A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A handsome young poet from the provinces arrives in Paris, armed with nothing but verse and ambition. Lucien Chardon expects the city of lights to recognize his talent. What he finds is a predatory world where talent means nothing without money, connections, and a willingness to compromise everything you are. Taken up by the beautiful Madame de Bargeton, a married woman who becomes his protector and lover, Lucien enters the glittering salons of the Restoration elite, only to discover that the sophisticated people he admires are venomous, fickle, and utterly ruthless. As his patroness's reputation crumbles under the weight of their affair, Lucien finds himself increasingly isolated in a city that promises everything and delivers only disillusionment. This is the devastating first movement of one of Balzac's greatest novels: a brutal解剖 of how Paris destroys idealists, and how the literary marketplace feeds on the dreams of the young and naive.
Editions
X-Ray
“Where poverty ceases, avarice begins.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“Conscience, my dear, is a kind of stick that everyone picks up to thrash his neighbor with, but one he never uses against himself.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“For avarice begins where poverty ends.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“Înclinarea spre lene - desfrâul sufletelor poetice.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“Whoever wishes to rise above the common level must be prepared for a great struggle and recoil before no obstacle. A great writer is just simply a martyr whom the stake cannot kill.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“Suferinţa sfinţeşte totul.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“Una de las desgracias a las que se ven sometidas las grandes inteligencias es la de comprender por fuerza todas las cosas, tanto los vicios como las virtudes.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“La avaricia, como el amor, posee el don de la visión de los acontecimientos futuros, que presiente y adivina.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“Unele fiinţe sunt ca nişte zerouri, le trebuie o cifră înainte, şi numai atunci nimicnicia lor dobândeşte o valoare nebănuită. Eu nu pot dobândi valoare decât printr-o alianţă cu o voinţă puternică, neînduplecată.””
— Honoré de Balzac
