A new annotated translation of the keystone of Balzac’s Comédie
Humaine—a sweeping narrative of corrupted idealism in a cynical
urban milieu Lost Illusions is an essential text within
Balzac’s Comédie Humaine, his sprawling, interconnected
fictional portrait of French society in the 1820s and 1830s
comprising nearly one hundred novels and short stories. This novel,
published in three parts between 1837 and 1843, tells the story of
Lucien de Rubempré, a talented young poet who leaves behind a
scandalous provincial life for the shallow, corrupt, and cynical
vortex of modernity that was nineteenth-century Paris—where his
artistic idealism slowly dissipates until he eventually decides to
return home. Balzac poured many of his thematic
preoccupations and narrative elaborations into Lost Illusions, from
the contrast between life in the provinces and the all-consuming
world of Paris to the idealism of poets, the commodification of
art, the crushing burden of poverty and debt, and the triumphant
cynicism of hack journalists and social climbers. The novel teems
with characters, incidents, and settings, though perhaps none so
vivid as its panoramic and despairing view of Paris as the nexus of
modernity’s cultural, social, and moral infection. For Balzac, no
institution better illustrates the new reality than Parisian
journalism: “amoral, hypocritical, brazen, dishonest, and
murderous,” he writes. In this new translation, Raymond N.
MacKenzie brilliantly captures the tone of Balzac’s incomparable
prose—a style that is alternatingly impassioned, overheated,
angry, moving, tender, wistful, digressive, chatty, intrusive, and
hectoring. His informative annotations guide the modern reader
through the labyrinth of Balzac’s allusions.Â
General
| Imprint: |
University of Minnesota Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
May 2020 |
| First published: |
2020 |
| Authors: |
Honoră© De Balzac
|
| Translators: |
Raymond N. MacKenzie
|
| Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 51mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
| Pages: |
624 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-1-5179-0543-9 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General
|
| LSN: |
1-5179-0543-5 |
| Barcode: |
9781517905439 |
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