The Black Sheep (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Honoré de Balzac (Author), Donald Adamson (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: August 26, 1976

Philippe and Joseph Bridau are two extremely different brothers. The elder, Philippe, is a superficially heroic soldier and adored by their mother Agathe. He is nonetheless a bitter figure, secretly gambling away her savings after a brief but glorious career in Napoleon's army. His younger brother Joseph, meanwhile, is fundamentally virtuous - but their mother is blinded to his kindness by her disapproval of his life as an artist. Foolish and prejudiced, Agathe lives on unaware that she is being cynically manipulated by her own favourite child, but will she ever discover which of her sons is truly the black sheep of the family? A dazzling depiction of the power of money and the cruelty of life in nineteenth-century France, The Black Sheep compellingly explores is a compelling exploration of the nature of deceit.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

About the Author

Balzac was born in 1799, the son of a civil servant. At the age of thirty - heavily in debt and with an unsucessful past behind him - he started work on the first of what were to become a total of ninety novels and short stories that make up The Human Comedy. He died in 1850. Translated with an introduction by Donald Adamson

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (August 26, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140442375
• ISBN-13: 978-0140442373
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #298,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BRING ON THE IRONY, August 23, 2003

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Black Sheep (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

In his preface to this book, Balzac makes an interesting observation about 19th century France that seems to be a preoccupation of our century as well. Balzac states that young men who grow up without a significant male role model are destined to have a rough go in life. According to him, most of the tribulations that occur in The Black Sheep stem from the very fact that there was no father to steer the Bridau family.

The main focus of the book is upon two brothers, Philippe and Joseph Bridau, whose father has died, leaving their close to destitute mother to raise them. Phillipe ends up becoming an artist with a pretty dependable income. Joseph serves in Napoleon's army for a while until his final defeat and then, too proud to serve under the new government, becomes an unemployed gambler who steals money from his family only to throw it away at the tables.

You would think that their mother would favor Joseph with more love because he looks out for their family and provides a steady income and is completely devoted to her. She puts all of her love upon Phillipe, the ne'er do well who only sees humanity as a tool to further his own ends. She does this because she sees Joseph's profession as a painter as a waste of time in her practical mind. Real men become soldiers like Phillipe. So what if he's a vice filled man? She idealizes him so much that she can't see his faults.

Balzac is a genius. There really isn't a central character is this work. Everytime you think Balzac has settled upon a particular cast of characters, he exits them and enters a new set to interact with the plot. Constant reinvention. While Joseph is in jail for plotting against the government, Phillipe and his mother have to go rescue his rich uncle, who is being hoodwinked out of his fortune (a fortune, by the way, that the Bridau family is due to inherit) by a manipulating mistress and her lover.

This was a great novel. Not perfect, but great. Balzac is to me the most modern of the 19th century novelists writing in the Victorian age. He is not sentimental like Dickens. He was great at watching families squirming to get at money. Squirming to get money not for survival in most cases, but to attain status. All of the characters in this novel were drawn really well. Very strong. I would recommend any of the Penguin Editions of Balzac if you like this book.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful novel with emotional highs and lows., April 15, 1999

By 

Glen Andrews ([e-mail]) (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Black Sheep (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

As historian and novelist Balzac paints a picture of post Napoleonic France through the eyes of an impoverished family, and the trials of their lives. After a series of emotional hits, Balzac takes the reader through a contest of wits, set amidst a web of intrigue, and a very contorted family tree. The end result is an excellent story with a sophisticated plot which at times gives too accurate a portrait of the detachment of man. The Black Sheep also contains a short social commentary on New York, which though written 150 years ago, is still exceptionaly accurate.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Machiavelli for fiction lovers, April 26, 2009

By 

Harold Kaplan (Barrie, Ontario) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Black Sheep (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This might be Balzac's greatest novel, it is certainly his most perfect. Elsewhere Balzac can be garrulous, here not a word is wasted. The plot has a classic, beautiful symmetry. We are driven forward at a rapid pace by the author's logic. (Forgive the cliches.) Balzac greatly admired the Machiavellian element in Stendahl, but in this respect he far surpassed Stendahl. One can be "too good for this world". Nice people finish last. To fight evil you must be almost as bad as the people who threaten you. We need scoundrels to protect us from external enemies, but then who will protect us from our protectors. Anyone interested in the Bush Administration's war on terror must read this novel.