Eugénie Grandet

Eugénie Grandet is a novel first published in 1833[1] by French author Honoré de Balzac. While he was writing it he conceived his ambitious project, The Human Comedy, and almost immediately prepared a second edition, revising the names of some of the characters so that Eugénie Grandet then fitted into the section: Scenes from provincial life (Scènes de la vie de province) in the Comédie. He dedicated the edition to Maria Du Fresnay, who was then his lover and was the mother of his daughter, Marie-Caroline Du Fresnay.[note 1]

Eugénie Grandet
Illustration from an 1897 edition
by Daniel Hernández
AuthorHonoré de Balzac
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
SeriesLa Comédie humaine
PublisherMadame Béchet – Charpentier – Furne
Publication date
1833
Preceded byUrsule Mirouët 
Followed byPierrette 

Background

Eugénie Grandet is set in the town of Saumur, which should have been familiar to Balzac since he grew up in Tours about 35 miles away. The two towns are both on the Loire, with châteaux, and of similar size; Tours was much more important historically and politically, which may explain why Balzac allows the impression in the opening that the Grandet residence was Saumur's most important building. Though Balzac grew up in the aftermath of the Revolution, he came to adulthood in Paris under the restored Bourbon monarchy (Louis XVIII & Charles X) and wrote most of what we know under the July Monarchy (1830-1848) of Louis Philippe which came to power when the revolution of 1830 deposed the Bourbon monarchy. It is worth noting that though the Republic had replaced the Livre with the Franc (of equal value) both continued to circulate as did the Louis (20 livres).

Plot summary

Felix Grandet, master cooper, married the daughter of a wealthy timber merchant at a time when the French Republic had confiscated the lands of the Church in the district of Saumur. When the land was auctioned his wife's dowry and his existing savings enabled him to buy substantial property, including some of the best area under vines, all at a very satisfactory price. Though there was little sympathy locally for the Revolution, Grandet rose in esteem and became mayor, later yielding the post under the Empire only because Napoleon had no liking for republicans. At this time his only daughter was ten years old and in that same year more wealth fell into Grandet's lap by way of inheritance of the estates of his mother-in-law, grandfather-in-law, and grandmother.

We gradually learn of Grandet's miserly habits which included rarely admitting townspeople to his house. The principal exceptions were his banker des Grassins and his notary Cruchot, both of whom understood better than many the extent of Grandet's wealth and that since he was 60 in 1819 when much of the action is set, that the wealth must one day devolve on Eugénie. Naturally, they had candidates to marry her in the form of Cruchot's nephew President Cruchot de Bonfons who was president of the court of first instance, and the des Grassins son, Adolphe des Grassins. The townspeople took a lively interest in the competition, which is only natural since some sort of inheritance was the major route to prosperity in the early nineteenth century.[2]

Throughout this sequence we are treated to details of Felix Grandet's parsimony; this may have developed initially through sheer lack of funds but by now is total vice. He counts out slices of bread in the morning though actually never parting with cash for it since one of his tenants pays part of his rent in kind; most other consumables are supplied in a similar way. Mme Grandet is given no more than six francs at a time for pocket money.[note 2] Though his house is impressive externally it is old and run-down, and he is too miserly to repair it; their servant Nanon puts her foot through a rotten stair but faith fully saves the bottle she carries. The novel illustrates Balzac's belief that money had taken over as the national god. [note 3]

On Eugénie's birthday, in 1819, Felix Grandet is celebrating with his favoured coterie of Grassinistes and Cruchotins. They are disturbed by a confident knock on the door and a young stranger is admitted, who hands a letter to Felix. It is from brother Guillaume, unseen and unresponsive in Paris for 30 years asking Felix to assist Charles his son to travel to the Indies. Additionally and confidentially, that Guillaume having gone bankrupt, is planning to take his own life. The next day newspaper headline announces the fact of Guillaume's death, and debts, which causes Charles to break down. While he sleeps Eugénie reads a letter to his mistress and assumes he is dismissing Annette and planning to marry her: Another letter impels Eugénie to collect up the rare gold coins her father gave her on her birthdays. Later she offers the gold to Charles who asks her to guard a gold dressing case given to him by his mother. Meanwhile Felix had made 14,000 francs on dealing in gold coin and preparations were made for Charles to depart to the Indies. Felix devises a way of profiting from winding up his deceased brother's failed business, aided by des Grassins.

After Charles has left, Balzac reserves a final degradation for Grandet. His wife, who had been patient, loving and supportive throughout their married life, had been physically ground down by their austere life. As she lay ill in bed, with Eugénie pleading for a fire to warm her and the services of doctor, he does nothing and she dies. The final scenes - Grandet's death, Charles's cynical return and Eugénie's relative goodness – wrap up the narrative threads, but it is Felix Grandet's moral decay that is the scaffolding in this wonderfully crafted novel.

Notable Translations

Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky began his career by translating the novel into Russian, in 1843.[3]

Ellen Marriage translated most of Dent's first complete English edition of the Comedie in the 1890s

Adaptations

For cinema:

For radio:

  • Eugenie Grandet (2014) by Rose Tremain (adaptor), for BBC Radio 4

For television:

Notes
  1. see page on Maria Du Fresnay and reference in the Balzac article
  2. average annual income at the time was about 450 francs: see Picketty p106
  3. see Cousin Pons for more on this theme towards the end of Balzac's career

References
  1. Barthelme, Donald (17 August 1968). "Eugenie Grandet". New Yorker. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  2. Thomas Picketty, Capital in the twenty-first century, Harvard, 2014
  3. Donald Rayfield (1 August 1984). "Dostoyevsky's Eugénie Grandet". Oxford Academic. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  4. https://cinema.mosfilm.ru/films/34662/
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