EUGENIE GRANDET(欧也妮·葛朗台).pdf

EUGENIE GRANDET
EUGENIE GRANDET
by HONORE DE BALZAC
Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
1
EUGENIE GRANDET
DEDICATION
To Maria.
May your name, that of one whose portrait is the noblest ornament of
this work, lie on its opening pages like a branch of sacred box, taken from
an unknown tree, but sanctified by religion, and kept ever fresh and green
by pious hands to bless the house.
De Balzac.
2
EUGENIE GRANDET
I
There are houses in certain provincial towns whose aspect inspires
melancholy, akin to that called forth by sombre cloisters, dreary moorlands,
or the desolation of ruins. Within these houses there is, perhaps, the
silence of the cloister, the barrenness of moors, the skeleton of ruins; life
and movement are so stagnant there that a stranger might think them
uninhabited, were it not that he encounters suddenly the pale, cold glance
of a motionless person, whose half- monastic face peers beyond the
window-casing at the sound of an ustomed step.
Such elements of sadness formed the physiognomy, as it were, of a
dwelling-house in Saumur which stands at the end of the steep street
leading to the chateau in the upper part of the town. This street--now little
frequented, hot in summer, cold in winter, dark in certain sections--is
remarkable for the resonance of its little pebbly pavement, always clean
and dry, for the narrowness of its tortuous road-way, for the peaceful
stillness of its houses, which belong to the Old town and are over-topped
by the ramparts. Houses three centuries old are still solid, though built of
wood, and their divers aspects add to the originality mends this
portion of Saumur to the attention of artists and antiquaries.
It is difficult to pass these houses without admiring the enormous
oaken beams, their ends carved into fantastic figures, which crown with a
black bas-relief the lower floor of most of them. In one place these
transverse timbers are covered with slate and mark a bluish line