The Black Sheep

honoré de balzac donald adamson

Philippe and Joseph Bridau are extremely different brothers. The elder, Philippe, is a superficially heroic soldier. Adored by their mother, Agathe, he is none the less 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 - yet their mother is blinded to his kindness by her disapproval of his life as an artist. Foolish and prejudiced, Agathe lives unaware that she is being cynically manipulated by her favouorite child, but will she ever discover which of her sons is truly the black sheep of the family? A novel with strong autobiographical elements, The Black Sheep is a dazzling depiction of the power of money and the cruelty of life in nineteenth-century France.

Donald Adamson's translation captures the radical modernity of Balzac's style, while the introduction places The Black Sheep in context as one of the great novels of Balzac's renowned Comédie Humaine.

Genres classicsfictionfrancefrench literatureliterature19th centurynovelsliterary fictionhistorical fictionhistorical

339 pages, Paperback

First published April 17,1842

Series

La Comédie Humaine

This edition

Format: 339 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 1970 by Penguin Classics
ISBN: 9780140442373
ASIN: 0140442375
Language: English

Characters More characters

About the author

honoré de balzac

French writer Honoré de Balzac (born Honoré Balzac), a founder of the realist school of fiction, portrayed the panorama of society in a body of works, known collectively as La comédie humaine.

Honoré de Balzac authored 19th-century novels and plays. After the fall of Napoléon I Bonaparte in 1815, his magnum opus, a sequence of almost a hundred novels and plays, entitled, presents life in the years.

Due to keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation, European literature regards Balzac. He features renowned multifaceted, even complex, morally ambiguous, full lesser characters. Character well imbues inanimate objects; the city of Paris, a backdrop, takes on many qualities. He influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles John Huffam Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac as well as important philosophers, such as Friedrich Engels. Many works of Balzac, made into films, continue to inspire.

An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac adapted with trouble to the teaching style of his grammar. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. Balzac finished, and people then apprenticed him as a legal clerk, but after wearying of banal routine, he turned his back on law. He attempted a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician before and during his career. He failed in these efforts. From his own experience, he reflects life difficulties and includes scenes.

Possibly due to his intense schedule and from health problems, Balzac suffered throughout his life. Financial and personal drama often strained his relationship with his family, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; five months later, he passed away.