Sign-In
Cart
A Second Home
Paperback
Classic FictionLiterary Fiction
Publisher: Indoeuropeanpublishing.Com
Published: Jan 5 2024
Pages: 148
Weight: 0.41
Height: 0.37 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Une double famille (A Second Home) is a lengthy short story by Honoré de Balzac. The story first appeared in 1830 under the title La femme vertueuse (The Virtuous Woman). It was subsequently published in 1832 by Mame et Delaunay as part of Balzac's Scènes de la vie privée (Scenes from Private Life). In 1835, it appeared, in an edition by Madame Béchet, in the collection Études de moeurs (Studies of Manners). The novel only acquired its present title in 1842, when the fifth edition appeared in Volume I of the Scenes from Private Life, which was also the first volume of Balzac's La Comédie humaine.
The novel comprises two parts, two stories, which are really two sides of the same story. The plot revolves around an act of adultery - a double life, a second family - which is in some sense justified. From the beginning, the setting recalls the atmosphere of Balzac's Ferragus. In a squalid house, in a sordid neighbourhood, an old woman offers an angelic creature - her own daughter - to passers by. The Comte de Granville, unhappily married to a sanctimonious woman, falls in love with this grisette. An aristocrat and a magistrate of integrity, he had made a name for himself in the Gondreville affair, which Balzac would later recount in Une ténébreuse affaire (A Murky Affair).
In this work, the author protests against the excesses of bigotry and, according to a principle dear to him, he contrasts the interior design of an aristocratic house with both the grime of a squalid Parisian neighbourhood and the cheerful décor of a grisette's apartment (another familiar theme in the works of Balzac). Madame du Granville's home is, in his eyes: a place of cold, arid solemnity, of moral rectitude and narrow-mindedness. Whereas the grisette's flat, like that of La Torpille (Esther Van Gobseck), is a place of delights. (wikipedia.org)
About the author:
Honoré de Balzac born Honoré Balzac; (20 May 1799 - 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.
Owing to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities. His writing influenced many famous writers, including the novelists Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, and Henry James, and filmmakers François Truffaut and Jacques Rivette. Many of Balzac's works have been made into films and continue to inspire other writers. James called him really the father of us all.
An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac had trouble adapting to the teaching style of his grammar school. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. When he finished school, Balzac was apprenticed in a law office, but he turned his back on the study of law after wearying of its inhumanity and banal routine. Before and during his career as a writer, he attempted to be a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician; he failed in all of these efforts. La Comédie Humaine reflects his real-life difficulties, and includes scenes from his own experience. ... (wikipedia.org)
Also from
de Balzac, Honoré
Learn French with Short Stories: Interlinear French to English
Hyplern, Bermuda Word
de Maupassant, Guy
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Cousin Bette (Royal Collector's Edition) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
de Balzac, Honoré
Hardcover
Darkness Brews: Draughts, Elixirs, Vintages, and Libations in Classic Speculative Fiction
de Balzac, Honoré
Hauff, Wilhelm
Paperback
Histoires Drôlatiques De L'empereur Napoléon Ier
Tousez, Étienne Augustin
de Balzac, Honoré
Soulié, Frédéric
Paperback
The Works of Honoré De Balzac: Eugénie Grandet, Ursule Mirouët, and Other Stories
Saintsbury, George
de Balzac, Honoré
McSpadden, Joseph Walker
Paperback
La Comédie Humaine of Honoré De Balzac; Volume 31
Wormeley, Katharine Prescott
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
La Comédie Humaine of Honoré De Balzac; Volume 20
de Balzac, Honoré
Wormeley, Katharine Prescott
Paperback
Eugénie Grand: Les intrigues provinciales et les transitions cachées dans "Eugénie Grandet"
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Modeste Mignon: Les épreuves d'une famille face à la ruine et à la trahison
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Eugénie Grandet (The Human Comedy) (Royal Collector's Edition) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
de Balzac, Honoré
Hardcover
Scènes De La Vie Privée: Honorine; Le Colonel Chabert; La Messe De L'athée; L'interdiction; Pierre Grassou
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Scènes De La Vie Politique: I. Un Épisode Sous La Terreur. Ii. Le Réquisitionnaire
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
The Lily of the Valley. the Firm of Nucingen. the Country Doctor: And Other Stories
Saintsbury, George
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
The Works of Honoré De Balzac: The Magic Skin, the Quest of the Absolute, and Other Stories. Illustrated Sterling Edition; Illustrated Sterling Editi
Saintsbury, George
de Balzac, Honoré
Hardcover
The Unknown Masterpiece: (Le Chef-D'hoeuvre Inconnu) and Other Stories
de Balzac, Honoré
Marriage, Ellen
Paperback
The Correspondence of Honoré De Balzac; Volume 1
de Balzac, Honoré
Kenney, Charles Lamb
Surville, Laure
Hardcover
La Comédie Humaine of Honoré De Balzac: Cousin Pons
Wormeley, Katharine Prescott
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Les Français Peints Par Eux-Mêmes: Encyclopédie Morale Du Dix-Neuvième Siècle
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Fiche de lecture La Femme de trente ans de Balzac (Analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet)
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Fiche de lecture Le Colonel Chabert de Balzac (Analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet)
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Fiche de lecture Le Lys dans la vallée de Balzac (Analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet)
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Fiche de lecture Le Père Goriot de Balzac (Analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet)
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Histoire des Treize: trois courts romans d'Honoré de Balzac: Ferragus, La Duchesse de Langeais, La Fille aux yeux d'or
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
The Rise and Fall of César Birotteau: (Grandeur Et Décadence De César Birotteau)
Saintsbury, George
de Balzac, Honoré
Marriage, Ellen
Hardcover
Les Français Peints Par Eux-Mêmes: Encyclopédie Morale Du Dix-Neuvième Siècle; Volume 3
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Fiche de lecture La Cousine Bette de Balzac (Analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet)
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Histoire de la grandeur et de la décadence de César Birotteau: L'ascension et la chute d'un parfumeur parisien
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Séraphîta: Une exploration mystique des paysages norvégiens et des âmes humaines
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Histoire des Treize: trois courts romans d'Honoré de Balzac: Ferragus, La Duchesse de Langeais, La Fille aux yeux d'or.
de Balzac, Honoré
Paperback
Also in
Literary Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales Vol. 1 (Loa #26): The Pioneers / The Last of the Mohicans / The Prairie
Cooper, James Fenimore
Hardcover
The Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy, Volume I: American Tabloid, the Cold Six Thousand; Introduction by Thomas Mallon
Ellroy, James
Hardcover
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paperback
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk
St Aubyn, Edward
Paperback