De Tretten

by Honoré de Balzac

Hardcover, 1930

Status

Available

Call number

843.7

Library's review

Indeholder "Forord", "Første Afsnit: Ferragus, Rovdyrenes Høvding", " 1. Fru Jules", " 2. Ferragus", " 3. Den mistænkte Kvinde", " 4. Hvor skal man søge hen for at dø?", " 5. Slutning", "Anden Episode: Hertuginde de Langeais", " 1. Søster Therese", " 2. Kærlighed i Thomas Aquinas' Sogn", "

3. Kvinden i hende", " 4. Gud løser Knuden", "Pigen med de gyldne Øjne", " 1. Parisiske Profiler", " 2. Det forunderlige Held", " 3. Blodets Magt".

Tre romaner med et fælles islæt af et hemmeligt selskab "De Tretten".

???

Show Less

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Kbh. Emil Wienes Forlag 1930 331 s.

Description

Classic Literature. Fiction. Short Stories. HTML: This series of three novellas is unified by an overarching motif: in all three tales, a mysterious secret society known as The Thirteen is at work behind the scenes. The men in the group have pledged eternal loyalty to each other, and if any member ever finds himself in peril, it is the sworn duty of the others to come to his aid. Honore de Balzac uses this premise as a device to explore a wide range of topics, including clashes between different classes of society, doomed romances, and intrigue driven by greed..

User reviews

LibraryThing member P_S_Patrick

Balzac's History of the Thirteen is a trilogy of novels with entirely separate plots and different characters, with the link between them being a powerful secret society known as "The Thirteen". This Thirteen play a minor role in the first novel, but their part in the second is all but absent. I

was left disappointed because the novels were mis-sold in Balzac's preface, in which he described his intent to write novels about this secret group. For a proper conspiracy novel, readers would be much better served by Lawrence Norfolk's "Lempriere's Dictionary", probably the best in its category and set just half a century or so before Balzac's stories. However, this book can also be appreciated for what it is.
All three of these novels are categorised by Balzac as part of his "Scenes of Parisian Life". In this edition of the Comedie Humaine, the third novel in this trilogy, "The Girl with the Golden Eyes", is omitted, for the mysterious reason cited in the editor's preface that it "contains things that are inconvenient."
The two novels present in this volume are very different in character. The first, "Ferragus", is about a young cavalry officer's infatuation with a young married woman reputed for her impeccable virtue. While following her he notices some puzzling behaviour, and the story unfolds during his attempts to fathom the mystery in which she is involved. This novel takes the pace of a thriller, as the protagonist meets with various attempts on his life and obstacles to his investigations.
The second, and much better of these novels, "La Duchesse de Langeais", is more properly a love story than the first. It centres around a war hero and explorer, who after years of service and survival under the most extreme and heroic circumstances, returns to Paris and experiences his first encounter with love. He becomes enamoured with the married Duchesse de Langeais, whom he meets at a ball. She doesn't feel any love for him, but entices him and leads him on for her own amusement. The story revolves around the pyschological games between the two, who alternate in their control of the situation, and the resulting dramatic consequences.

Show Less