La Maison du chat-qui-pelote

by Honoré de Balzac

Hardcover, 1934

Status

Available

Call number

843.7

Collection

Publication

Nelson

Description

Classic Literature. Fiction. Short Stories. HTML: This novel is part of the Scenes of Private Life section of Honore de Balzac's sweeping saga The Human Comedy. Renowned artist Theodore de Sommervieux falls head-over-heels in love with the beautiful, refined Augustine Guillaume, and soon the besotted pair are married. But after a blissful honeymoon period, the couple discovers that sometimes love is not enough to make a marriage work..

User reviews

LibraryThing member smichaelwilson
The first story of the "Scenes from Private Life" section of Balzac's Human Comedy, At the Sign of the Cat and Racket examines the class, social, and economic divisions of 19th century France through the love story of a famous artist and the working class daughter of a drapery shop owner. Great
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attention is paid to the details of how these worlds interact and overlap. The cultural examination also delves into the "battle of the sexes" through the different marriages and relationships - all with their own flaws and highlights - between the characters in the story. Balzac's approach to the concept of love is complex and unflattering, providing a sober appraisal of typically romanticized situations.
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LibraryThing member P_S_Patrick
This is the first volume of Balzac's Comedie Humaine, consisting of the stories: "At the Sign of the Cat and Bracket", "The Ball at Sceaux", "The Purse", "The Vendetta", and "Madame Firmiani".
In the preface and introduction to Balzac's Comedie Humaine that are included in this volume, he describes
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the purpose and scope of this project of linked novels as being a study on society, encompassing all social classes, professions, ages, and characters of people. This he does in the form of novels, which to go by those presented in this volume, are more the length of novellas, with 5 stories consisting of fewer than 300 pages. This is a nice length, allowing suffient room for Balzac to tell a compelling story in a moving and convincing manner, and to make of this a work of aesthetic value as well as an insightful study of the subtleties of human nature. The reader will not feel short-changed by the length of the story for two reasons: they are rich in detail, feeling, and beauty, and so can be reflected upon for a while after, and secondly, that the series consists of a large enough number of stories that the reader needn't go in want of something else to read, if the appetite is whetted.
The novels in this series are grouped into several categories, including "Scenes from Parisian Life", "Scenes from Provincial Life", "Philosophical Studies", "Scenes from Political life", and quite a few many more.
The stories in this volume are all "Scenes from Private Life", and revolve around love in and between the various social spheres. Some of these are tragic, and others resolve with happy ends. My favourite of those in this volume is "The Purse".
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
I think that it is possible that with a more modern translation, I might have given this novella 4*. Even so, I enjoyed Balzac's writing style and could easily understand how this was considered a "Scene from Private Life" as it is primarily concerned with the difficulties facing a young naive new
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wife when she and her husband begin to realize how different their background and ideas are.
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
3.5*

I think that it is possible that with a more modern translation, I might have given this novella 4*. Even so, I enjoyed Balzac's writing style and could easily understand how this was considered a "Scene from Private Life" as it is primarily concerned with the difficulties facing a young naive
Show More
new wife when she and her husband begin to realize how different their background and ideas are.
Show Less

Language

Original publication date

1830
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