SOURCE: "The House of the Miser: Eugénie Grandet," in Studies in Balzac's Realism, by E. Preston Dargan, W. L. Crain, and others, The University of Chicago Press, 1932, pp. 121-35.

In the essay below, Lush analyzes the characterization and action of Eugénie Grandet.

The manuscript of Eugénie Grandet was presented to Mme Hanska in December, 1833. This work made its initial appearance in printed form, as a whole, in the first volume of the first edition of the Scènes de la vie de province (1834-37). L'Europe littéraire on September 19, 1833, contained the first chapter and the titles of the remaining chapters. It was not continued as a whole in that publication; but the rest of the novel was written in the autumn of 1833.

The sociological nature of the story is attested by the title of the first chapter: "Physionomies bourgeoises." The remaining chapters were called: (chap...