An Artist's Honor

Octave FeuilletProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 309K words
Chapters: 31

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.Honor de artista by Octave FeuilletAuthor: Feuillet, Octave, 1821-1890,Language: Spanish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Mar 11, 2008

Editor's review

Honor de artista is a novel by French author Octave Feuillet centering on the conflict between art and morality, with a Spanish translation made freely available by Project Gutenberg. Feuillet was a nineteenth-century French writer of melodrama and fiction whose works often concern the emotional entanglements and notions of honor of high society. The book revolves around an artist's dilemma between pursuing artistic achievement and upholding personal integrity, with a pronounced melodramatic flavor, tight character relationships, and strong emotional tension. As a public-domain ebook, this edition offers readers access to one facet of nineteenth-century French popular literature and suits those interested in artistic ethics and the theme of honor, as well as Spanish learners seeking supplementary reading. Note that Feuillet's narrative style bears the mark of its era, with plot driven by coincidence and emotional outbursts, so modern readers may need to adjust their expectations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century French popular literature and melodrama
Literature enthusiasts concerned with artists' ethics and the theme of honor
Intermediate to advanced Spanish learners hoping to engage with classic narrative texts
General readers who enjoy tight emotional conflicts and character-driven drama

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer modern, concise narrative or experimental writing
Academic readers expecting in-depth art theory or aesthetic analysis
Readers with low tolerance for melodramatic coincidence and emotional exaggeration

Reading tips

Familiarize yourself with the melodramatic tradition of Feuillet's era before reading the text; it makes the characters' emotional logic easier to understand.
As you read, note how "honor" is defined differently among the artist, patrons, and family.
Spanish learners can pick out emotional-expression patterns in dialogue and compile them into a thematic vocabulary list.
If the plot feels slow, read the opening and closing of chapters first to grasp the main thread, then go back for details.

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 similar in style to The Prisoner of Zenda?

Both are public-domain Spanish ebooks, but their styles differ. Hope's work is an adventure novel with a brisk pace; Feuillet's is more a domestic and artistic-circle emotional drama, with conflict centered on honor and morality, so expectations should be adjusted accordingly.

Is the Spanish translation of Feuillet's novel easy to read?

The translation uses nineteenth-century literary language with many long sentences, but the plot threads are clear. Intermediate learners can read the story through first and then tackle language difficulties; advanced learners can appreciate the period style and emotional rhetoric.

Why recommend this to readers interested in the theme of honor?

The novel tests an artist's professional aspirations against personal reputation and family duty, showing the multiple understandings of "honor" in nineteenth-century society. Readers interested in ethical issues can see the tension between period attitudes and individual choice.

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

Octave Feuillet Author · French · 1821–1890

Octave Feuillet (1821–1890) was a French novelist and playwright, elected to the Académie française in 1862. His work stands between Romanticism and realism, retaining the emotional intensity of the Romantic school while paying close attention to the observation and depiction of real life. He was especially skilled at portraying women's psychology, and his characters often reveal subtle inner depths as they move between feeling and circumstance. His representative works include Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre and Monsieur de Camors, the latter preserved in the collection in several volumes and as a complete edition, a sign of its wide circulation. The collection also includes Led Astray and The Sphinx, fifteen titles in all, mostly centred on love, family and social life. Public information on his early years and education is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.