High Old Man - The Stairway to English Freedom Realm (4) (5000-word Bedside Lamp English Learning Reader) (English-Chinese Contrastive Translation)

Author: Original Work (French) Honoré de Balzac
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Balzac (1799–1850) was a renowned French critical realist novelist whose life spanned the turbulent first half of the 19th century. Through a series of novels under the general title Le Comédie Humaine, he reflected the rapidly changing life in France during this period. Le Comédie Humaine is divided into three main parts: Study of Customs, Study of Philosophy, and Study of Analysis; among them, Study of Customs is the most extensive and is further divided into six "scenarios." Its basic content is as follows: First, it reflects the criminal rise of the rising bourgeoisie to replace the aristocracy. At the same time, it depicts the decline and fall of the aristocracy. The most important aspect is the critique of the power of money. Balzac portrays a series of tragedies centered around money, giving us a vivid understanding of the evils and corruption of capitalist society.
The protagonist, Old Goriot, comes from humble beginnings. In his youth, he made a living selling vermicelli, but later became a grain supplier to the army and amassed great wealth. He dotes on his two daughters, dressing them in lavish finery and eventually marrying them off to noble sons with dowries worth millions, turning the daughter of a flour merchant into a countess. However, his daughters squander his fortune like vampires, leaving him penniless. When he has no money left, they refuse to let him visit them, and he dies in a dilapidated attic, destitute. His daughters even fail to attend his funeral. Through Goriot's tragedy, the author criticizes the "paternal love" and "family bonds" built on the foundation of money, delivering a powerful indictment of a society consumed by greed and moral decay.
Old Goriot also successfully portrays the image of the ambitious young man Rastignac and the fallen noblewoman, the Vicomtesse de Beauséjour. The former is an aristocratic youth from the provinces who comes to Paris to attend university and restore his family's fortunes. However, witnessing the extravagance and revelry of high society only fuels his desire to climb the social ladder. Under the influence of the Vicomtesse de Beauséjour and the escaped convict Vautrin, he gradually loses his sense of integrity, selling his principles for money. After witnessing how Goriot's daughters treat their father like a squeezed lemon, he becomes even more determined to embrace the path of the bourgeoisie. Old Goriot primarily depicts the process of his transformation into an ambitious character. In his later works, he becomes utterly consumed by his ambition, selling his morality and conscience to rise to the position of Under-Secretary of State and a member of the Chamber of Peers, all based on extreme selfishness.
The Vicomtesse de Beauséjour is an endless elegy for the aristocracy that Balzac wrote. Born into a noble family, she was once the queen of Parisian high society but was abandoned by her lover for lack of money and forced to withdraw from the upper echelons of Parisian society. Even noble status could not withstand the power of money, and she is again betrayed by money in later novels. Her fate tells people that the aristocracy can only face failure, and money is the true master of this world.
Artistically, Old Goriot is very rigorous. The author creates a typical setting where typical characters interact, making the relationships between people and the environment perfectly aligned. The book weaves four plotlines, with Rastignac's decline as the main thread, while the others serve as supporting elements, interwoven yet clearly structured. The portrayal of typical characters is Balzac's greatest strength. Whether through physical descriptions or psychological portrayals, even the smallest details, such as Goriot sniffing each piece of bread before eating it, make the characters more vivid and lifelike. The individualized language of the characters is also one of the author's great talents—the language in the aristocratic salons is vastly different from that of the escaped convicts.