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Comment: Softcover. Edition Unstated. Full Title: The Girl With the Golden Eyes. Fine, Clean Condition: Fine Condition. 84 pages. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Education; ISBN: 1406506451 BZDB42 Inventory No: 1561032751.
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Honoré de Balzac
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The Girl With the Golden Eyes Paperback – May 5, 2006

by Honore de Balzac (Author), Ellen Marriage (Translator)
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 38 ratings
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By the French author, who, along with Flaubert, is generally regarded as a founding-father of realism in European fiction. His large output of works, collectively entitled The Human Comedy (La Comédie Humaine), consists of 95 finished works (stories, novels and essays) and 48 unfinished works. His stories are an attempt to comprehend and depict the realities of life in contemporary bourgeois France. They are placed in a variety of settings, with characters reappearing in multiple stories.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    84 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Dodo Pr
  4. Publication date
    May 5, 2006
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.5 x 8.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1406506451
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1406506457
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dodo Pr; Edition Unstated (May 5, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 84 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1406506451
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1406506457
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.5 x 8.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 38 ratings

About the author

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Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac

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Honoré de Balzac (/ˈbɔːlzæk, ˈbæl-/; French: [ɔ.nɔ.ʁe d(ə) bal.zak], born Honoré Balzac, 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie Humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Owing to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities. His writing influenced many famous writers, including the novelists Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Jack Kerouac and Henry James, as well as important philosophers such as Friedrich Engels. Many of Balzac's works have been made into films, and they continue to inspire other writers.

An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac had trouble adapting to the teaching style of his grammar school. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. When he finished school, Balzac was apprenticed in a law office, but he turned his back on the study of law after wearying of its inhumanity and banal routine. Before and during his career as a writer, he attempted to be a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician; he failed in all of these efforts. La Comédie Humaine reflects his real-life difficulties, and includes scenes from his own experience.

Balzac suffered from health problems throughout his life, possibly due to his intense writing schedule. His relationship with his family was often strained by financial and personal drama, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, Balzac married Ewelina Hańska, a Polish aristocrat and his longtime love; he died in Paris five months later.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Louis-Auguste Bisson [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5
38 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

reynold spector
5.0 out of 5 stars I highly recommend this novella
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2015
Verified Purchase
This a surprising early account of depravity that is very well done. It held my interest right until the shocking ending. Even in translation Balzac was a superb stylist: I would say he was arete (Greek excellence) that puts him into the highest category of novelists who also reveal truths about human behavior. I highly recommend this novella. Also I would recommend Camille Paglia's discussion of Balzac. Reynold Spector
2 people found this helpful
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Lindsey R. Hilburn
4.0 out of 5 stars Golden Eyes and Gold Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2014
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The Girl with the Golden Eyes is filled with murder, lust, passion, and greed spawned straight from 19th century France. The beginning of the book starts out with a long description of the Parisian society but if you can make it through that you're "golden."
2 people found this helpful
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Gerald Everett Jones
3.0 out of 5 stars I'm a Balzac fan
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2013
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But this story is not terribly satisfying. He starts with a rant against humanity in general, Parisians in particular. This is no great surprise coming from him, and somewhat entertaining, but the fuming goes on for-ever!

Then the story has a surprise twist that would have been neat if he had set it up better. There's violence at the end which is disgusting even by today's jaded standards.
One person found this helpful
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monica
1.0 out of 5 stars one for rubberneckers
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2013
Oh good lord this is car-crash writing. The book begins with a prolonged rant, one that's too po-faced in its earnestness to be enjoyable and packed too full with easy stereotypes to be worth considering. The story following it is stock melodrama, but again, good lord. A powerful secret society, Circassian slaves, a mysterious and of course menacing mulatto, a poisoned duenna, love secrets of the Orient, suddenly-discovered blood ties (hey! you look like me! that can only mean that you're my half-sister!), love that dare not speak its name, premonitions of death, attempted murder, and far too late--given that it signals the book's end--actual murder. The problem isn't simply that these elements are if not in themselves lurid used luridly, but that they are so often irrelevant and unnecessary, seemingly thrown together in a haphazard way: the writing feels as sloppy as it does silly. And the book isn't so bad it's fun, either, simply because it's surprisingly uninteresting; in fact despite its novella length I ended up skimming some of it. It's rubbish, it would have been rubbish in 1835, and that it was written by Balzac doesn't alleviate its rubbishness. In fact, I've tried to think of some aspect that does alleviate it, but if there is one it isn't plot, character, dialogue, diction, incident, organisation, creativity, or acuity.

If read it you must, it's free online. I suppose it might be worth having a look at for its oddness quotient; in fact I'll probably keep my copy because the book is so odd. Well, that taken in conjunction with the fact that my copy has one of those distinctive UK covers from the 70's: A naked woman with hippie hair and Carnaby Street make-up on the front and on the back the titillating blurb typical of those editions: 'The greatest French novelist of all time tells the story a man enslaved by a strange girl who bewitched him, ignited his passion, and then revealed herself as captive to the most grotesque perversion known to human flesh.' Now, *that's* so bad it's fun; indeed, with the addition of an exclamation mark or two it would be probably be the sort of thing that would have won Balzac's approval.

Half a star for strangeness, so 1 1/2 stars.
3 people found this helpful
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Marie Alvarenga
5.0 out of 5 stars the girl with the golden eyes
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2012
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love this book!!!!!! that is all i can say!!!!!! wonderful!!!!! he is one of the great writers of all times, if you read just one of his books, you will never forget his work!!!!
4 people found this helpful
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S Stevens
3.0 out of 5 stars For some it could be wonderful..
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2014
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For such a short book, it's really hard to "get into" it. For some it could be wonderful....for me it was so-so bordering on blah.
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D. Fraissinet
2.0 out of 5 stars Loved it because it was free
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2014
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Free is always good. Everything was great with the transfer and I am very pleased. You cannot go wrong with free.
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Anita Reynoso
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2016
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Ecxellent!
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