Customer Reviews

Selected Short Stories (Dual-Language)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have no quibbles with Balzac or anything the man wrote.

However, contrary to what the "Book Description" says, "The Forsaken Woman" (or "La Femme Abandonee") is not contained within the pages of this collection.

I would not even bother mentioning this except that I was specifically looking for a copy of that particular story. I've loved it since I read in it its original French back in high school. I just now found a copy of it on the Internet for free thanks to Project Gutenberg -- you may want to do the same thing if you're after a particular story or want a nice sampling of all that M. Balzac has to offer.

Note to AMAZON: It would be nice if whoever writes the book descriptions would actually pick up the item in question and, at the very least, take a look at the Table of Contents.

09/09/2008
Merit-Worthy of Balzac:
Beautiful cover, short stories
filled with Balzac's lively imagination
and minute observations of the details
of everyday life and acute social and
psychological insight coupled with Balzac's
keen sense of irony.
Human Nature doesn't change
as social and economic conditions do.
Tales as mesmerizingly relevant today
as they were when written over a century ago.
Recommended Reading:
La Comedie Humaine:
Honore de Balzac's multi-volume
collection of novels depicting French
society 1815-1848:
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose...

I went to the Powell's website and found the following information on the Dover edition:
This convenient volume includes 6 of the great French writer's most highly regarded short stories, including: "An Episode During the Terror," "A Passion in the Desert," "The Revolutionary Conscript," "The Forsaken Woman," "The Unknown Masterpiece," 2 more. Excellent new English translations on facing pages. Introduction. Footnotes.

The Penguin edition table of contents are what you get if you click on table of contents that is linked now for Search Inside. I've read this Penguin edition, and it's a good introduction to Balzac.

I would highly recommend Lost Illusions to anyone who has the time and patience to read a longer Balzac novel. Of the roughly 7 Balzac books I read last year, I consider it my favorite. I wish I could find all Balzac in translation; occasionally, I feel I should learn French just to read Balzac.

I will probably end up picking up this Dover translation eventually as there are some stories I haven't read yet.

My edition of this book (bought from Amazon) contains Forsaken Woman story. I enjoyed reading this story and others. I recommend this book for anyone who likes to read in French but needs help.

I have to put a five star rating to nutralize the other 1-star review. What's wrong with you or with your book, my copy contains exactly what it supposed to contain, including, "The forsaken woman".

Let's see if we can balance the 5* rating by X. Chen (20 Aug 07) with the 1* review by C. Maurer (1 May 06). It seems that Maurer was looking at the book description placed by Amazon on the page for the book "Selected Short Stories" (Penguin Classics Paperback ISBN-10: 0140443258) which was actually for a different edition, "Selected Short Stories" (Dual-Language_Contes Choisis_, Dover Paperback ISBN-10: 0486408957). Then it seems that X. Chen saw the review for the Penguin edition which Amazon placed on the page for the Dover edition, and compared the Penguin review with the Dover description and his copy of the Dover edition. Perhaps Balzac or Shakespeare could have made us enjoy such a case of mistaken identity, but 21st century web sites only provide us with despair of ever finding a reliable fact.

One helpful solution would be for EVERY book description and review to have a subtitle that indicates to what the writer originally referred. Then an effort should be made to place only the relevant descriptions and reviews on their proper pages (rather than automatically stuffing each page with un-helpful pastings). Finally we find, after a decade of "improvements", that it is still next to impossible to find and compare the facts about various editions and translations, abridged or not, when even the "look inside" often sends one to a different edition.

If the web masters can't help us, then it is up to everyone who posts a review to clearly state what edition (and translator or illustrator) they have actually seen, and provide their view of both the original work, as well as comparing translations if they have seen more than one. And as for those who choose to post on the subject of order fulfillment both good and bad, or the weather, their notes might be placed inside the ads for Amazon Prime.

"What makes a good review?

"* Be detailed and specific. What would you have wanted to know before you purchased the product?"

So far, this title has three reviews, and nothing yet about Balzac's stories. And the book description does not tell us which stories are in the Penguin edition. (Isn't it strange that most collections of stories or poems lack a table of contents directly on the Amazon product page?) Since I have not seen either book (why buy when there is no actionable intelligence?), I hope that someone who has will give of their time to tell us. This is what I needed to know before purchasing a lot of misinformation with my time.