Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet

Andrew Watts (University of Birmingham)
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Written in 1833,

Eugénie Grandet

was, and remains, one of the defining achievements of Balzac’s career. The first chapter of the novel, “Physionomies bourgeoises”, was published in a weekly review,

L’Europe littéraire

, under the title

Eugénie Grandet: Histoire de Province

, on 19 September 1833. At the same time, readers were promised a second instalment, “Le Cousin de Paris”, and this had already been typeset when Balzac announced unexpectedly that the serialisation was to be interrupted. Three days later, on 22 September, he left Paris for Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and a first meeting with Eveline Hanska, the Polish countess whose affections he courted, mainly by correspondence, for the next sixteen years. By the time he returned to his desk in October, Balzac’s…

2777 words

Citation: Watts, Andrew. "Eugénie Grandet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 February 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5279, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5279 Eugénie Grandet 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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