SOURCE: "Chapter II" and "Chapter VII," in Life of Honoré de Balzac, Walter Scott, 1890, pp. 24-32, 67-75.

In the following excerpt from his biography of Balzac, Wedmore offers a short critical overview of Eugénie Grandet.

Eugénie Grandet, though a larger picture [than Illusions Perdues], is still a Dutch picture. It, too, is occupied with the intimate study of narrow fortunes; with the chronicle of the approach of private and inevitable trouble. In both, a woman—but the device is a favourite one of Balzac's—idealizes a relationship into which the commonplace must greatly enter. In both, a heart stirs somewhat restlessly in a confined cage, though a patience falls upon Eugénie Grandet such as Augustine never perhaps could have known. . . .

I offer no analysis of Eugénie Grandet. The book is too well known for that to be necessary. And while, on the one hand...