Personal Library -- Eugénie Grandet

Author: None
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: Grandfather is a wealthy and respected merchant in the French town of Solmes. The town is known for its wine production, so the market price of wine barrels is quite good. During the French Revolution of 1789, Grandfather was already a prosperous cooper. He could read and write, and at the age of forty, he married the daughter of a wooden merchant; bought the best vineyard in the district; and contracted to supply wine to the revolutionary army, making a fortune. During Napoleon's reign, he became the district chief and was awarded the Legion of Honor cross by Napoleon. In 1806, he inherited three estates from his mother-in-law, grandmother, and grandfather, becoming the "highest taxpayer" in the state. In good harvest years, he could produce seven or eight hundred barrels of wine, and he also owned thirteen farms and one hundred twenty-seven arpenons of. He transformed from a merchant with only two thousand francs to a millionaire with seventeen million francs. Grandfather was shrewd and cunning; he engaged in speculative trades, predicting "with the accuracy of an astronomer"; and his wealth-building skills were described as, "Mr. Grandfather is a tiger, a python: he would lie there, crouch there, study his prey for a while before pouncing, open his money with a bloodthirsty mouth, pour in piles of gold and silver, and then go to sleep peacefully, as if a snake had just eaten its fill, motionless and calm, everything in order." During transactions, he haggled, feigned stuttering, and confused the other party into falling into his trap, ultimately making others lose and himself gain. Due to his stinginess and love of money, Grandfather was a meticulous and penny-pinching figure in family life. He directed everything, commanded everything, and personally arranged the daily meals. He even forbade using an extra piece of sugar or lighting an extra candle. His wife submitted to him like a slave. To save money, all the family's clothes were sewn by his wife and daughter. They spent their days doing needlework, and their daughter was already twenty-three years old, yet Grandfather had not even thought of arranging a marriage for her. Household chores were handled by the maid Nanon, who "protected the master's property as a loyal dog." She was tall and strong, like a grenadier, with a face covered in warts. There were two families of six people who frequently visited Grandfather's house: the notary Cro?et family (the notary, his wife, and their nephew, Monsieur de Pons) and the banker Turgot family (Mr. and Mrs. Turgot and their son Adolphe). These two families came to Grandfather's house for his only daughter, Eugénie. The cunning Grandfather watched all this. He knew they were competing for his daughter for money and a dowry. So, he played along, using his daughter as bait to "fish" and benefit from both sides. Grandfather's Parisian brother went bankrupt due to debts he could not repay. He planned to commit suicide and, before his death, sent his son Charles to seek refuge with his uncle. Charles was twenty-two years old, one year younger than Eugénie. He was a handsome and frivolous young man. He brought with him the "most beautiful" hunting suit, "most beautiful" hunting rifle, "most beautiful" knife, and "most beautiful" sheath. He also brought a complete set of "novelty vests" to his uncle's house. Eugénie had never left Solmes since birth. She spent her days sewing socks and mending her father's clothes, living in a room covered in grease. Rarely did guests visit the house. When she first saw her handsome cousin, she was utterly captivated. She thought Charles was a "miracle man who had fallen from the sky." His shiny, curly hair exuded a pleasant fragrance. She inhaled and sniffed it, feeling dizzy with delight. His beautiful gloves made her long to touch them. She envied Charles's small hands, his skin, and the delicate and refined appearance of his face. Charles's arrival caused both the notary and the banker to worry. They feared Eugénie might be taken away by her cousin, Charles. Eugénie was tall and strong. She did not possess the ordinary kind of beauty, but her beauty was unmistakable, and only an artist would be captivated by it. Her "forehead had a hint of masculinity but was very refined, like the statue of Cupid by the Greek sculptor Phidias. A life of chastity made her gray eyes shine." Her calm and rosy face glowed like a blooming flower. She showed extraordinary concern for her cousin. She secretly treated him well, ensuring he ate and drank well and even used her own savings to entertain him. However, Grandfather was reluctant to spend more money. He insisted that Nanon serve Charles a soup made with crows. Nanon said the crows were for eating the dead. Grandfather replied, "Then why don't we eat the dead? What is an inheritance?" From his brother's letter, Grandfather learned that his brother had gone bankrupt and entrusted his son to him. However, Grandfather was unwilling to take on any obligations and even more unwilling to carry the burden of Charles. He planned to send Charles to India immediately. But that night, he changed his mind and decided to restore his brother's reputation. However, he wanted to do so without spending a single penny and to gain the reputation of an "honorable brother." So, Grandfather held his third dinner party in his life. The guests were naturally the notary and the banker again. Since he was asking for something, Grandfather feigned stuttering once more. He stammered, "I must settle my brother's debts in Paris to avoid bankruptcy, but I must hold onto the documents as proof." The notary Cro?et offered to go to Paris to handle this, but the travel expenses would be Grandfather's. The banker, however, offered to go to Paris without any travel expenses. Grandfather naturally agreed to the banker's proposal and was delighted. Three days after the banker left for Paris, Grandfather had Charles sign a declaration renouncing his inheritance rights and filled out a passport for him to travel to India. Eugénie secretly read Charles's letters to his friends and grew even more sympathetic to her bankrupt cousin. She gave him all her savings of six thousand francs as traveling money. Charles returned the favor with a gold jewelry box left to him by his mother. They secretly pledged their love. Eugénie promised to wait for him to return, and Charles pledged the same. Then, he set off for India. Every New Year, Grandfather had the habit of playing with his daughter's savings. In 1820, New Year arrived, and he noticed his daughter's savings had vanished. He demanded strict answers. Eugénie had no choice but to admit she had given the money to her cousin. Enraged, Grandfather locked his daughter in her room, giving her only bread and water. No one's pleas mattered to him; "he was stubborn, cruel, and cold, like a stone." His wife fell ill from fear. The notary Cro?et persuaded Grandfather to reconcile with his daughter, pointing out that if his wife died, Eugénie could inherit her mother's estate as her daughter, and their joint property had never been divided. Fearing for his wife's health, Grandfather finally released his daughter. One day, while Eugénie and her mother were admiring the jewelry box Charles had given them, Grandfather happened to walk in. He saw the gold on the box and his eyes gleamed. He leaped forward and snatched the box, "like a tiger pouncing on a sleeping infant." He grabbed the box and prepared to use a knife to pry off the gold. Eugénie panicked and declared that if her father dared to touch the gold, she would commit suicide with the knife. The father and daughter argued until Grandfather's wife fainted. After that, her wife's health never recovered. In October 1822, this poor and timid wife died. Through the notary, Grandfather had his daughter sign a document renouncing her inheritance rights and took full control of the family's wealth. In 1827, Grandfather was eighty-two years old and suffering from paralysis. He had no choice but to let his daughter learn the secrets of managing the estate. Though he could no longer move, he sat in a rotating chair, personally directing his daughter to stack bags of money secretly. When his daughter returned the key to the savings room, he hid it in his vest pocket and stroked it from time to time. Before his death, he had his daughter arrange the gold on the table and stared at it as if a child who had just learned to see. He said, "This will warm my heart!" The priest came to perform the last rites, placing a gold cross to his lips for a kiss. Seeing the gold, Grandfather made a horrifying gesture, trying to grab it. This effort took his life. In his final moments, he called for Eugénie and said, "Take good care of everything! Account to me when you come to the other side!" He died. By the time Eugénie was thirty, she had not experienced the joys of life. After Grandfather's death, she became wealthy, but she remained alone. For her, wealth was no comfort; what she needed was warmth and love. For seven years, she waited for Charles to return. She carried the jewelry box he had left her as a precious treasure. But after he left, she heard nothing from him. Charles had become rich in India. He engaged in slave trading, usury, tax evasion, smuggling—anything to make money. He was ruthless and greedy to the extreme, truly living up to Grandfather's lineage! He slept with women of all colors, completely forgetting his cousin. In 1827, he returned to France with a fortune of a million francs. On the ship, he met a nobleman, the Marquis de la Mole. The Marquis had a hideous and unwed daughter (who looked like a dragonfly). To climb the social ladder, Charles married the Marquis's daughter. He wrote to Eugénie and returned her six thousand francs as a gift, along with two thousand francs in interest. Eugénie was stunned by Charles's heartless behavior and deeply traumatized. Later, she agreed to marry the son of the notary, the President of the Court of First Instance, Monsieur de Pons, but only as a formal marriage. Since de Pons pursued her only for money, she could give him the money while keeping her emotions free. A few years later, de Pons became the president of the court. However, on the eighth day after being elected a councilor in Solmes, he died. Eugénie was thirty-three when she became a widow. She paid one and a half million francs to settle her uncle's debts, allowing her cousin to live a happy and honorable life. She herself lived a life of solitude, piety, and kindness, "advancing to heaven through a series of good deeds and acts of charity."