1 h 4 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if more life only gives a selfish man more time to betray those who love him?
Don Juan Belvidero has wealth, pleasure, and little concern for the people he uses. His father, Bartolomeo, holds something money alone cannot buy: a secret tied to prolonging life. As the old man nears death, that secret brings a darker weight to the bond between father and son.
In The Elixir of Life, Honoré de Balzac turns the legend of Don Juan into a short Gothic tale of desire and betrayal. Against Don Juan’s appetites stand the faithful love of his wife, Elvira, and the loyalty of his son, Philippe. What are such bonds worth to a man who treats promises as tools?
What you’ll discover
- A legend turned dark Meet a Don Juan whose hunger for pleasure makes the promise of longer life deeply unsettling.
- A father's guarded secret Discover how Bartolomeo’s private knowledge places more than a family fortune at stake.
- Love with little return See Elvira’s faithful trust set against a husband who gives little back.
- Loyalty against appetite Consider the contrast between Philippe’s conscience and his father’s habit of using others.
- More years, no wisdom Face Balzac’s sharp suggestion that a longer life does not teach anyone how to live.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, dark fables, legends retold, and stories built around one sharp idea. It also suits anyone curious about Balzac and tales of immortality, greed and loyalty.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A son who lives only for pleasure
- A father's strange gift
- Love, loyalty and what they cost
- What the tale says about death and desire
Who’s who
- Don Juan BelvideroA rich, selfish man of pleasure who treats people and promises as things to be used.
- Bartolomeo BelvideroDon Juan's old father, a wealthy man who holds a secret tied to prolonging life.
- ElviraDon Juan's wife, who stands for faithful love and trust in a man who gives little back.
- PhilippeDon Juan's son, a figure of loyalty and conscience set against his father's appetites.
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- Large print hardcover
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El elixir de larga vida
by Honoré de Balzac · 1830
Don Juan Belvidero inherits a secret for prolonging life, and a gift from his father puts his conscience to the test.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A son who lives only for pleasure
The story opens on Don Juan Belvidero, the heir of a wealthy family. He is a man who takes what he wants and counts the cost later. Balzac draws him from the old Don Juan legend, but he makes him a figure of cold appetite rather than easy charm.
His wealth gives him freedom, and he uses it without thought for anyone else. Friends, lovers and duties are all things to be spent. The reader sees early that this is a character with every comfort and almost no inner life.
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What is The Elixir of Life by Balzac about?
It is a short gothic tale in which Don Juan Belvidero, a selfish man of pleasure, inherits a way to prolong life from his father. It asks what such a gift does to a man without conscience.
Is The Elixir of Life based on the Don Juan legend?
Yes. Balzac borrows the figure of Don Juan, the seducer of European legend, and sets him in a new story about death, inheritance and the cost of wanting more life.
When did Balzac write The Elixir of Life?
Balzac wrote it around 1830, early in his career. It later found a place among his Philosophical Studies, part of the large cycle he named The Human Comedy.
The author
Honoré de Balzac
1799–1850 · French novelist
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright born in Tours in 1799. He lived and worked in Paris, where he died in 1850. He wrote The Magic Skin in 1831, Eugénie Grandet in 1833, and Father Goriot in 1835. Many of his works belong to La Comédie humaine.
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