Eugénie Grandet
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First published in 1833, Honoré de Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet takes place in the provincial town of Saumur, where the wealthy but miserly Félix Grandet rules his household with an iron grip. His daughter Eugénie grows up in an atmosphere of thrift and emotional deprivation, her generous nature constrained by her father’s obsession with money and control. When her cousin Charles arrives from Paris following a family tragedy, Eugénie experiences the awakening of love and begins to imagine a life beyond the narrow confines of her home. But in Balzac’s world, affection is rarely free from the pressures of inheritance, social standing and financial calculation.
Quietly devastating in its portrayal of domestic life, Eugénie Grandet reveals how avarice can shape not only a household but an entire community, where reputation and wealth often outweigh tenderness or moral worth. Balzac’s precise observation of provincial manners is balanced by a deep sympathy for Eugénie, whose capacity for devotion stands in painful contrast to the calculating world around her. One of the defining works of La Comédie humaine, the novel helped establish Balzac’s reputation as a master of literary realism, turning an apparently modest family drama into a searching study of money, power and the cost of innocence.
From the book
“There are some women who, by their very nature, are made to suffer.”
— Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet
On Eugénie Grandet
“Balzac’s genius is to make the ordinary life of a provincial town seem as dramatic as the fate of a kingdom.”
— Herbert J. Hunt, Balzac’s Comédie humaine