Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Girl with the Golden Eyes
La Fille aux yeux d’or · French with an independent close English translation
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Facing Pages · Branch 15 of 66
Novella · ¶ 11
French
p. 32Cette vue du Paris moral prouve que le Paris physique ne saurait être autrement qu’il n’est. Cette ville à diadème est une reine qui, toujours grosse, a des envies irrésistiblement furieuses. Paris est la tête du globe, un cerveau qui crève de génie et conduit la civilisation humaine, un grand homme, un artiste incessamment créateur, un politique à seconde vue qui doit nécessairement avoir les rides du cerveau, les vices du grand homme, les fantaisies de l’artiste et les blasements du politique. Sa physionomie sous-entend la germination du bien et du mal, le combat et la victoire; la bataille morale de 89 dont les trompettes retentissent encore dans tous les coins du monde; et aussi l’abattement de 1814. Cette ville ne peut donc pas être plus morale, ni plus cordiale, ni plus propre que ne l’est la chaudière motrice de ces magnifiques pyroscaphes que vous admirez fendant les ondes! Paris n’est-il pas un sublime vaisseau chargé d’intelligence? Oui, ses armes sont un de ces oracles que se permet quelquefois la fatalité. La ville de paris a son grand mât tout de bronze, sculpté de victoires, et pour vigie Napoléon. Cette nauf a bien son tangage et son roulis; mais elle sillonne le monde, y fait feu par les cent bouches de ses tribunes, laboure les mers scientifiques, y vogue à pleines voiles, crie du haut de ses huniers par la voix de ses savants et de ses artistes: - « En avant, marchez! suivez-moi! » Elle porte un équipage immense qui se plaît à la pavoiser de nouvelles banderoles. Ce sont mousses et gamins riant dans les cordages; lest de lourde bourgeoisie; ouvriers et matelots goudronnés; dans ses cabines, les heureux passagers; d’élégants midshipmen fument leurs cigares, penchés sur le bastingage; puis sur le tillac, ses soldats, novateurs ou ambitieux, vont aborder à tous les rivages, et, tout en y répandant de vives lueurs, demandent de la gloire qui est un plaisir, ou des amours qui veulent de l’or.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes: Novella
p. 33This view of moral Paris proves that physical Paris could not be otherwise than it is. This diademed city is a queen who, always pregnant, has irresistibly furious cravings. Paris is the head of the globe, a brain that bursts with genius and leads human civilization, a great man, an incessantly creative artist, a statesman with second sight who must necessarily have the wrinkles of the brain, the vices of the great man, the fantasies of the artist, and the jadedness of the statesman. Its physiognomy implies the germination of good and evil, combat and victory; the moral battle of '89 whose trumpets still resound in all corners of the world; and also the dejection of 1814. This city can therefore be no more moral, nor more cordial, nor cleaner than is the driving boiler of those magnificent steamships that you admire cleaving the waves! Is Paris not a sublime vessel charged with intelligence? Yes, its arms are one of those oracles that fate sometimes permits itself. The city of Paris has its great mast all of bronze, sculpted with victories, and Napoleon as lookout. This ship certainly has its pitching and rolling; but it furrows the world, fires upon it through the hundred mouths of its tribunes, plows the scientific seas, sails there under full canvas, cries from the height of its tops through the voice of its scholars and its artists: “Forward, march! Follow me!” It carries an immense crew that delights in dressing it with new banners. They are cabin boys and street urchins laughing in the rigging; ballast of heavy bourgeoisie; workers and tarred sailors; in its cabins, the happy passengers; elegant midshipmen smoke their cigars, leaning over the rail; then on the deck, its soldiers, innovators or ambitious men, go to land upon every shore, and, while spreading bright gleams there, ask for glory which is a pleasure, or loves which want gold.
Socrates
Reading The Girl with the Golden Eyes · Novella · ¶ 11
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Honoré de Balzac’s The Girl with the Golden Eyes turns Paris into a charged study of wealth, appetite, spectacle, secrecy, possession, and power. This exact page-aligned Literary Fiction edition presents the novella’s continuous movement in French with an independent close English translation prepared by Diotimos Editions.
Historical Text and Translation
The French reading text follows the 1843 Furne edition as presented in the Furne corrigé transcription at eBalzac and is checked, where needed, against the Gallica image of the volume. The original hierarchy, dedication to Eugène Delacroix, continuous sectioning, and closing 1834–1835 dateline are retained.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this independent close translation directly from the French. Meaning, agency, logic, degree, reference, image, repetition, and ambiguity take precedence over elegance; Balzac’s clause order and long accumulations remain wherever grammatical English can bear them.
Rights
Balzac’s French source work is in the public domain. The 2026 English translation and Diotimos editorial matter are original to this edition and remain © 2026 Diotimos.