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coleton's review against another edition
3.0
This one leaned a little too heavy on the ins-and-outs of 19th century Parisian bankruptcy laws for my tastes. I love Balzac's ability to create drama from the mundane, and to find the pulpy beneath the commonplace. This was was a little too mundane and commonplace and never effectively found the drama or pulp.
It's still kind of fascinating, and there are several great parts. But I think I can safely say it's my least favorite of all the Balzac I've read so far.
It's still kind of fascinating, and there are several great parts. But I think I can safely say it's my least favorite of all the Balzac I've read so far.
nghia's review against another edition
1.0
Five Books is a blog where every week or so they interview an expert in a specific field and ask them to recommend five of the best books on the subject. In a recent installment on "The Best Books on Bankruptcy" the interviewee nominated Balzac's Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau as one of the five.
I think (it has been several years) that I've previously read [b:Eugénie Grandet|59142|Eugénie Grandet|Honoré de Balzac|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388286601s/59142.jpg|1399014] and [b:Père Goriot|59145|Père Goriot|Honoré de Balzac|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389768126s/59145.jpg|72392]. I don't really remember them or my impression of them very well. I expect I thought they were decent but not amazing. I've always got the impression that Balzac's Human Comedie is famous more for the the scope (100 books!) and general, sustained level of competence rather than individual episodes of brilliance.
So I was rather surprised at how hard it was to get into Rise and Fall of Cesar Birtotteau and how much I disliked how Balzac approached things. I actually ended up abandoning them book about 2/3rds of the way through -- even though it was improving at that point -- when I realised my "breaks" were becoming longer & longer. One day I realised I had finished two entire books without reading a single chapter of Cesar Birotteau and that's when I knew it was time to throw in the towel and officially move on.
Balzac does two things that made me feel this was an especially poor effort. The first, which makes it quite hard to get much momentum in the early parts of the book, is that whenever a character is initially introduced (even if it is just to mention them in passing!) we are treated to a very, very, very long character study on their looks, habits, and history. So the plot will advance a few paragraphs and then, boom!, a discursive aside about Anselme Popinot. A few pages to advance the story and, bam!, another discursive aside about du Tillet!
On du Tillet, Balzac writes
After giving his complete personal history we are then treated to a long description of du Tillet
This kind of big info-dump felt unnatural. It isn't woven in the story or dialogue. It is just "let's pause everything and have the author talk directly to the audience for a bit". They often feel more like encyclopedia entries on the characters than anything else.
Eventually Balzac has finally (finally!) introduced all of the characters and set the stage for Birotteau's fall. And that's when my second problem began: I felt like Balzac was in such a hurry to construct the tale of a merchant sliding into bankruptcy that everything felt a bit contrived. The plotting felt artificial rather than natural.
One example of this comes eight days after the Birotteau's ball:
Within a 15 minute window Birotteau receives 4 different bills (none of which he can pay). Instead of a slowly mounting dawning realization that he's sliding towards bankruptcy it felt more like Balzac was hitting you over the head. They all come in the same 15 minutes? Really? It just felt...inartful.
The book does pick up a bit after that point but Balzac continues to slide in more contrived plotting. Birotteau's arch-enemy momentarily feels some pity for him and is about to be magnanimous and loan him the money he needs to avoid bankruptcy.
It is a bit hard to imagine a merchant as savvy as Birotteau saying something like that to a man who is in the middle of loaning him a substantial amount of money.
In any case, it was shortly after this that I decided I just wasn't invested in the book -- the characters, the plot, or anything -- enough to continue reading it.
I think (it has been several years) that I've previously read [b:Eugénie Grandet|59142|Eugénie Grandet|Honoré de Balzac|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388286601s/59142.jpg|1399014] and [b:Père Goriot|59145|Père Goriot|Honoré de Balzac|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389768126s/59145.jpg|72392]. I don't really remember them or my impression of them very well. I expect I thought they were decent but not amazing. I've always got the impression that Balzac's Human Comedie is famous more for the the scope (100 books!) and general, sustained level of competence rather than individual episodes of brilliance.
So I was rather surprised at how hard it was to get into Rise and Fall of Cesar Birtotteau and how much I disliked how Balzac approached things. I actually ended up abandoning them book about 2/3rds of the way through -- even though it was improving at that point -- when I realised my "breaks" were becoming longer & longer. One day I realised I had finished two entire books without reading a single chapter of Cesar Birotteau and that's when I knew it was time to throw in the towel and officially move on.
Balzac does two things that made me feel this was an especially poor effort. The first, which makes it quite hard to get much momentum in the early parts of the book, is that whenever a character is initially introduced (even if it is just to mention them in passing!) we are treated to a very, very, very long character study on their looks, habits, and history. So the plot will advance a few paragraphs and then, boom!, a discursive aside about Anselme Popinot. A few pages to advance the story and, bam!, another discursive aside about du Tillet!
On du Tillet, Balzac writes
In 1813 Ferdinand thought it necessary to register his age, and obtain a civil standing by applying to the courts at Andelys for a judgment, which should enable his baptismal record to be transferred from the registry of the parish to that of the mayor’s office; and he obtained permission to rectify the document by inserting the name of du Tillet, under which he was known, and which legally belonged to him through the fact of his exposure and abandonment in that township. Without father, mother, or other guardian than the procureur imperial, alone in the world and owing no duty to any man, he found society a hard stepmother, and he handled it, in his turn, without gloves,—as the Turks the Moors; he knew no guide but his own interests, and any means to fortune he considered good. This young Norman, gifted with dangerous abilities, coupled his desires for success with the harsh defects which, justly or unjustly, are attributed to the natives of his province.
After giving his complete personal history we are then treated to a long description of du Tillet
His complexion, which was sanguine under the soft skin of a Norman, had a crude or acrid color. The glance of his eye, whose iris was circled with a whitish rim as if it were lined with silver, was evasive yet terrible when he fixed it straight upon his victim. His voice had a hollow sound, like that of a man worn out with much speaking. His thin lips were not wanting in charm, but his pointed nose and slightly projecting forehead showed defects of race; and his hair, of a tint like hair that has been dyed black, indicated a mongrel descent, through which he derived his mental qualities from some libertine lord, his low instincts from a seduced peasant-girl, his knowledge from an incomplete education, and his vices from his deserted and abandoned condition.
This kind of big info-dump felt unnatural. It isn't woven in the story or dialogue. It is just "let's pause everything and have the author talk directly to the audience for a bit". They often feel more like encyclopedia entries on the characters than anything else.
Eventually Balzac has finally (finally!) introduced all of the characters and set the stage for Birotteau's fall. And that's when my second problem began: I felt like Balzac was in such a hurry to construct the tale of a merchant sliding into bankruptcy that everything felt a bit contrived. The plotting felt artificial rather than natural.
One example of this comes eight days after the Birotteau's ball:
“All insolvents are suspicious characters,” said Cesar, exasperated by his little loss, which sounded in his ears like the first cry of the view-halloo in the ears of the game.
At this moment the late major-domo brought in Chevet’s account, followed by a clerk sent by Felix, a waiter from the cafe Foy, and Collinet’s clarionet, each with a bill.
Within a 15 minute window Birotteau receives 4 different bills (none of which he can pay). Instead of a slowly mounting dawning realization that he's sliding towards bankruptcy it felt more like Balzac was hitting you over the head. They all come in the same 15 minutes? Really? It just felt...inartful.
The book does pick up a bit after that point but Balzac continues to slide in more contrived plotting. Birotteau's arch-enemy momentarily feels some pity for him and is about to be magnanimous and loan him the money he needs to avoid bankruptcy.
“Du Tillet,” said the worthy man [Cesar Birotteau], with gravity and emphasis, and rising to take the hand of his former clerk, “I give you back my esteem.”
“What! had I lost it?” cried du Tillet, so violently stabbed in the very bosom of his prosperity that the color came into his face.
“Lost?—well, not precisely,” said Birotteau, thunder-struck at his own stupidity: “they told me certain things about your liaison with Madame Roguin. The devil! taking the wife of another man—”
“You are beating round the bush, old fellow,” thought du Tillet, and as the words crossed his mind he came back to his original project, and vowed to bring that virtue low, to trample it under foot, to render despicable in the marts of Paris the honorable and virtuous merchant [Cesar Birotteau]"
It is a bit hard to imagine a merchant as savvy as Birotteau saying something like that to a man who is in the middle of loaning him a substantial amount of money.
In any case, it was shortly after this that I decided I just wasn't invested in the book -- the characters, the plot, or anything -- enough to continue reading it.
alexture's review
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Très lourd à lire, Balzac se pensant obligé (et il a bien raison, en 2020) de nous expliquer toutes les subtilités du système judiciaire de l’époque. Si on passe tout ça, il reste une belle histoire en trente pages.