2 h 34 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 2 h 34 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the man who holds your debts also holds your family's future?
On a winter night in a grand Paris salon, lawyer Derville tells a story that bears on a possible marriage. The Vicomtesse de Grandlieu weighs Ernest de Restaud's hopes of marrying her daughter Camille. To explain the shadow over his family, Derville returns to his youth and an elderly neighbour named Gobseck.
Gobseck lives plainly, lends at heavy interest and trusts gold above everything else. His borrowers reveal what pride and need can make people do. Among them is Comtesse Anastasie de Restaud, who hides debts and pawns jewels for her lover, Maxime de Trailles. Her husband remains in the dark as money troubles threaten their household.
What you’ll discover
- A man ruled by gold Meet a moneylender who thinks himself free while gold governs his life.
- Behind the salon doors Enter a grand Paris room where a family's reputation shapes a young man's hopes.
- Jewels, debts and desire Follow a countess whose hidden borrowing binds love to the demands of money.
- The lawyer's watchful eye See Gobseck through Derville, whose own prospects depend on the lender's help.
- The price of power Explore the claim that gold commands love, rank, safety and pleasure.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy sharp character studies, stories told aloud by a clever narrator, and Paris after Napoleon. It suits anyone curious about how money, pride and family honour pull on each other.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A lawyer challenges a mother's judgment
- Gobseck makes gold his guiding principle
- Two debts reveal two different lives
- An expensive loan opens Derville's future
- A husband seeks protection through Gobseck
- The pursuit of power becomes confinement
- Harshness and loyalty share one character
- Derville's witness shapes what we see
- Money tests character without explaining everything
Who’s who
- GobseckGobseck is an old Paris moneylender who lives by strict routines and seeks the power he believes only gold can give.
- DervilleA young lawyer who borrows from Gobseck to buy his practice, and who later tells the whole tale in a salon.
- Countess Anastasie de RestaudA beautiful, extravagant wife who falls into debt for the sake of her lover and tries to protect her position.
- Count de RestaudHer husband, a gentle man who moves his fortune into Gobseck's hands to protect his children.
- Maxime de TraillesA charming, penniless dandy who lives off the women who love him and owes Gobseck money.
- Fanny MalvautA hardworking seamstress whose honest life makes a contrast with the countess, and who later becomes Derville's wife.
- Camille de GrandlieuA seventeen-year-old girl who loves young Count Ernest de Restaud and listens to Derville's tale.
- Ernest de RestaudThe count's eldest son, a devoted boy who loves his father and hopes one day to marry Camille.
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Gobseck
by Honoré de Balzac · 1830
A moneylender who calls gold the only power in the world holds a countess's diamonds and a count's fortune.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What does a young lawyer learn from the strangest neighbour in Paris? In Gobseck, a lawyer named Derville answers that question late one night in a grand salon.
Gobseck at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 30 min1 h 10 min fast, 1 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 21,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1830by Honoré de Balzac
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A lawyer offers a story in a salon
It is one in the morning in the winter of 1829 to 1830. In the salon of the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu, her seventeen-year-old daughter Camille stands by the fireplace, listening for the carriage of a young man who has just left. The Vicomtesse decides to speak plainly.
The young man is Count Ernest de Restaud. He is capable and kind to his brother and sister. But his mother has a bad name in Paris because she treated her own father cruelly and spends millions. The Vicomtesse says that as long as that mother lives, no good family will hand over a daughter's fortune to her son.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1830
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 1 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Balzac, Honoré de. Gobseck. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/gobseck.
Balzac, H. de. (2026). Gobseck. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/gobseck (Original work published 1830)
Balzac, Honoré de. Gobseck. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/gobseck.
@book{balzac2026gobseck,
author = {Balzac, Honoré de},
title = {Gobseck},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/gobseck},
note = {First published 1830}
}
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What is Gobseck about?
It follows a lawyer named Derville who tells a Paris salon about the old moneylender Gobseck. The story shows how debt, vanity and greed shape the life of a countess, her husband and a young clerk.
Who is Gobseck in the story?
Gobseck is an elderly moneylender of Dutch and Jewish parentage who lives in a bare room in Paris. He believes gold is the only real power, yet he is loyal to the few people who deal honestly with him.
Who tells the story of Gobseck?
The lawyer Derville tells it to the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu, her daughter Camille and her brother. He uses his own past as the clerk who borrowed money from Gobseck, so the tale carries a close eyewitness voice.
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.
More by Honoré de Balzac
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