Adieu

Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 87K words
Chapters: 9

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Adieu by Honoré de BalzacAuthor: Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jun 1, 2004

Editor's review

Adieu is a short gem from Balzac's La Comédie Humaine, set against Napoleon's Russian campaign and telling of an officer, Philippe, who endures great hardships in search of his lost love. In a very brief span the work moves from the savagery of war to emotional obsession, and the shock of its ending reflects Balzac's profound insight into human nature and madness. Tightly narrated and vivid in imagery, it is a fitting entry point for understanding Balzac beyond his full-length novels, and serves well as supplementary reading in French literature courses discussing war trauma and love. The English translation is concise and short enough to finish in an evening or two, then return to savor the details of foreshadowing. Readers are advised to note the narrator's subtly shifting attitude toward Philippe.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers who want a short introduction to Balzac
Readers interested in the Napoleonic Wars and the theme of war trauma
Students needing supplementary short readings for French literature courses
General readers who enjoy emotionally intense stories with a final twist

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking light, pleasant reading and avoiding death and madness
Deep researchers who need the full context of the long La Comédie Humaine
Young readers who find nineteenth-century translationese syntax hard to follow

Reading tips

Learn the basic facts of Napoleon's Russian campaign first; the text is easier to enter
Read through once for plot, then again for hints of the narrator's view of Philippe's psyche
After reading, compare with other works in La Comédie Humaine to appreciate Balzac's recurring characters
If reading the English translation, excerpt key passages and compare with a Chinese version to sense the linguistic differences

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Where does this novella stand within La Comédie Humaine?

Adieu is a short story within La Comédie Humaine, often grouped among the Philosophical Studies, with themes of obsession and madness. It is not a core full-length novel of the series, but it shows Balzac's ability to carry deep observation of human nature in a short form, and can be read on its own.

Can I understand it without background knowledge of the Napoleonic Wars?

Yes. The core plot is search and reunion; the war background mainly provides the source of trauma. Knowing the general course of the Russian campaign helps understand the characters' situation but is not necessary for the main line; the emotional impact does not depend on historical detail.

How long is the English translation, and what reading pace suits it?

It is a short story; the English translation can usually be finished in one or two evenings. Read it straight through the first time to preserve the impact of the ending, then read it again in sections, noting the foreshadowing of the narrator's changing attitude toward Philippe.

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About the author

Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850 Author

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was a French novelist best known for his vast series La Comédie humaine. The library holds 143 of his works, including Father Goriot, Lost Illusions, Eugénie Grandet, and several volumes of La Comédie humaine. His writing is distinguished by dense detail, a large cast of characters, and an intricate social network, often linking separate works through recurring figures to portray nineteenth-century French society. He excelled at depicting the power of desire, ambition, and money through precise settings and strong narrative tension, and he exerted a lasting influence on later realist fiction. Beyond the broad outline of his life, public information is limited, so this note focuses on the themes and style of his works.