Gobseck
![]() 1897 illustration from Gobseck (Mme de Restaud, Gobseck and Derville) by Édouard Toudouze | |
Author | Honoré de Balzac |
---|---|
Language | French |
Series | La Comédie humaine |
Publication date | 1830 |
Publication place | France |
Preceded by | Béatrix |
Followed by | La Femme de trente ans |
Gobseck, an 1830 novella by
Plot
The plot of Gobseck, set during the
Anastasie de Restaud has an affair with Maxime de Trailles, and spends her fortune on de Trailles.[2] She turns to the usurer Jean-Esther van Gobseck for financial assistance. Maître Derville acts as Gobseck’s lawyer, while Derville's future wife is also one of Gobseck's debtors.
Anastasie's husband finds out about her debts, so he signs a convoluted contract with Gobseck which is supposed to benefit his and Anastasie's children. However, Anastasie destroys that contract during her irrational schemings. Subsequently, both Anastasie's marriage is destroyed and her family fortune lost.
Eventually, the elderly Gobseck gains an even larger fortune through factoring. Shortly after his death, Derville discovers many treasures in Gobseck's home, including loads of spoiled food which Gobseck had intended to sell.
"'Daddy Gobseck,' I began, 'is intimately convinced of the truth of the principle which he takes for a rule of life. In his opinion, money is a commodity which you may sell cheap or dear, according to circumstances, with a clear conscience. A capitalist, by charging a high rate of interest, becomes in his eyes a secured partner by anticipation. Apart from the peculiar philosophical views of human nature and financial principles, which enable him to behave like a usurer, I am fully persuaded that, out of his business, he is the most loyal and upright soul in Paris. There are two men in him; he is petty and great — a miser and a philosopher…'"
— Honoré de Balzac, Gobseck[3]
Film versions
- Soviet film by Konstantin Eggert
- Gobseck, Soviet remake of the 1936 film by Alexandre Orlov.
- Gobseck, Czechoslovak TV play, 1985 [4]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/38px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png)
References
- ^ Honoré de Balzac. The Human Comedy: Introductions and Appendix. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
- ^ a b Patricia Mainardi, Husbands, wives, and lovers: marriage and its discontents in nineteenth-century France (Yale University Press, 2003), 169.
- ^ de Balzac, Honoré. Ellen Marriage – via Wikisource. . Translated by
- ^ Gobseck (1985 TV film) at the Czech-Slovak Film Database.
External links