Gaudissart II

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

3.3

Word count: 23K words
Chapters: 3

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.Gaudissart II by Honoré de BalzacAuthor: Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Oct 18, 2004

Editor's review

Gaudissart II is a short story in which Balzac turns a satirical eye on commerce and human nature, centering on salesmanship, the cunning and vanity of the business world, with a distinctly comic tone and a keen observation of social manners. Unlike the author's somber domestic tragedies, this work moves at a brisk pace, its language concealing sharp wit, and serves as a fine sample of another side of Balzac: he could not only write of deep fate but also sketch the social panorama with a mocking pen. The Project Gutenberg English public-domain text is easy to obtain and short enough to finish in one sitting in spare moments. While reading, note the exaggeration and reversals in the dialogue, and how the author uses a small scene to reflect trust and deception in a commercial society. For readers who enjoy satirical literature or who wish to enter nineteenth-century French literature through a lighter work, this short story offers a less weighty entry point. After reading, one might compare it with other Balzac works to feel the range of his style.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy satirical literature and comedies of manners
Readers who want a light, short entry into Balzac's work
General readers interested in the human side of commerce and sales talk
Students who need an English public-domain short story as extensive reading material

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer deep tragedy or intense emotional conflict
Researchers who need scholarly notes and detailed background introductions
Beginning readers impatient with nineteenth-century narrative modes

Reading tips

Read through the dialogue the first time to feel the rhythm of the satire; on the second pass, note the exaggeration and reversals in the sales talk.
Jot down the lines that make you laugh as you read, and afterward look back at how they serve character development.
If reading the English version, grasp the main structure of long sentences before filling in the modifiers, so that looking up every word does not interrupt the reading.
After finishing, compare it with other Balzac short stories to appreciate his different approaches to tragedy and comedy.

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 short story very different in style from Balzac's novels?

The difference is fairly clear. This piece leans toward satire and comedy, with a brisk pace and a concentrated scene; Balzac's novels often unfold vast webs of characters and fortunes. It is better taken as a light sample of another side of the author than as a basis for judging his entire style.

Can I understand it without a background in commerce or French history?

Yes. The core of the story is sales talk and social cunning, and ordinary readers can feel the satire directly. If you want a deeper understanding of the commercial atmosphere it reflects, you can supplement it afterward with some general background on nineteenth-century French society.

Is this English public-domain edition suitable for classroom use?

It can serve as extensive reading or supplementary material in class: it is short and easy to obtain, making it convenient for students to finish before class and discuss the satirical techniques. But this edition usually contains no notes or introduction; if the course requires close reading and analysis, the teacher had best provide an annotated edition or supplementary background materials.

Comments

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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.