Maitre Cornelius

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

3.6

Word count: 123K words
Chapters: 13

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.Maitre Cornelius by Honoré de BalzacAuthor: Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Feb 22, 2005

Editor's review

Balzac's novella Maitre Cornelius draws readers, with his characteristic meticulous touch, into the gloomy streets and secretive mansions of late-medieval Tours. The story revolves around the legend of the alchemist Maitre Cornelius, blending historical atmosphere, suspenseful tension, and human insight; within its brief compass it displays Balzac's profound grasp of greed, fear, and secrecy. As a standalone narrative outside the Human Comedy cycle, it retains the author's signature environmental description and social observation while using tightly paced plotting to create an unsettling reading experience. For readers who want an initial taste of Balzac but are daunted by long novels such as Old Goriot or Eugénie Grandet, this work is a light but engaging entry point; for those familiar with his realist style, it reveals a different face of Gothic interest and historical imagination. The public-domain English electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg makes it easy to search and read alongside other versions, suitable for completing in chapters during a commute or in short sessions.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers who want a short introduction to Balzac's realist style
History-fiction fans drawn to medieval settings and alchemical legends
Students who need an English public-domain text for translation practice or textual analysis
Readers who prefer suspenseful atmosphere and compact, short-session reading

Not a good fit for

Balzac readers expecting a full-length social panorama with multi-strand narration
Beginners who find archaic English spellings and historical place names hard going
Casual readers who prefer light, brisk contemporary subjects

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the suspense主线—wait, output must be English: Read through once to grasp the main suspense line, then go back and read closely for hints in the setting descriptions and dialogue.
Compare it with the provincial-life scenes in Balzac's La Comédie humaine to see how his environmental writing carries over.
While reading, note the symbolic weight of the alchemist figure and consider the author's attitude toward the relationship between knowledge and greed.
With the English text, don't look up every unfamiliar word; prioritize keeping the plot连贯—no: prioritize keeping the plot coherent and preserving the atmosphere.

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

Is this book part of Balzac's La Comédie humaine?

Maitre Cornelius is generally not counted among the main works of La Comédie humaine; it is a standalone short historical novella. It likewise shows Balzac's attention to environmental detail and human desire, but its characters and plot are not directly linked to the recurring character system of La Comédie humaine, so it can be read as a separate work.

Can I read this Gutenberg edition if my English isn't strong?

The Gutenberg edition is an English public-domain text whose language bears traces of nineteenth-century translation or writing; some vocabulary and sentence patterns are somewhat difficult for beginners. It is advisable to learn the outline of the story before reading the main text, or to read it in sections with an electronic dictionary; if the aim is literary appreciation, you may also consult a reliable Chinese translation alongside it.

Is this novella suitable for translation practice?

It works well as short translation-practice material. It is not long, its plot line is clear, and it contains a variety of registers—setting description, character dialogue, and psychological portrayal—making it useful for practicing different sentence patterns. Note, however, that the text is early, and some expressions are not idiomatic contemporary English; when translating, judge meaning from context.

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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.