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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English Page · Branch 20 of 66
Novella · ¶ 14
French
p. 42De plus, le bon diable violet avait fait faire à son enfant de prédilection certaines connaissances dans la haute société de Paris qui pouvaient équivaloir comme produit, entre les mains du jeune homme, à cent autres mille livres de rente. Enfin, ce prêtre, vicieux mais politique, incrédule mais savant, perfide mais aimable, faible en apparence mais aussi vigoureux de tête que de corps, fut si réellement utile à son élève, si complaisant à ses vices, si bon calculateur de toute espèce de force, si profond quand il fallait faire quelque décompte humain, si jeune à table, à Frascati, à… je ne sais où, que le reconnaissant Henri de Marsay ne s’attendrissait plus guère, en 1814, qu’en voyant le portrait de son cher évêque, seule chose mobilière qu’ait pu lui léguer ce prélat, admirable type des hommes dont le génie sauvera l’Église catholique, apostolique et romaine, compromise en ce moment par la faiblesse de ses recrues, et par la vieillesse de ses pontifes; mais si veut l’Église. La guerre continentale empêcha le jeune de Marsay de connaître son vrai père dont il est douteux qu’il sût le nom. Enfant abandonné, il ne connut pas davantage madame de Marsay. Naturellement il regretta fort peu son père putatif. Quant à mademoiselle de Marsay, sa seule mère, il lui fit élever dans le cimetière du père Lachaise lorsqu’elle mourut un fort joli petit tombeau. Mgr de Maronis avait garanti à ce vieux bonnet à coques, l’une des meilleures places dans le ciel, en sorte que, la voyant heureuse de mourir, Henri lui donna des larmes égoïstes, il se mit à la pleurer pour lui-même. Voyant cette douleur, l’abbé sécha les larmes de son élève, en lui faisant observer que la bonne fille prenait bien dégoûtamment son tabac, et devenait si laide, si sourde, si ennuyeuse, qu’il devait des remercîments à la mort. L’évêque avait fait émanciper son élève en 1811. Puis quand la mère de monsieur de Marsay se remaria, le prêtre choisit, dans un conseil de famille, un de ces honnêtes acéphales triés par lui sur le volet du confessionnal, et le chargea d’administrer la fortune dont il appliquait bien les revenus au besoin de la communauté, mais dont il voulait conserver le capital.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes: Novella
p. 43That is nothing yet. Moreover, the good purple devil had caused his favorite child to make certain acquaintances in Parisian high society which, as yield in the young man's hands, could equal another hundred thousand livres of income. Finally, this priest, vicious but politic, unbelieving but learned, perfidious but amiable, weak in appearance but as vigorous in head as in body, was so truly useful to his pupil, so complaisant toward his vices, so good a calculator of every kind of force, so profound when it was necessary to make some human reckoning, so young at table, at Frascati, at... I do not know where, that in 1814 the grateful Henri de Marsay scarcely ever grew tender except on seeing the portrait of his dear bishop, the only movable thing this prelate had been able to bequeath him, an admirable type of the men whose genius will save the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church, compromised at this moment by the weakness of its recruits and by the old age of its pontiffs; but only if the Church wills it. The Continental War prevented the young de Marsay from knowing his true father, whose name it is doubtful he knew. An abandoned child, he likewise did not know Madame de Marsay. Naturally he regretted his putative father very little. As for Mademoiselle de Marsay, his only mother, when she died he had a very pretty little tomb erected for her in Père-Lachaise cemetery. Monsignor de Maronis had guaranteed this old bonnet with ribbon loops one of the best places in heaven, so that, seeing her happy to die, Henri gave her selfish tears, he began to mourn her for himself. Seeing this grief, the abbé dried his pupil's tears by pointing out to him that the good woman took her snuff very disgustingly, and was becoming so ugly, so deaf, so tedious, that he owed thanks to death. The bishop had had his pupil emancipated in 1811. Then, when Monsieur de Marsay's mother remarried, the priest chose, in a family council, one of those honest headless men handpicked by him through the shutter of the confessional, and charged him with administering the fortune, whose income he duly applied to the needs of the community, but whose capital he wished to preserve.
Socrates
Reading The Girl with the Golden Eyes · Novella · ¶ 14
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.