Sarrasine (1758,1830)
Picked apart sentence by sentence by Barthes
in the French classic of narratology "S/Z".
This story is about a castrati opera singer
who captivates a young sculptor who is determined to possess her,
I mean him. As a joke some people try to set him up with
the castrati. The truth eventually becomes apparent
but too late to avert tragedy at the hands of the castrati's powerful
protector.
The whole tale is told
to a young woman with amorous intentions,
but the tale itself kills all romantic feelings in her.
Camille Paglia calls this the first work of the decadence
and Balzac the first post-modernist.
(Short, Sarrasine, srrsn10.txt).
An Episode under the Terror (1793)
With the French revolution in full swing
a stranger follows an old lady as she walks
through the deserted streets of Paris at night.
The stranger follows her to the hiding place of
some priests and nuns where he asks them to perform a
mass in memory of the French king who has just
been put to death. Later, they get quite a shock when
they realize the ironic identity of this stranger.
(Very Short, Un Episode sous la Terreur, aeutt10.txt)
The Recruit (1783)
Set during the French revolution in a small provincial town.
About the anxiety and fear that a young aristocratic
widow feals for her son's safety and the paranoia and
suspicion that surrounded the actions of the nobility during
the French revolution. One of Balzac's tales of
the para-normal and telepathy
with a flavor similar to the classic TV show
"The Twilight Zone."
(Very Short, Le Requisitionnaire, recrt10.txt)
The Red Inn (1799)
One evening at her father's house a young woman
asks a German visitor for one of those "dreadful" German stories.
The story he tells reveals a murder that occurred many
years ago that was never solved.
The telling of the tale eventually leads to the death of
the murderer.
(Short, L'Auberge rouge, rdinn10.txt)
Les Maranas (Juana) (1789).
The heroine is forced to "stab her husband to death to save
her honour" and
"marry a French officer in order to save her 'honour'.
She finds herself stuck with a spineless mediocrity,
humiliated by her own superiority,
her acts of kindness go unrewarded,
her little acts of revenge unnoticed. (Robb, 212-13)
(Short, Les Maranas, juana10.txt)
A Passion in the Desert (1799)
A man stranded in the desert falls in love in with a beautiful
panther who refrains from eating him.
(Very Short, Une Passion dans le Desert, apitd10.txt)
The Chouans (1799)
A historical novel about the civil war in Brittany
that occurred after the French Revolution.
Balzac's first successful novel.
(Long, Les Chouans, choun10.txt)