Thérèse Raquin, by Honoré de Balzac

This book reminds me of why I decided to avoid Zola years ago, after reading Germinal.  Basically, his characters are born…and their lives go downhill from there.  There are some similarities to Thomas Hardy, but at least Hardy’s characters have a more hopeful outlook in the early part of the story and strong redeeming qualities even if fate does get them in the end.

**spoiler alert!**

Therese Raquin is the story of a sordid love triangle in a depressing working class neighborhood.  Therese was adopted permanently by her aunt after her parents died, and she married her cousin Camille, a sickly boy with whom she was raised, and whom she married only because she was expected to and for lack of other prospects.  After they move to Paris, Therese starts an affair with Camille’s best friend Laurent (big healthy meathead type), and together they plot to kill Camille so that they can marry and inherit her elderly aunt’s property after her death.  Their consciences, however, prove impossible to appease after the murder, and they become subject to Macbeth-like psychotic delusions, seeing their victim around or sensing his presence, especially when they are alone together.  Everything comes to a tragic end.

There was only one character in this book that I liked, and that was the Raquins’ tabby cat Francois.  Even he was very cruelly murdered.

Don’t pick up this book unless you are in the mood for a major downer.

Eugénie Grandet, by Honoré de Balzac

This is a tragic story about a young lady living in a French town in the Loire region with her miserly father, patient long suffering mother and faithful servant.  Being of a rich family, she is courted by the sons of other well to do families in her town, when one day her handsome young cousin from Paris comes to live with them for a while. Which suitor succeeds in winning her heart, and will he win her hand as well?

  Balzac clearly meant the story to criticize the too avid pursuit of wealth, to the point where more precious things are sacrificed for its sake and where even the enjoyment of the wealth (presumably the main why reason one wants it) is forgotten in the desire to possess it.

Le dernier jour d'un condamné (The Last Day of a Condemned Man), by Victor Hugo

Je n'apprécie pas ce roman. Victor Hugo essaie d'éliciter du pitié pour le prisonnier et tout qu'il doit subir, mais il ne dit rien sur le crime de cet homme, donc le lecteur ne sait pas si la peine a été méritée ou pas. C'est une histoire déséquilibrée où toute sympathie reste avec le criminel et le victime est absent.

The Clockmaker, by Georges Simenon

Dispassionately told little tale about a young boy from small town America who decides one day to commit a crime and how this affects his father, who owns a small clock repair business and who, as far as we know, is very much a creature of stability and habit. In a way he's a lot like the clocks he repairs. One is tempted to see this story as a lesson on the dangers of boredom, or of a kind of intellectual inertia that leads one to chase after thrills so that life might be worth living. By the end of the story the father reflects upon his own life and concludes that the apple didn't fall very far from the tree.

Diary of a Country Priest (Journal d'un curé de campagne), by Georges Bernanos

This novel is written as selections from the diary of a country parish priest in an obscure French town. The town is humble and commonplace--rather drab, rainy, nothing glamorous or pretty about it, and the parishioners are very ordinary people: small businessmen, farmers, housewives, mischievous children, borderline juvenile delinquents. There is a count and his family, but even they are nothing special in how they live and their family problems. The young priest, who is seen as little more than a boy by some of the older parishioners, finds ways to help various members of his flock grow closer to God while living mundane lives that seem to have nothing of the sublime or holy about them. It is also about the young priest's interactions with fellow priests of nearby towns, an atheist doctor, an old friend from seminary who has abandoned his vocation, and his own bodily infirmities, which turn out to be much more serious than originally suspected. It is a very beautiful book, full of faith, hope and perseverance. 

It's the first Bernanos book I've ever read, and I look forward to read more by this author. 

Ce roman est une collection d'extraits d'un journal d'un curé d'un petit village obscur.  Son village est assez banale, les gens, ordinaires: paysans, petits commerçants, enfants.  Il y a un comte et sa famille, mais il n'y en a rien d'exceptionnel.  Le jeune prêtre, que les villageois voient comme peu plus qu'un garçon, essaie d'encourager quelques-uns de ses paroissiens de vivre d'une manière plus chrétienne dans un monde qui n'a rien de visiblement sacré.  Dans le journal nous apprenons aussi de ses interactions avec des autres curés, un médecin athée, un ancien ami de séminaire qui a abandonné sa vocation, et les infirmités de son propre corps, dont le diagnostic est bien plus sérieux qu'il attendait.  C'est un histoire plein de foi, d'espoir et de persévérance .

C'est le premier des livres de Bernanos que j'ai jamais lu, et je voudrais en lire davantage.

Lettres de Russie en 1839 (Letters from Russia), by Astolphe de Custine

This book is an account of the observations and thoughts of an astute 19th century French aristocrat during his trip to Russia. It is part travelogue, part the telling of anecdotes (historical and contemporary),and part an exposition of conclusions drawn by the author based on his observations (which are the most interesting part of the book).

Russia at the time was in the process of liberalization to bring itself closer culturally, politically, and economically to the rest of Europe, but the traces of its history under Mongol rule, feudalism and the absolute monarchy of the czars, were obvious and jarring to an observer not used to them.  These were the aspects of Russia Custine emphasized in his book.  This made the book understandably unwelcome particularly to more liberal-minded Russians who were trying to reform their country and improve its image abroad.  The book proved prophetic, however, when Russia fell back into her old habits after the Bolshevik takeover.

For a better grasp of the author's background, the audience for whom he wrote, and the book's place in history I recommend George F. Kennan's <i> The Marquis de Custine and His Russia in 1839</i> as a companion book.

Astolphe de Custine and His Russia, by George F. Kennan

This is an excellent review of Astolphe de Custine's <i>Russia in 1839</i> and the times in which it was written. I read it right after <i>Russia in 1839</i> and it was very helpful as I knew nothing about Custine and it was the first book of his I had read.  George Kennan gives a very well-balanced amount of information in his book such that the reader gets a thorough overview of the context in which <i>Russia in 1839</i> was written.

Included is biographical information about the author, a French aristocrat who had lived through the French Revolution as a child, the social milieu in which he lived in Paris, as well as a short exposition of where Russia was in its history when Custine visited, and the reaction to his book in France and in Russia when it came out in the 1840's.

Kennan was a historian who served briefly as U.S. ambassador to the USSR during the Cold War and his thoughts about what Custine observed--reactionary traits that were on their way out under the 19th century Czars but that came back with a vengeance under the Soviets--are chilling.

Also interesting is Kennan's comparison of <i>Russia in 1839</i> with Alexis de Tocqueville's <i>Democracy in America</i>. The two authors were contemporaries, both keen observers, both liberal-minded French aristocrats, and between them they made prophetic speculations about the two countries that emerged as superpowers in the century that followed.