Verikosto

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

3.8

Word count: 136K words
Chapters: 14

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.Verikosto by Honoré de BalzacAuthor: Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850,Language: Finnish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Sep 9, 2018

Editor's review

Verikosto (meaning "blood vengeance") is a Finnish translation of a work by Balzac. It is short but concentrates the narrative pleasures of the Comédie humaine: events advance with cool, meticulous strokes, family honor, the obligation of revenge, and personal feeling become entangled, and the characters are ultimately driven to a point from which there is no easy return. The translation preserves the narrative rhythm and scenic elaboration of the original, giving it the weight of an old-fashioned novel. As a public-domain e-book it is easy to obtain, suitable as an entry point to Balzac's shorter narrative and as comparative reading material for Finnish literary translation. Note that this edition contains the text of the work itself, without a translator's preface, notes, or author biography; readers who wish to understand the social background of Corsica or rural France must look elsewhere. Overall, it is a small book suited to being read in one sitting and then revisited to examine the characters' motivations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want an introduction to Balzac's narrative style through a short work
Intermediate and advanced Finnish learners who wish to read classic literary translations
Literary readers interested in themes of revenge and family honor
Scholars studying the circulation and translation of works related to the Comédie humaine

Not a good fit for

Beginning readers who need detailed annotations and a translator's introduction
Readers who prefer modern, concise style and fast-paced narrative
Readers hoping for the full scope of Balzac's major novels

Reading tips

Read the main plot through in one sitting, then return to the dialogue and psychological description at key turning points.
While reading, note the points where the obligation of revenge conflicts with personal feeling, and sort out the logic of the characters' choices.
Finnish learners can compare with the French original or an English translation to see how sentence structures are handled.
After reading, consider it alongside other works by Balzac to reflect on his enduring concern with family and social order.

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

Which work by Balzac is Verikosto?

It is a Finnish translation of a work by Balzac; the title means "blood vengeance" and revolves around revenge and family honor. The source material does not state the corresponding French original title, so it is advisable to verify the specific piece against Balzac's bibliography and English translations.

Does this edition have notes or an introduction?

According to the source material, this is an electronic text released by Project Gutenberg containing only the body of the work, with no mention of a translator's preface, notes, or author biography. Readers who need background knowledge should consult relevant research materials themselves.

Is it suitable for learning Finnish?

It can serve as extended reading for intermediate and advanced learners, but nineteenth-century literary translations tend to have long sentences and formal vocabulary; it is best read with a dictionary and alongside translations in other languages, and is not suitable as an introductory textbook.

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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.