[PDF] Balzacs Shorter Fictions eBook

Author : Honoré de Balzac
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 319 pages
File Size : 21,90 MB
Release : 2005-07-28
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0141960825

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One of the greatest French novelists, Balzac was also an accomplished writer of shorter fiction. This volume includes twelve of his finest short stories - many of which feature characters from his epic series of novels the Comédie Humaine. Compelling tales of acute social and psychological insight, they fully demonstrate the mastery of suspense and revelation that were the hallmarks of Balzac's genius. In The Atheist's Mass, we learn the true reason for a distinguished atheist surgeon's attendance at religious services; La Grande Breteche describes the horrific truth behind the locked doors of a decaying country mansion, while The Red Inn relates a brutal tale of murder and betrayal. A fascinating counterpoint to the renowned novels, all the stories collected here stand by themselves as mesmerizing works by one of the finest writers of nineteenth-century France.

Author : Tim Farrant
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 46,47 MB
Release : 2002-02-14
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0191541427

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Balzac's reputation is as a novelist. But short stories make up over half La Comédie humaine, besides scores of other tales and articles. Short forms appear early in Balzac's output, and shape his work throughout his career. Balzac's Shorter Fictions looks at the whole of this corpus, at the nature of short fiction, and at how Balzac's novels developed from his stories - at the links between literary genesis and genre. It explores the roles of short fiction in Balzac's creation, its part in producing effects of virtuality and perspective, and reflects ultimately on the relationship between brevity and length in La Comédie humaine. This, the first complete English-language study of Balzac's work for over forty years, synthesizes recent research on Balzac's practice within the context of modern thought on the author. It is an indispensable book for students and scholars of Balzac, and for all those interested in prose fiction.

Author : Honoré de Balzac
Publisher : Tacet Books
Page : 178 pages
File Size : 16,74 MB
Release : 2020-05-14
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 3967990702

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One thing is essential about the characters of Balzac: they are multi-faceted. Even the simplest ones are morally ambiguous, complex, completely human. In his profound observation of the human soul, Balzac mirrors human character in inanimate objects and the city of Paris itself becomes a character full of life.Through the seven short stories selected here you can know a little more about this author and a little more about yourself:The Red InnEl VerdugoThe Atheist's MassLa Grande BretècheThe Elixir of LifeStudy of a WomanDomestic Peace

Author : Honoré de Balzac
Publisher : Graphic Arts Books
Page : 16 pages
File Size : 41,11 MB
Release : 2021-08-03
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1513273280

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A Passion in the Desert (1830) is a short story by French author Honoré de Balzac. Written as part of his La Comédie humaine sequence, A Passion in the Desert is a frequently anthologized work of short fiction that explores humanity’s relationship with nature as well as the effects of conquest and colonization. The story was loosely adapted into a 1997 feature film and remains one of Balzac’s most acclaimed works. The story’s frame narrative begins after a man and woman attend a menagerie in Paris. The woman is horrified by what she has seen: a man working with a tamed hyena as though it were human. Her companion, the story’s narrator, reveals his experience in these matters, and agrees to tell her a tale reported to him by a crippled veteran of Napoleon’s conquests. This soldier, he explains, was captured by Ottoman forces during the emperor’s campaign in Egypt. Managing to escape, he fled across the desert on horseback toward the safety of the Nile. When his horse died from exhaustion, he continued on foot and discovered, in the damp protection of a cave, a sleeping panther. Terrified at first, he slowly came to an understanding with the creature, learning to live at her side without angering her or falling prey to her animal hunger. One day, however, emerging from the cave to admire an eagle in flight, he is struck with the feeling that the panther had become jealous, and devises a plan to escape her inevitable wrath. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Honoré de Balzac’s A Passion in the Desert is a classic of French literature reimagined for modern readers.

Author : Honoré de Balzac
Publisher : e-artnow
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 17,40 MB
Release : 2019-12-18
Category : Fiction
ISBN :

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A young man named Raphaël de Valentin wagers his last coin and loses, then proceeds to the river Seine to drown himself. On the way, however, he decides to enter an unusual shop and finds it filled with curiosities from around the world. The elderly shopkeeper leads him to a piece of shagreen hanging on the wall. It is inscribed with "Oriental" writing; the old man calls it "Sanskrit", but it is imprecise Arabic. The skin promises to fulfill any wish of its owner, shrinking slightly upon the fulfillment of each desire. The shopkeeper is willing to let Valentin take it without charge, but urges him not to accept the offer. Valentin waves away the shopkeeper's warnings and takes the skin, wishing for a royal banquet, filled with wine, women, and friends. He is immediately met by acquaintances who invite him to such an event; they spend hours eating, drinking, and talking. But his actions must meet consequences. For each wish granted, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy.

Author : Sijie Dai
Publisher : Knopf Publishing Group
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 25,60 MB
Release : 2001
Category : China
ISBN : 037541309X

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An enchanting literary debut—already an international best-seller. At the height of Mao’s infamous Cultural Revolution, two boys are among hundreds of thousands exiled to the countryside for “re-education.” The narrator and his best friend, Luo, guilty of being the sons of doctors, find themselves in a remote village where, among the peasants of Phoenix mountain, they are made to cart buckets of excrement up and down precipitous winding paths. Their meager distractions include a violin—as well as, before long, the beautiful daughter of the local tailor. But it is when the two discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation that their re-education takes its most surprising turn. While ingeniously concealing their forbidden treasure, the boys find transit to worlds they had thought lost forever. And after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, even the Little Seamstress will be forever transformed. From within the hopelessness and terror of one of the darkest passages in human history, Dai Sijie has fashioned a beguiling and unexpected story about the resilience of the human spirit, the wonder of romantic awakening and the magical power of storytelling.

Author : Honoré de Balzac
Publisher : Lindhardt og Ringhof
Page : 28 pages
File Size : 49,5 MB
Release : 2021-12-06
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 8726668181

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A short story ushering the reader into the violent and horrifying events that took place during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution. The tale follows an old ex-Carmelite nun who is hiding from Robespierre with abject fear of what tomorrow may bring. Oozing with mystery and suspense, Balzac's allegorical prose is at its very finest here. The French author who, along with Flaubert, is widely regarded to be one of the founding fathers of realism in European fiction. Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a French novelist and playwright, most famous for his collection of novels and plays, collectively called 'The Human Comedy'. His detailed observation of humanity and realistic depiction of society makes him one of the earliest representatives of realism in Europe. He was a master-creator of complex characters that often found themselves in ambiguous moral dilemmas.