Eugenie Grandet

Author: Balzac
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: The outstanding achievement of "Reading Classics, Getting Movies: Eugénie Grandet" is the creation of a cunning, greedy, and miserly image of a bourgeois upstart. The novel depicts the criminal rise of the bourgeoisie, with the central character, Grandet, rising to prominence during the turmoil of the French Revolution. During the Restoration period, he controlled the market, inflated prices, engaged in government bond speculation, and multiplied his wealth several times over. His nephew, Charles, made a fortune through overseas slave trading, usury, tax evasion, smuggling, and collusion with pirates. The book portrays the harsh and dark lives of the lower classes and also describes how this young man from the lower strata gradually forms his own worldview.