Eugénie Grandet
Honoré de Balzac is an author I will get
back to a few times on the List. As far as I can see he has three entries, but
I may be missing some. “Eugénie Grandet” is his first entry.
The titular Eugénie Grandet is the daughter
of a cooper, Grandet, turned winegrower turned landowner in provincial France. Grandet
is elaborately characterized as a miser of the worst sort. Exceedingly good at
making money and even better at not spending them, he and his family, Eugénie and
her mother, live an extremely frugal life as if they were poor despite his
wealth of millions.
Hovering around the Grandet family are the
vultures in the form of the Cruchot and de Grassin families. They are
themselves important families in the provincial town, but have their eyes on
the wealth of Grandet. They are the only ones with an idea of how enormous his
fortune is, as Cruchot, the lawyers, and de Grassin, the bankers, handle Grandet’s
affairs. Both eye the prospect of marrying one of their family to Eugénie
Grandet and thereby become sole heirs to the fortune.
Then arrive Grandet’s nephew, Charles
Grandet, from Paris. He is a fob, used to an expensive lifestyle in Paris, but
has been sent to his uncle by his father to get him out of the way before his bankruptcy
and suicide. So, Charles arrives full of arrogance but soon to learn he is entirely
penniless. Grandet sees him as a liability he must get rid of as soon as
possible, and is arranging for shipping him to the colonies, while Eugénie
falls completely in love with her cousin.
This causes a strife between father and
daughter and although it eventually heals, her infatuation with Charles keeps
her in a mental prison, especially as Charles turns out to be a scoundrel.
“Eugénie Grandet” was a part of a larger
project of de Balzac called “La Comedie humaine”, which consists of scenes from
different parts of life. In this sense “Eugénie Grandet” is supposed to
represent something general, though I am struggling to see exactly what. Is it
a portrait of a miser? Of how a miser can ruin a family? Is it the generational
rebellion of a younger generation? Or even the rebellion of a woman against a
father or a lifestyle? All these are intimated, but none of them seems
satisfying. In fact, I am having problems working out what the point is with
the book.
Balzac uses a lot of generalizations,
constantly pointing out how this or that part of the story is representative of
something general, both about misers and vultures circling around money, but
especially on women. He appears to have some pretty deep-rooted ideas on what
and how women are and most of these are prejudiced in the extreme. Therefore,
it is clear to me that “Eugénie Grandet” must be read as representative of something
general, as a scene that can be found as typical. But is this just to try to
explain how people become what they are? Or is it a cynical portrait of people
Balzac did not like? He was a spendthrift himself, constantly in debt, and it
is very likely he wanted to see his creditors lampooned, but is that all this
is?
As a novel, I was not particularly
impressed with this story or its style. There is a build up to a crisis, and
strife between father and daughter, but it never really explodes, but merely
fizzles. This may of course be my 21st century self expecting more than a 19th
century author would deliver, but I do believe “Eugénie Grandet” can be
compared to the novels of Jane Austen where every one of them had deeper crisis’s
and far more interesting resolutions than is the case for “Eugénie Grandet”. I would
not go so far as to say it is boring, but it is very much a lost opportunity
for something far better.
The only excuse would be to serve some
point, and it is this point I am missing. As “Eugénie Grandet” is a highly
celebrated novel, it is likely just me being dense.
I already mentioned the style of Balzac to
use generalizations and prejudices and even when I try to think like a 19th
century reader, this grinds badly on me. He comes through as a bigot who does
not care much for his characters and even his protagonist comes through weak
and miserable.
I cannot honestly call this an enjoyable
novel, and the only real blessing is that it was short. Other readers may
disagree.
