![]() ![]() The author shows very little in terms of landscape (except for interior furnishings) or context, so overall I found this novel to lack depth and breadth. The social commentary (if that’s what it is) wears a bit thin when heaped on so few protagonists. The cast of characters is quite limited - we don’t get to see a whole panoply of people weaving their way in and out of the story - so misdeed after dastardly misdeed committed by just a few lose their impact. ![]() ![]() Balzac shines a light on the corruption, greed, idleness and lack of morality of certain members of the haute bourgeoisie and its imitators of mid 19th century Paris which is quite entertaining but, again, rather repetitive. How many times do we need a scene where a pretty woman entertains three men simultaneously, each one thinking he’s her only lover and unsuspecting of the others, to get the point that she’s an amoral scheming hussy and they’re conceited gullible fools? Yet permutations of this scene are played over and over again, and you long for some variation. ![]() With all these sins on parade you’d expect the story to fairly bounce along, but for me it just dragged - rather a lot. It feels almost sacrilegious to be giving this book just 3 stars when for nigh on two centuries the great and the good of the literary world have been showering praise on it and its author! It’s about resentment and revenge, profligacy, grandiosity, shameful behaviour, avariciousness, vanity, male foolishness and libido. ![]()
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