Farewell

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

3.9

Word count: 92K words
Chapters: 10

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.Farewell 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

Farewell is a short work by Balzac. Though brief, it concentrates his method of portraying characters' fates through detail and conveying the spirit of an era through scene. The story revolves around the encounters of characters in a specific historical situation; its emotion is restrained yet long-lasting, making it a light entry point into Balzac's work. For readers familiar with the overall framework of La Comédie Humaine, this piece can be read against the novels to observe how he compresses narrative and creates turns in the short form. When reading, note the resonance between environmental description and characters' psychology, and the weight of the blank space at the end. Because it is short, reading it in one sitting better conveys the sense of structural closure; as teaching material for French literature or realist fiction, it is also convenient for classroom discussion. Note that differences between Chinese or English versions may affect understanding of details; a reliable translation is recommended.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers new to Balzac's style: short and easy to enter
Students of realist fiction and short narrative: convenient for structural analysis
Teachers and students of French literature courses: usable as a classroom discussion text
Literary readers who enjoy restrained lyricism and lingering endings

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking long epic-style group portraits and complex plots
Readers expecting light entertainment and fast-paced stories
Readers completely unfamiliar with 19th-century French historical background who are unwilling to consult additional materials

Reading tips

Read it in one sitting, then look back at how the opening environmental description echoes the ending.
Spend ten minutes before reading learning the story's historical background to lower the threshold of understanding.
Compare it with Balzac's novels to observe how the short form compresses characters' fates.
After reading, write a hundred-word summary to test whether you have grasped the turns and the blank space.

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

Can I read this without having read other works by Balzac?

Yes. This is an independent short work and does not depend on prior events from the novel series. First-time Balzac readers can treat it as a style sample, focusing on his detailed description and emotional closure; if interested after reading, moving on to the novels of La Comédie Humaine will be smoother.

Is this suitable for classroom discussion?

Yes. It is short with a complete structure, convenient to read within one class session and focus discussion on narrative perspective, environmental description, and the ending's blank space. Teachers can supplement historical background in advance, guide students to analyze the characters' situations and the author's attitude, and also compare it with similar realist short stories to discuss techniques of compressed narrative.

What is most worth noting while reading?

Note the resonance between environmental description and characters' psychology, and how the blank space at the end is handled. Balzac often uses concrete scenes to carry characters' fates; details are not decoration but part of the narrative. Looking back at the opening after finishing makes it easy to discover the structural closure and foreshadowing, and to appreciate the density of the short form.

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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.