The Girl with the Golden Eyes

Name: The Girl with the Golden Eyes
Author: Honoré de Balzac

La Fille aux yeux d’or · French with an independent close English translation

The Girl with the Golden EyesNovella · ¶¶ 24–28

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Facing Pages · Branch 25 of 66

Novella · ¶¶ 24–28

Book Mode

French

p. 52

Le jeune homme qui s’intitulait ami de Henri de Marsay était un étourdi, arrivé de province et auquel les jeunes gens, alors à la mode, apprenaient l’art d’écorner proprement une succession, mais il avait un dernier gâteau à manger dans sa province, un établissement certain. C’était tout simplement un héritier passé sans transition de ses maigres cent francs par mois, à toute la fortune paternelle, et qui, s’il n’avait pas assez d’esprit pour s’apercevoir que l’on se moquait de lui, savait assez de calcul pour s’arrêter aux deux tiers de son capital. Il venait découvrir à Paris, moyennant quelques billets de mille francs, la valeur exacte des harnais, l’art de ne pas trop respecter ses gants, y entendre de savantes méditations sur les gages à donner aux gens, et chercher quel forfait était le plus avantageux à conclure avec eux; il tenait beaucoup à pouvoir parler en bons termes de ses chevaux, de son chien des Pyrénées, à reconnaître d’après la mise, le marcher, le brodequin, à quelle espèce appartenait une femme; étudier l’écarté, retenir quelques mots à la mode, et conquérir, par son séjour dans le monde parisien, l’autorité nécessaire pour importer plus tard en province le goût du thé, l’argenterie à forme anglaise, et se donner le droit de tout mépriser autour de lui pendant le reste de ses jours. De Marsay l’avait pris en amitié pour s’en servir dans le monde, comme un hardi spéculateur se sert d’un commis de confiance. L’amitié fausse ou vraie de de Marsay était une position sociale pour Paul de Manerville qui, de son côté, se croyait fort en exploitant à sa manière son ami intime. Il vivait dans le reflet de son ami, se mettait constamment sous son parapluie, en chaussait les bottes, se dorait de ses rayons. En se posant près de Henri, ou même en marchant à ses côtés, il avait l’air de dire: - Ne nous insultez pas, nous sommes de vrais tigres. Souvent il se permettait de dire avec fatuité: - Si je demandais telle ou telle chose à Henri, il est assez mon ami pour le faire… Mais il avait soin de ne lui jamais rien demander. Il le craignait, et sa crainte, quoique imperceptible, réagissait sur les autres, et servait de Marsay. - C’est un fier homme que de Marsay, disait Paul. Ha, ha, vous verrez, il sera ce qu’il voudra être. Je ne m’étonnerais pas de le trouver un jour ministre des affaires étrangères. Rien ne lui résiste. Puis il faisait de de Marsay ce que le caporal Trim faisait de son bonnet, un enjeu perpétuel. Demandez à de Marsay, et vous verrez!

Ou bien: - L’autre jour, nous chassions, de Marsay et moi, il ne voulait pas me croire, j’ai sauté un buisson sans bouger de mon cheval!

Ou bien: - Nous étions, de Marsay et moi, chez des femmes, et, ma parole d’honneur, j’étais, etc.

Ainsi Paul de Manerville ne pouvait se classer que dans la grande, l’illustre et puissante famille des niais qui arrivent. Il devait être un jour député. Pour le moment il n’était même pas un jeune homme. Son ami de Marsay le définissait ainsi: - Vous me demandez ce que c’est que Paul. Mais Paul?… c’est Paul de Manerville.

- Je m’étonne, mon bon, dit-il à de Marsay, que vous soyez là, le dimanche.

The Girl with the Golden Eyes: Novella

p. 53

The young man who styled himself Henri de Marsay's friend was a scatterbrain, arrived from the provinces, to whom the young men then in fashion were teaching the art of properly nibbling away an inheritance, but he had one last cake to eat in his province, a certain establishment. He was quite simply an heir who had passed without transition from his meager hundred francs a month to the whole paternal fortune, and who, if he did not have enough wit to perceive that people were making fun of him, knew enough calculation to stop at two-thirds of his capital. He came to discover in Paris, at the cost of a few thousand-franc notes, the exact value of harnesses, the art of not respecting his gloves too much, to hear there learned meditations upon the wages to give servants, and to seek what lump-sum arrangement was most advantageous to conclude with them; he cared greatly about being able to speak in correct terms of his horses, of his Pyrenean dog, to recognize from the dress, the walk, the ankle boot, to what species a woman belonged; to study écarté, retain a few fashionable words, and conquer, through his stay in Parisian society, the authority necessary to import later into the provinces the taste for tea, silverware of English form, and to give himself the right to despise everything around him for the rest of his days. De Marsay had taken him into friendship in order to use him in society, as a bold speculator uses a trusted clerk. De Marsay's friendship, false or true, was a social position for Paul de Manerville who, for his part, thought himself very clever in exploiting his intimate friend in his own way. He lived in his friend's reflection, constantly put himself beneath his umbrella, put on his boots, gilded himself in his rays. In placing himself near Henri, or even in walking at his side, he had the air of saying: “Do not insult us, we are true tigers.” Often he allowed himself to say with fatuity: “If I asked Henri for such and such a thing, he is enough my friend to do it...” But he took care never to ask him for anything. He feared him, and his fear, although imperceptible, reacted upon others, and served de Marsay. “De Marsay is a formidable man,” Paul would say. “Ha, ha, you will see, he will be what he wants to be. I would not be surprised to find him one day Minister of Foreign Affairs. Nothing resists him.” Then he made of de Marsay what Corporal Trim made of his cap, a perpetual stake. “Ask de Marsay, and you will see!”

Or else: “The other day, de Marsay and I were hunting; he would not believe me: I jumped a bush without stirring from my horse!”

Or else: “De Marsay and I were with some women, and, upon my word of honor, I was, etc.”

Thus Paul de Manerville could be classed only in the great, illustrious, and powerful family of fools who get on. One day he was to be a deputy. For the moment he was not even a young man. His friend de Marsay defined him thus: “You ask me what Paul is. But Paul?... Paul is Paul de Manerville.”

“I am surprised, my good fellow,” he said to de Marsay, “that you are here on Sunday.”

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.

Discussion Questions

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.