Description

For your consideration: 1980 Franklin Library Hardcover Leatherette edition of PERE GORIOT by Honore de Balzac and illustrated by Albert Lynch. This book is in beautiful condition with tight binding and appears completely unread. Be sure to check out our other listings this week for a number of Franklin Library volumes in amazing condition. We offer combined shipping with USPS Media Mail. ENJOY! The Franklin Library was a division of The Franklin Mint that produced fine collector edition leather bound books over three decades ending in the year 2000. For this reason all Franklin Library editions are now considered "out of print" and are no longer available for sale from the Franklin Mint. All Franklin Library Editions exhibit: • High quality paper. • Pages that are sewn not glued into the binding. • Gold gilded page edges on all three sides. • Raised spine bands that give each book that distinctive antique look. Père Goriot can rightly be regarded as one of the greatest of Balzac’s novels. It's a masterful study of a father who sacrifices everything for his daughters. This novel marked the true beginning of Balzac’s towering project La Com é die Humaine , his series of novels and short stories depicting “the whole pell-mell of civilization.” In Père Goriot , the great novelist probes the “bourgeois tragedy” of money and power from two different directions. While Goriot is willingly reduced to poverty to support his ambitious daughters, an impoverished young man of integrity becomes money hungry. Attracted to one of Goriot’s daughters, Rastignac succumbs to the fever of social climbing. The resulting tale is a commentary on wealth and human desire that still rings true in the twenty-first century. Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) is one of the greatest novelists in French literary history. He is best known for his novels depicting French society during the Restoration and July Monarchy eras of the 19th century. His writing style has been compared to that of the modern-day authors Leo Tolstoy and Marcel Proust. Born in Tours, France, Balzac was the eldest of his parents’ five children. His father, Bernard-François Balssac, was a lawyer and his mother, Anne-Charlotte-Laure Sallambier, was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Balzac attended the Oratorian school in Vendome and later studied law in Paris. Despite his legal studies, Balzac’s true passion was writing. He began his literary career at the age of twenty-one, publishing his first novel, Les Chouans , in 1829. This was followed by a series of novels and short stories that depicted French society in great detail. His most famous work, La Comédie Humaine , was a collection of interlinked novels and stories that depicted the complexities of French society during the 19th century. Balzac was a prolific and highly influential writer, often credited with being the first to accurately portray French society in literature. His works have been adapted for film, television and theatre, and his influence can be seen in the works of many modern-day authors. Balzac’s life and works have become part of the French literary canon, and he is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in French literary history.