I've just finished my tenth book, Balzac's unknown "The Collection of Antiquities". It is classic Balzac and excellent, the story of a Marquis who loses everything during the Revolution and stakes all his hopes on a brilliant, handsome son. As in most of Balzac's oeuvre, we know in advance that the Marquis is doomed to disappointment.
Fadiman writes of Balzac: "He lived in a period, like our own, of money-making, money-losing, money-loving; a period in which the greatest sin was not treachery but bankruptcy. No other novelist before him understood the world of money as did Balzac."
"Le Cabinet des Antiques" bears out this praise in fascinating form, and I recommend it without reservation to anyone who wishes to glimpse the riches that lie in the forgotten tomes beyond "Pere Goriot".
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About Me
- Dartmouth Crew
- Dallas, Texas, United States
- Great Books and Great Ideas. "One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." --Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre
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