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Loading... Ursule Mirouët (1841)by Honoré de Balzac
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This novel is also known under its French title of "Ursule Mirouët"; it is the first of Balzac's "Scenes from Provincial Life" section of his Human Comedy. Although I didn't realize it when I started, it is good that I read this book before "Another Study of Woman" (next up for me in "Scenes from Private Life") as Ursula, orphaned as a toddler & taken under the protection of her godfather Dr. Denis Minoret, is reviled by Dr. Minoret's relatives as much as she is loved by the doctor & his few friends. Balzac does a wonderful depiction of avarice and the way people judge others by their own character. To his greedy relatives, the girl must be always scheming to get hold of the doctor's money & it is their responsibility to put a stop to that to protect their inheritance. I delighted in this novel with one exception - Read in my Project Gutenberg Kindle edition "The Works of Balzac" 'a remarkable tour de force', 31 Dec. 2011 Verified Purchase(What is this?) This review is from: Ursule Mirouet (Classics) (Paperback) When elderly Dr Minoret settles in his family home town along with a young female ward, Ursule, his vulture-like relatives are ever in the wings waiting to inherit. They grow to hate Ursule, convinced she is scheming to get 'their' money. Without giving too much away, there is a crime, a touch of the supernatural and a pair of starcrossed lovers. It had me enthralled from page 1; I can see why Balzac considered it 'a remarkable tour de force'. The characterisations of the horrible relatives are brilliantly done eg 'his face was one of those in which it is hard for the thoughtful observer to see any trace of a soul beneath the florid tints of gross coarsening flesh'. Recommended. Ursule Mirouët eponymous heroine of Balzac's novel is a saintly orphan of the first order. A orphan with a complicated history-the legitimate daughter of her godfather's illegitimate brother-in-law, Ursule becomes the ward and goddaughter of her uncle, Dr. Mirouët, a wealthy widower who offers the infant Ursule a home, promptly names her after his saintly dead wife and retires to Nemours, a small provincial town outside Paris where a host of his relatives live-relatives who are neither saintly nor virtuous. Ursule's arrival upsets their great expectations of inheriting beaucoup d'argent, a fact that makes them gnash what teeth they have and begin plotting. In the meantime, the good Dr. Mirouët raises Ursule in virtuous and innocent isolation from the evils of the world. In this task, he is aided by his good friend the Abbé Chaperon, so saintly that his breeches are mostly on the verge of falling down because he has sold the buckles keeping them in place to aid the poor. “A beautiful naïveté,” the narrator informs us. Monsieur Jordy, “a Voltairean nobleman and an old bachelor,” joins the good doctor and the abbé in bringing up baby. All these benevolent gentlemen function as Ursule “three mothers.” Read the complete review at Dark Tea Times. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesThe Human Comedy (Études de Moeurs - Scènes de la vie de province I | 25) Studies of Manners (28) Belongs to Publisher Seriesdetebe-Klassiker (22422) Everyman's Library (733) Notable Lists
Classic Literature.
Fiction.
HTML: This novel is one of the pillars of the Scenes of Provincial Life section of Honore de Balzac's story cycle The Human Comedy. Through a series of tragedies and coincidences, a kind and pious teenager named Ursula has been taken in by an octogenarian doctor, Denis Minoret. Inspired by Ursula's goodness, Minoret decides to make her his chief heir. This incites the ire of his other relatives, and a ruthless war for Minoret's estate breaks out. .No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)843.7Literature French French fiction Constitutional monarchy 1815–48LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Ursula, orphaned as a toddler & taken under the protection of her godfather Dr. Denis Minoret, is reviled by Dr. Minoret's relatives as much as she is loved by the doctor & his few friends. Balzac does a wonderful depiction of avarice and the way people judge others by their own character. To his greedy relatives, the girl must be always scheming to get hold of the doctor's money & it is their responsibility to put a stop to that to protect their inheritance.
I delighted in this novel with one exception -
Read in my Project Gutenberg Kindle edition "The Works of Balzac" ( )