view of publishing is based on harsh economic realities. The publisher Dauriat explains the situation very clearly. He needs to make an advance payment to the author, then pay for good reviews in order to make the resulting sales profitable.

Obviously this is the sceptical-cum-cynical view of an author commenting on negative aspects of the business of publishing. But Balzac was himself a printer and a bookseller who knew the commercial aspects of the business first hand – from which he both profited and suffered. It is interesting to note that the system he exposes is virtually the same today – almost two centuries later.

Balzac knew this world very well – because he was a writer who also owned print production, and just like his idol Walter Scott, he virtually bankrupted himself by trying to combine the roles of writer, printer, and publisher. In fact, despite his immense success as a novelist, most of his earnings were swallowed up paying off debts – which were increased because of the extravagant life style he enjoyed.

Balzac is unrelenting in exposing the dubious and even corrupt relations that exist between journalists, theatre management, dramatists, actors, and the commercial enterprise in general. Authors pay to have their scripts considered; reviewers are instructed by newspaper editors how to report on theatrical productions; and organised groups of people (claqueurs and siffleurs) are paid to applaud or whistle at particular scenes and actors. Almost everywhere there is money oiling the wheels of reputations – and the last consideration of all is artistic merit.

Lucien’s review of a play featuring the eighteen year old actress Coralie who becomes his lover is hailed as a ground-breaking journalistic novelty. But it is nothing more than a plot summary with whimsical touches and entire paragraphs blatantly puffing up the two principal performers. The clear inference is that the feuilletons are pedalling second-rate material.

La Comedie Humaine – 1901 edition in sixteen volumes

The business of business

Balzac was fascinated by the economic realities of life, and was keen to expose the detailed workings of material production, economic exchange, accountancy, and the system of banking and money which underpinned it all. Indeed, he even reproduces the solicitors’ accounts of David Sechard’s debts to show how legal fees have tripled the original amount of Lucien’s original three forged ‘bills’. (These are what we would now call ‘cheques’).

The scheming Cointet brothers illustrate perfectly the role of enterprises swallowing up their competitors to enlarge their own hold on the market. But they are not just printers: they are also paper manufacturers. These two essential parts of literary production had not yet become separated. Even more surprisingly, they also act as bankers.

It is not surprising that Balzac was much admired by Karl Marx, who believed that in works such as Lost Illusions the author exposed the essence of capitalism in all its moral, social, legal, and economic workings.

The realist novel

Balzac was one of the founders of what we now call the ‘realist novel’ – that is, fictional narratives which give an accurate and unsparing account of the society and its workings. A realist novel will normally include recognisable locations, credible characters, and dramas which reveal the way the world really operates. They also commonly offer a sharply critical view of social conflicts, and are prepared to explore topics such as corruption, poverty, crime, and other negative aspects of human behaviour.

Balzac creates a detailed and comprehensive account of the social milieu in which his dramas take place. The beginning of Illusions Perdues is set in the provincial location of Angouleme, and he provides what is virtually a sociological description of the city, its geography and economic history, plus the class stratification of its inhabitants.

This might at first seem like mere scene setting, but it demonstrates the provincial world from which the protagonist Lucien Chardon wishes to escape in his quest for fame in the capital, Paris. It also reveals how even the topography of a location can have an influence on the people who live there

In addition to this socio-economic understanding of society, Balzac also has an incredibly detailed perception of its physical details and their implications. His description of a house both reinforces the realism of its presentation (rather like a Dutch interior painting) and shows that he is vitally aware of the surfaces, the textures, colours, and the fabrics of the world in which his characters live.

When Lucien makes his first visit to Mme de Bargeton, he is overawed by entering a level of society far above his own. But the narrative reveals Balzac’s critical view of the Bargetons’ down-at-heel aspirations to domestic grandeur:

Lucien walked up the old staircase with chestnut banisters, the steps of which ceased to be of stone after the first flight. Crossing a shabby little anteroom and a large drawing-room, dimly lit, he found his sovereign lady in a small salon with wainscots of wood, carved in eighteenth-century style and painted grey. The upper parts of the door were painted in camaieu. The panelling was decorated with old red damask, poorly matched. The old-fashioned furniture was apologetically concealed under loose covers in red and white check. The poet caught sight of Madame de Bargeton seated on a couch with a thinly-padded quilt, in front of a round table covered with green baize, on which an old-fashioned, two-candled sconce with a paper shade above it cast its light.

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Lost Illusions – study resources

Lost Illusions – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Lost Illusions – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Lost Illusions – Random House – Amazon UK

Lost Illusions – Random House – Amazon US

Illusions perdues – Wikipedia

All characters in La Comedie Humaine

Cambridge Companion to Balzac – Cambridge UP – Amazon UK

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Lost Illusions – plot summary

Part I – The Two Poets

Old miser Sechard sells an out-of-date printing press to his son David, who employs his poor school friend Lucien Chardon as a proof-reader. The two young men are soul mates with idealistic cultural and intellectual ambitions.

Lucien is introduced to local Angouleme society lioness Mme de Bargeton by her admirer the Baron Sixte du Chatelet. Lucien is flattered and falls in love with her. She decides to cultivate and promote him as a poet, and persuades him to change his name to Rubempré. Lucien would like David to share his good fortune, but his friend turns down the offer. David is very shyly in love with Lucien’s sister Eve.

Lucien delivers a poetry recital amongst the Angouleme elite, who are bored and snobbishly insult him. David proposes marriage to Eve, with a view to creating a business that can support Lucien in his ambition. David delivers a lecture on paper-making techniques to Eve in order to explain his plans. David’s miserly father refuses to help him improve the house he lives in.

Lucien develops his affair with Mme de Bargeton, and lives off the earnings of his mother, his sister, and David. But Lucien is frustrated by the refusal of Nais to give in to his romantic demands. Du Chatelet spreads rumours about the affair and eventually a duel is fought. Nais decides to leave for Paris and demands that Lucien go with her. Lucien borrows more money from David and his family.

Part II – A Great Man in Embryo

Du Chatelet follows Anais and Lucien to Paris, advising her not to compromise herself. Lucien spends money he cannot afford on fashionable clothes, but at the opera he becomes disenchanted with Anais – and she with him. He is ostracised when it is revealed he is a chemist’s son. Du Chatelet acts ambiguously but gives him sound advice. Lucien decides to renounce society and joins a group of poor Bohemian artists, convinced he will soon become rich and famous.

Lucien begins to approach booksellers with his novel and collection of poems. He finds a publisher but rejects the terms he is offered. Fellow writer Daniel d’Arthez encourages him and advises him to avoid journalism. The fellowship club together to give Lucien support, and he continues to accept money from his family.

Lucien decides he will take the risk and attempt to earn a living from journalism. He visits a newspaper office, only to discover that there is almost nobody in charge. He shows his collection of sonnets to Etienne Lousteau, who warns him against the corrupt world of journalism and the shabby end of book trading and criticism.

Lousteau takes Lucien into the grubby but fashionable world of journalism and the book trade in the wooden galleries of the Palais-Royal. A publisher pours scorn on poetry but agrees to read Lucien’s work. Lousteau takes Lucien to the theatre where they mix with actresses and critics.

Lousteau explains the complex financial networks of patronage, bribes, backstabbing, and ownership that connects theatre management, reviewers, and newspaper editors. He holds out a tempting but tainted offer to Lucien, who is suddenly the object of interest to the young actress Coralie. Lucien writes a review of the play and is immediately invited to join the staff of a newspaper.

The journalists enjoy a debauched dinner party with the actresses, during which newspapers are criticised by the very people who write for them. The actress Coralie takes Lucien back home where he remains for two days in the sumptuous apartment maintained by her rich ‘protector’ Camusot.

After improving the manuscript of his novel, the Cénacle reproach Lucien for becoming a journalist. His relationship with Coralie is exposed by her protector Camusot, who reluctantly condones it. Lucien attends a newspaper editorial meeting where they discuss the invention of canards, but his collection of sonnets is still refused by publisher Dauriat.

Lousteaux instructs him on how to write negative critical articles. Lucien writes a damning critique of a Dauriat publication, which prompts Dauriat to buy Lucien’s poems outright and harness his services. Lucien then writes another article praising the same book. He also writes a column satirising Mme de Bargeton and Baron du Chatelet.

Lucien’s theatre reviews are heavily edited to suit the theatre’s relationship with the newspapers. He is introduced to the organisation of claques, siffleurs, and re-selling of complementary seats. Lucien and Coralie throw a lavish dinner party at which his success as a journalist is ‘crowned’.

Lucien mixes in the aristocratic society that once shunned him. He is encouraged to get rid of Coralie, join the political conservatives, and apply for royal permission to adopt the name Rubempré. He is implored to stop attacking Mme de Bargeton, whom he meets again and who flatters him.

Lucien lives beyond his means, runs up debts, and does less and less work. He moves away from literature towards politics. Lousteau explains the journalistic system of blackmailing celebrities who have something to hide.

Lucien unsuccessfully tries to raise money, and gambles away the little he has. The Céacle warns him not to join the Royalists, but he ignores them. He becomes an object of ridicule and a symbol of betrayal. He pays for good reviews of Coralie’s new performance and is forced to write a damning review of d’Arthez’ excellent new book. Coralie fails in her new part, and Lucien is refused his promotion to the name Rubempré.

His review arguments spill over into a duel, in which he is injured. He becomes bankrupt and when Coralie dies he hasn’t enough money to pay for her funeral. He forges bills in his brother-in-law’s name, pays off his debts, and decides to go back home.

Part III – An Inventor’s Tribulations

Lucien arrives back in the Angouleme region to discover that David and the family have been plunged into debt because of the forged bills.

Previously, Eve took over the press whilst David pursued his dream of new paper making techniques. They enter into a dubious business relationship with rival printers Cointet. Eve is shocked to learn the truth about her brother Lucien’s degenerate life in Paris. Then his forged bills arrive in Angouleme.

David and Eve cannot meet the bill, which has been loaded with extra legal charges. The bill is sent back to Lucien, who is advised to delay matters – which merely adds further costs. David consults lawyer Petit-Claud who is in the pay of the Cointet brothers. Finally the legal costs are three times the size of the original debt. Petit-Claud inflames tensions between David and old Sechard, who still refuses to help his son, who goes into hiding to avoid arrest.

David succeeds with his new invention. Both the Cointets and his own father want to know his secret. Petit-Claud ties to arrange a financially advantageous marriage. At this point Lucien reaches home.

Lucien is accepted back into the family – but with reservations on both sides. He is suddenly celebrated as a writer in the local press – but the adulation has been artificially arranged by Petit-Claud.

Petit-Claud pretends to assist Lucien, whilst secretly plotting against him. Lucien orders stylish new clothes from Paris and attends a grand celebration held in his honour. He plans to flatter Louise again and wangle a research grant for David. But David is tricked with a forged letter to emerge from hiding and is arrested.

Lucien decides to commit suicide but when he leaves home he is dissuaded by a Spanish priest Carlos Herrera (Vautrin the arch-criminal in disguise). Vautrin promises him financial support in exchange for Lucien’s allegiance.

Meanwhile Petit-Claud persuades Eve and David to reach a compromise with the Cointets, who enforce a disadvantageous business deal. Lucien’s money arrives a day too late to save them. Cointet goes on to become rich; David gives up his experiments and inherits his father’s fortune. Petit-Claud advances his legal career. For news of Lucien the reader is referred to the next instalment of the Comedie Humaine, which was to be A Harlot High and Low.

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Illusions Perdues – characters

Jerome-Nicolas Sechard	a miserly printing press and vineyard owner
David Sechard	his son, a typographist with scientific ambitions
Lucien Chardon	David’s poor school friend, a handsome would-be writer
Mme Anais de Bargeton	an attractive social lioness with snobbish ambitions
Baron Sixte du Chatelet	a dilettante tax collector with social ambitions
Daniel d’Arthez	a talented writer, Lucien’s close friend in the artistic fellowship
Etienne Lousteau	a successful young freelance journalist
Coralie	an eighteen year old Jewish actress
Camusot	a rich and retired silk merchant and Coralie’s ‘protector’
Dauriat	a publisher at Palais-Royale
Boniface Cointet	a paper-maker, printer, and banker in Angouleme
Cerizet	David’s duplicitous employee
Pierre Petit-Claud	an ambitious and scheming provincial solicitor
Vautrin	a master criminal, ex-convict, and homosexual (real name Jaques Collin)

© Roy Johnson 2018

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