Eugenie Grandet

Depicting the fatal clash between material desires and the liberating power of human passions, Honoré de Balzac's "Eugénie Grandet" (1833) is one of the earliest and most famous novels in his "Comedie humaine" cycle, which portrays a society consumed by the struggle to amass wealth and achieve power. The Grandet household, oppressed by the exacting miserliness of Grandet himself, is jerked violently out of routine by the sudden arrival of Eugenie's cousin Charles, recently orphaned and penniless. Eugenie's emotional awakening, stimulated by her love for her cousin, brings her into direct conflict with her father, whose cunning and financial success are matched against her determination to rebel that results in tragedy for all. This classic work of social satire, carnal desire, greed, and obsession is both an exquisitely drawn portrayal of private life and an extraordinary document of post-revolutionary France.