Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Eugénie Grandet
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love detailed realism, family dramas about money, and the roots of the modern novel. Eugénie's story explores greed, generosity, and love in a household ruled by a miser.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Eugénie Grandet is a novel by Honoré de Balzac, published in France in 1833. It belongs to his huge cycle of linked books called The Human Comedy, in the section named Scenes from Provincial Life. Balzac wanted to write a history of French society in fiction, and here he turns away from Paris to a quiet town on the river Loire. The town is Saumur, and the subject is a house in which money rules everything.
At the center is Félix Grandet, a former barrel maker who has become the richest man in the district. He is also one of the great misers of literature. His wife and his daughter Eugénie live under his thumb, along with one loyal servant. Eugénie is a gentle, sheltered young woman who has never known anything of the world. Then a cousin arrives from Paris, and her small, tightly ruled life begins to change.
In this summary you get the whole shape of the story up to its last stretch. You meet the people of the house and the rival families who circle it. You see how Balzac makes a miser's habits as vivid as a battlefield. You also learn what the book says about money, love and the price of both. Let us begin where Balzac begins, with the town and the house itself.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A dark house in a quiet townFree
- 2How Grandet built his fortune
- 3Two families circle the heiress
- 4A birthday and a cousin from Paris
- 5The letter that brings disaster
- 6Eugénie learns to love and to give
- 7A promise made and a storm to come
- 8What money does to love and family
- 9How Balzac tells the story
Punkt 1 von 9
A dark house in a quiet town
Balzac opens not with a person but with a place. Saumur is an old town on the Loire, and its upper streets are narrow, silent and a little sad. At the end of one such street stands the Grandet house, gloomy and damp, with barred windows and a heavy door. A reader sees at once that nothing here is built for pleasure.
Inside, the rooms match the outside. The main room on the ground floor is cold, poorly furnished and lit as little as possible. The staircase is rotten, and Grandet hates to spend a coin on it. Each detail tells you that the owner would rather save a coin than make anyone comfortable, even himself.
The household is small. Madame Grandet is thin, pale and timid, a devout woman who has long since stopped arguing with her husband. Nanon, called the Big, is a strong country servant who has worked for the family for years. She is ugly, tireless and utterly loyal, and she does the work of several people.
Then there is Eugénie, the only child. She is raised by her mother's quiet piety and her father's strict rules. She has never been taught to want much, and she knows little about love, society or her own worth.
Balzac wants you to feel this setting as a kind of pressure. The town is small, everyone watches everyone, and the Grandet house is the most watched of all. Its silence is the silence of a place where one will governs everything, and where the first sign of change will be felt like a crack in a wall.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Eugénie Grandet
- A sheltered young heiress, she lives under her father's strict rule and welcomes her Parisian cousin Charles.
- Félix Grandet
- Eugénie's wealthy father, a former barrel maker, rules his wife, daughter and servant through relentless economy.
- Madame Grandet
- Eugénie's gentle, pious mother fears her domineering husband and offers her daughter quiet affection.
- Nanon
- The Grandets' strong, devoted servant accepts her master's harsh economy while caring loyally for Eugénie.
- Charles Grandet
- Eugénie's fashionable cousin arrives from Paris, unaware of his father's financial ruin and dependent on family hospitality.
- Cruchot de Bonfons
- A local judge and the notary's nephew, he courts Eugénie with his family's ambitious support.
- Madame des Grassins
- The banker's sociable wife promotes her son as Eugénie's suitor, competing with the determined Cruchot family.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 68,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 30 min
- Listening time7 h 30 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages