Pierrette

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

4.0

Word count: 294K words
Chapters: 30

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.Pierrette by Honoré de BalzacAuthor: Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Aug 10, 2005

Editor's review

Pierrette is a novel within Balzac's La Comédie humaine, belonging to the series of Scenes of Provincial Life. The story centers on a young girl placed in the care of relatives, using the scheming and coldness within the family to expose the logic of self-interest in provincial society. Compared with Balzac's grand Paris-set works, this book is relatively concentrated in length and tight in its character relationships, making it one of the easier entry points into La Comédie humaine. Its value lies not in suspenseful plotting but in its meticulous portrayal of how money and class prejudice erode family affection, producing a sense of oppression that accumulates slowly. This edition is an English public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, suited to readers willing to encounter nineteenth-century French realism in the original language. Note how the narrator handles domestic space, everyday detail, and character motive, for these details are where Balzac's social observation does its work.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want an entry into Balzac's La Comédie humaine through a relatively concentrated work
Those interested in nineteenth-century French provincial society and family ethics
Readers accustomed to the detailed description of realist literature who can accept a slow pace
Those who wish to read classic French literature through public-domain English e-books

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting strong plotting, a fast pace, or clear suspenseful twists
Readers discomforted by themes of domestic oppression and human calculation
Those who need a Chinese translation or find long English sentences difficult

Reading tips

Familiarize yourself with the overall framework of La Comédie humaine, then read the book as one part of Scenes of Provincial Life.
Note how characters' financial circumstances relate to their family ties; this is key to understanding the conflict.
When encountering long descriptive passages, grasp character actions and dialogue first, then return to the details.
After finishing, compare it with Balzac's other provincial works to see how family narrative is handled differently.

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 La Comédie humaine?

Yes. By common literary knowledge, Pierrette belongs to the Scenes of Provincial Life series within Balzac's La Comédie humaine. It can be read independently, but its place in the overall framework makes the author's sustained attention to social structure easier to understand.

Do I need to read other works by Balzac first?

No. The characters and plot are relatively self-contained and can be read directly. To understand the intertextual relations of La Comédie humaine more fully, you may go on to read other provincial or Paris-set works afterward.

Is this edition in English or French?

According to the source, this edition is an English e-book from Project Gutenberg, with the language marked as English. It suits readers of English; those more comfortable in Chinese may find a Chinese translation for comparison.

Will it feel dull to read?

The pace is slow, focusing on the layered unfolding of family relations and social environment rather than on dense incident. Approached from the observational perspective of realist literature, its cool analysis of interest and kinship is easier to appreciate; readers expecting strong plotting may find it slow.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

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.