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 22 of 66
Novella · ¶¶ 17–22
French
p. 46Telle était l’histoire du jeune homme qui, vers le milieu du mois d’avril, en 1815, parcourait nonchalamment la grande allée des Tuileries, à la manière de tous les animaux qui, connaissant leurs forces, marchent dans leur paix et leur majesté; les bourgeoises se retournaient tout naïvement pour le revoir, les femmes ne se retournaient point, elles l’attendaient au retour, et gravaient dans leur mémoire, pour s’en souvenir à propos, cette suave figure qui n’eût pas déparé le corps de la plus belle d’entre elles.
- Que fais-tu donc ici le dimanche? dit à Henri le marquis de Ronquerolles en passant.
- Il y a du poisson dans la nasse, répondit le jeune homme.
Cet échange de pensées se fit au moyen de deux regards significatifs et sans que ni Ronquerolles ni de Marsay eussent l’air de se connaître. Le jeune homme examinait les promeneurs, avec cette promptitude de coup d’œil et d’ouïe particulière au Parisien qui paraît, au premier aspect, ne rien voir et ne rien entendre, mais qui voit et entend tout. En ce moment, un jeune homme vint à lui, lui prit familièrement le bras, en lui disant: - Comment cela va-t-il, mon bon de Marsay?
- Mais très-bien, lui répondit de Marsay de cet air affectueux en apparence, mais qui entre les jeunes gens Parisiens, ne prouve rien, ni pour le présent ni pour l’avenir.
En effet, les jeunes gens de Paris ne ressemblent aux jeunes gens d’aucune autre ville. Ils se divisent en deux classes: le jeune homme qui a quelque chose et le jeune homme qui n’a rien; ou, le jeune homme qui pense et celui qui dépense. Mais entendez-le bien, il ne s’agit ici que de ces indigènes qui mènent à Paris le train délicieux d’une vie élégante. Il y existe bien quelques autres jeunes gens, mais ceux-là sont des enfants qui conçoivent très-tard l’existence parisienne et en restent les dupes. Ils ne spéculent pas, ils étudient, ils piochent, disent les autres. Enfin il s’y voit encore certains jeunes gens, riches ou pauvres, qui embrassent des carrières et les suivent tout uniment; ils sont un peu l’Émile de Rousseau, de la chair à citoyen, et n’apparaissent jamais dans le monde. Les diplomates les nomment impoliment des niais. Niais ou non, ils augmentent le nombre de ces gens médiocres sous le poids desquels plie la France. Ils sont toujours là; toujours prêts à gâcher les affaires publiques ou particulières, avec la plate truelle de la médiocrité, en se targuant de leur impuissance qu’ils nomment mœurs et probité. Ces espèces de Prix d’excellence sociaux infestent l’administration, l’armée, la magistrature, les chambres, la cour. Ils amoindrissent, aplatissent le pays et constituent en quelque sorte dans le corps politique, une lymphe qui le surcharge et le rend mollasse. Ces honnêtes personnes nomment les gens de talent, immoraux, ou fripons. Si ces fripons font payer leurs services, du moins ils servent; tandis que ceux-là nuisent et sont respectés par la foule; mais heureusement pour la France, la jeunesse élégante les stigmatise sans cesse du nom de ganaches.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes: Novella
p. 47Such was the history of the young man who, toward the middle of the month of April, in 1815, was traversing nonchalantly the great avenue of the Tuileries, in the manner of all animals that, knowing their strength, walk in their peace and their majesty; bourgeois women turned around quite naïvely to see him again, women did not turn around, they waited for him on his return, and engraved in their memory, in order to remember it at the appropriate time, this sweet face which would not have disfigured the body of the most beautiful among them.
“What are you doing here on Sunday, then?” the Marquis de Ronquerolles said to Henri as he passed.
“There is fish in the trap,” replied the young man.
This exchange of thoughts took place by means of two significant glances and without either Ronquerolles or de Marsay appearing to know the other. The young man examined the strollers with that quickness of glance and hearing peculiar to the Parisian who appears, at first sight, to see nothing and hear nothing, but who sees and hears everything. At this moment, a young man came to him, familiarly took his arm, saying to him: “How is it going, my good de Marsay?”
“Why, very well,” de Marsay replied to him with that apparently affectionate air which, among Parisian young men, proves nothing, either for the present or for the future.
In fact, the young men of Paris do not resemble the young men of any other city. They divide into two classes: the young man who has something and the young man who has nothing; or, the young man who thinks and the one who spends. But understand it well, what is at issue here is only those natives who lead in Paris the delightful train of an elegant life. There do indeed exist a few other young men, but those are children who conceive Parisian existence very late and remain its dupes. They do not speculate, they study, they work hard, the others say. Finally, there are still seen there certain young men, rich or poor, who embrace careers and follow them quite simply; they are somewhat Rousseau's Émile, citizen-flesh, and never appear in society. Diplomats impolitely call them fools. Fools or not, they increase the number of those mediocre people beneath whose weight France bends. They are always there; always ready to spoil public or private business with the flat trowel of mediocrity, while priding themselves upon their impotence, which they call morals and probity. These kinds of social Prizes for Excellence infest the administration, the army, the magistracy, the Chambers, the court. They diminish, flatten the country, and constitute, as it were, in the body politic, a lymph that overloads it and makes it soft. These honest persons call talented people immoral, or rogues. If these rogues make people pay for their services, at least they serve; while the former do harm and are respected by the crowd; but fortunately for France, elegant youth incessantly stigmatizes them with the name of old fossils.
Socrates
Reading The Girl with the Golden Eyes · Novella · ¶¶ 17–22
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.