Honoré de Balzac, página 9 de 47

En una pensión parisina coinciden un ambicioso estudiante que sueña con entrar en la sociedad por la puerta grande, un anciano que recoge la ingratitud de sus hijas y un misterioso huésped que decide tentar al muchacho proponiéndole un trato que hará que se enriquezca de la noche a la mañana. El joven deberá escoger entre la virtud y la corrupción. El pobre Goriot es una de las novelas más famosas de Balzac y actualmente solo se encuentra en edición de bolsillo. Ofrecemos una cuidada edición en tapa dura con nueva traducción pues las que actualmente hay en el mercado tienen ya bastantes años.

Contents: / The Illustrious Gaudissart [Tr.: Katharine Prescott Wormeley / The Muse of the Department Tr.: James Waring

Translator: Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell

Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley

Tr.: Katharine Prescott Wormeley

Cuando un hombre de genio lleva una vida intelectual y amorosa a la vez, muere como murieron Rafael y Lord Byron. Si es casto, muere por exceso de trabajo; si no lo es, lo mata el desenfreno en los placeres sensuales; no obstante, esa clase de muerte es muy poco frecuente. El exceso de tabaco, el exceso de cafe, el exceso de opio y de aguardiente producen graves desordenes y conducen a una muerte precoz. Preocupado por las modificaciones que cinco sustancias podian introducir en las costumbres de las sociedades modernas, Honore de Balzac propone aqui una reflexion sobre las consecuencias que el alcohol, el azucar, el te, el cafe y el tabaco tienen no solo a nivel individual, sino tambien en terminos generacionales, preguntandose por el impacto de estos vicios en el futuro de las naciones.

Este célebre relato de Balzac, que cuenta la apasionante historia de un pintor de genio que lleva años trabajando en la qu debe ser su obra maestra, confronta la insuficiencia del artista en relación con sus ambiciones y su visión interior. JOSÉ J. DE OLAÑETA, EDITOR

Honorato de Balzac es un escritor caudaloso y genial que creó un torrente de personajes, a los cuales les infundió vida. Balzac no es autor de tres o cuatro grandes obras, sino de un pasmoso cúmulo de ellas, con las que nadie debiera dejar de trabajar en el conocimiento. En la amplia creacion balzaciana hay de todo. Papa Goriot, obra apasionante en todas sus paginas, despierta las mas vivas y autenticas emociones, y no carece de suspenso.El lector tendra una lectura deliciosa y en todo momento interesante, que le hara tomar partido por unos personajes y contra otros, que despertara su interes por la forma en que habra de ver progresar y resolverse algunas de las intrigas planteadas, y que le mostrara sabios puntos de vista sobre la vida, esencialmente la de las grandes ciudades.Papa Goriot se singulariza entre las ochenta y nueve novelas que forman el conjunto de La Comedia Humana, fruto de uno de los novelistas mas grandes que el mundo ha conocido.

THERE was nothing to distinguish the departure of the Murmania from that of any other big liner leaving New York in October for Liverpool or Southampton. At the crowded gangways there was the usual rain of ultimate kisses, from the quayside the usual gale of speeding handkerchiefs. Ladies in blanket-coats handed over to the arrangement of their table-stewards the expensive bouquets presented by friends who, as the case might be, had been glad or sorry to see them go. Middle-aged gentlemen, who were probably not at all conspicuous on shore, at once made their appearance in caps that they might have felt shy about wearing even during their university prime. Children in the first confusion of settling down ate more chocolates from the gift boxes lying about the cabins than they were likely to be given (or perhaps to want) for some time. Two young women with fresh complexions, short skirts, tam o shanters, brightly colored jumpers, and big bows to their shoes were already on familiar terms with one of the junior ships officers, and their laughter (which would soon become one of those unending oceanic accompaniments that make land so pleasant again) was already competing with the noise of the crew. Everybody boasted aloud that they fed you really well on the Murmania, and hoped silently that perhaps the sense of being imprisoned in a decaying hot-water bottle (or whatever more or less apt comparison was invented to suggest atmosphere below decks) would pass away in the fresh Atlantic breezes. Indeed it might be said, except in the case of a few ivory-faced ladies already lying back with the professional aloofness of those who are a prey to chronic headaches, that outwardly optimism was rampant...

Illusions perdues — in English, Lost Illusions — is a serial novel written by the French writer Honoré de Balzac between 1837 and 1843. It consists of three parts, starting in provincial France, ther

The two Analytical Studies, Physiology of Marriage and Petty Troubles of Married Life, belong quite apart from the action of the Comedie Humaine, and can only be included therein by virtue of a special dispensation on the part of their author, who made for them an eighth division therein, thus giving them a local habitation and a name. Although they come far down in the list of titles, their creation belongs almost to the formative era. Balzac had just shaken his skirts clear of the immature dust of the Oeuvres de Jeunesse, and by the publication, in 1829, of The Chouans, had made his first real bow to his larger public. In December of that same year appeared the Physiology of Marriage, followed eleven months later by a few papers belonging to Petty Troubles of Married Life. Meanwhile, between these two Analytical Studies, came a remarkable novelette, At the Sign of the Cat and Racket, followed soon after by one of the most famous stories of the entire Comedie, The Magic Skin.We are thus particular to place the two Analytical Studies in time and in environment, that the wonderful versatility of the author may become apparentand more: that Balzac may be vindicated from the charge of dullness and inaccuracy at this period. Such traits might have been charged against him had he left only the Analytical Studies. But when they are preceded by the faithful though heavy scene of military life, and succeeded by the searching and vivid philosophical study, their faults and failures may be considered for the sake of their company.It is hard to determine Balzacs full purpose in including the Analytical Studies in the Comedie. They are not novels. The few, lightly-sketched characters are not connected with those of the Comedie, save in one or two remote instances. They must have been included in order to make one more room in the gigantic mansion which the author had planned. His seventh sense of subdivision saw here fresh material to classify.