Honoré de Balzac was born May 20, 1799, at Tours, in France, and died at Paris, Aug. 18, 1850. His early life was filled with hard work and oppressed by poverty. He attained success by the publication of "Les Derniers Chouans" in 1829, and he soon established his fame as the leader of realistic fiction. In spite of frequent coarseness, he stands for all time as a great writer by reason of his powers of character analysis. "Eugénie Grandet" is, justly, one of the most famous of Balzac's novels. As a study of avarice, in the character of old Grandet, it is superb, and the picture of manners in the country town of Saumur is painted as only a supreme artist like Balzac could paint it. The pathos of Eugénie's wasted life, the long suffering of Mme. Grandet, the craft and cunning of the Des Grassins and the Cruchots, the fidelity of Nanon, and the frank egotism of Charles Grandet--all these things combine to make the book a masterpiece of French fiction. "Eugénie Grandet" was written in the full vigour of Balzac's genius in 1833, and was published in the first volume of "Scenes of Provincial Life" in 1834, and finally included in the "Human Comedy" in 1843.
I.--The Rich Miser of Saumur
The town of Saumur is old-fashioned and in every way "provincial." Its houses are dark within, its shops, undecorated, recall the workshops of the Middle Ages. Its inhabitants gossip freely, according to the fashion of country towns, and the arrival of a stranger in the town is an important item of news. The trade of Saumur depends upon the vineyards of the district. The prosperity of landowners, vinegrowers, coopers, and innkeepers rises or falls according to whether the season is good or bad for the grapes.
A certain house in Saumur, larger and more sombre than most, and once the residence of nobility, belonged to M. Grandet.
This M. Grandet was a master cooper in 1789, a good man of business with a remarkable head for accounts. He prospered in the Revolution, bought the confiscated Church lands at a low price, married the daughter of a wealthy timber merchant, was made mayor under the consulate, became Monsieur Grandet when the empire was established, and every year grew wealthier and more miserly.
In 1817 M. Grandet was 68, his wife 47, and their only child, Eugénie, was 21.
A careful, cunning, silent man was M. Grandet, who loved his gold and to get the better in a bargain beyond all else. He cultivated 100 acres of vineyard, had thirteen little farms, an old abbey, and 127 acres of grazing land, and owned the house he lived in. The town estimated old Grandet's income to be five or six million francs, but only two people were in a position to guess with any chance of probability, and these were M. Cruchot the notary, and M. des Grassins the banker, and they disclosed no secrets.
Both M. Cruchot and M. des Grassins were men of considerable importance in Saumur, and enjoyed the right of entry to M. Grandet's house--a privilege extended to only a very few of their neighbours.
There was rivalry between these two families of the Cruchots and Des Grassins, rivalry for the hand of Grandet's daughter, Eugénie. Cruchot's nephew was a rising lawyer, already, at the age of thirty-three, a president of the court of first instance, and Cruchot's brother was an abbé of Tours. The hopes of the Cruchots were centred on the successful marriage of the nephew (who called himself Cruchot de Bonfons, after an estate he had bought) with Grandet's heiress.
Mme. des Grassins was equally hopeful and indefatigable on behalf of her son Adolphe.