Cesar Birotteau (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Honoré de Balzac (Author), Robin Buss (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 1994

This story is one of Balzac's "Scenes de la Vie Privee" within the "Comedie Humaine" sequence, and describes the irresistible rise and fall of a perfume merchant in the Rue St Honore. This novel is the French 19th-century's great poem of bankruptcy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (May 3, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140446419
• ISBN-13: 978-0140446418
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,392,825 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The tragic tale of a perfumer, January 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cesar Birotteau (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This is the fifth Balzac book I have read, and it is the fourth best of all of them. This may be a great compliment to Balzac's writing abilities since he seems to be able to dispense classic after classic.

This story, is a simple tale about the rise and fall of a perfumer. Cesar, the perfumer, lives in Paris and is having a fairly good life thanks to the invention of a hand cream. Unfortunately, since he is not a clever business man, Cesar falls into debt when he throws an elegant society ball. The rest of the book deals with his dowfall as Cesar deals with his wife and daughters sadness, a friend who ran off with 100000 francs, sleazy bankers, an angry nut dealer, architect and his future son in law.

Cesar Birroteau is a fairly tragic story which will have the ability to move the reader. Those who have read other Balzac works will recognize Gobseck the money letter and also the reference to the Nucignens from La Pere Goriot.

This is a great Balzac work with a notable ending. It is not as good as Eugenie Grandet, Ursule Mirouet or La Pere Goriot but is none the less excellent.

Some readers may find Balzac's attention to detail exhausting in several places. Especially in one or two chapters dealing with accounting, you may as well skip over them because they are virtually incomprehensible but also unnecessary.

Balzac's characters also seem similar if you have read other books. Cesar is similar to Goriot, Cesarine to Ursule Mirouet and Eugenie Grandet, the prodigy son in law (I forget his name) to Charles and Rastignac and finally the evil banker is similar to master criminal Vautrin.

Overall excellent. His charcters cry and fall to their knees a lot but that's no surprise if you've read other books of Balzac.