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PENGUUI,NN f/\ CLASSICS
EUGENIE GRANDET
HonoredeBalzacwasbornatToursin 1799,thesonofacivilservant. He
spentnearlysixyearsasaboarderinaVendomeschool,thenwenttolive
in Paris, working asa lawyer's clerk then as a hack-writer. Between 1820
and 1824 he wrote a numberofnovels undervarious pseudonyms, many
ofthem in collaboration, after which he unsuccessfully tried his luck at
publishing, printing and type-founding. At the age of thirty, heavily in
debt, he returned to literature with a dedicated fury and wrote the first
noveltoappearunderhisownname, TheCbouans. Duringthenexttwenty
yearshewroteaboutninetynovelsand shorterstories,amongthemmany
masterpieces,towhichhegavethecomprehensivetitle TheHumanComedy.
Hedied in 1850, afew months after his marriage to Evelina Hanska, the
Polishcountesswithwhomhehadmaintainedamorousrelationsforeigh-
teen years.
Marion AytonCrawford,whodiedin 1973,taughtEnglishLanguageand
Literature in the Technical College at Limavady, Northern Ireland. She
translated five volumes of Balzac for the Penguin Classics: Cousin Bette,
DomesticPeaceandOtherStories, The Cbouansand OldGoriot.
(i3
HONORE DE BALZAC
Eugenie Grandet
TRANSLATED BY
MARION AYTON CRAWFORD
PENGUIN BOOKS
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Thistranslationfirstpublished 1955
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INTRODUCTION
WhenBalzacas ayoungman oftwentywas livingandhalf-
starving in a garret in Paris, given just sufficient time and
money(twoyearsandfourfrancsaday),sohisparentshoped,
toprove that he could be as he asserted a literary man, or to
cure him of the foolish fancy for ever and induce him to
follow the lawyer's career which had been marked out for
him,theworkonwhichallhishopesandthoughtswerefixed
was a tragedy in the classical style, Cromwell. Posterity has
endorsedtheverdictpassedonitbytheprofessorialacquaint-
ance ofhis brother-in-law's who was called onto considerit.
He pronounced it to be completely lacking in any quality
whichmightgivehopeofitssuccess.Buttheplayisimportant
because ofthemodels Balzacstudiedas hewas writingit. He
wastryingwithallhisfabulousintellectualenergyandpowers
ofconcentrationto learn his chosenart, and his letters tell us
of the passionate intensity of interest with which he was
reading and analysing the works of the French classical
theatreatthattime.IfBalzachadneverreadaplayorseenone
actedhisstrongdramaticsensewouldcertainlystillhavefound
expressioninthe characters and scenes ofhis novels; and his
romantic addiction to the sensational and the complex places
him outside the main stream ofthe austere French tradition
forbothplaysandnovels. Yetitispossibletotraceinfluences
from,andaffinitieswith,theplays hestudiedthen,inhislater
novels; and of all the novels ofthe Comidie bumaine, EugSnie
Grandet,in 1883,oneoftheearliest,isgenerallyconsideredthe
most classical
All the characters ofEuginie Grandet, like the characters of
17th-century drama, and like so many of the characters of
Balzac's other novels, are drawn larger than life and appear
simpler than real-life characters ever do, especially the char-
acter ofGrandet, whose obsession dominates the book and
gives rise to the tragedy. Balzac was intensely interested in
psychological study, and his preoccupationwithitis obvious
in all his novels, but it is not the complexities and subtleties
ofmen'sminds,thediscordantelementsthatfightformastery
in one human being, as the modern novelist sees them, that
Balzac depicted. His characters are all ofa piece, but repre-
sented with such power in their simplicity, or rather single-
mindedness, that they become vehicles for the expression of
universal truths, and the story of their lives has often an
epic quality, or sometimes the direct working out of their
apparently inevitable destiny seems to borrow from classical
tragedy.
Itisfromcomedy,however,thatatfirstsightGrandetseems
tohavebeentaken.BalzachimselfcomparedhimtoMoliere's
Harpagon. 'Moliere created the miser, but I have created
Avarice,' he remarked with his customary lack of proper
modesty. In fact neither ofthe two characters is a mere ab-
straction, and of the two Balzac's is certainly the rounder
figure, but their likeness is obvious. They areboth studies in
avarice, both broadly drawn with marked personal idiosyn-
crasiesandtricks ofspeechwhichimposethemonourminds.
Both belong to the select band of the world's undying
personalities.Theyarebothseenbytheircreatorsinablinding
light which effaces all qualities but their dominant one, and
illuminesthatoneunforgettably.
Thedifferencesareclearenoughtoo.Moliere'spurposeand
the purpose ofall those writers, like Jonson, who set living
embodiments of human vices and follies in situations con-
trivedto displaythem, was satirical, andthecharacters them-
selves do not alter in the course of the play. Balzac is only
incidentally a satirist. He does not hate or despise his char-
acters for their weakness or wickedness. He loves them, and
6
displaysall their qualities, goodorbad,withenjoyment The
extremeunlovablenessofsomeofthecharacterswhomBalzac
managedto sympathizewithandfindpleasureinconsidering
is notorious.
A
moreimportantdifferenceisthatBalzac'schiefcharacters
arecapableofdevelopment, andvisibly changeundertheim-
pact of circumstances in the course of the novel, as people
alterinreallife.Itisevenpossibletosaythatthisdevelopment
ofthecharactersis oneoftheprincipalthingsthenovels,and
especiallythis novel, are'about*. And yet all these characters
in all the vicissitudes and changes through which they pass
holdfasttotheirdominantidea,to theinnerdreambywhich
they live. In Grandet it is gold, in Madame Grandet God, in
Eugenie her love ofCharles. ForNanon it is devotionto her
master,forCharles socialposition.
Whenthedominantideaamountstoanobsessionasitdoes
in Grandet, and indeed this is true also ofall the characters
whoholdafixedideasostrongly,developmentcanonlybein
astraightline. WefindGrandetamiser andwatchhimgrow
into a maniac, indifferent to the unhappiness ofthe daughter
he once cared for, robbing her of her inheritance from her
mother, grasping on his death-bed at theprecious metal ofa
crucifix, ready to demand an account ofhis fortune frombe-
yondthegrave. Inthis Grandetis less like Harpagonthanhe
is like Othello or Macbeth, both destroyed by a developing
weaknessintheirownnature,andspreadingdestructionround
them because ofit, or like Racine's heroes and heroines, or
like the characters ofthe Greek dramatists, pursued for their
crimes by inescapable avenging Furies. In fact an English
reader would more readily accept the particular truth to life
that Grandet represents ifhe met him on the stage. He is the
kindofdramaticcharacterwhomweexpecttoseerevealhim-
selfin a plot which achieves its climax and end within a few
hours; but Balzac has, perfectly successfully, set him in an
actionlastingyears.
Unlikethecharacters ofthe great tragic dramatists, Greek,
French,English,Balzac'scharactersarenotsetapartfromthe
massofmankindbynoblebloodandhighsocialposition,but
onlybytheintensityoftheirpassion.
When, within three days, with the coming ofNew Year's
Day 1819,GrandetwasboundtodiscoverthatEugenie'sgold
coins were gone, Balzac says, 'In three days a terrible drama
would begin, a bourgeois tragedy undignified by poison,
daggerorbloodshed, butto theprotagonists morecruelthan
any of the tragedies endured by the members of the noble
house ofAtreus.' Such a comparison is characteristic ofhim,
not onlybecause he loved allusions to classical literature, but
becausehewasveryconsciouslythefirstnovelisttoshowthat
bourgeois tragedies were tragic, as tragic as any drama of
classicaltragedytothoseconcerned,andhavingacomparably
destructive effect upon the fabric ofsociety. The comparison
tooservestoheightenthetensionandprepareforthedramatic
scene which is to come. It is not less characteristic ofBalzac
thatimmediatelyaftermakingthiscomparisonheshouldnote
thatMadame Grandethad not completedthewoollen sleeves
shewasknitting,andthatforwantofthemshecaughtachill.
He is never afraid ofbathos.
In spite ofthe way in which Grandet's figure bestrides it
like a colossus the novel is called not OldGrandetbut Euginie
Grandet and the greater and psychologicallymoreinteresting
9
tragedy is hers. It is a tragedy of the development of her
immature character under the pressure ofpassion, which im-
mediately brings her into collision with her father's passion
and later with a similar passion which has developed in
Charles.
Inthisnovel,perhapsmoreurgentlythaninanyoftheothers,
wearedriventoaskourselveswhatBalzacmeantbyFate,and
to what extent he sees the tragedy in his characters' lives as
preordained. Thereis no simpleanswer to that question. Per-
hapsconsiderationofotheraspectsofthebookmayshedsome
8
