Letters of Two Brides
Two women, one chose love, the other chose security. Through intimate letters spanning years, Louise and Armande reveal everything: their passions, their regrets, their choices made and unmade. One pursues an impoverished poet into a life of romantic idealism; the other climbs the ladder of Parisian society, sacrificing desire for position. As time passes, their correspondence becomes an act of reckoning, each woman questioning whether she chose rightly. Balzac constructs this novel entirely through their letters, letting the reader witness how two friends, separated by opposite decisions, come to understand themselves and each other. It's a meditation on what women sacrifice and what they gain, told through the most private of forms. For readers who savor intimate portraits of female friendship and the unbearable complexity of choosing one's own life.
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“En toute autre chose, la duplicité, le manque de foi, les promesses inexécutées rencontrent des juges, et les juges infligent des châtiments; mais il n'en est pas ainsi pour l'amour, qui doit être à la fois la victime, l'accusateur, l'avocat, le tribunal et le bourreau: car les plus atroces perfidies, les plus horribles crimes demeurent inconnus, se commettent l'âme à âme sans témoins, et il est dans l'intérêt bien entendu de l'assassiné de se taire. L'amour a donc son code à lui, sa vengeance à lui: le monde n'a rien à y voir.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“I see in marriage, as it at present exists, two opposing forces which it was the task of the lawgiver to reconcile. ... The laws were made by old men”
— Honoré de Balzac
“Clarissa Harlowe””
— Honoré de Balzac
“After the snows of Siberia, a man may well find merit in these black eyes of mine, which, as you used to say, ripened any fruit that I gazed upon.””
— Honoré de Balzac
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Balzac, Honoré de. Letters of Two Brides. Lex, lex-books.com/book/letters-of-two-brides-33016273-ad62-4f85-972c-3ad4ad090374.Balzac, H. D. (n.d.). Letters of Two Brides. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/letters-of-two-brides-33016273-ad62-4f85-972c-3ad4ad090374Balzac, Honoré de. Letters of Two Brides. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/letters-of-two-brides-33016273-ad62-4f85-972c-3ad4ad090374.
