Eugénie Grandet (World Classics Series)

Author: Balzac
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-09-01
Features: "Eugenie Grandet" is a simple yet refined masterpiece. The old caskmaker Grandet becomes the richest man in Saumur by hoarding and speculation. He is stingy and places money above all else, driving away his nephew who comes to rely on him after his father's bankruptcy and suicide, tormenting Eugenie who gives her private savings to her cousin as traveling money, and even beating his wife to death for opposing his daughter's love with a fallen nobleman. All his joy lies in accumulating wealth, leaving behind a vast fortune at death, yet it does nothing to change his daughter's fate. The work portrays Grandet as a typical image of a miser, profoundly exposing the purely financial relationships within bourgeois families.