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    The Lily in the Valley
    Unavailable
    The Lily in the Valley
    Unavailable
    The Lily in the Valley
    Ebook352 pages6 hours

    The Lily in the Valley

    By Honoré de Balzac, Peter Bush and Geoffrey O'Brien

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A new translation of one of Balzac’s finest novels, this tale of misguided passion centers on a young aristocrat who falls into a cloaked, coded entanglement with an older countess—a relationship that is upended when he becomes involved with a new lover.

    A story of impossible and unsatisfied desire, Balzac’s The Lily in the Valley opens with a scene of desire unleashed. Félix de Vandenesse, the shy teenage scion of an aristocratic family, is at a ball, when his eyes are drawn to a beautiful woman in fashionable undress: before he knows what he is doing, he throws himself upon her, covering her bare back with kisses. In shock, she pushes him away. He leaves the party in shame.

    The woman at the party is Henriette de Mortsauf, married to a much older count. Time passes, and Félix is reintroduced to her. Nothing is said of what transpired, though nothing is forgotten, and a courtship begins whose premise is that Félix will worship Henriette without displaying the least sign of desire. He waits on her. He plays endless board games with her impossible husband. He develops a language of flowers and presents her with elaborately coded bouquets. Félix and Henriette are in a swoon, until he departs for Paris to pursue a career in politics and takes up with the uninhibited Arabella Dudley. Meanwhile Henriette is on her deathbed. She writes him, “Do you remember your kisses? They have dominated my life and furrowed my soul. . . . They are my death!”

    The Lily in the Valley is a terrible fairy tale of two people lost in a game of love—or is it? Peter Bush’s new translation brings out the psychological dynamics of one of Balzac’s masterpieces.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNYRB Classics
    Release dateJul 23, 2024
    ISBN9781681377995
    Unavailable
    The Lily in the Valley
    Author

    Honoré de Balzac

    Honoré de Balzac (geb. 20. Mai 1799 in Tours; gest. 18. August 1850 in Paris) war ein französischer Schriftsteller. In den Literaturgeschichten wird er, obwohl er eigentlich zur Generation der Romantiker zählt, mit dem 17 Jahre älteren Stendhal und dem 22 Jahre jüngeren Flaubert als Dreigestirn der großen Realisten gesehen. Sein Hauptwerk ist der rund 88 Titel umfassende, aber unvollendete Romanzyklus La Comédie humaine (dt.: Die menschliche Komödie), dessen Romane und Erzählungen ein Gesamtbild der Gesellschaft im Frankreich seiner Zeit zu zeichnen versuchen.

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    Reviews for The Lily in the Valley

    3.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Thank You This Is Very Good, Maybe This Can Help You ----- Download Full Ebook Very Detail Here ---- https://amzn.to/3XOf46C ---- - You Can See Full Book/ebook Offline Any Time - You Can Read All Important Knowledge Here - You Can Become A Master In Your Business
    • 4/5
      Traumatized boy (probably Balzac himself) falls in love with a married woman who could be as old as his mother. Fate parts them from each other but he tries to make up with her daughter after his lover's death...
    • 5/5
      Beautiful and strange, a sentimental parenthesis in the "Human Comedy", this book was inspired by Balzac's own romantic love triangle which he was working through at the time. The book has a very interesting, very curious structure. An epistolary novel of sorts, it's constructed by the triptych of three letters, one book length one flanked by two short notes. The bulk of the book is contained in the second "letter", a long, passionate retelling of the writer's experience locked in indecision between the love of two starkly different women.

      A very humorous ending, by the way!