Gobseck

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Pages: 46

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Read by James E. Carson · 2 h 36 min · 3 parts

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1 - Section 1
62:12
2 - Section 2
60:34
3 - Section 3
33:26

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About this book

A late evening in a Paris salon turns into a dispute about money, family reputation and a young man's prospects. Camille de Grandlieu's mother distrusts her interest in Ernest de Restaud because of his mother's conduct and spending. Derville, the family's attorney, responds with a story intended to change that judgment. His account introduces Gobseck, a moneylender whose careful habits and cold manner make financial calculation seem almost a bodily instinct.

Honoré de Balzac's short novel moves between the drawing room and the lender's dark office, where a Countess offers diamonds while seeking the right to reclaim them. Derville explains the legal arrangement as Gobseck examines the jewels. These scenes place affection and social standing beside debts, property and bargaining. Readers interested in the power of money within family life will find a closely observed picture of people measuring one another's worth.

About the author

Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a French novelist whose vast Human Comedy, a connected series of novels and stories, is a monument of literary realism and one of the great achievements of world literature.