Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac

Lost Illusions Reviews

• 
  Ahmad Sharabiani

  (Book 912 from 1001 books) - Illusions Perdues = Lost Illusions (La Comédie Humaine #38), Honoré de Balzac
  
  Illusions is a serial novel, written by the French writer, Honoré de Balzac, between 1837 and 1843.
  
  It consists of three parts, starting in provincial France, thereafter moving to Paris, and finally returning to the provinces. Thus it resembles another of Balzac’s greatest novels, The Black Sheep, 1842, in that it is set partly in Paris and partly in the provinces.
  
  It is, however, unique among the novels and short stories of The Human Comedy, 1799–1850.
  
  آرزوهای بر باد رفته - انوره دو بالزاک (امیرکبیر) ادبیات فرانسه؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و ششم ماه می سال 1977میلادی
  
  عنوان: آرزوهای بر باد رفته؛ اثر: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: سعید نفیسی؛ مشخصات نشر: تهران، امیرکبیر، 1337، در 744ص، موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان فرانسه، سده 19م
  
  این رمان، در آن روزگاران، به بلندای شکوه و بیهمتایی دست یازید، زیرا «بالزاک» هماره دورنگر بودند، و فراتر را از روز جاری را میدیدند؛ ایشان درمییابند، که پایان یافتن دوران قهرمانان، و تحول بورژوایی، باید به معنی آغاز خیزش عظیم سرمایه داری «فرانسه» باشد؛ «آرزوهای برباد رفته»، حماسه ی «تراژی - کمیکِ» سلطه ی سرمایه، بر اندیشه ها، و تبدیل شدن ادبیات، به کالا است؛ درونمایه ی رمان، برآورده شدن بسیار گسترده ی این روند، سلطه ی سرمایه بر ذهن و اندیشه، و تراژدی نسل پس از «ناپلئون» را، در درون چارچوبی اجتماعی، جای میدهد؛ «بالزاک» بسیار ژرفتر، از اینها را درک کرده است؛ «بالزاک» این فرایند تبدیل ادبیات به کالا را، با تمامی ابعاد و جوانبش ترسیم میکنند و مینگارند: «از تولید کاغذ گرفته، تا باورها، اندیشه ها، و احساسات نویسندگان، همه و همه، به کالا تبدیل میشوند»، و «بالزاک» نیز به ذکر کلی پیآمدهای فکری، و نظری این سلطه ی سرمایه داری، بسنده نمیکنند، بلکه در تمامی میدانها، فرایند واقعی سرمایه داری شدن را، در تمام مراحل، و با همه ی ویژگیهایش، آشکار میسازند
  
  تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 21/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 06/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
• 
  Jeffrey Keeten

  "No man should marry until he has studied anatomy and dissected at least one woman."
  
  When I left the farm at the age of 18 and jerry rigged my battered Camaro into a sputtering, but functional machine that could, by the grace of all that is holy, get me to Phoenix. I might have bore resemblance to Lucien de Rubempre the hero of Lost Illusions. Well, okay, there were some differences. I did not look like a Greek God. I did not have David Sechard as a best friend who lent me his last 1,000 francs for my trip to Phoenix/Paris. I most importantly did not have an aristocratic companion in the form of Madame de Bargeton, the queen of society in Angouleme. (I definitely left the farm on the wrong footing.) As it turns out despite Lucien's advantages his spectacular rise and fall in Paris society far eclipsed my own bumpy yet steady meandering attempt to be successful in the "big city".
  
  
  
  Drawing from the Folio edition
  
  The first hurdle to be cleared by both Lucien and Madame de Bargeton was entry into Parisian Aristocratic society. Madame may have had the proper name, but she had been in the sticks way too long and had fallen behind on the current fashions and the latest affectations. Lucien, though a beautiful manly specimen, wore the wrong clothes. Clothes that were very nice for the country, but were outdated and ragged when compared to the festive clothing worn by the Parisian dandies. In other words both found the other wanting and a detriment to their efforts to fit in to the society they wished to become accustomed too. Madame de Bargeton, in a fit of survival, jettisoned her Greek God. Lucien, even though he had been thinking similar thoughts, was upset over the betrayal(plotted revenge) and quickly found himself mired in poverty. He took up with a bunch of philosophical writers, who despite their superior intelligence or because of it refused to try and be successful. As taken as Lucien is by their high ideals and their comradeship he quickly moves away from their company once he meets the con man Etienne Lousteau.
  
  
  
  Drawing from the Folio edition
  
  Lousteau calls himself a journalist, but really he is a blackmailer, glib tongue seducer, and thief. Lucien meets Lousteau at the moment that he is in a midst of a deal to become editor of a newspaper. Lousteau likes Lucien, more importantly he sees that he can be of use to him, and shows him how to use his pen to make money. He ensnares him in the fine art of reviewing books, taking the best qualities of a novel and negating those qualities by presenting them as weaknesses. He shows him how to receive "bribes" in theater seats in exchange for positive reviews. Lucien, who was a good writer, soon found himself in a position of writing positive and negative reviews of the same book or the same play and taking money from publishers not to eviscerate their latest offering. Etienne and Lucien both are living with beautiful actresses and making a very good living, but their lifestyle far outreaches their pocketbooks and soon each finds themselves on the edge of disgrace. In an act of desperation Lucien forges David's signature on bank loans that have devastating consequences for his friend(brother-in-law)and sister. There are many more subplots that are complicated enough that separate reviews could be composed for each. Balzac does an amazing job juggling the plots without confusing the reader. Each new revelation has far reaching ramifications and I found myself squirming in my seat as each new piece of the puzzle is revealed.
  
  Balzac creates a whole host of characters, wonderful characters, some who have bit parts, but have larger roles to play as part of the grander scheme of the world of the Human Comedy. Characters flow in and out of his books. In one book they may have a large role and in another a mere scene. He wrote 92 books that composed the Human Comedy and had sketches for 55 more. He created over 3,000 characters. Balzac is surprisingly funny, with skewering wit and a telescopic eye for human behavior. He was part of the realism movement and the characters of these books are the same people that are serving us coffee, delivering our mail, writing newspaper articles, and lending us money today. People have the same foibles and good qualities as they did a hundred years ago. In the form of Eve, David's wife and Lucien's sister, Balzac also reminds us of those few really special people that we occasionally meet who exemplify what we all wish to be....nice.
  
  
  
  Balzac
  
  I got to say I'm hooked. I am curious to see what happens to more of these characters and in the span of one book I've only met a very few of the characters that Balzac brings to life in the Human Comedy. I must meet the rest. I will read more Balzac.
  
  If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit
  http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
  I also have a Facebook blogger page at:
  https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
• 
  Luís

  Excellent observation of human behavior. Have the times changed? Oh, not so much! A writer must endure these humiliating experiences and gradually lose his illusions. More than ever, man is greedy for money and power; art has no value.
• 
  Michael Finocchiaro

  Unfortunately for most French people, they were forced to read Balzac in school and were not given the real time or context to fully appreciate his work. Plus they mostly only get the highly moralistic Peau de Chagrin and, fed up, finish their book report and never seek out Balzac again. That is quite unfortunate particularly when it comes to this particular masterpiece. In Illusions Perdues, we have one of French literatures greatest bildungsroman ever with the coming of age of the two protagonists. I will absolutely not spoil the story here because it must be read and enjoyed. And please do not forget to read the wonderful sequel, Splendeurs et Misères des Courtesans which is every bit as real and gripping and beautiful as this one.
• 
  FotisK

  Ο αμετάκλητα χαμένος κόσμος των υπέροχων λογοτεχνικών ψευδαισθήσεων…
  
  Τι μπορεί, αλήθεια, να προσφέρει ένας συγγραφέας του 19ου αιώνα στο κοινό τού 21ου, εκτός από αναγνωστική έπαρση, καθότι ο Μπαλζάκ είναι ένας "Κλασικός", "Αναγνωρισμένος", "Μεγάλος", "Απαιτητικός" συγγραφέας και ο καλούμενος "σοβαρός αναγνώστης" υποχρεούται να συμπεριλάβει κάποια από τα σημαντικότερα έργα του στη βιβλιοθήκη του; Η προσφιλέστερη σε κοινό και κριτικούς απάντηση είναι πως οι "Χαμένες ψευδαισθήσεις" αποτελούν "εξαίρετη τοιχογραφία της εποχής της Παλινόρθωσης στη Γαλλία".
  
  Η άρρητη -αλλά και προφανής ταυτόχρονα- λογική της απάντησης αυτής είναι εξαιρετικά προβλεπόμενη: Διαβάστε το βιβλίο και πληροφορηθείτε για τη ζωή των ανθρώπων της εποχής, για τις συνθήκες διαβίωσης, τις κοινωνικές σχέσεις, το γενικότερο ιστορικό πλαίσιο. Ολοκληρώνοντάς το, θα έχετε ΜΑΘΕΙ (η λέξη-κλειδί) κάτι αντικειμενικό και μετρήσιμο, δεδομένου πως η άλλη απάντηση στο "Γιατί;" εμπεριέχει τη διφορούμενη και γι' αυτό παρακινδυνευμένη και παρεξηγήσιμη αισθητική και μόνο απόλαυση - έννοια ξεκάθαρα υποκειμενική, μιας και "η ομορφιά έγκειται στο μάτι του παρατηρητή". Και δεδομένου πως ο παρατηρητής είναι ταυτόχρονα και καταναλωτής/ πελάτης, τότε "Νόμος είναι το δίκιο του πελάτη".
  
  Βεβαίως, οπισθόφυλλα και κριτικές δεν παραλείπουν να βγάλουν και κάνα δεκάρικο περί του απαράμιλλου ύφους του Μπαλζάκ, πάντα όμως σε συνδυασμό με την επιδραστικότητά του στους επιγόνους, όπως και -εξίσου σημαντικό- για το πόσο ΣΥΓΧΡΟΝΟ παραμένει το έργο του στην εποχή μας. Εντούτοις, φοβάμαι, το έργο του Μπαλζάκ δεν έχει να προσφέρει απολύτως κανένα ΜΑΘΗΜΑ /δίδαγμα για την εποχή του. Επιπλέον, είναι μεν σύγχρονο, όχι όμως με τη χύδην έννοια που του αποδίδεται - τουτέστιν, να καθησυχάσει τον αναγνώστη πως θα ανταμειφθεί ανακαλύπτοντας παραλληλισμούς με τη δική του εποχή, σημεία πρόσφυσης, εν ολίγοις κάτι οικείο που θα τον παρηγορήσει καθ' όλη τη διάρκεια της αναγνωστικής του πλεύσης. Δεν είναι τυχαίο πως ο αναγνώστης που προσέρχεται στις "Χαμένες ψευδαισθήσεις" με τέτοιες βλέψεις, θα διαψευστεί οικτρά και θα εγκαταλείψει το βιβλίο σύννους.
  
  Οφείλω όμως να περάσω από την άρνηση (τι δεν είναι ο Μπαλζάκ), στη θέση (γιατί να τον διαβάσω;). Ας θέσουμε τα πράγματα σε μια απόλυτα υποκειμενική, αλλά ξεκάθαρα αισθητική βάση. Ο Μπαλζάκ δεν μιλάει για την εποχή του και τ��ν Παλινόρθωση, τουλάχιστον δεν είναι αυτός ο βασικός του στόχος. Ο Μπαλζάκ, όπως κάθε συγγραφέας άξιος λόγου, πλάθει μύθους, ποιεί θαύματα, όντας μυθοπλάστης και θαυματοποιός. Όπερ σημαίνει ότι εκφράζει αποκλειστικά τον εαυτό του, στήνοντας έναν θαυμαστό νέο κόσμο εκ του μηδενός, βασισμένο προφανώς στα υλικά της πραγματικότητας (της εποχής του), αλλά με την απολύτως προσωπική οπτική του που εστιάζει σε επιλεγμένα σημεία. Το να βαυκαλιζόμαστε πως κατανοούμε την εποχή της Παλινόρθωσης μέσω του Μπαλζάκ, απλά προσβάλλει και την Ιστορία και τη Λογοτεχνία.
  
  Διαβάζοντας τις "Χαμένες ψευδαισθήσεις", ερχόμαστε σε επαφή και κατανοούμε κάτι πολύ ουσιαστικότερο: τον δημιουργικό οραματισμό του συγγραφέα, τον τρόπο με τον οποίο στρέφει τον εσωτερικό του οφθαλμό στο εξωτερικό περιβάλλον, απορροφώντας παραστάσεις, βιώματα, εν εξάρσει ακροαζόμενος τον ρουν της ζωής όπως την αντιλαμβάνεται. Και πώς στη συνέχεια χρησιμοποιεί τον αρχετυπικό -μα άμορφο- αυτόν πηλό για να πλάσει την ολόδική του πραγματικότητα, να δημιουργήσει την ολόδική του γαλλική επαρχία, το αποκλειστικά δικό του Παρίσι, τους ξεκάθαρα φανταστικούς του χαρακτήρες. Κι όλα αυτά να φαντάζουν άκρως ρεαλιστικά, άκρως πιθανά, μα ταυτόχρονα να μην αποτελούν παρά κατασκευές, δημιουργίες, σκιές της ζείδωρης φαντασίας ενός ανθρώπου.
  
  Η αλήθεια είναι πως το έργο του Μπαλζάκ είναι ένα μικρό οικοσύστημα, με τη δική του χλωρίδα και πανίδα. Με τους χώρους και τους ανθρώπους του, με τις σχέσεις εξουσίας, με τις ελπίδες και τις διαψεύσεις τους, με τα πάθη και τις επιθυμίες, ένα ολοκληρωμένο σύμπαν, δουλεμένο όμως στην παραμικρή του λεπτομέρεια, ώστε να φαντάζει άκρως ρεαλιστικό και πραγματικό. Η εποχή είναι εκεί, τα κτίρια, οι δρόμοι, τα καταστήματα, όλο το περίτεχνο σκηνικό έχει προετοιμαστεί μέχρι κεραίας. Απαραίτητη συνθήκη, προκειμένου να τοποθετήσει τους ήρωες /ηθοποιούς του εντός τους, να τους δώσει πνοή, και να τους κατευθύνει στις ατομικές τους μοίρες που διαπλέκονται για να απομακρυνθούν στη συνέχεια, να δώσουν τη θέση τους σε άλλους χαρακτήρες με τη σειρά τους. Μια ζωή σε κίνηση, μια περιδίνηση χαρακτήρων, πεπρωμένων, χορογραφημένα όμως στην εντέλεια από τον Μαέστρο Μπαλζάκ.
  
  Τούτο ακριβώς θαυμάζουμε στο έργο του συγγραφέα, επομένως, και είναι εκείνο που φαντάζει στον αναγνώστη της εποχής μας ως σύγχρονο: το πώς ο δημιουργός χρησιμοποιεί την έμπνευσή του για να απομυζήσει από το πρωτογενές υλικό της πραγματικότητας της εποχής του το μεδούλι, το μείζον, αυτό που εκείνος κρίνει ως άξιο περιγραφής και λόγου (και το οποίο δεν είναι καθόλου απαραίτητο να ταυτίζεται με εκείνο των υπολοίπων). Και τι κάνει στη συνέχεια; Χρησιμοποιεί τη συγκολλητική ουσία της αφηγηματικής του τέχνης για να πλάσει το μείγμα, εμφυσώντας ζωή στο μηδέν, μετατρέποντας το κάρβουνο σε διαμάντι. Ως δια μαγείας, η πλαστική του τέχνη αφαιρεί την πατίνα του χρόνου, την εξόφθαλμη επικαιρότητα του κειμένου, τα βαρίδια εκείνα που το τραβούν στο παρόν, που το γειώνουν στο πεπερασμένο. Αυτό που απομένει είναι η άχρονη (και γι' αυτό απόλυτα σύγχρονη) τέχνη της αφήγησης.
  
  Δεν υπάρχει κάτι καταφανώς πρωτότυπο στο κεντρικό θέμα της ανόδου και της πτώσης του ήρωα. Από την εποχή της Αρχαίας Τραγωδίας ήδη, το κοινό ανά τους αιώνες έρχεται τακτικά σε επαφή με την έννοια της ύβρεως, των ανθρωπίνων πεπραγμένων τα οποία επισύρουν την μήνιν των Θεών, της ειμαρμένης, της ζηλοφθονίας, των εσωτερικών ορίων κ.ο.κ. Η πρωτοτυπία έγκειται στο Πώς ο Μπαλζάκ αφηγείται την ιστορία του νεαρού ήρωα, περιγράφοντας τη λαχτάρα της κοινωνικής του ανόδου, της ανάγκης του να διακριθεί με κάθε τίμημα. Ενός ανθρώπου αρνούμενου να βεβαρυνθεί συνειδησιακά, όντας επηρμένος και αποφασισμένος να επιτύχει ανεξαρτήτως κόστους.
  
  Η δυσήνια ορμή του θα τον μεταφέρει από την επαρχιακή πόλη καταγωγής του στην πρωτεύουσα, στο κέντρο της Βαβυλώνας, για να ζήσει εκεί το προσωπικό του "Παρισινό όνειρο". Την ταχεία άνοδο ακολουθεί προφανώς η πτώση, καθώς το ηθικό αντίβαρο δεν είναι επαρκές για να μετριάσει ή να καθοδηγήσει τον ταλανισμένο ήρωα, ο οποίος συρρικνώνεται ταυτόχρονα με την περιστασιακή και προσωρινή του φήμη. Η επιστροφή στα πάτρια εδάφη είναι αναπόφευκτη, όσο αναπόφευκτη και η πτώση όσων αγαπημένων προσώπων υπέκυψαν ��τη γοητεία του και πίστεψαν στις ανούσιες υποσχέσεις του.
  
  Και η ιστορία εξελίσσεται αργά μεν, μεθυστικά δε, με τον μαέστρο να επιτηρεί και να ελέγχει καταλεπτώς τις κινήσεις των πρωταγωνιστών, τον τρόπο με τον οποίο κινούνται στον χώρο και στον χρόνο, αποδίδοντας κίνητρα, προβάλλοντας σκέψεις, αναδεικνύοντας το φως -όταν πρέπει- και πνίγοντας στο σκότος τις ψυχές όταν η εσωτερική αναγκαιότητα του κειμένου το απαιτεί.
  Και το εντελές έργο σμιλεύεται σταδιακά μπροστά στα μάτια του υποψιασμένου αναγνώστη: ο κορμός σχηματίζεται, τα άκρα προβάλλουν, οι αδρές γωνίες λειαίνονται, το πρόσωπο, τέλος, ενσαρκώνεται. Μια βαθιά ανάσα και τα μάτια ανοίγουν. Fiat lux….
  
  
  https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2019/11/...
  
• 
  fourtriplezed

  The premise consisted of a lot I would like. The printing industry for one, an industry I have been working in for the entire 45 years of my working life. And the literary arts, us Goodreads people love that or we would not be here. That issue of the urbane life of the major city over the provincial snobbery of the small town. Everywhere in all times has this been a divide. And the sheer greed of individuals over the dreamers who trust others no matter what, we all like that in a story don’t we? Yep! A heady mix that was guaranteed to be a successful read for me I would have thought.
  
  But nope! It all became a chore, and a long one at that. Nothing wrong with a long novel but when several paragraphs ramble on when the same point could be made with one then I admit to losing interest. Is there anything wrong with the story and the writing? No but is just draaaaaaaaaged.
  
  Goodreads friend Carl tells me that Henry James said something along the lines of one keeping ploughing onward, certainly this sentence will end? you realize you'd rather be shot in the leg, but the word 'classic' calls, like duty, you saddle up, and head out one more time... Hee hee!
• 
  Axl Oswaldo

  "Many illusions I have lost here already, and I have others yet to lose..."
  
  There is no doubt that reading French novels from the nineteenth century is always a memorable experience for me. I am not trying to understand the reasons why I am into them quite a few, maybe because of their stories, which are usually outstanding (to say the least), or perhaps since the characters are so real that I can't help but feel empathy for them; maybe the prose, which is beautifully written and beyond, or the fact that you can't put these books down from beginning to end.
  Nineteenth-century French classics are absolutely my cup of tea, and authors such as Émile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, Stendhal, Victor Hugo, Maupassant, Alexandre Dumas, and so on and so forth* are obviously a remarkable part of this beautiful reading journey.
  
  That being said, Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac was indeed a superb experience, a meaningful book whose protagonist is living in my mind from now on. I was not expecting anything different though, since the more I read French classics, the more I find a masterpiece in each of them.
  However, my story with Balzac was not as good as it is so far. I read firstly Colonel Chabert a year ago or so, and I remember that it was kind of a tricky reading experience, confusing at times and the story was difficult to follow, even though I read it in my mother tongue. That last experience made me lose interest in reading other novels by Balzac, and nevertheless, I didn't give up on him, especially on The Human Comedy.
  
  Lost Illusions is part of The Human Comedy, a series of ninety novels or so, at which the author tries to portray French society, mainly during the period of the Restoration (1815-1830) and the July Monarchy (1830-1848). As for this novel, it forms part of the Studies of manners, specifically of the Scenes from provincial life, one of the groups at which Balzac divided his Comedy (the other two ones are Philosophical studies and Analytical studies).
  It is important to point out that Lost Illusions is considered a serial novel, it is only divided into three parts without chapters: The Two Poets (1837), A Distinguished Provincial at Paris (1839), and Eve and David (1843), each of which follows the story of our protagonist, Lucien Chardon de Rubempré, an ambitious, young man who is interested in being part of the high society, and showing his talents as a poet.
  
  Lucien is sometimes pride, egocentric, and narcissistic – he tries to do the right thing according to his principles, but unfortunately he is not always following the right path. Even his people, such as his sister Eve and his best friend David, don't try to lessen his ambitions and opinions.
  When I said at the beginning of my review that Lucien is living in my mind, I was not lying, and even though a character who made a lot of mistakes throughout his whole story is not always the best, I could somehow identify the person who I used to be with some Lucien’s traits. I'm ashamed though, I'm really ashamed to admit that somehow I did not use to be the best person, or the best friend in the past, that I failed to some people who trusted me, just as Lucien did. For instance, when Lucien suffered due to his bad decisions, I suffered with him, when he cried, I cried as well. Needless to say that Lucien's life made me understand many aspects of my own life, and to see how it has changed from the past years until now. I only have one thing to say here: thanks Lucien, for showing me a part of my past life that I don't want to live anymore.
  
  Now, speaking of the characters, there are many memorable, unforgettable ones. Balzac knows how to develop his characters, and all of them, even the minor ones, are really important in the novel. Of course I have my favorites, such as Lucien (it is not a surprise), Eve, David, Nathan, Étienne, Madame de Bargeton, Coralie, and so on. It is a huge novel, almost 800 pages, so my recommendation is not to try to remember all the characters, especially because in the end, without noticing it, you will be able to do so. Besides, you just need to read, and enjoy all the meaningful, deep conversations which take place in a theater box, in a gathering, in a printing office, in the street, etc.
  As for the narrative, I can't find the right words to describe it: it is genuinely beautiful, wonderful, perfect; needless to say that Balzac had a great talent to write his stories, to describe what was happening in every scene**. When you read it, you can imagine vividly what characters are doing, and thinking, and just after knowing them deeply, you can almost predict what they are about to say, or how they are going to get through a situation.
  
  On the other hand, and in my experience, this novel is not so easy to read. As I said before, there are no chapters so that you can take a breath, in the first part there are scarcely any dialogues, there are a lot of descriptions which might be confusing every now and then. Balzac takes his times to describe everything: I remember one scene, a party, at which there are many characters arriving at the party’s house, and he describes every character, what they look like, their clothes, and their social positions. It took me two days to read this part; believe me, it was exhausting.
  In addition, the third part was also quite good, but alas!, it was the most difficult for me to read. Since this part starts with a legal case, there are some legal terms which I didn't understand, and so I struggled with this part of the story due to the language. Perhaps it was just me, since I didn't know many of these legal terms in English, but then I was thinking what I can say the same terms in Spanish and I was lost as well. Who knows.
  Balzac also decides to add bills, bills and more bills as proofs of the case, so maybe you are eager to calculate if the percentages and totals are right (just kidding, but for the record, they are right). In short, it was a tough part – reading the whole book was tricky every now and then, however, it is definitely worth giving it a shot.
  
  My favorite part of the novel was absolutely the second one: A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, since Balzac shows us how the real publishing and journalistic worlds work, the corruption inside the system, and how the problematics of this system are affecting to everyone who is implied in that business. I don't know so much about how journalism and publishers work currently, and I can't put my finger on it, but perhaps Balzac's thoughts on these topics are quite close to our times as well.
  For instance, and this is really funny, in the novel there is a situation with a book which is about to be published, and in order to sell as many copies as they can, they decide to add in big letters "In the style of Scott" (Walter Scott) to the cover, when that novel has nothing to do with Scott's narrative (Scott novels were considered quite good at that moment) – they actually know it is a poor novel, but they decide to say this just because they need to sell more, and obviously, they don't care if their readers receive a good book or not; in the end, the client doesn't matter, what only matters is to sell the book (have you seen such a thing ultimately?).
  
  Finally, I have noticed that there is a common element in some nineteenth-century French masterpieces by very well known authors: their protagonists are usually a young man who is constantly pursuing his goals, his dreams and the like, but it is also true that their goals and dreams might not be reachable at all.
  Perhaps it is only my impression, but at least four of my favorite French novels fulfill these characteristics (in order from my most favorite to my least favorite):
  1. Germinal by Émile Zola (protagonist: Étienne Lantier)
  2. The Red and the Black by Stendhal (protagonist: Julien Sorel)
  3. Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert (protagonist: Frédéric Moreau)
  4. Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac (protagonist: Lucien Chardon de Rubempré)
  
  However, after having read all these novels, my favorite protagonist is (without a doubt) Lucien Chardon de Rubempré, who is not only living in my mind after all, but also in my heart.
  
  I would like to finish my review with a quote whose meaningful words are the best way to describe this novel, in my opinion:
  "Ambitious men, like all those who can only make their way by the help of others and of circumstances, are bound to lay their plans very carefully and to adhere very closely to the course of conduct on which they determine; it is a cruel moment in the lives of such aspirants when some unknown power brings the fabric of their fortunes to some severe test and everything gives way at once; threads are snapped or entangled, and misfortune appears on every side."
  
  P.S. Do I need to say that I wholeheartedly recommend this novel? I guess it was crystal clear that I do. :)
  
  ----
  
  * I would like to mention a French author from the eighteenth century, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, whose novel Dangerous Liaisons is not less impressive and important than other ones from the nineteenth century. In fact, it is the best epistolary novel that I have read so far.
  
  ** A friend of mine told me recently that there is a movie which was released last year and it is based upon this book; it is called exactly the same as the novel, and I wish I could watch it very soon in the movies (I don't even know if it's coming to Mexico soon, I guess we will have to wait for it) – it will be quite awesome to see if they were able to portray Balzac's descriptions and characters beyond one's expectations.
  
  
• 
  notgettingenough

  Some thoughts on the book.
  
  This is such a wow of a novel. I gather that Balzac, in writing the vast book series, of which this is one, wanted it to be a document, as much as work of fiction. And so it is. There is a level of detail about subjects like accounting in early nineteenth century France and the legal system that is hard to believe one could get away with selling in a work of fiction. Then there is the paper industry - the Chinese were to blame then as now, the difficulties of cheap labour competition - the bookselling industry and its corrupt links to the reviewing industry. And the reviewing industry's corrupt links to just about anybody. Reviewers who often scraped together the funds for their precarious existence by selling their review copies and the tickets they received as bribes from theatre managements.
  
  Then there is his cynical eye, unblinking in its observation of the appalling nature of Parisian society, not to mention the hand-me-down version as practised by the best of provincial society. There are 'good people' depicted here, but they are all self-deluding dills and one wants nothing more than to bang their heads together or make them sit in the corner with their backs to class until they reform, or write a hundred times on the blackboard 'I will get real'. Being 'good' is no way to escape the scathing judgement of Monsieur Balzac.
  
  That said, there is one strange small group of men who stay true to their dedication to real literature, as opposed to the rascally reviewers with whom Lucien goes astray. And I feel like Balzac sees himself there. They have no weaknesses, they never betray themselves or each other. They worship no false gods, not fashion, not wealth, not status. None of the things that are like oxygen to Lucien.
  
  I think Balzac needs them to balance David and Lucien's sister. David is perfectly able to see Lucien as he really is, but he can't do the right thing with that information. David's ruination is that he knows everybody else without knowing himself at all. At least Lucien's sister steps up to face the facts, way too late for it to help their dire situation, but still. David remains in fourth grade writing those lines and sitting in the corner while she's going to get out of primary school for sure...if she doesn't die of starvation first.
  
  rest here:
  https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
  
  
  
  Update: I am happy to report that when I wrote on social media for my friends that I'd finished a Balzac that could be thus described (as below), Gareth, immediately guessed 'Lost Illusions'? My comparison was presumably apt.
  
  Blackadder:
  [describing a novel he's written] 'Edmund. A Butler's Tale. A huge, roller coaster of a novel in four hundred sizzling chapters. A searing indictment of domestic servitude in the eighteenth century, with some hot gypsies thrown in.'
  
  Okay, so Balzac's novel is early nineteenth century, it's hot teenage actresses, not gypsies and the indictment is of society as a whole - nothing escapes Balzac's eye. But in spirit, Lost Illusions is Edmund to a tee. Sizzling roller coaster ride that never stops, indeed.
  
  Detail to come.
  
  Posted earlier:
  
  This is premature, but what a wonderful passage I've just read, about one sixth into the book. It could have been written last night about today. Our hero, in the business, is explaining to the woman to whom he is proposing how the paper industry for printing works.
  
  

  And for this reason: although linen lasts so much longer than cotton, that it is in reality cheaper in the end, the poor would rather make the smaller outlay in the first instance, and, by virtue of the law of _Vae victis!_ pay enormously more before they have done. The middle classes do the same. So there is a scarcity of linen. In England, where four-fifths of the population use cotton to the exclusion of linen, they make nothing but cotton paper. The cotton paper is very soft and easily creased to begin with, and it has a further defect: it is so soluble that if you seep a book made of cotton paper in water for fifteen minutes, it turns to a pulp, while an old book left in water for a couple of hours is not spoilt. You could dry the old book, and the pages, though yellow and faded, would still be legible, the work would not be destroyed.
  
  "There is a time coming when legislation will equalize our fortunes, and we shall all be poor together; we shall want our linen and our books to be cheap, just as people are beginning to prefer small pictures because they have not wall space enough for large ones. Well, the shirts and the books will not last, that is all; it is the same on all sides, solidity is drying out. So this problem is one of the first importance for literature, science, and politics.
  
  "One day, in my office, there was a hot discussion going on about the material that the Chinese use for making paper. Their paper is far better than ours, because the raw material is better; and a good deal was said about this thin, light Chinese paper, for if it is light and thin, the texture is close, there are no transparent spots in it. In Paris there are learned men among the printers' readers; Fourier and Pierre Leroux are Lachevardiere's readers at this moment; and the Comte de Saint-Simon, who happened to be correcting proofs for us, came in in the middle of the discussion. He told us at once that, according to Kempfer and du Halde, the Broussonetia furnishes the substance of the Chinese paper; it is a vegetable substance (like linen or cotton for that matter). Another reader maintained that Chinese paper was principally made of an animal substance, to wit, the silk that is abundant there. They made a bet about it in my presence. The Messieurs Didot are printers to the Institute, so naturally they referred the question to that learned body. M. Marcel, who used to be superintendent of the Royal Printing Establishment, was umpire, and he sent the two readers to M. l'Abbe Grozier, Librarian at the Arsenal. By the Abbe's decision they both lost their wages. The paper was not made of silk nor yet from the _Broussonetia_; the pulp proved to be the triturated fibre of some kind of bamboo. The Abbe Grozier had a Chinese book, an iconographical and technological work, with a great many pictures in it, illustrating all the different processes of paper-making, and he showed us a picture of the workshop with the bamboo stalks lying in a heap in the corner; it was extremely well drawn.
  
  "Lucien told me that your father, with the intuition of a man of talent, had a glimmering of a notion of some way of replacing linen rags with an exceedingly common vegetable product, not previously manufactured, but taken direct from the soil, as the Chinese use vegetable fibre at first hand. I have classified the guesses made by those who came before me, and have begun to study the question. The bamboo is a kind of reed; naturally I began to think of the reeds that grow here in France.
  
  "Labor is very cheap in China, where a workman earns three halfpence a day, and this cheapness of labor enables the Chinese to manipulate each sheet of paper separately. They take it out of the mould, and press it between heated tablets of white porcelain, that is the secret of the surface and consistence, the lightness and satin smoothness of the best paper in the world. Well, here in Europe the work must be done by machinery; machinery must take the place of cheap Chinese labor. If we could but succeed in making a cheap paper of as good a quality, the weight and thickness of printed books would be reduced by more than one-half. A set of Voltaire, printed on our woven paper and bound, weighs about two hundred and fifty pounds; it would only weigh fifty if we used Chinese paper. That surely would be a triumph, for the housing of many books has come to be a difficulty; everything has grown smaller of late; this is not an age of giants; men have shrunk, everything about them shrinks, and house-room into the bargain. Great mansions and great suites of rooms will be abolished sooner or later in Paris, for no one will afford to live in the great houses built by our forefathers. What a disgrace for our age if none of its books should last! Dutch paper--that is, paper made from flax--will be quite unobtainable in ten years' time.
• 
  Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly

  Honore de Balzac wasn't finished writing yet when he died on 18 August 1850. Yet at the time of his death he had already written a good number of journal articles and some 90 novels. The literary characters he had created are estimated to be between 2,000 to 3,000. Was he sick? Did he have some sort of a mania for writing on and on? No. The secret of his prolificness, I guess, was in his favorite drink. It was said that at one time he wrote for 18 straight hours, without sleep, subsisting only on black coffee.
  
  CAFE BALZAC would be a nice name for a coffee shop. The different brews offered there could be named after his novels: Pere Goriot, Louis Lambert, Cousin Bette, Cousin Pons, Eugenie Grandet, etc. Lost Illusions would be in a monster of a cup. Having it should be like endlessly sipping an ocean of coffee. Black, with enough caffeine to shock one's nerves and make him want to write to calm himself.
  
  This is the story of Lucien Chardon (a cake in the coffee shop could be named after him, lucien sounds luscious), a young, handsome poet, well-intentioned but vain and stupid. Living in a provincial town, he dreams of getting rich and famous. He catches the fancy of the aristocratic Madame de Bagerton, married but a real hot mama. Thinking that they are in love with each other, they go to gay Paris. There, they promptly lose their illusion about this love. They part ways, bitterly.
  
  Destitute and hungry, Lucien befriends fellow poets, writers and artists who--although similarly poor like him--value personal and creative integrity above all else. But he also stumbles upon characters, including journalists, who value money above all else. He is sucked into this life of double-dealing, journalistic blackmail, corruption and dishonesty, enjoying it for the money, fame and sex it brings. He is again disillusioned but likes the compensation.
  
  This new society he has embraced, however, does not embrace him back. He is betrayed and rejected. Thus he loses another illusion and comes back to his hometown like a beaten dog with his tail between his legs.
  
  But alas! It seems his town considers him a hero of sorts with the fleeting fame and momentary wealth he had acquired before. So he struts his feathers once more and attempts to save his loved ones (his mother, sister and her husband David who is also his best friend) from the ruin he has brought them into. This, however, proves to be illusory once more.
  
  He now walks alone, planning to drown himself. But he meets a 48-year-old Spanish priest. Hey, I said to myself, a happy ending after all. A man of God shall be an instrument to Lucien's redemption! But no. It was my turn to lose an illusion. This priest's advice to Lucien sounds like it is based on Machiavelli's The Prince than on the Holy Bible. He may even be harboring sexy thoughts because after giving Lucien money and promising him a job (as his secretary) he kissed him ("on the forehead, tenderly", Balzac however took care to point out), alluding to "the profound friendship of man to man which...makes woman of no account."
  
  The descriptions here of characters, places, legal proceedings, the printing business, paper-making, parties, the theater, intrigues and what-not are so lush that reading them is like wading through the foliage of the Amazon jungle during the time of the dinosaurs. For its dialogues, the characters often throw full-length essays against each other; thoughts and recollections were sometimes like treatises; and characters are so numerous they swarm like ants on a pool of molasses.
  
  Six hundred thirty pages excluding endnotes, the introduction, Balzac's brief biographical outline and comments on him and his works by various authors. You''ll need a lot of coffee to get through this. But it's all worth it, may I add.
• 
  Manny

  CONTRACT between the recent reader of Honoré de Balzac's Illusions perdues, hereinafter the party of the first part, and His Satanic Majesty Lucifer, Prince of Darkness and Father of Lies, hereinafter the party of the second part:
  
  WHEREAS it is amply revealed in the aforementioned work of Balzac that Paris during the third decade of the nineteenth century offers unparalleled opportunities for the gifted and unscrupulous reviewer to exploit his skills to commercial and other advantage;
  
  WHEREAS the party of the first part, having possession of such skills, desires to receive adequate recompense for them;
  
  WHEREAS the party of the second part, having supernatural powers that place Him above the confines of space and time, is capable of effecting the necessary bodily transport of persons to other ages and places;
  
  NOW THEREFORE IT IS HEREBY AGREED
  
  1. That the party of the first part will at their convenience be transported to the Paris of 1821, with their literary talents transposed into corresponding abilities in the French of the relevant period;
  
  2. That the party of the first part will be provided by the party of the second part with a guide, suitably conversant with Parisian society, who will undertake to introduce them into the journalistic circles where the party of the first part may make appropriate use of their talents;
  
  3. That the party of the first part will within a delay not exceeding ten (10) working days receive adequate recompense for their literary productions, such recompense including but not necessarily limited to gold coins, magnificent dinners at fashionable restaurants, fawning servility from well-known authors in need of positive reviews, offers from publishing houses to print works of prose and poetry written by the party of the first part, and beautiful actresses inviting the party of the first part to their beds and declaring their undying love;
  
  4. That the party of the first part will enjoy the aforementioned benefits as long as they continue to produce reviews, newspaper columns, occasional articles and other writings as further specified in Schedule A;
  
  5. That in exchange for the above considerations, the party of the first part solemnly pledges to transfer their immortal soul to the party of the second part, to be the property of the party of the second part throughout all eternity;
  
  IN WITNESS WHEREOF
  
  the agreement is duly executed as of the date first written above.
  
  [Signatures]
  
  A. Reader
  
  His Satanic Majesty Lucifer
  
  CODICIL
  
  The above notwithstanding, if the party of the second part determines a more conveniently located but otherwise equivalent venue where the party of the first part may receive adequate recompense for their reviewing skills, the party of the second part reserves the right instead to transport the party of the first part to the alternate venue, all other clauses to persist in force unchanged.
  
  [Initials]
  
  A.R.
  
  H.S.M.L.
• 
  Azar

  بزرگان تقریبا به همان اندازه بینوایان به کارهای پست دست می‌زنند، اما بزرگان، این کار را در خفا انجام می‌دهند و آن را تقوا جلوه می‌دهند و درنتیجه، بزرگ می‌مانند، مردمان عادی، تقوای خویش را در خفا می‌پرورند و تنگدستی‌شان را در روز روشن به نمایش می‌گذارند، در نتیجه تحقیر می‌شوند...
• 
  Tim

  Lost Illusions tells the story of a good looking young man who lusts after fame in Paris and as a result brings his supportive good-natured provincial family to bankruptcy. It's a rather long-winded novel. In common with many 19th century novelists Balzac does like to give elaborate descriptions of everything he sees. Thus every room is presented to us in meticulous detail - wonderful if you want to research interior design in 19th century France; on the tedious side otherwise; every character's physiognomy is put under a microscope even though they may never appear again. It's a facet of the novel that has been greatly improved over the decades. He's also rather over-keen on aphorisms. But on the whole this was a brilliantly moving novel which very convincingly created an entire world in a particular moment of history. In an ideal world though it would be clipped of a couple hundred of its very many pages.
• 
  Nickolas the Kid

  O Μπαλζάκ σίγουρα ήταν ένα μεγάλος συγγραφέας και αυτό δεν επιδέχεται καμία αμφισβήτηση. Παρόλα αυτά το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο το βρήκα κάπως άνισο. Βρήκα μέσα αρκετά στοιχεία κορυφαίας λογοτεχνίας αλλά και πράγματα που με έκαναν να βαρεθώ αφάνταστα.
  O συγγραφέας μας μεταφέρει στην Γαλλία τον καιρό της Παλινόρθωσης των Βουρβόνων και εξερευνάει το καλλιτεχνικό Παρίσι και το παρασκήνιο του. Η ιστορία ξεκινάει από μια μικρή γαλλική πόλη, την Ανγκουλεμ όπου ένας νεαρός φιλόδοξος συγγραφέας ονόματι Λυσιέν θα θελήσει να κάνει το μεγάλο βήμα και να πάει στην πρωτεύουσα των τεχνών και τον γραμμάτων, το Παρίσι. Εκεί βέβαια μέσα σε πειρασμούς και απολαύσεις θα καταλάβει πώς το παιχνίδι παίζεται με διαφορετικούς κανόνες, τους οποίους κατά κυρίως λόγω τους θέτουν οι δημοσιογράφοι και οι εφημερίδες...
  Ο Λυσιέν αγνός και απονήρευτος θα μεθύσει από τις "σειρήνες" της Παρισινής κοινωνίας και χάνοντας σταδιακά την πορεία του θα βρεθεί σε απόγνωση και θα στριμωχτεί οικονομικά αλλά και ψυχικά. Φυσικά ο Μπαλζάκ σαν γνήσιος πρόδρομος του νατουραλισμού θα εξαθλιώσει τον βασικό του χαρακτήρα σε σημείο που να προκαλέσει τον οίκτο αλλά και την αγανάκτηση του αναγνώστη.
  Οι χαρακτήρες που πλαισιώνουν τον Λυσιέν εμφανίζονται σταδιακά, με σωστή δομή και παίρνουν την σωστή θέση στο κάδρο που φτιάχνει ο δημιουργός δημιουργώντας μια πολυφωνία όμοια με αυτή της όπερας όπου κάθε "¨φωνή" είναι αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι του συνόλου.
  Όμως οι εξαντλητικές περιγραφές - κυρίως οικονομικής φύσεως - , οι λογιστικές και τραπεζικές λεπτομέρειες με κούρασαν. Με έβγαζαν συνεχώς εκτός κλίματος. Για μένα προσωπικά αποτελούν ανασταλτικό παράγοντα οι λεπτομερείς περιγραφές σε ειδικά ζητήματα. Με αποξενώνουν από το έργο και δυσκολεύομαι κατόπιν τούτου να μπω πάλι στο κλίμα της αφήγησης.
  Δυστυχώς ο Μπαλζάκ εδώ το παρακάνει. Πολλές φορές μάλιστα στον βωμό της λεπτομέρειας θυσιάζει τους χαρακτήρες και την πλοκή. Βέβαια, δεν υπάρχει σωστό και λάθος. Ο συγγραφέας έτσι ήθελε να απεικονίσει τη πραγματικότητα έτσι έκανε. Ίσως επειδή το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο ήταν αρκετά βιωματικό για τον δημιουργό μιας και ο ίδιος είχε μπλέξει στα γρανάζια του συγγραφικού παρασκηνίου ουκ ολίγες φορές ήθελε να γράψει σχεδόν τα πάντα. Εμένα όμως με κούρασε και το λέω με παράπονο, μιας και το βιβλίο κατά τα άλλα είναι δείγμα λογοτεχνίας υψηλού επιπέδου!
  
  3/5
• 
  David Lentz

  As much as I enjoyed Pere Goriot, Lost Illusions is the kind of a literary work that lets you peer into the soul of a great mind and dwell there. Just as Lucien was Balzac, the lost poet, David Sechard, the printer, is also Balzac the craftsman in real life: he bought a print shop in Paris to print his own novels. Sechard is much like the scientist in the Quest of the Absolute, except that David ultimately finds himself through his invention and the inventor in The Quest becomes lost to his own monomania. As Balzac wrote of Lucien: "He's not a poet, this young man: he's a serial novel." And so it's time to find out what happens to Lucien after this novel in his return to Paris. The characters of his novels keep reappearing in scenes from one novel to the next, which is wonderful. However, they seem to change as one sees them through different eyes. Delightful young Rastignac in Pere Goriot becomes a rather unscrupulous mean-spirited character in Lost Illusions. Balzac has built an entire society of his characters and as varied as they are, they are all also him and show the great diversity and depth of his personality and sensitivity. Like Galsworthy, Balzac wanted to build an interconnected society of characters who are so human that it's easy to understand why they behave as they do. The realism is striking and magnificent and always rings true. Balzac works hard despite the realism to spin out of every hardship a redemption and out of every malignity a comic side that's all too human. The comedy and irony are rich in Balzac in his passionate account of life in Paris in high society and the challenges that it thrusts upon every ideal. This is the best work of Balzac that I have read so far out of four novels of his. It's such great writing, and the energy of the translator can make a difference, that Balzac keeps one coming back for more. But the writing and wit and wisdom are so extraordinary, I am happy to accommodate him. Anyone who has ever aspired to write and publish prose in New York will identify with Blazac's Lucien: Lost Illusions is a novel that aspiring writers especially may find intriguing.
• 
  Jesús De la Jara

  "La sociedad, señora, cosa bien extraña, es mucho más indulgente con los jóvenes como él; los quiere, se deja seducir por el atractivo de sus prendas exteriores; no les exige nada, disculpa todos sus errores, da por descontada su perfección permaneciendo ciega a sus defectos, y los convierte así, finalmente, en sus niños mimados. Por el contrario, es de una severidad sin límites con las naturalezas fuertes e íntegras. Pero es precisamente así como la sociedad, aunque en apariencia puede parecer injusta, es tal vez sublime. Se divierte con los bufones, sin pedirles nada más que diversión, pero los olvida muy pronto, mientras que para doblar la rodilla ante la grandeza le exige a esta unas dotes divinas"
  
  La narración empieza un poco lenta para poder presentarnos finalmente al protagonista principal de esta novela, considerada por el propio autor como una súper importante dentro de la "Comedia humana" que consta de más de 80 novelas, Lucien Chardon o de Rubempré (por su madre). Él es un provinciano de Angulema que aspira a tener fama y dinero gracias a sus escritos pues es literato. Tiene a su madre y a su hermana Eve y a su gran amigo - hermano David Séchard quien a su vez es otro soñador como él pero se dedica al rubro de la imprenta y tiene un padre insoportablemente avaro y ruin. Lamentablemente Lucien desde un inicio se nos presenta como un tanto arribista pues le hace la corte a Louise de Bargeton quien es la dueña del salón más importante de Angulema y que enamorada de él quiere ayudarlo a prosperar. Ella es casada pero Lucien pensando en su futuro de buena gana permite esta relación clandestina.
  El título de la novela desde luego da bastante panorama y Lucien irá a París para hacer su carrera como autor. El protagonista es descrito por Balzac como un joven sumamente guapo, rubio y de características incluso algo femeninas; pero este gran atractivo le ayudará en algunas situaciones. Fuera de esto al inicio me pareció una persona sin muchas dotes pero el tiempo le dará un tanto la razón. Pero sí la falta de firmeza es algo que se puede adivinar. En mi opinión Balzac lo trata muy mal en gran parte de la obra, lo que hace que pierdas un poco interés, quizás el argumento de la novela, también, te invita un poco a juzgar al personaje principal y de hecho el autor mismo creo que incrementa ello. Si solo nos vamos por este enfoque la obra puede parecer simple y sin mucho propósito.
  
  "Un gran escritor es un mártir que no morirá, eso es todo"
  
  Pero aunque carente de mucha profundidad Balzac, nos da un cuadro extraordinario del ambiente parisino y de las difíciles pruebas y aspectos negativos que se ciernen contra un escritor joven y desconocido que quiere prosperar. Seguro mucho de su propia experiencia personal está vertida en la obra (el propio Balzac tuvo una amante mayor que le ayudó económicamente). En París frecuentemente Lucien va a darse de cara ante el interés y la ruindad de muchos personajes. Pero sobre todo verá la ilusión casi perdida pues lo que él pensaba era valorado (el talento) no lo es tanto.
  Apenas llega se encuentra con un grupo de amigos llamado el Cenáculo quien está conformado por Michel Chrestien, D'Arthez, entre otros. Ellos viven el arte por el arte alejados de las presiones políticas y sociales. Por otro, Lucien conoce a un grupo de escritores y editores que llevan el trabajo periodístico a otro nivel. Estas descripciones son las más fascinantes pues nos dan revelaciones y trucos que usan los periodistas y literatos para impresionar, hacer críticas o hundir alguna editorial o autor joven. Cuando muchos de los artículos incisivos que el público cree se debe a la fidelidad del periodista, en verdad, está empujado más por la envidia o el odio personal. Las reseñas de las obras de teatro son compradas por el dinero así como la opinión de tal o cual actriz. Ellas mismas saben que deben ser buenas con los periodistas para poder prosperar. Todo este teje y maneje corrupto, inmoral y ruin nos es mostrado. Lucien debe elegir entre sus amigos del cenáculo y el periodismo que es rechazado por ellos.
  
  "Cuando haya echado a perder su vida y su estómago para dar vida a esta creación, la verá calumniada, traicionada, vendida, condenada a las lagunas del olvido por los periodistas, enterrada por sus mejores amigos. ¿Será capaz de esperar al día en que su creación resurja vivificada? ¿Y por quién?, ¿cuándo?, ¿cómo?"
  
  No estará tampoco alejado nuestro protagonista de la parte mundana, de las actrices (la bella y embobada Coralie), de los directores, de los bares, los juegos y apuestas. Un destino realmente muy común a muchos escritores de la época. Y esta novela es un ejemplo más de que se puede conocer un momento histórico a través de los libros. Pues seguro Stendhal, Constant, Lamartine, que también fueron de esa época pasaron por situaciones parecidas o sinsabores. La angustia de los escritores por ser famosos, o las penas de los fracasos, los enredos de los periodistas para sacar dinero y ver publicadas sus obras. Una lucha terrible en el París de la Restauración que nosotros lo vemos tan prolífico y perfecto por las grandes obras pero que tienen un lado más humano y no por ello más hermoso. ¿Qué atrae más a la juventud de ese tiempo el trabajo o el mero placer?
  
  "Un periódico no está hecho ya para ilustrar, sino para halagar las opiniones. Por ello, dentro de un tiempo, todos los periódicos serán viles, hipócritas, infames, mentirosos, asesinos; matarán las ideas, las filosofías y a los hombres, y florecerán por eso mismo."
  
  Lucien no solo debe prosperar por sí mismo sino por su propia familia quienes han dado el todo por el todo por él. ¿Podrá seguir el camino correcto y ser el orgullo de su provincia o caerá en las mil premoniciones que recibe a lo largo de su vida en París por gente más experimentada que él? No solo tiene que decidir su trabajo sino también su política: ¿liberal o monárquico? Hay algunas decisiones en las cuales yo no puedo estar de acuerdo y creo que uno puede pasarla bien o sufrir con Lucien a pesar de que por momentos desesperaría a cualquiera.
  
  "De aquí a tres días, si la cosa sale, puede, con treinta agudezas a razón de tres por día, hacerle maldecir la vida a un hombre; puede obtener gratificaciones sexuales de todas las actrices de sus teatros; puede poner por los suelos una buena obra y hacer que todo París acuda a una mala."
  
  Ahí me quedaré con la reseña. Puedo comentar que D'Arthez es un gran personaje, tiene gestos de los más duros pero también de los más sublimes. Otro que me gustó a pesar de sus malas intenciones fue el abogado Petit-Claud, todo un conocedor de su época y muy hacendoso. La escena en la cual Lucien tiene que redactar canciones vulgares y lujuriosas para ganarse el pan en medio de la desgracia es terrible. Me aburrió en cambio en la última parte un tratado enorme de leyes y economía a los que Balzac nos tiene tan acostumbrados en sus obras.
  
  "Es difícil hacerse ilusiones sobre algo en París. Todo está gravado de impuestos, todo se vende, todo se fabrica, incluso el éxito"
• 
  Chrissie

  
  Lost Illusions is a trilogy, consisting of:
  1.Two Poets
  (
  https://librivox.org/lost-illusions-t... )
  2.A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
  (
  https://librivox.org/lost-illusions-a... )
  3.Ève and David
  (
  https://librivox.org/lost-illusions-e... )
  Note: links to the Librivox recordings are in parentheses.
  
  They are to be read in this order. There is little repeat of information as you pass from one book to the next. Originally published separately in 1837, 1839, and 1843, they are nowadays often collected into one volume with the title Lost Illusions or Illusions Perdues in French. The trilogy is followed by a sequel entitled
  Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. I will not be continuing;
  Lost Illusions is enough for me.
  
  Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) is considered one of the founders of European realism, due to his sharp observation of detail and his unfiltered representation of French society.
  
  What this book does, and it does it in spades, is draw provincial and Parisian life during the post-Napoleonic era, in other words France during Bourbon Restoration. Events are set primarily in the 1820s, in both Paris and the town Angoulême, which is located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France. It details, and the details are copious, the burgeoning paper industry, the publishing trade, journalism and political machinations, as well as the world of theater and literature. People of the upper class as well as those aspiring to climb the social ladder. Actors and actresses, loose women and scoundrels, writers and poets are all meticulously described—what they eat, what they wear and what they do. The cast of characters is large. If research is your thing, this book is a treasure trove, a bonanza.
  
  However, for an ordinary reader, the copious details may be considered excessive. I did not need to know how to set up a printing press, or the precise fees and comparative costs of different products, or a day by day review of tasks of the trade. There can in fact be too much of a good thing. This will of course depend on what you are looking for. On completion of the book, I felt drained and worn out. I was tired of forcing myself to try and make sense of the devious characters’ convoluted and tricky deals. I was extremely happy when the book finally came to an end. Do you want the truth? There it is.
  
  Balzac wrote of what he knew. He was a printer, a journalist and a writer. The central characters of the book are too. Both he and his characters had to deal with bankruptcy, misalliances and crooked deals. Individuals behave duplicitly and in business corruption and wheeling and dealing is the norm. What is drawn is so detailed and so realistic that one senses that that which is said is based on true events, events which the author has himself experienced. In 1826 Balzac opened a printing business in Paris. It went bust. In 1836 he bought the newspaper La Chronique de Paris. Later, in 1840 he started La Revue Parisienne. These too were failures.
  
  The version I listened to is translated by Ellen Marriage (1865-1946). The majority of the lines read well, but not all. Some are clumsily expressed and there are lines the meaning of which I simply had to guess at from their context.
  
  Bruce Pirie narrates the audiobook at Librivox. It was pretty darn good. He reads clearly and at a good speed without excessive dramatization. The narration I have given three stars. I will keep an eye out for this narrator at Librivox in the future.
  
  The book contains tons and tons of information, and for this reason it is good that it has been written, but I found it tedious.
  
  *********************
  *
  Père Goriot 4 stars
  *
  The Unknown Masterpiece 4 stars
  *
  Cousin Bette 3 stars
  *
  Eugénie Grandet 3 stars
  *
  La Rabouilleuse 3 stars
  *
  Lost Illusions 2 stars
  *
  Scenes from a Courtesan's Life maybe
  *
  The Magic Skin maybe
• 
  [P]

  For me there are a great many things that contribute to a rewarding reading experience, an almost ineffable series of qualities that a novel must possess for me to be able to enjoy it. Indeed, these things are what I am looking for when I am sat on my bed losing my mind for days on end, surrounded by shaky towers of books. Yet there is perhaps a single, fairly straightforward thing that elevates my favourites above the others, which is that I see something of myself in them. The more of myself I see, the more I cherish the book. I imagine most people feel that way. There is, however, one book that feels almost as though the author was possessed of the ability to see into the future, to fasten onto some kid from northern England and follow his progress, or deterioration, over the space of around twelve months. That book is Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac.
  
  I don’t, of course, want to make the entire review about me [again!], but I find it impossible to think or write about Lost Illusions without referencing my experiences, without putting my gushing into some context, more so because the book is certainly flawed if I view it dispassionately, so let me tell a little story and get it all out; let my story serve as a kind of introduction. When I was nineteen I met and fell for a model who lived in London. Until I met her I was pretty uninterested in girls; I mean obviously I liked them and all, but I wasn’t crazy about them. Coming from where I come from, I didn’t really know that girls could be as elegant and beautiful as this particular girl. The more I liked her, the more time I spent in London until I was pretty much living there. For a while I enjoyed myself immensely; the girl was on the cusp of success and took me to lots of parties and events. I adored London. I was starstruck. If you’re a working class kid from Sheffield and you have this gorgeous girlfriend who is fawned over everywhere, and you yourself, for being with her, are fawned over also it is difficult to maintain perspective.
  
  However, after a while things started to go awry. I began to notice that the people around her, and around me, who I had trusted were actually only looking out for themselves. Almost one by one I realised this. The scales falling from my eyes was a painful process, so much so that I almost went down with them. It was, I came to understand, impossible to have friends in London, or in those kinds of fashionable circles anyway, that the people who smiled at you were likely plotting to stab you in the back. Slowly I started to pick up their habits, to become cynical and two-faced and manipulative, because I thought that the only way to survive. Before too long I was living in a moral vacuum, where cheap sex, drugs and social climbing were the norm. It wasn’t until I returned home, back to Sheffield, that I came to understand how much I had changed. I lost something in London, something that, I guess, everyone loses at some point in their life. What had I lost? My illusions.
  
  Lucien Chardon’s story arc is eerily similar to mine. He is a provincial poet, who moves to Paris, thinking that he will find fame and fortune. What he finds, instead, is that people in a big city will happily crawl over your carcass in the pursuit of their own wants and desires. He finds that everything, and everyone, in Paris is false, even if they appear absolutely to be the opposite. Lucien, like myself, is green and in the end Paris swallows him up. Of course, this kind of story is not particular to me, or Lucien, but you have to credit Balzac for nailing it. It shouldn’t, but still does, amaze me that human beings have changed so little over hundreds of years. The funny thing is that at the start of Lost Illusions I scoffed at Lucien Chardon. I inwardly belittled him, judged him harshly, and, quite literally at times, rolled my eyes at him. I suppose the reason for that is that not only was his story like mine, but his character also, and that embarrassed me. I even put the book down two or three times, actually abandoned it, because, I realised later, I wanted to distance myself from Lucien. Chardon is psychologically, emotionally, at war with himself. Part of him is thoughtful, artistic, sensitive, and another part is ruthless and ambitious and self-serving. This is what makes Lucien human to the reader; he knows what the right thing is, and feels drawn to that course of action, and yet, because he is so self-obsessed, is able to convince himself that what ultimately serves his own desires is the right thing and will, in the end, produce the best results for everyone, even if he has to trample on them in the meantime. This is, I would guess, why Balzac chose to call his protagonist a name that resembles the most seriously fallen, the most humanly flawed character in literature: Lucifer.
  
  Structurally Lost Illusions is really clever. In the beginning, Lucien plays court to Madame de Bargeton, the fashionable matriarch of Angouleme, and thinks, when he wins her, that he has done all the hard work, has won the finest victory, has raised himself to the top, only to find when they move to Paris that his victory is worthless, is nothing, and that there is a much greater, more difficult, war to fight: the fight to bring Paris under his heel. It’s a little bit like when playing a computer game and you destroy what you think is the end-of-level boss/bad guy, only to find that actually it was just some minion and the real boss is waiting for you around the next corner and he is fucking huge. What unravels after the opening section is, as noted, a tale of treachery and double-dealing of Shakespearean proportions, but I do not want to linger over all that. It’s great, of course, but I have written plenty about it already and any more would lead to serious spoilers. There are, however, numerous other fascinating ideas and themes present in the book.
  
  Perhaps the most obvious concern is that of money; indeed it was Balzac’s most persistent theme, the one that found its way into nearly all his work. Lucien is of low birth, and so has barely a franc to his name. Yet his ambitions require capital. One needs money to make money. One needs money to grease wheels; one needs it to convince others of your worth. So it goes. As well as Lucien’s story Balzac gives some space to David Sechard, Lucien’s brother in law. David enters the novel as the son of old Sechard, the bear, who is engaged in selling his printing press to his progeny for an exorbitant price. David agrees, even though he knows the press isn’t worth what his old man is asking for it, and ultimately ends up in a dire financial predicament. Balzac, it seems to me, was torn between trying to show the evils of money, while showcasing its absolute necessity. Many of the characters in Lost Illusions do horrendous things for it, yet the most kindhearted, most sympathetic suffer horribly from want of it. Related to what the author has to say about money is the idea that there is a tension between art and commerce. Lucien at one point in the novel has a choice to make between being an artist or journalist. One will require hard work, but will lead to artistic fulfilment [and perhaps fame and fortune eventually], the other will lead to quick and easy gains but artistic bankruptcy. The author appears to be suggesting that it is near impossible to be an artist in a world so obsessed with money, that the lure of money will lead genius astray.
  
  The most interesting aspect of the novel, for me, is what Balzac has to say about old and new approaches. In discussion of the paper business and journalism, he makes the point numerous times that things are becoming cheaper, of lesser quality. Indeed, David is an inventor and he embarks on experiments in order to create a cheaper, lighter kind of paper. It’s not just paper either, but, Balzac points out, clothes and furniture are not as well-made as they once were, will not last as long. Even artwork is being downsized, made more readily available. It is a kind of cheapening in step with the times, in step with the moral character of the people. Even professions are not what they once were, with journalism being derided as a fully corrupt occupation, when it could, in fact, be a noble form of employment. Once again, I laud Balzac’s insight, his prescience, because isn’t this exactly how the world is these days? Everything is plastic, crap, will fall apart after a couple of days; and everything is up for sale. And aren’t the press a bunch of talentless hyenas, who praise and condemn with one eye on their own purse?
  
  As i am sure is obvious by now I passionately love Lost Illusions, but, as I mentioned earlier, it is not without flaws. David, for example, is excruciating. He’s a complete nincompoop. No matter what Lucien does he stands by him, like the craziest kind of put-upon girlfriend. It’s fucking infuriating. No one, unless sex is in the mix somewhere, is that bloody gormless, that forgiving. Balzac took Dickens’ saintly women archetype and furnished it with a penis and even less good sense. Secondly, this being a novel written in the 1800’s, and it being Balzac in particular, Lost Illusions is a melodrama. So, if people constantly wringing their hands and bursting into tears every two pages over absolutely nothing grinds your gears then you might want to re-think reading it. The melodrama didn’t bother me though, it never really does; Shakespeare is melodrama too, let’s not forget. Finally, Lucien, we are led to believe, is a potentially great poet, even potentially a man of genius, and, well, what little of his poetry is presented to us is, uh, shit. That’s a bit of a problem. I did wonder if Balzac was portraying Lucien as a great poet in jest, bearing in mind much of his novel is concerned with falsehood and how the least talented often prosper [which Lucien did at one stage]. However, having read around the book a little, it does not seem as though that is the case, that Honore was in earnest about Lucien’s greatness and talent, even though to my mind it would have been better had he been intentionally rubbish. In any case, none of that compromised my enjoyment too much. For a novel concerned with writing, with talent and greatness, it is quite apt that it is itself a work of genius.
• 
  Alexander Santiago

  Of all of Balzac's novel, "Lost Illusions" is my absolute fave (I've reread it about 5 times). The story of a young man, the preternaturally beautiful Lucien Chardon (de Rubempre), a fledgling poet who wants to escape his provincial life in the town of Angouleme, and dreams of literary success and hobknobbing with the beau monde, the wealthy, and the literati in the grand salons in the big city of Paris (much like any of us who grew up in small towns and cities and dreamt of leaving for something bigger and better in the 'big cities'). Attracting the attention (and amorous affections) of an Angouleme provincial aristocrat, Madame de Bargeton, he achieves a modicum of success in her salon, but is subjected to a fair amount of ridicule and suspicion. After being set up by his detractors that causes a scandal, he is whisked off to the big city of Paris by his paramour, only to be unceremoniously dumped and forced to eke out a meager and harsh living, shattering the "illusions" of his youth. Little by little, Lucien's innocence of youth is stripped away as he is forced to make difficult (and often bad) decisions, becoming caught up in the swirl (and the game) of the big city, only to come away bitter and disillusioned. An excellent novel that comes highly recommended!
• 
  Nika

  4.5 stars
• 
  Jorge Morcillo

  Hay gigantes en la literatura y luego está Balzac. Este hombre, que se mató a escribir y que bebía ingentes cantidades de café, consiguió terminar (casi siempre endeudado) más de 130 obras narrativas interconectadas, en las que según su propio plan trazado "quería abarcar todos los entresijos de una sociedad", y a la que llamó “Comedia Humana”.
  
  Lo sorprendente es que la mayoría de esas obras son grandes libros. Pese a la inmediatez y la velocidad con la que escribía (en sus manuscritos son muy comunes los olvidos de nombres de personajes secundarios, que luego edición a edición se han ido corrigiendo) su genio es indiscutible, y no conozco obra de él de la que no se pueda disfrutar o sacar partido. Pero encima Balzac es de ese tipo de escritores que recupera el gusto por leer, porque su ambición creativa es tan exagerada que uno tiene la sensación mientras lo lee o que lo sabe todo o que aspira a saberlo todo, que viene a ser lo mismo o parecido, aspirando sin ambages hacia lo absoluto; hay pues una energía vital poderosísima que recorre toda su obra y que siempre se contagia cuando se le lee. Da igual el libro suyo que se elija, al final se llega al mismo sitio. Eso sí, no bastan con unas pocas páginas. Todas sus grandes obras suelen ser “tochos” y solo cuando te sumerges en esa desmesura narrativa captas parte de esa energía vital que poseyó, no solo como escritor sino también como ser humano.
  Esas ansias de contarlo todo, de vivirlo todo, están muy presentes en Balzac. Algunos nos preguntamos todavía de dónde sacó esa ingente información laboral que luego retrató con todo detalle, si apenas tenía tiempo libre y cada dos por tres estaba mudándose para huir de sus acreedores. Por cierto, casi siempre buscaba casas con varias salidas (gateras) para poder escapar con celeridad cuando llegase el momento. Imaginad a un gigante (tenía una constitución muy considerable) huyendo con un inmenso legajo de papeles (lo que estuviera escribiendo en ese momento) por los arrabales de París o de cualquier ciudad de provincias y con sus perseguidores intentando derribar la puerta principal.
  
  Los que acusan a Balzac de estar muy preocupado por el dinero olvidan que él es uno de los pocos que sabía ganar una ingente cantidad en pocas semanas y luego perderla como si nada. Cuando sus personajes sufren lo mismo él sabe de sobra sobre lo que está escribiendo. Yo no sé cuántas veces se arruinó en su vida, pero tengo constancia de unas cuantas. Bueno, Voltaire también sabía de eso, pero al final tuvo mejor suerte con las inversiones aprovechando su ingenio, y que las primeras leyes de las loterías dejaban muchos flecos por cubrir, compró junto a unos amigos casi todos los boletos de una lotería, y les tocó, pues, una inmensa fortuna, si no recuerdo mal, a repartir por cabeza cerca de medio millón de francos de la época, por lo tanto nuestro amigo Voltaire pudo dedicarse a escribir el resto de su vida sin contratiempos, si bien hizo lo mismo con otros negocios (no muy éticos) amasando todavía una fortuna mayor. Balzac, por el contrario, más noble de condición, nunca tuvo suerte en las inversiones que realizó.
  
  Como curiosidad añadir que una pequeña editorial editó en castellano un libro que Balzac escribió junto a un amigo y cuyo título no deja lugar a dudas: “El arte de pagar sus deudas sin gastar un céntimo”. Ese pequeño libro no se incluyó en sus obras completas porque los editores lo consideraron “inmoral”. Balzac hacía arte de todo y atacó con valentía los vicios y corruptelas de su época; además demuestra en sus libros que en las sociedades mediocres solo pueden aspirar al éxito los que no tienen ningún escrúpulo en aprovecharse de los demás.
  
  Ingenuo y ambicioso, no muy afortunado en amores, fantasioso y excesivo y muy querido por sus amigos, recibió numerosas revistas y libros técnicos, (aparte de cobijo y protección cuando lo necesitó), de ahí que pueda referirnos los múltiples avances tecnológicos que se estaban dando por la época. Para escribir la primera parte de “Las ilusiones perdidas” seguro que recibió información sobre imprentas. Para la segunda y tercera parte del mismo libro le bastaría su propia experiencia vital en el mundillo literario.
  
  Cómo explicar “Las ilusiones perdidas”. Es un libro inmenso que habla de muchas cosas: de la amistad; de las imprentas; de la hipocresía social; de la ambición; del amor; de los negocios; del éxito y el fracaso literario; del veneno de la prensa y del veneno de los escritores de prensa, que tanto entonces como hoy actúan (muchas veces) como mercaderes; de París, que es el culmen de la belleza y el éxito y a la vez un vertedero sin corazón, un intestino por acercarnos a Zola, o “un estómago”, tal y como la definió Rimbaud en una declaración inolvidable.
  
  A través de las andanzas de un personaje que nunca me ha caído demasiado bien, Lucien, perseguimos y asistimos a sus amores y ascensos y a su caída literaria y social. La capacidad para dotar a todos sus personajes de “genio” es algo muy manido y conocido de este escritor. Él era incapaz de no ver (para lo bueno y para lo malo) capacidades titánicas en todos los individuos. Desafortunadamente nuestro personaje preferido de Balzac solo hace una pequeña aparición al final del libro, ¡pero qué aparición!, jajaja. Es igual, “Las ilusiones perdidas” posee calidad para no necesitar de nuestro querido Vautrin, el “Burla-la-muerte”, que en uno de sus múltiples disfraces narrativos aquí se llama Carlos Herrera, prelado de nombre castellano, llegando en el último momento para rescatar al desdichado Lucien. Todo tendrá una sublime continuación en “Esplendores y miserias de las cortesanas”, otra obra genial de Balzac y quizá mi preferida de las que he leído hasta ahora.
  
  No es un escritor perfecto. Es tan excesivo y escribía con tanta celeridad que sus obras siempre tienen altibajos. Y para el gusto de la época y por la forma de publicarse en entregas hay mucho de folletín. Eso es inevitable y hay que saberlo de antemano. Pero en pocos autores se reunirán tantas capacidades juntas. Escribir con total franqueza sobre las pasiones y las ambiciones humanas es algo que solo está al alcance de muy pocos, porque, al fin y al cabo, por muchos aparatitos tecnológicos de los que nos rodeemos, el ser humano sigue siendo el mismo imbécil de siempre, capaz de lo mejor y de lo peor, y nuestras motivaciones internas no son tan distintas de los individuos que vivieron en otras épocas.
  
  No importa que toda su vida intentará convertirse en un aristócrata sin conseguirlo. A Balzac se le pilla cariño y acaba siendo un Honoré, de verdad, porque nos recuerda al desafortunado coyote de los dibujos animados que intenta cazar infructuosamente al correcaminos, sin conseguirlo nunca, por supuesto, y, sin embargo, pese a ello, no flaquea y no deja de volver a intentarlo al día siguiente con el mismo entusiasmo. Eso sí, escribiendo era más veloz que un correcaminos, ¡y con su mismo ingenio!
  
  Leer a Balzac es alimentarse de oxígeno. Proust, que aparte de escritor fue un gran lector, lo sabía de sobra y supo reconocerlo: "No esconde nada. Lo dice todo". Hay pocos escritores así, tan inmensos…
  Balzac nunca pasará de moda.
• 
  Mohsen Karimi

  کتاب خوب و قشنگی بود.
  چهل، پنجاه صفحه اول خسته کننده بود اما بعد جذاب شد و ...
• 
  Apostolos Valamontis

  Εδώ έχουμε να κάνουμε με μια τεράστια μορφή της παγκόσμιας λογοτεχνίας.
  Μετά από την πρώτη μου συνάντηση με τον κύριο Honore De Balzac και την ''Ευγενία Γκράντε’’ επτά χρόνια πίσω, να που έφτασε το πλήρωμα του χρόνου να ξανά-συστηθώ μαζί του…
  Ολοκληρώνοντας τις 774 σελίδες του βιβλίου "Χαμένες Ψευδαισθήσεις" από την κλασσική λευκή σειρά των εκδόσεων Εξάντα σε μετάφραση του Μπάμπη Λυκούδη σε μία πιο ώριμη προσωπικά και αναγνωστικά, φάση της ζωής μου, ένιωσα να παραδίνομαι σε ένα από τα σπουδαιότερα κείμενα που έδωσε ποτέ η ευρωπαϊκή και διεθνής λογοτεχνία. .
  Ο Balzac είναι ένας επαναστάτης της πένας που ασχολήθηκε με την αστική τάξη της χώρας του, αποτυπώνοντας όλη την σαθρότητα πίσω από τα λαμπερά φώτα της Παριζιάνικης ζωής και της δήθεν φιλοσοφίας γύρω από αυτήν.
  Προάγγελος του Νατουραλισμού αναδεικνύει με απαράμιλλη λεπτομέρεια την καθημερινή ζωή στο απάνθρωπο μεγαλείο της, ενώ ταυτόχρονα καταπιάνεται με πολλά ζητήματα που βασανίζουν και προβληματίζουν την κοινωνία της εποχής του. Μέγας ανατόμος της ανθρώπινης ψυχής εμβαθύνει στις προσωπικότητες των χαρακτήρων του με τρόπο μοναδικό.
  Κεντρικός ήρωας του μυθιστορήματος είναι ο Λυσιέν Σαρντόν ή ντε Ρυμπαρμπέ, ένας άγγελος και ένας δαίμονας ταυτόχρονα. Όμορφος, ταλαντούχος, μορφωμένος, τον παρασύρει το όνειρο της μεγάλης ζωής. ‘’Εκκολαπτόμενος μικροαστός’’ μέσα στους ψεύτικους τίτλους της αριστοκρατίας, την προοπτική για επιτυχία και τον εύκολο πλουτισμό , τελικά καταπέφτει με εκκωφαντικό τρόπο.
  Το μυθιστόρημα του Μπαλζάκ θα μπορούσε να χαρακτηριστεί εμβληματικό. Σε καθηλώνει με το ρυθμό του, με τους ζωντανούς χαρακτήρες του, με τις τόσο βαθιές πολιτικό-κοινωνικές ιδέες με τις οποίες καταπιάνεται. Τα έχει όλα: Πάθη , έρωτες ,τέχνη , πολιτικές και καλλιτεχνικές τάσεις. Στις σελίδες του παρελάσουν ποιητές και συγγραφείς που περιφρονούν το χρήμα, αδίστακτοι εκδότες και ιδιοκτήτες βιβλιοπωλείων, ξεπεσμέν��ι αριστοκράτες με μόνο όπλο το “οικογενειακό όνομα”…
  Οι αναφορές στον τύπο της εποχής και το ρόλο του ήταν τόσο σύγχρονες και επίκαιρες που δυσκολεύεσαι να πιστέψεις ότι το έργο είναι γραμμένο πριν από 180 χρόνια.
  Ένα μυθιστόρημα γεμάτο αντιθέσεις-δίπολα που ακονίζουν το ενδιαφέρον του αναγνώστη και ενδυναμώνουν την πλοκή του. Η μουντή ζωή της Γαλλικής επαρχίας σε αντιδιαστολή με την λαμπερή Παρισινή ζωή, οι πληβείοι και οι ευγενείς, ο ρομαντισμός και ο κυνισμός, ο φιλελευθερισμός έναντι στη μοναρχία και την αριστοκρατία. Οι εκπρόσωποι μιας γενιάς του συμβιβασμού και της υποκρισίας, με κομψά ρούχα και μηδενική ευαισθησία σε αντιδιαστολή με μια γενιά που έχει τη δική της φωνή, για την οποία η ζωή είναι ο έρωτας η πηγή έμπνευσης για κάθε μεγάλο έργο…
  Οι Χαμένες Ψευδαισθήσεις είναι ένα μεγάλο μυθιστόρημα γεμάτο αλήθειες, μια ιστορία μέσα σε μια εποχή όπου ο κόσμος άλλαζε ραγδαία.
  Ένα ‘’έργο σταθμός’’ που πρέπει να διαβαστεί.
  Απαραίτητο για κάθε βιβλιοθήκη.
• 
  Ferda Nihat Koksoy

  Balzac, üslubu, yöneldiği hedefin genişliği, yarattığı eserlerin kavrayıcılığı ve bakışındaki evrenselliğiyle Homeros'a benzetilir.
  
  "Ahlâkı gülerek düzeltmeyi" ilke edinen yazar, "Toplumsal Araştırmalar" olarak nitelediği ve pratik yaşımın içinden seslendiği kitaplarının tümüne birden, Dante'nin İlahi Komedya'sına nazire yaparak,  "İnsanlık Komedyası" ismini vermiştir.
  
  Paris ile taşranın çelişkilerini ve hırsları için yaşayan insanları ön planda inceleyen Balzac, büyük oranda kendi hayatındaki gözlemlerine dayanan bu romanı 8 yılda (1835-43) tamamlamıştır.
  
  Sanatçıyı nesnelerde, kişilerde ve olaylarda "yüce" olanı kavrayıp ifade edebilen kişi olarak gören Balzac, eserlerinde, insan ilişkilerinin para temeli üzerinden geliştiği kavrayışıyla edindiği gözlemlerini sergilemiş ve 51 yıllık kısa ömründe 97 romanında 2472 karakter yaratmıştır
  
  ***
  
  "Ayyaşlık, tıpkı tahsil gibi, şişman adamı şişmanlatır, zayıfı zayıflatır."
  
  "Büyük zekaların tabi olduğu felaketlerden biri her şeyi, kusurları ve erdemleri de anlamalarıdır."
  
  "...hareketli zihni onu, başarının ne denli utanç verici olursa olsun amaca götüren bütün araçları haklı çıkardığına inanan diplomatlara özgü fesatlık durumuna götürüyordu."
  
  "... değeri bilinmemiş insanlar durumlarının öcünü kavrayışlarındaki keskinlikle alırlar; ama bu nedenle yine umutsuzlukları o denli acıdır ki kendi yazgılarının sürüklediği yere daha çabuk varırlar."
  
  "Coşku, azizleri yaratan, gizli bağlılıklara ve çarpıcı şiirlere esin kaynağı olan, erdem içindeki bu erdem, taşradaki küçük şeylerle uğraştığında abartı halini alır. Büyük zihinlerin parladığı, havada fikirlerin uçuştuğu, her şeyin yenilendiği merkezden (Paris) uzakta kalındığında eğitim yaşlanır, beğeniler durgun su gibi bozulur. Uygulamaya dökülemeyen tutkular önemsiz şeyleri büyütürken kendileri küçülür. Taşra hayatını zehirleyen cimrilik huyu ile dedikoduculuğun nedeni budur. En seçkin kişi bile kısa sürede bu dar fikirlerin ve köhne yaşama biçiminin etkisi altına girer."
  
  "Hiçbir bilgileri olmayan ve derinlikleri boş oluşlarından ileri gelenlerin bilimi olan siyasetten iyi anladığını ileri sürerdi; bu bilim zaten elverişli bir bilimdir, çünkü yüksek makamlara gelindiğinde kendini kanıtlayabilir, cahillere ağzı sıkı olayım derken hiçbir şey söylememe, kararlarını anlamı belirsiz kafa sallamalarla bildirme firsatını verir; nihayet bu bilimde en güçlü insan, yönünü belirlediğini sandığı bir olaylar nehrinde başını su üstünde tutarak yüzen insandır, ki bu da ancak içi boş olana özgü bir şeydir."
  
  "Genellikle şiiri anlamak için gereken duygu Fransa'da nadirdir; burada zekâ coşkunun kutsal gözyaşlarının kaynağını çabucak kurutur, hiç kimse zahmete girip yüceliği çekip çıkarmaya, ipe sarılıp sonsuz derinliklerine inmeye çalışmaz."
  
  "Bir adam heyecanlarını ve düşüncelerini ilk halleriyle açmadan önce karşısındaki kadını iyi incelemeli. Büyük olduğu kadar şefkatli de olan bir sevgili yapılan çocukluklara güler ve bunlara anlayış gösterir, ama birazcık kibri varsa sevgilisinin çocukça, boş ve küçük görünmesini asla affedemez."
  
  (Paris Sosyetesi) "...ele aldıkları konuyu bir anda tüketip eski ve modası geçmiş bir şey haline getiriveren, her gün kendisine yeni eğlenceler bulmaya alışmış Parislilere özgü o alaycı gülüş..."
  "Burada her şey gerçekten bir gösteri, karşılaştırma ve bilgidir. Aşırı ucuzluk ile aşırı pahalılık, işte Paris bu: Her arı orada peteğini, her ruh layığını bulur."
  
  "Paris'te tesadüf ancak tanıdıkları çok olanların karşısına çıkar; ilişkilerin sayısı her tür başarı şansını artırır ve talih, sayısı çok insan kalabalıklarının yanında yer alır."
  
  "İnsanlar arasından yükselmek isteyen kişi savaşa hazır olmalı, hiçbir zorluk önünde geri çekilmemeli. Büyük bir yazar hiç ölmeyecek bir şehittir.
  ...Alnınızda dehanın damgası olsa da  kalbinizde irade yoksa, melek sabrından yoksunsanız, kaderin cilveleri sizi uzaklara sürüklediğinde, tıpkı yeri yurdu belirsiz kaplumbağaların sevgili okyanuslarının yolunu tutmaları gibi, siz de sonsuzluğunuzun yoluna hep yeniden başlamayacaksanız, bugünden tezi yok vazgeçin.
  ...Her türlü acıya, iftiraya, ihanete, rakiplerimin haksızlıklarına; yüzsüzlüklere, kurnazlıklara, adice dalaverelere hazır olmalısınız.
  Eseriniz güzelse, ilk anda kaybetmenin ne önemi var..."
  
  "Boşa çıkmış umutlarımızın, güdük kalmış yeteneklerimizin, kaçırılmış başarı fırsatlarımızın, yaralanmış iddialarımızın o korkunç hazinesi olan hasetliği bilmezlerdi."
  
  "Kibrini dostluğuna bile yansıtıyorsun, böyle bir kibir sonunda korkunç bir bencilliğe varır ve bencillik dostluğun zindanıdır."
  
  "Paris'ten İtalya'ya giden bir kişinin önüne yarı yolda Roma çıkmaz."
  
  "Gazetecilik, edebiyat ve siyaset gibi, bir cehennemdir, ...başarının sırrı çalışmak değildir, başkasının emeğini sömürmektir, o nedenle bu kişi ne kadar adiyse amacına o kadar çabuk ulaşır, ...buralar yalan, dolan, ihanet kuyusudur, buraya inenin temiz çıkabilmesi için tıpkı Dante gibi Vergilius'un tanrısal çelengiyle korunması gerekir."
  
  "Zekiyiz ama bir kalbimiz var, bizde sömürenlere özgü yırtıcı nitelikler yok.
  Tembeliz, hayalciyiz, bakarız, düşünürüz, sorgularız: Bizim beynimizi yerler, sonra da yanlış yapan bizmişiz gibi bizi suçlarlar!"
  
  "Hepimiz biliyoruz, gazeteler nankörlükte krallardan, hesapçılıkta ve dalavere çevirmede en pis tefeciden de ileri gidecek, her sabah üç kuruşluk fikirleriyle beynimizi kemirecekler."
  
  "Gazete kutsal bir yer olacağına partiler için araç haline geldi, ticaret aracı oldu ve tıpkı diğer ticaret türleri gibi dini imanı yoktur. ...dediği gibi her gazete okura onların istediği türden sözler satan bir dükkân oldu. Kamburlar gazetesi olsa kamburların gũzelliğini, iyiliğini ve gerekliliğini yazar dururdu sabah akşam. Artık gazete aydınlatmak için değil kanaatleri pohpohlamak için çıkıyor. Bu yüzden bir süre sonra bütün gazeteler korkak, ikiyüzlü, kalleş, yalancı ve cani olacak; düşünceleri, sistemleri, insanları öldürecek, bu sayede de giderek gelişecekler. Bütün akıllı insanların kârı onlara gidecek; kötülük yapılacak ama kimse bundan sorumlu olmayacak."
  
  "Zekidir, Yazı Ustası'dır; kafası yazılarla dolu, hep yazılar yazacak, sadece yazılar. Ne kadar çalışırsa çalışsın bir kitap (roman) ortaya koyamayacak; bir yapıt tasarlamaktan, başı, ortası belli, kaçınılmaz sona doğru ilerleyen bir plan çerçevesinde, kahramanlarıyla birlikte uyum içinde, bir bütün içinde düzenlemekten âcizdir; fikirleri var ama olguları bilmiyor; kahramanlar felsefi ya da liberal ütopyalar içine hapsolup kalacak hep; nihayet üslubu da yapmacıklı bir özgünlüğe sahip, şişirilmiş cümleler eleştiri iğnesi değdirildiğinde patlayıverecek gibi."
  
  "Paris'te bir şeyler hakkında hayale kapılmaya imkân yok, her şeyin komisyonu var, her şey satılıyor, her şey üretiliyor, başarı bile."
  
  "Deha korkunç bir hastalıktır; her yazar içinde bir canavar taşır, bağırsaktaki kurtlar gibi; yetenekle kalp arasında bir denge kurulması gerekir, yetenek geliştikçe kalp kurur; insan bir dev değilse, Herakles'in gücüne sahip değilse ya kalpsiz ya yeteneksiz kalır."
  
  "Bütün dahiler ticaretten hiç anlamaz."
  
  "Lucien Fransızlardaki o en kötü kusura sahip, kendini göstermeyi seven kadınsı bir erkek; zekâsını göstermek için arkadaşlarından hep en iyilerini feda ediyor."
  
  "Paris'te avukatlar ve hekimler, yosmaların geçici sevgililerine davrandıkları gibi, müşterilerinin minnet duygularına çok dikkatli karşılık verirler."
  
  "Düşünce sözden çok daha az sarhoş eder, insan konuşa konuşa kendi söylediğine inanır; oysa insan düşüncesini bozmaksızın düşüncesine karşı davranabilir."
  
  "Herkesin bilmekle yükümlü olduğu kanunlardan daha az bilinen hiçbir şey yoktur."
  
  "Paris Fransa'nın hem bütün zaferi hem de bütün alçaklığıdır."
  
  "Ahlâkçılar duyguların çıkarlar üzerindeki etkisini hiçbir zaman tam olarak açıklayamayacaktır; bu etki çıkarların duygular üzerindeki etkisi kadar güçlüdür."
  
  "Ailelerde neredeyse her zaman felaketlerde bir araya gelinir; felaket bir yatak haline gelir ve umut bu yatağın sertliğine katlanır."
  
  "Sevincin insanın içinden büyük dalgalar biçiminde taşarak bir dostun kalbine akma ihtiyacı duyduğu anlarda..."
  
  "Eşitlik adı altında gizlenen itaatsizlikle tükenmiş ülkelerde her türlü başarı, bazı mucizeler gibi, beceriklilerin işbirliği olmadan gerçekleşemeyecek bir mucizedir."
  
  "Kadınların sevilmeyi arzuladıkları zamanda kendilerini sevmesini bilmeyen erkeğe duydukları büyük nefret..."
  
  "Hayranlık dilleri nasıl tutarsa kıskançlık da öylesine çözer."
  
  "Yalnızlık içinde duyguların gücü tamamen değişir; onu yiyip bitiren kaygıların pençesideki yalnız insan, hayatın çerçevesi içinde dayanak noktaları bulabileceği düşüncelere teslim oluverir."
  
  "Tevekkül (kadere boyun eğmek) her gün intihar etmek demektir, benim ise ancak bir günlük tevekkülüm olur."
  
  "İntihar, onur sözcüğüyle karıştırmamak için kendine saygı adını verebileceğimiz bir duygunun sonucudur. Kişi kendini küçük gördüğü gün, hayatın gerçekleriyle uyuşmadığı an kendini öldürür."
  
  "Kusurlarının insan üzerindeki hakimiyetini, özellikle bir zevk söz konusu olduğunda idam cezası bile durduramaz."
  
  "İki tarih vardır, öğrettikleri yalanlarla dolu resmi tarih, biri de utançlarla dolu olan ve olayların gerçek nedenlerini barındıran tarih."
  
  "İnsanın yalnızlıktan ödü kopar, ve büyük yalnızlık türleri içinde manevi yalnızlık onu en çok korkutandır."
• 
  BAM the enigma

  I think Honorè’s philosophy in life is “go big, or go home”. Lord do you have any other hobbies, M. H? I just want some short stories, not novellas all the way through this collection. You stink, M. H.
• 
  Vahid Es

  بالزاک در کتاب آرزوهای بر باد رفته به این موضوع اشاره دارد که چگونه ادبیات تحت تاثیر امیال انسانی قرار می‌گیرد.
  اگر توصیفات و اسامی بسیار در حین خوانش برای شما آزاردهنده است این کتاب انتخاب مناسبی برای مطالعه نیست.
• 
  Sandra

  Baudelaire ha definito Balzac come “l’uomo dalle imprese iperboliche e fantasmagoriche”. Se si legge la sua biografia, si comprende come tutto in lui fosse eccessivo, al di sopra delle righe, quasi che dentro di sé vi fosse una potente energia centripeta a stento trattenuta. La sua scrittura è come l’uomo Balzac: brillante, ricca, sovrabbondante. A mio parere magnifica. Nonostante i miei gusti letterari siano orientati verso una scrittura raffinata ed elegante, ma equilibrata, come quella di Flaubert, sono rimasta incantata dall’esuberanza balzachiana.
  E così sono anche i personaggi dei suoi romanzi: in primo luogo Parigi, tumultuosa e conturbante città, capace di tutte le tentazioni e di tutti i fallimenti, dove si reca in cerca di successo Lucien Chardon, il grand’uomo di provincia, giovane, bello, ricolmo di desideri di gloria, strabordante di ambizioni letterarie, ma troppo debole di carattere ed ingenuo per far fronte alla corruzione e alla decadenza dei costumi che vigono nello sfavillante mondo del giornalismo parigino, in cui la legge fondamentale che regola le azioni di chi vi opera è quella del dio denaro, ed accumularne sempre più, con qualsiasi mezzo, è la regola che conduce e mantiene al potere. L’ingenuità di Lucien lo porta dritto verso la sconfitta di ogni illusione, la rovina sua e della sua famiglia: quel bel mondo che in un attimo lo ha accolto come un promettente astro del giornalismo, sempre in un momento se ne libera, dopo averlo sfruttato, gettando con lui nella miseria la sua famiglia, che tanto aveva avuto fiducia –troppo- nelle sue capacità. Tutti sono costretti, prima o dopo, a perdere le loro illusioni, salvo poi reagire in modo diverso: v’è chi si rassegna alla vita di provincia, alla realizzazione del proprio sogno d’amore e della vita familiare, senza pretendere di più, e chi invece, nonostante le batoste ricevute, non si arrende ad abbandonare del tutto le proprie ambizioni, allettato dal vizio al quale chi vuole emergere si sottomette.
  Da questo capolavoro emerge un affresco a tutto tondo della società francese del diciannovesimo secolo, scintillante in superficie nei salotti frequentati dalle belle donne e dai giovani dandies, ma, sotto il velo luccicante, sporca e lacerata dagli intrighi, dagli interessi economici, dalla corruzione che rende ognuno uno squalo pronto a tradire ed assalire alle spalle il prossimo per guadagnare una posizione nella scala sociale.
  L’esortazione che l’abate Herrera fa a Lucien per convincerlo –ove ce ne fosse bisogno- a seguirlo a Parigi è illuminante : “Cambiate comportamento! Mettete fuori la vostra bellezza, le vostre grazie, il vostro spirito, la vostra poesia. Se vi permettete delle piccole infamie, che sia fra quattro mura. Da quel momento non sarete più colpevole di essere come una macchia sulle decorazioni di quel gran teatro chiamato mondo”.
  Fu scritto nel secolo diciannovesimo, ma come non vederci rispecchiata la società di oggi?
  Qualsiasi riferimento a festini e bunga bunga è puramente causale.
• 
  Sass

  Un chef d’œuvre, ce roman est prodigieux. J’avais « commencé » la Comédie humaine avec la Peau de chagrin et ce roman m’avait laissé une très mauvaise impression sur Balzac. Les Illusions perdues m’ont fait changer d’avis totalement.
  
  Déjà, l’œuvre, malgré de nombreux remaniements (de 1837 à 1843) de la part de Balzac, est extrêmement bien ficelée. Toute l’intrigue, sur les trois parties, tient debout. Elle fait apparaître de nombreux personnages qu’on peut rencontrer dans toute la fresque de la Comédie humaine. De plus, il n’y a aucun temps mort, à presque aucun moment je me suis ennuyée, ce qui est assez impressionnant vu la taille de l'oeuvre.
  
  Le style m'a vraiment marqué, il est teinté d'une ironie mordante et excellente, comme exemple je pense au passage dans lequel Balzac dresse le portrait du père Séchard, il le compare (à raison) à une feuille de vigne, dans une espèce de logorrhée moqueuse qui va crescendo: "Séchard confirmait cette loi morale: plus il vieillissait, plus il aimait boire. Sa passion laissait sur sa physionomie oursine des marques qui la rendaient originale (...) ses deux joues veinées ressemblaient à ces feuilles de vignes pleines de gibbosités violettes, purpurines et souvent panachées; vous eussiez dit d'une truffe monstrueuse enveloppée par les pampres de l'automne"
  
  Il y aurait tellement plus à dire et à analyser mais je vais laisser quelques points qui m'ont sauté aux yeux: - l'hypertexte religieux (salut, péché, sacrifice, dévouement, idolâtrie, le pacte dans la troisième partie, le "repentir périodique" qu'évoque Daniel: thèmes récurrents dans l'oeuvre et surtout à propos de la soif d'ambition de Lucien)
  -le personnage de Lucien: détestable au possible, tellement immature mais personnage complexe
  -David et Eve: un très beau couple, heureux en mariage, représente la pureté à mes yeux ( encore l'hypertexte religieux + le nom "Eve" n'est pas anodin à mon avis)
  -Mention spéciale pour la scène où Lucien se rend à l'hôtel Bargeton pour sa lecture et que Balzac nous donne en détail l'arrivée des invités nobles d'Angoulême : probablement unes des plus belles pages de Balzac : IRONIE FOLLE mais on adore !
  
  Ce roman nécessite bien évidemment une relecture car je pense être passée à côté de nombreux éléments lors de ma première lecture mais c'était juste excellent: LE roman pour se réconcilier avec Balzac à mon avis! Hâte de lire Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes
• 
  ατζινάβωτο φέγι.

  Το έργο αυτό είναι ίσως το κορυφαίο έργο του Μπαλζάκ και με απορρόφησε εντελώς (σχεδόν). Πραγματοποιεί την πιο πιστή, λεπτομερή, πολύπλοκη και κυνική αποτύπωση ενός ολόκληρου κόσμου, μπορεί και όλου του κόσμου κάθε εποχής. Μας παρουσιάζει τον κόσμο της επαρχίας και της πόλης, της δημοσιογραφίας, της τυπογραφίας της λογοτεχνίας, των εκδόσεων, της πολιτικής, του θεάτρου και τέλος του εμπορίου. Φυσικά καταπιάνεται και με την οικογένεια, τη φιλία τον έρωτα και ότι άλλο συνεπάγεται η ανθρώπινη κατάσταση και φύση.
  
  Με ολη την δολοπλοκία, το συμφέρον, τις φιλοδοξίες και τις ματαιώσεις που τα συνοδεύει. Είναι απλά γοητευτικός όταν με την διεισδυτική και γεμάτη χιούμορ και εύστοχες αναλογίες ματιά του παραδίδει πολύτιμα μαθήματα ζωής, περιτυλιγμένα από την υψηλότερη δραματουργία και την καλύτερη ψυχογράφηση. Επίσης χρησιμοποιεί μια πληθώρα τεχνικών προκειμένου να ξεδιπλώσει την ιστορία του και να μας αποκαλύψει τις μυστικές διεργασίες και διαβουλεύσεις του κόσμου. Φυσικά αποτελεί και ιστορία ενηλικίωσης του νεαρού Λυσιέν Ντε Ρυμπαμπρέ που θα γνωρίσει την ζωή και από την καλή και από την ανάποδη.
  
  Είναι όμως εξαντλητικές οι οικονομικές λεπτομέρειες, που αφορούν χρηματοπιστώσεις, τραπεζικά συστήματα και εμπορικές συναλλαγές οπότε δύο αστέρια πλην. Με πετούσαν πολλές φορές εκτος αφήγησης μιας και δεν μπορούσα πάντα να ακολουθήσω ενώ επιβράδυνε και τον ρυθμό ανάγνωσης. Με πόνο καρδιάς τα βάζω τα τρία αστέρια στον αγαπημένο μου Γάλλο. Ξέρω ότι όλες αυτές οι λεπτομέρειες έχουν το σκοπό τους στην πιστή αποτύπωση της εποχής του αλλα πονοκεφάλιασα ειλικρινά. Eίναι διάσπαρτες σε όλο το έργο αλλα όχι πάντοτε σωστά τοποθετημένες με αποτέλεσμα να κουράζουν. Επίσης πολλά, μα παρα πολλά πρόσωπα έρχονται και παρέρχονται που βέβαια τα συναντάμε και σε άλλα έργα της Ανθρώπινης Κωμωδίας.
• 
  Megan Chance

  I thought I was cynical before this, but Balzac has made me see that I suffer from a severe lack of imagination. My God! Lost Illusions could not be a more apt title for this book. The milk of human kindness is seldom in evidence here, and when it is, it is annihilated by self interest, jealousy and malice. I have rarely read a book that had me more tense, uncertain whether to pray for a character’s deliverance (usually a pointless exercise in French lit), bang his/her head against the wall, or hope that he/she gets what they deserve simply because they are too stupid to live. It’s like watching a train wreck, where the characters are standing like little ducks on the tracks. The book is notable too for Balzac’s depiction of Parisian society, with its decadence, cyncism and malice for the sake of malice, and the scores of artists dashed upon its rocks (which seems to be a common theme for 19th C writers). Balzac’s bitterness and pointed commentary on the publishing/journalism industry is fascinating. It also shows that not much has changed in 150 years, which is depressing. Having said all that, I found the whole thing perversely entertaining, enlightening and enthralling. I’m continuing on with Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life to see if Lucien manages—despite all evidence to the contrary—to become an intelligent human being.
• 
  Diana

  Lost Illusions [1837 – 1843/1971] – ★★★★★
  
  “...he was living in one of those golden dreams in which young people, cantering along on their ifs, leap over all barriers” [Balzac/Hunt, 1837/1971: 113]. “It’s hard…to keep one’s illusions about anything in Paris. Everything is taxed, everything is sold, everything is manufactured, even success” [Balzac/Hunt, 1837/1971: 387].
  
  Translated from the French by Herbert J. Hunt, Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac is part of his La Comedie Humaine series, and centres around Lucien Chardon, a handsome and optimistic, but very naïve, young man who desires to be successful in high society through his talent – he is a writer. He leaves his friend David Sechard, a typographist, in Angouleme and embarks on a dizzying adventure full of dramatic ups and downs in Paris, where he has to make difficult for him decisions about which path to success to follow. This is not one’s ordinary tale of a man’s fall from grace or the corruption of innocence. Balzac masterfully portrayed a story with a number of vivid characters, and his observations on the society, its hierarchy and its unspoken rules are second to none – making this work a true classic, both entertaining and insightfully profound. Through his tale, we get to understand the nuts and bolts of a printing business and journalism in the countryside and in Paris in the 1820s, as well as the consequences of unrelenting ambition and talent when they are not underpinned by solid connections and easily swayed by vanity and egocentrism.
  
  The story is divided into three parts. The first part begins in Angouleme, where Jerome-Nicolas Sechard, an old miser and owner of a printing business, is thinking about selling his printing business to his son David. David is a close friend of Lucien Chardon, and both men are portrayed as poor, but enthusiastic about poetry, philosophy and art: “Both of them, full of varied ideas for making their fortune, were possessed of that soaring intelligence which makes a man capable of the highest achievements. Yet there they were, at the very bottom of the social ladder. The injustice of their lot forged a powerful bond between them. Moreover, each of them was a poet, although they climbed different slopes on their way to Parnassus [Balzac/Hunt, 1837/1971: 23]. The two friends end up taking different paths to success when Lucien become enamoured of Madame de Bargeton, a rich lady who is married to local aristocracy.
  
  In many ways, Lost Illusions is a tale of two cities – of relatively calm Angouleme and buzzing Paris (including the poverty of its backstreets and its artistic Latin Quarter). We get to understand how a person may have a full measure of both in a bewilderingly fast manner. It is also a story of the three segments of the French society – aristocratic, professional and peasant. Each of those parts has its own rules of behaviour and is as different to the others as black is to white. Thus, the second part of the novel is about Lucien’s adventures in Paris, where he first battles against a society which appears to be ruthless, haughty and impatient, preoccupied with self-interest and money (at the expense of paying due attention to true talent, and showing humility and goodness). At this point, we sympathise with (now) Lucien de Rubempré because, despite his youth, hope and ambition, he is not yet at ease with high-ranking people of Paris and begins to be pulled in different directions, succumbing to many temptations along the way. Later on, though, handsome Lucien starts to distance himself from honest work, as well as from his true friend Daniel d’Arthez, another honest intellectual, embarking on a very steep learning curve of the Parisian book-publishing business.
  
  Balzac, who himself had a background in printing and publishing, clearly knows what he is writing about, and makes his main character jump through some tricky Parisian hoops and Paris’s own definition of “journalism” in the 1820s. A society Lucien does start to prefer is that of journalistic endeavours, as he makes friends with Etienne Lousteau, another journalist, and becomes romantically linked to an actress Coralie. Paradoxes of one fickle society emerge at this point, as well as its duplicity, while Lucien starts to navigate this intricate and complex system filled with corruption and shortcuts to success, getting caught up in this machinery geared at instant gratification and at praising that kind of success that is never associated with hard work and gratefulness. “Journalism is an inferno, a bottomless pit of iniquity, falsehood and treachery: one can only pass through it and emerge from it unsullied if one is shielded as Dante was by the divine laurels of Virgil” [Balzac/Hunt, 1837/1971: 177]. Each step on the ladder to success gets Lucien further away from his roots, his values and his true friends. Balzac asks – what principles, values and friendships the main character is prepared to sacrifice to achieve his status among the elite in high society? Will the end justify the means? There are some detours and surprises along the way, and the final part of the novel takes us back to Angouleme and to Lucien’s friend David.
  
  Balzac is an acute observer of the human nature and a witty commentator on a life in transition. Virtually every page is filled with insightful and witty observations on life, on the nature of raw talent and on the consequences of rapid success: “genuine talent is always simple and good-natured, open and unconstrained, its epigrams foster wit in others and never seek to injure self-esteem” [Balzac/Hunt, 1837/1971: 220]. The author pits new and old ideas against each other, including those related to printing, and provides vivid character descriptions – those of David, Madame de Bargeton and of Daniel d’Arthez are particularly striking.
  
  Lost Illusions is rightly among Balzac’s finest achievements. This is a literary work of profound insight into society and human weakness/naivete that gets caught in deceptive traps leading to some disastrous results. Observant and witty, with sumptuous character and setting descriptions, Balzac’s satire makes for an entertaining read, too, as we learn how fortunes can turn in the blink of an eye.