Eugenie Grandet

In a dreary provincial town, the miserly Felix Grandet hoards his immense fortune while his gentle daughter Eugénie sacrifices everything for love of her ruined cousin, only to have her devotion tested by greed and time. Balzac’s masterpiece is a searing study of avarice and innocence, contrasting the father’s cold obsession with money against his daughter’s pure, self-denying heart. Precise and unforgettable, Eugénie Grandet is one of the finest novels of his Human Comedy, a devastating portrait of how money corrupts and destroys. Tender and merciless in equal measure, it stands among the great realist novels, a timeless anatomy of greed and the quiet tragedy of a wasted life.