Customer Reviews

The Wrong Side of Paris

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

 

 

This is not great Balzac, though lovers of the Comedie Humaine will read it happily - and in a single evening because it is brief. Much of the story is background related by one character to another in a handful of long sections - a weak narrative strategy. The story of a father and grandson who collaborate to insulate their invalid daughter and mother from the truth of their economic situation might have been turned into a farce by Moliere or Beaumarchais. (And the invalid story has an almost exact parallel in a Dickens story published contemporaneously...)

But the book is worth reading. Many observers have noted that although Balzac often reaches for poetic discourse, he rarely succeeds at the level of the best French writers. Some crtitics have even harsher opinions. At his best, though, Balzac crafts beautifully in an epigrammatic mode. His prose can be wonderfully dense with careful observation and his analysis as relentlessly logical and sympathetic as something by Montaigne or Voltaire. He is not a poetic writer, but he is a very easy writer to read and this is a first-rate translation. A REALLY good translation!

Consider these two early paragraphs:

"But here too, through the crude machinations of some, the prodigality of others, the wealth of his rival capitalists, the caprices of his editors, Godefroid was once again undone. At the same time, he was dragged into the many compromises of literary and political life, the habit of jeering from the sidelines, the endless distractions required by men whiose intellects are never allowed to rest. He thus found himself in bad company, but at least he learned that he had an insignificant face, and one shoulder greater than the other, and no unusual gift for ruthlessness or special generosity of spirit to compensate fior those flaws. The right to be rude is the salary that artists exact for telling the truth. Short, ill-formed, with neither wit nor direction, our young man had little to hope for in an age when the finest mind has no chance of success without the concurrence of good fortune, or the sort of doggedness that makes its own luck. "

We owe Katharine Prescott Wormeley a great deal. Once we wander from the central canon of the Comedie Humaine, her tireless efforts in translating Balzac for the inexpensive "classics" volumes sold door-to-door in England and America around the turn of the century become the sole readily-available translations. While serviceable, they don't compare to those of Kathleen Raine or A.J. Kralsheimer or (especially) Rayner Heppenstall. Mr. Jordan Stump, on the strength of this volume, joins that exalted fraternity.

Lest you think I'm too harsh on KPWormeley, consider her rendering of the same parapraphs:

"In this sphere Godefroid was soon outdone by the brutal Machiavellianism of some, or by the lavish prodigality of others; by the fortunes of ambitious capitalists, or by the wit and shrewdness of editors. Meantime he was drawn into all the dissipations that arise from literary or political life, and he yielded to the temptations incurred by journalists behind the scenes. He soon found himself in bad company; but this experience taught him that his appearance was insignificant, that he had one shoulder higher than the other, without the inequality being redeemed by either malignancy or kindness of nature. Such were the truths these artists made him feel. Small, ill-made, without superiority of mind or settled purpose, what chance was there for a man like that in an age when success in any career demands that the highest qualities of the mind be furthered by luck, or by tenacity of will which commands luck.

That tough, analytical prose just isn't there. And in my opinion, it is Balzac's stylistic hallmark - the thing that distinguished him to his contemporaries and to Henry James. Stump nails it.

Another reason to spend an evening with this volume is that it was obviously baking at the same time as Cousin Bette - that chilling tale of rakes and their accomplices in vice. There is really no bottom to the libertinage of Hulot and Crevel or to the malice of Bette, the calculation of Mme. Marneffe or the amorality of Jenny Cadine. Early in his apprenticeship, Godefroide is advised by Monsieur Alain:

"Do you know the moral of the story?"
"Tell me," Godefroide replied, "for I might see in it something other than you."
"Well," said the old man, "here it is: Pleasure is nothing more than an accident in a Christian's life. It is not the goal..."

I take this to be the central meaning of the story. And while The Wrong Side of Paris is a very evocative title, I think "Flipside of Contemporary History" more accurately captures the sense of Balzac's title - documenting a world at sharp angles to that of Cousin Bette. In his systematic way, Balzac reminds us that virtue drives the lives of some Parisians.

As for Mr. Stump: I'd love him to aim his considerable talent at Louis Lambert. or Albert Savarus. or A Woman of Thirty. And there are others... I hope he hasn't moved on to Guy de Maupassant.

There is something immensely comforting in reading a book by one of your favorite authors. In college, Balzac was always one of my favorite writers, mostly due to the scope of his lifelong writing project, a brilliant attempt to encapsulate all of Parisian life through fiction; the magic, politics, economics, and religion of a very unique group of people.

This new translation is a wonderful addition to any English-speaking Balzac fan's shelf. Here you'll find Balzac's incessant cataloging of Parisian society set amidst an intriguing story. Godefroid, a directionless drifter, finds himself initiated into an underground religious group which performs acts of charity for the truly needy and unfortunate.

The story consists mainly of Godefroid's education in the ways of the group and his application of that knowledge to his first "charitable assignment." I won't give anything specific away by telling you that there is marvelous twist in the story that gracefully pulls everything together at the end of the book.

This is a book with a big heart and will not disappoint fans of Balzac. I only wish that someone would create a modern English translation of all of his novels. I guess I'm going to have to study back up on my French if I really want to read them all...

With this volume, the curtain is brought down on Balzac's heroic, "The Human Comedy". It is hard for me to resist Balzac, even when I make a effort to do so as I did with this book. I found it, until about two thirds into it, exceedingly tedious, harping on as he does, about the Catholic church and conservative virtue. It wasn't until the primary character, Godefroid, re-enters the Parisian world from his confinement with The Order of the Brothers of Consolation that I felt at last in the company of Balzac the master. He very slowly enters into this tale and it is, after all, near the end of his exhausting, prodigious and sometimes absurd life that he wrote this short, two part story. This is not anywhere near my favorites in "The Comedy"; that goes to "Cousin Bette", "Cousin Pons", "Old Goriot" and "Cesar Birotteau" however I haven't had the privilege to read them all. But "The Wrong Side of Paris" delighted me in many of the ways his great volumes do; wonderful perspectives of 19th century Paris (some vanished, some still existing), his usual great asides about writers and their perils and his digs at the publishing industry, delicious humor and irony and his extraordinary talent for dialogue. How many miles of it run throughout his great collected work? Oh the divine Balzac, if only I could spend one afternoon with him! This Modern Library version is a very fluid translation by Mr. Jordan Stump with extremely intelligent and useful Notes by Mr. James Madden. Of all of the dialogue created by Balzac in all of the books of "The Human Comedy" this is the last line of it; "The power of God is infinite but human nature has its limits". I give this book only four stars because he has several better but any true fan of Balzac will see his genius shining through.

After the first two pages, I found this to be a book that was very difficult to put down. As aptly put in the Translator's note, while I do not share the political or religous tendencies expressed, I found the characters and story completely absorbing.

In 1836 Paris, Godefroid is a 28-year-old man to whom life has not bequeathed much of a talent for anything. Godefroid doesn't want to be average at anything. He wants to live an extraordinary life. He tries to be a lawyer but grows bored of it. He tries his hand at writing and then starting a newspaper. Both ambitions are smashed, leaving most of his parent's once rich legacy in shambles. Even his attempts to get married end in failure. The horrible conclusion that Godefroid comes to is that he is "normal" and that he will die just like everyone else, never having succeeded at anything! Forced into seeking the cheapest apartment he can find, he rents a room from Madame de La Chanterie, a pious older woman who not only rents to unfortunates that have no money to find a better place, but also heads up a secret charitable organization whose members make up her other boarders. All of them have a past that once threatened to overwhelm but have let go of past misfortunes to focus on helping other people. All of the sudden, Godefroid believes he might have found his true profession after all these years as he makes a bid to join this exclusive circle of good.

The Wrong Side of Paris is one of Balzac's weaker works, but with the fact that probably only 10% of his books are in print in English, I'm glad with any translations I can get a hold of. The part of this book that almost sunk it for me is when instead of recounting a past incident midway through the novel in one paragraph, Balzac writes an ENTIRE criminal indictment legal document into the book lasting almost 20 pages which almost made me fall asleep. It totally ruined the flow of an already slow as molasses plot which centered more on religious instruction than character interaction or rising action. The writing itself, except for the legalease, is first rate, it's just that Balzac's topic wasn't enough to fill a book with in my estimation.

There are some wonderful paragraphs in this book and some profound observations on life, such as "all criminals are atheists even if they don't know it," and this sort of thing makes the book worthwhile, but about half way through reading it, I thought to myself, "I don't CARE what happens next to these people."

It's a short book and I've read other works of Balzac that I liked, some short stories and "A Harlot High and Low", "Eugenie Whatever", I forget the title. But I couldn't get through this book.

I've read Les Miserables, unabridged, twice, two different translations, so I was surprised that I just couldn't get through this because it is very short and the translation seems good, that is to say, the writing flows.

But the plot! Agghhh. It is so convoluted and twisted and the manner of telling the background through a long, long, LONG legal document was so boring it almost made me cry.

Godefroid feels a failure, and he pretty much is one, so he joins a group of people who devote their lives to helping others (see the other review, I don't want to even try to relate the story again).

I don't see why it had to be a case of either/or. Godefroid seemed to think he had to (a) be a huge success or (b) renounce the world entirely.

Why not just get some work and live life the best he could? So I couldn't get too enthusiastic about his decision to renounce everything after living such a high life.

The story is told in a series of flashbacks that go way back and way back and WAY BACK, and the names of the people are long and they are changed and shortened due to the Revolution, and changed entirely through marriage, and other ways, so I lost track of everyone. The old woman who the story revolves around was a doormat and this quality of doormatness is elevated to pure holiness in Balzac's eyes. I became annoyed at the woman's continous praying and hoping for the redemption of her crook of a husband.

I got about half way through the book, said, That's it, forget it. But I read the last few pages and my last comment is, "Oh, give me a break."