Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
The Folio Society (2009), Edition: 1st. Edition . 1st. Printing, Hardcover, 585 pages
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: Honor� de Balzac's renowned Lost Illusions consists of two volumes, both contained in this edition. The first, from 1837, contains the stories The Two Poets and A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Part 1. The second, from 1839, contains A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Part 2 and Eve and David. Both form part of Balzac's ambitious Human Comedy..
User reviews
LibraryThing member psiakrew
Quite simply, anyone can tell everything one needs to know about a reader's intelligence and insight by asking him or her if Lost Illusions is or isn't in a "top three" of all greatest novels. Shakespearean, indeed, without hyperbole.
LibraryThing member libraryhermit
The evil Vautrin--his name sounds just like vautour--is out to destroy the young hero of this book, Lucien Chardon aka Rubempré. Lucien is a good young hero for this book because he gets sucked into just about every mistake it is possible for him to make. He falls in love with one woman and does
I will let you read the book. But I do not think it is much of a spoiler to tell you this much about the book, because it is obvious from fairly early in the book that Lucien is going to get his comeuppance sooner or later. It is just a matter of who and when and how many times.
I think part of the greatness of the book lies in the verisimilitude of overweening ambition that Lucien feels. I for one have felt ambition that is totally out of proportion to my true gifts. Really I am a little bit more on the mediocre side than on the side of greatness. I can work hard and consistently every day--that is all that David does--and I will make real progress, albeit slow. But when I want to take ludicrous shortcuts and am not willing to put in the time to slowly build up my career, that is when I am asking for it. This is exactly what Lucien does--he is so full of himself--he cannot see how minor his greatness is, and how average and normal his range of talent is. When he tries to jump into the big leagues, without a foundation on which to base it, he has trouble coming to him.
Stay tuned for the sequel Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes.
Show More
not treat her right. Then he loses her and falls in love with another woman and does not treat her right either. He has really good friends, but he does nasty things to them. He is desperate for fame and will do anything to get it. He screws over his best friend and brother-in-law David Séchard. You can just see the vultures-vautours-Vautrin circling around him ready to do him in, and sure enough ...I will let you read the book. But I do not think it is much of a spoiler to tell you this much about the book, because it is obvious from fairly early in the book that Lucien is going to get his comeuppance sooner or later. It is just a matter of who and when and how many times.
I think part of the greatness of the book lies in the verisimilitude of overweening ambition that Lucien feels. I for one have felt ambition that is totally out of proportion to my true gifts. Really I am a little bit more on the mediocre side than on the side of greatness. I can work hard and consistently every day--that is all that David does--and I will make real progress, albeit slow. But when I want to take ludicrous shortcuts and am not willing to put in the time to slowly build up my career, that is when I am asking for it. This is exactly what Lucien does--he is so full of himself--he cannot see how minor his greatness is, and how average and normal his range of talent is. When he tries to jump into the big leagues, without a foundation on which to base it, he has trouble coming to him.
Stay tuned for the sequel Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes.
Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
Illusions perdues, written intermittently over a period of nearly ten years in the late thirties and early forties, draws mostly on Balzac's time as a struggling writer in the Paris of 1821-22 (unlike other novelists of the time, he never seems to be shy of pinning himself to the calendar), but
It's pretty clear from the title where Balzac wants the plot to go: provincial poet Lucien dreams of literary glory and his friend David dreams of making his family's fortune by a radical improvement to the paper-making process that will slash the cost of printing. We know from the start that the author is going to dangle the prospect of success in front of both of them, only to whip it savagely away at the last minute. But he takes his time about it, and obviously changed his mind a few times along the way about just how he is going to get there. Lucien is slapped down and humiliated multiple times, both in his native Angoulême and in Paris, but keeps bouncing up to try again in a new direction, without ever reflecting that his enemies will remember him from last time. Meanwhile (the stories are concurrent and interlinked, even though Balzac obviously wrote them several years apart) David is caught in a ludicrously complex plot involving multiple competing parties all trying to steal his invention and/or force him to sign it over for a fraction of what it's worth.
There's a huge amount going on, and it never gets even remotely dull, even if it is occasionally difficult to remember who is supposed to be on which side. And a wealth of fascinating, cynical comment on the literary and commercial world and the people who make their money out of it in more or less (usually less) legal and ethical ways. Glorious moments like the incident of the publisher who comes to see Lucien in his Paris lodgings to buy his novel - the advance he's intending to offer starts off at a thousand francs, but the sight of the squalid street Lucien lives in already makes him knock a couple of hundred off, and by the time he's got to the fourth floor he's under two hundred. And insights into the way the press uses its power to blackmail producers, publishers and public figures - if the editors aren't paid off, the papers will attack with negative reviews or - much worse - ignore the items concerned altogether. There are a couple of lovely scenes where an experienced journalist explains to Lucien how to write a lethal review of a good novel (simply attack it for not being something other than what it is) or a favourable review of a terrible play. Very often you get the feeling that Balzac would have been right at home in the era of social media and "fake" news. Plus ça change,...
There's a great bit of Balzac chutzpah in the magnificent but quite irrelevant scene towards the end of the book, where he spends twenty pages introducing a major character we've been vaguely expecting to turn up, but have forgotten all about by the time we've read 600 pages. Wasted space as far as the plot is concerned, but it does somehow give you an irresistible urge to find out what happens by reading the next book in the sequence!
Show More
also brings in material from his legal training and his time as a printer, papermaker and publisher (clearly, nothing was ever wasted!). It's pretty clear from the title where Balzac wants the plot to go: provincial poet Lucien dreams of literary glory and his friend David dreams of making his family's fortune by a radical improvement to the paper-making process that will slash the cost of printing. We know from the start that the author is going to dangle the prospect of success in front of both of them, only to whip it savagely away at the last minute. But he takes his time about it, and obviously changed his mind a few times along the way about just how he is going to get there. Lucien is slapped down and humiliated multiple times, both in his native Angoulême and in Paris, but keeps bouncing up to try again in a new direction, without ever reflecting that his enemies will remember him from last time. Meanwhile (the stories are concurrent and interlinked, even though Balzac obviously wrote them several years apart) David is caught in a ludicrously complex plot involving multiple competing parties all trying to steal his invention and/or force him to sign it over for a fraction of what it's worth.
There's a huge amount going on, and it never gets even remotely dull, even if it is occasionally difficult to remember who is supposed to be on which side. And a wealth of fascinating, cynical comment on the literary and commercial world and the people who make their money out of it in more or less (usually less) legal and ethical ways. Glorious moments like the incident of the publisher who comes to see Lucien in his Paris lodgings to buy his novel - the advance he's intending to offer starts off at a thousand francs, but the sight of the squalid street Lucien lives in already makes him knock a couple of hundred off, and by the time he's got to the fourth floor he's under two hundred. And insights into the way the press uses its power to blackmail producers, publishers and public figures - if the editors aren't paid off, the papers will attack with negative reviews or - much worse - ignore the items concerned altogether. There are a couple of lovely scenes where an experienced journalist explains to Lucien how to write a lethal review of a good novel (simply attack it for not being something other than what it is) or a favourable review of a terrible play. Very often you get the feeling that Balzac would have been right at home in the era of social media and "fake" news. Plus ça change,...
There's a great bit of Balzac chutzpah in the magnificent but quite irrelevant scene towards the end of the book, where he spends twenty pages introducing a major character we've been vaguely expecting to turn up, but have forgotten all about by the time we've read 600 pages. Wasted space as far as the plot is concerned, but it does somehow give you an irresistible urge to find out what happens by reading the next book in the sequence!
Show Less
LibraryThing member GarySeverance
From the frenetic world of writers and booksellers in Paris to the grueling life of hard work and boredom in villages, Balzac traces the systematic destruction of illusions in his characters. No one can be trusted (friends, foes, or family) when the creative or inventive person attempts to reach a
Show More
goal. The flicker of hope and joy related to an artistic or business accomplishment is extinguished within days or hours. The enduring artists and producers are those who live almost without hope, guided by a strict code of ethics protected by keeping their accomplishments secret. Ultimately, these survivors reach their goals after they no longer place high value in them, after they have given up all of their illusions. Show Less
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
One of Balzac's best novels, the story of Lucien Chardon draws in the reader as he explores both the high and low aspects of Parisian society. His rise and fall is a story that could have happened yesterday, While filled with digressions the story carries the reader into realms of life that
Show More
continual beckon and intrigue and thus maintain your interest. Show Less
LibraryThing member whitrichardson
An excellent book. One of Balzac's best, in my opinion.
LibraryThing member Unreachableshelf
Although this book paints a wonderful picture of life in Paris in the early 19th century, something about the pacing stops working for me near the end. Possibly it's the long backtracking to fill in the reader on what has been happening with David and Eve since Lucien left that makes me feel like
Show More
I've lost the thread of the story, and it would work better for me if there were short sections on Lucien's sister's family throughout his story so they ran more or less concurrently. Still, for the first five hundred or so pages it is a brilliant story of what happens when ambition outreaches talent and work ethic. Show Less
LibraryThing member JonArnold
I’d never read Balzac before seeing this recommended, after reading it I wondered why it took me so long to get around to him. The prose style might seem overly didactic at times (in the translation I read anyway) but otherwise it charts the decline and fall of a talented poet who tries his hand
Show More
at making it in the big city. The title alone should tell you that it’s not going to be the most uplifting of reads, Balzac refusing to graft a happy ending on and instead pursuing his story with relentless logic. Balzac is also uncompromising in his criticism of the society of the times and its institutions – he’s particularly harsh on journalism and the banking and legal systems and their power against individuals. There is something of a deus ex machina ending, which ameliorates the fate of a few of the main characters and provides space for a sequel, but that’s a minor blemish. Show Less
LibraryThing member jonfaith
While there were issues with the structure of the novel, the disparate scenarios involving Lucien and David are removed from one another to a cumbersome degree. Compounding this, the tragedy which envelops David and Eve is soaked and blurred in jargon and legal asides. I sense that Balzac was
Show More
thinking long-term and indifferent to these quibbles. That said, Lost Illusions is a narrative triumph and one i will treasure. Show Less
LibraryThing member stillatim
At the risk of sounding self-aggrandizing, I read this while holidaying in Paris, and that was a great choice. It's only my second Balzac, and already I'm pretty sure what I'm going to get: straight plot, semi-mythical characters, and not a whole lot of style. This isn't really my kind of thing,
And 'Lost Illusions' is perfect for me--the satire of the press still functions perfectly (even if the technical details about typesetting are rather out of date) and the characters' debates about selling out will appeal to anyone who has a little punk in them. But what you really need from the book is that plot: a young man from the provinces,* a bit pretentious**, goes to the capital, but fails to hold on to his dream because he's an idiot and the system is set up in such a way that he's bound to fail.*** He returns to the provinces, where his fecklessness has more or less damned his family and friends; he tries to be noble, but appears to be getting swindled yet again. It's didactic, it's moralizing, it's sentimental. And yet you really have to read it.
* over-identifying here
** really over-identifying
*** hoping to avoid this one
Show More
but Balzac is just so all-in that it's hard not to get pulled along in his wake. And anyway, he's so explicitly writing about great abstractions (here: Art, Media, Capitalism, Class, Love) that I'll always enjoy his work. And 'Lost Illusions' is perfect for me--the satire of the press still functions perfectly (even if the technical details about typesetting are rather out of date) and the characters' debates about selling out will appeal to anyone who has a little punk in them. But what you really need from the book is that plot: a young man from the provinces,* a bit pretentious**, goes to the capital, but fails to hold on to his dream because he's an idiot and the system is set up in such a way that he's bound to fail.*** He returns to the provinces, where his fecklessness has more or less damned his family and friends; he tries to be noble, but appears to be getting swindled yet again. It's didactic, it's moralizing, it's sentimental. And yet you really have to read it.
* over-identifying here
** really over-identifying
*** hoping to avoid this one
Show Less
LibraryThing member colligan
If one enjoys excellent writing coupled with a superb presentation of historical periods, Lost Illusions is a book not to be missed. The author's wit and eye for all matter of detail carrys the patient reader through a plot which, at times, wanders into lengthy digressions. Definitely not what a
Show More
modern reader might call a page turner, yet a great work by a master writer. Show Less
LibraryThing member lschiff
Who would think Balzac could be boring?
Awards
Language
Original publication date
1837 (part 1)
1839 (part 2)
1843 ( first complete edition)
Physical description
585 p.; 9.84 inches
Other editions
Illusions Perdues by Honoré de Balzac (CD audiobook)