The Wrong Side of Paris (Modern Library)

Rating:
Summary: So does an angel find vengeance
Review: The theme of Balzac's novel "The Wrong Side of Paris" is redemption. Godefroid, the main character, is a thirty-year-old man. As the only son of a shopkeeper, he is the "sole vessel of his parents' ambition," and it is intended that he should become a notaire. Godefroid's parents make enormous sacrifices for his future, but when the novel begins, Godefroid's career has stalled, his parents are dead, and his inheritance is mostly gone. Godefroid is morally adrift with no ambition, no direction, and no purpose in his life. With his hopes crushed, and rejected by even the plain daughter of retired shopkeepers, Godefroid decides to retire from the world, and husband the money he has left. By sheer chance, he finds and applies for a room in a private boarding house, and there he meets the owner, the mysterious Madame de la Chanterie. She identifies Godefroid as a fellow sufferer and tells him, "You find yourself here surrounded by the wreckage of a great storm." Godefroid is intrigued and aware that the household and its residents are somewhat peculiar. There seems to be some conspiracy afoot, and for a while, he suspects that he has "blundered into some sort of Royalist conspiracy."

In time, Godefroid learns that the residents of the boarding house are all agents of a collective devoted to good works. Each of the residents has experienced the horrors of the revolution. Some wish to make amends, and others salve their wounds by doing anonymous good deeds. Godefroid wishes to join the Order of the Brothers of Consolation, and so he is given the task of assisting a once noble family who now live in a slum in Paris. Godefroid eagerly accepts the assignment and takes squalid rooms next to a Monsieur Bernard. Monsieur Bernard lives in stark poverty while catering to his daughter, Vanda. Vanda--who is bedridden--is under the illusion that the family's fortunes have not suffered, and so Monsieur Bernard, and his grandson maintain the painful pretence of wealth and luxury for Vanda's sake.

Balzac is unsurpassed in understanding human nature. In his novels, he explores the notion of good and evil, ambition and pride--often through the opportunities presented to his characters. The novel is set in 1836. The French Revolution of 1789 is long past, but many survive who suffered from its horrors, and several regime changes have since taken place. Each change has swept away many of the powerful and the rich, and "The Wrong Side of Paris" is the story of some of the survivors. Since redemption--through forgiveness and good deeds is the main theme of the novel, some readers may find the tone too spiritual. The main characters are unforgettable people who have lost everything that is supposed to be important--their families, rank, power, money and privilege, and yet they live on. "The Wrong Side of Paris" explores the complex ideas of revenge, survival and placing meaning back into one's life--even after all meaning has been wrenched away by circumstance. "The Wrong Side of Paris"--the final novel in Balzac's "The Human Comedy"--is a powerful story of the strength of the human spirit. If you enjoy this novel, I also recommend, "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy--displaced human



Rating:
Summary: Well written but it became torture to read
Review: There are some wonderful paragraphs in this book and some profound observations on life, such as "all criminals are atheists even if they don't know it," and this sort of thing makes the book worthwhile, but about half way through reading it, I thought to myself, "I don't CARE what happens next to these people."

It's a short book and I've read other works of Balzac that I liked, some short stories and "A Harlot High and Low", "Eugenie Whatever", I forget the title. But I couldn't get through this book.

I've read Les Miserables, unabridged, twice, two different translations, so I was surprised that I just couldn't get through this because it is very short and the translation seems good, that is to say, the writing flows.

But the plot! Agghhh. It is so convoluted and twisted and the manner of telling the background through a long, long, LONG legal document was so boring it almost made me cry.

Godefroid feels a failure, and he pretty much is one, so he joins a group of people who devote their lives to helping others (see the other review, I don't want to even try to relate the story again).

I don't see why it had to be a case of either/or. Godefroid seemed to think he had to (a) be a huge success or (b) renounce the world entirely.

Why not just get some work and live life the best he could? So I couldn't get too enthusiastic about his decision to renounce everything after living such a high life.

The story is told in a series of flashbacks that go way back and way back and WAY BACK, and the names of the people are long and they are changed and shortened due to the Revolution, and changed entirely through marriage, and other ways, so I lost track of everyone. The old woman who the story revolves around was a doormat and this quality of doormatness is elevated to pure holiness in Balzac's eyes. I became annoyed at the woman's continous praying and hoping for the redemption of her crook of a husband.

I got about half way through the book, said, That's it, forget it. But I read the last few pages and my last comment is, "Oh, give me a break."

Rating:
Summary: Lively and fun "new" Balzac
Review: There is something immensely comforting in reading a book by one of your favorite authors. In college, Balzac was always one of my favorite writers, mostly due to the scope of his lifelong writing project, a brilliant attempt to encapsulate all of Parisian life through fiction; the magic, politics, economics, and religion of a very unique group of people.

This new translation is a wonderful addition to any English-speaking Balzac fan's shelf. Here you'll find Balzac's incessant cataloging of Parisian society set amidst an intriguing story. Godefroid, a directionless drifter, finds himself initiated into an underground religious group which performs acts of charity for the truly needy and unfortunate.

The story consists mainly of Godefroid's education in the ways of the group and his application of that knowledge to his first "charitable assignment." I won't give anything specific away by telling you that there is marvelous twist in the story that gracefully pulls everything together at the end of the book.

This is a book with a big heart and will not disappoint fans of Balzac. I only wish that someone would create a modern English translation of all of his novels. I guess I'm going to have to study back up on my French if I really want to read them all...

Rating:
Summary: Five star translation of a three star work.
Review: This is not great Balzac, though lovers of the Comedie Humaine will read it happily - and in a single evening because it is brief. Much of the story is background related by one character to another in a handful of long sections - a weak narrative strategy. The story of a father and grandson who collaborate to insulate their invalid daughter and mother from the truth of their economic situation might have been turned into a farce by Moliere or Beaumarchais. (And the invalid story has an almost exact parallel in a Dickens story published contemporaneously...)

But the book is worth reading. Many observers have noted that although Balzac often reaches for poetic discourse, he rarely succeeds at the level of the best French writers. Some crtitics have even harsher opinions. At his best, though, Balzac crafts beautifully in an epigrammatic mode. His prose can be wonderfully dense with careful observation and his analysis as relentlessly logical and sympathetic as something by Montaigne or Voltaire. He is not a poetic writer, but he is a very easy writer to read and this is a first-rate translation. A REALLY good translation!

Consider these two early paragraphs:

"But here too, through the crude machinations of some, the prodigality of others, the wealth of his rival capitalists, the caprices of his editors, Godefroid was once again undone. At the same time, he was dragged into the many compromises of literary and political life, the habit of jeering from the sidelines, the endless distractions required by men whiose intellects are never allowed to rest. He thus found himself in bad company, but at least he learned that he had an insignificant face, and one shoulder greater than the other, and no unusual gift for ruthlessness or special generosity of spirit to compensate fior those flaws. The right to be rude is the salary that artists exact for telling the truth. Short, ill-formed, with neither wit nor direction, our young man had little to hope for in an age when the finest mind has no chance of success without the concurrence of good fortune, or the sort of doggedness that makes its own luck. "

We owe Katharine Prescott Wormeley a great deal. Once we wander from the central canon of the Comedie Humaine, her tireless efforts in translating Balzac for the inexpensive "classics" volumes sold door-to-door in England and America around the turn of the century become the sole readily-available translations. While serviceable, they don't compare to those of Kathleen Raine or A.J. Kralsheimer or (especially) Rayner Heppenstall. Mr. Jordan Stump, on the strength of this volume, joins that exalted fraternity.

Lest you think I'm too harsh on KPWormeley, consider her rendering of the same parapraphs:

"In this sphere Godefroid was soon outdone by the brutal Machiavellianism of some, or by the lavish prodigality of others; by the fortunes of ambitious capitalists, or by the wit and shrewdness of editors. Meantime he was drawn into all the dissipations that arise from literary or political life, and he yielded to the temptations incurred by journalists behind the scenes. He soon found himself in bad company; but this experience taught him that his appearance was insignificant, that he had one shoulder higher than the other, without the inequality being redeemed by either malignancy or kindness of nature. Such were the truths these artists made him feel. Small, ill-made, without superiority of mind or settled purpose, what chance was there for a man like that in an age when success in any career demands that the highest qualities of the mind be furthered by luck, or by tenacity of will which commands luck.

That tough, analytical prose just isn't there. And in my opinion, it is Balzac's stylistic hallmark - the thing that distinguished him to his contemporaries and to Henry James. Stump nails it.

Another reason to spend an evening with this volume is that it was obviously baking at the same time as Cousin Bette - that chilling tale of rakes and their accomplices in vice. There is really no bottom to the libertinage of Hulot and Crevel or to the malice of Bette, the calculation of Mme. Marneffe or the amorality of Jenny Cadine. Early in his apprenticeship, Godefroide is advised by Monsieur Alain:

"Do you know the moral of the story?"
"Tell me," Godefroide replied, "for I might see in it something other than you."
"Well," said the old man, "here it is: Pleasure is nothing more than an accident in a Christian's life. It is not the goal..."

I take this to be the central meaning of the story. And while The Wrong Side of Paris is a very evocative title, I think "Flipside of Contemporary History" more accurately captures the sense of Balzac's title - documenting a world at sharp angles to that of Cousin Bette. In his systematic way, Balzac reminds us that virtue drives the lives of some Parisians.

As for Mr. Stump: I'd love him to aim his considerable talent at Louis Lambert. or Albert Savarus. or A Woman of Thirty. And there are others... I hope he hasn't moved on to Guy de Maupassant.