Lost Illusions (Modern Library Classics)

As much as I enjoyed Pere Goriot, Lost Illusions is the kind of a literary work that lets you peer into the soul of a great mind and dwell there. Just as Lucien was Balzac, the lost poet, David Sechard, the printer, is also Balzac the craftsman in real life: he bought a print shop in Paris to print his own novels. Sechard is much like the scientist in the Quest of the Absolute, except that David ultimately finds himself through his invention and the inventor in The Quest becomes lost to his own monomania. As Balzac wrote of Lucien: "He's not a poet, this young man: he's a serial novel." And so it's time to find out what happens to Lucien after this novel in his return to Paris. The characters of his novels keep reappearing in scenes from one novel to the next, which is wonderful. However, they seem to change as one sees them through different eyes. Delightful young Rastignac in Pere Goriot becomes a rather unscrupulous mean-spirited character in Lost Illusions. Balzac has built an entire society of his characters and as varied as they are, they are all also him and show the great diversity and depth of his personality and sensitivity. Like Galsworthy, Balzac wanted to build an interconnected society of characters who are so human that it's easy to understand why they behave as they do. The realism is striking and magnificent and always rings true. Balzac works hard despite the realism to spin out of every hardship a redemption and out of every malignity a comic side that's all too human. The comedy and irony are rich in Balzac in his passionate account of life in Paris in high society and the challenges that it thrusts upon every ideal. This is the best work of Balzac that I have read so far out of four novels of his. It's such great writing, and the energy of the translator can make a difference, that Balzac keeps one coming back for more. But the writing and wit and wisdom are so extraordinary, I am happy to accommodate him. Anyone who has ever aspired to write and publish prose in New York will identify with Balzac's Lucien: Lost Illusions is a novel that aspiring writers especially may find intriguing.

I never expected to fall in love with Balzac, seeing as how he was just another DWM and sooooo Eurocentric. Yeah, but he's a great storyteller, and if you're really convinced that once upon a time people were better or different or less complex or something, well, here's the antidote. Granted, you occasionally want to have a scorecard to keep all the players straight (and sometimes you don't), but that's a small price to pay for the delicate savagery with which he skewers the pompous fools of his day. I had to laugh at his portrayal of 19th century journalists and newspapers: if you're a historian, you may think twice and then think again about using one as a source. And then there's his clear esteem for bankers, financiers, clergymen, government bureaucrats; no one really escapes. Balzac can occasionally try your patience when he decides to explain the intricacies of a legal accounting, papermarking, and the rest, but, really, if you finding yourself nodding, then skip ahead. After all, did you read all of the stuff about whaling in Moby Dick? An extraordinary novel, and compared to Flaubert's Sentimental Education, a much grander work of genius.

The Human Comedy is a saga of 92 novels that Balzac said was written by French society. Legend described him as the night-shirted social recorder working until dawn fueled by liters of coffee. Lost Illusions (1837-1843) is considered to be one of the best of the novels in the series in scope and structure. From the frenetic world of writers and booksellers in Paris to the grueling life of hard work and boredom in villages, Balzac traced the systematic destruction of illusions in his characters. No one could be trusted (friends, foes, or family) when the creative or inventive characters attempted to reach a goal. The flicker of hope and joy related to an artistic or business accomplishment was extinguished within days or hours. The enduring artists and producers were those who lived almost without hope, guided by a strict code of ethics protected only by their ability to keep their accomplishments secret. Ultimately, some of these survivors reached their goals. But by then, they no longer placed high value in them, much of the luster lost with their illusions. Lost Illusions set the standard for many of the wonderful French novels of the subsequent years of the 19th Century. The reader is immersed in French culture in a manner similar to the later writing of Gustav Flaubert.

Absolutely rubbish, garbage in the first rate ,the scheme the theme and most of the scenes all conveid with remarkable insignificance, fast and easy read as balzac story telling abilities are what made him a master of his time, I thoroughly enjoyed his other work specifically Pere goriot, cousin bette and the black sheep, A work dedicated to victor hugo would make him faint half way reading, I truly believe however slightly I could be wrong that balzac manufactured this Parisian novel after a night of cards, where he lost a thousand francs or two, spending the night without an etiquette dinner ,loverless ,drunkard and a amusingly insolent to all of the settings he so highly esteemed; as he would put it . Not sure if I missed the projected ecstasy as I read this book in one setting late at night, but honestly neither the poet lucien or the paper making David or the fancy boring Mme Bargeton lady Or the town of Angouleme down to L'Houmeau or the French words and others tucked in adding little purpose have left me with any worthy impressions . Only sechard I believe his name David's father was a masterful creation of a character , I took a predejused liking to him for he rejected idealism and loved his wooden presses. The first 20 or so pages were a promise to another master creation by balzac only to fade and evaporate as we got deeper into the night. Will continue to read the human comedy for its renowned literary despite some artless distractions here and there.

It underlines the provincialism of UK universities, including Oxbridge, that some 250,000 books sell better on amazon than one of the basic works of world literature. Several of the commentaries speak of this great novel as giving us insights into 19th century France. Like all great writers, Balzac wrote in the eternal present tense. In Balzac's time mass media meant newspapers of ten thousand copies - and he was involved with several of them. From that small sample he was able to discover and define the nature of the mass media, as well as the characters who are drawn to them. There are literal-minded people who think Hamlet is only a Dane from the distant past. But in all great works of fiction the characters are your contemporaries, and no matter how long ago they lived and in what distant country, they are nearer to you and the people you know than the characters in this year's novels about people who are supposed to live on the same street as you do. I cannot think of a more relevant or more important book for anybody who is interested in literature or in writing or who wants to understand the media. Lost Illusions certainly throws more light on what goes on in our newspapers than the Leveson Inquiry. When I went to Hollywood, I was amazed to find it crowded with old acquaintances: I knew them all from Lost Illusions. Of course Lost Illusions is about a lot more than this. Balzac is the Shakespeare of the novel and Lost Illusions has dramatic scenes that you will never forget. Stephen Vizinczey

It saddens me that I find myself giving this book its lowest star rating of any review, but this is how it stood for me.I came to this book with a great deal of anticipation, having read and adored Old Goriot as part of my degree course and a few short stories afterwards. But I don't think that this one has translated across the years as well. It's just too caught up in the intricacies of nineteenth century life: how book publishing works, how journalism works, how legal proceedings for debt work, etc etc. This isn't particularly interesting to today's reader, and is pretty hard to follow also. And this book is much more about these events than the characters; the vividly drawn characters that were thrown together in Old Goriot were my favourite aspect of the novel, and those found in Lost Illusions are nowhere near as memorable.This is not a bad book, and worth ploughing through as part of the series - but don't expect to be drawn in as in some of Balzac's other works, and I personally would not recommend this as the first of his novels to explore. My hope is that A Harlot High and Low (a direct sequel to this novel) will see a return of the more lively and intense characteristics of Old Goriot; the return of a certain character at the end of this novel (whose secrecy is, it must be pointed out, completely ruined by a careless footnote in this edition) certainly leads me to hope as much.

This is a must read for a man in their late twenties, so in line with the motif of getting older and mature - a pertinent insight into the brutalities that life has to offer men who are young and naive and not yet disillusioned.

It's not that the sentences are grammatically incorrect, but the choice of words is, in some case, ludicrous. For example a character is described as 'being fifty years antique', and can someone explain the following sentence: "A good buy changed into stuck" ? These examples are just from the first 1%, it continues in the same vein, as though it has been translated by somone with no knowledge of either written or spoken English, even 19th century English. It is possible to follow the story, but with diificulty at times, and it certainly is not an easy or pleasant read.At least look at an example of this and some of the other versions before buying!

Balzac's novels were individual components of a greater linked project in which many of the same characters,sometimes under different names, reappear.Despite this and the length of the book Lost Illusions is an excellent read, particularly the Paris sections. The action is well paced and its satirisation of the different levels of society,the theatre and journalism are amongst the best examples of his writing.No Balzac work is written according to the expectations of twenty first century taste: but for a treatment of hypocrisy and cynicism in society it would be hard to better this.