#Classic Balzac “Ferragus”

by Honoré de Balzac

Good news: I could not believe one of my “GR friends” gave Ferragus by Balzac a score of 2.
I decided to read it and believe me it is a 5!
Gripping scenes between husband (Jules) and wife (Cle1mence, Mm. Jules) who he thinks is committing adultery!
Oh, her love for her husband was so misunderstood. Balzac’s cliffhanger ending is unbelievable! I must finish this series.

Good news:. Trilogy Sequence:
Ferragus (1833): Focuses on Jules’s suspicions about Clémence.
La Duchesse de Langeais (1834): Follows one member of the secret society (Les Devorants) obsessive pursuit of a noblewoman who flees to a Spanish monastery.
La Fille aux yeux d’or (1835): Explores forbidden desire and jealousy in Paris’s underworld, involving another member of the secret society.

Personal: Balzac is like olives…an acquired taste!
His writing is dense, at times going off on an ‘essay/manifesto’ about money, banking, ‘grisettes’ (demi-monde girls), funerals, Catholic Church…)

You just have to stick with it!
His cast of characters is vast…and demands patience.
But like olives….once you taste the “briny stories” you keep going back for more!

PS: all of Balzac’s  books are available in English!