Reviews

Interesting and fast read though I'm positive all of the themes did not got to me since I didn't read up on historical context beforehand. I think what I'll remember most are the sheer number of age-related insults, some highlights: "his skeleton fingers", "this human ruin", "the ambulatory corpse", and "women who can look even more beautiful somehow at 35".

franderochefort's review against another edition

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5.0

My adventures into La Comedie Humaine continue with this fascinating little novella from near the start of Balzac's writings, one which lay dormant as a lesser-known work for many years until it became the subject of fascination in the later 20th century - you can easily see why both for how it reflects much more modern concerns and ideas than its 1830 publication date and also for its fascinating and rich tapestry of ideas, symbols and meanings - it's fitting that it obsessed thinkers like Bataille or Barthes (who authored an entire book analyzing it) given how key obsession itself is to the story. It would be getting into spoilers to reveal too much more but suffice to say this might be the finest thing I've read in French yet, magnificently written and dizzying with beauty, thought and images such that I ended up staying up late into the night to finish it and then found myself struggling to sleep for not being able to stop thinking about it afterwards. The kind of literature I'm always searching for such that it's deeply rewarding when I find it, and a superb mixture of the Gothic, romantic, and proto-modern. Balzac may well be on the way to becoming my favourite writer if the rest of the cycle bears more fruits such as these.

lucas_bitencourt's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No

3.5

silkm0ths's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Quite interesting to have the relationship between the depiction and the perfomance of feminity and women in reality in such a early work of fiction ! And how men desire for the perfect women is so deeply tied to their desire to create/control. May read s/z but his focus on castration is like whatever to me doesnt seem that key to me rather then what it says about the relationship between art male heterosexual desire and the objectification of women 🧐

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