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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French Page · Branch 28 of 66
Novella · ¶¶ 45–49
French
p. 58La duègne regarda fixement et avec attention les deux jeunes gens. Quand l’inconnue et Henri se rencontrèrent de nouveau, la jeune fille le frôla, et de sa main serra la main du jeune homme. Puis, elle se retourna, sourit avec passion; mais la duègne l’entraînait fort vite, vers la grille de la rue Castiglione. Les deux amis suivirent la jeune fille en admirant la torsion magnifique de ce cou auquel la tête se joignait par une combinaison de lignes vigoureuses, et d’où se relevaient avec force quelques rouleaux de petits cheveux. La fille aux yeux d’or avait ce pied bien attaché, mince, recourbé, qui offre tant d’attraits aux imaginations friandes. Aussi était-elle élégamment chaussée, et portait-elle une robe courte. Pendant ce trajet, elle se retourna de moments en moments pour revoir Henri, et parut suivre à regret la vieille dont elle semblait être tout à la fois la maîtresse et l’esclave: elle pouvait la faire rouer de coups, mais non la faire renvoyer. Tout cela se voyait. Les deux amis arrivèrent à la grille. Deux valets en livrée dépliaient le marchepied d’un coupé de bon goût, chargé d’armoiries. La fille aux yeux d’or y monta la première, prit le côté où elle devait être vue quand la voiture se retournerait; mit sa main sur la portière, et agita son mouchoir, à l’insu de la duègne, en se moquant du qu’en dira-t-on des curieux et disant à Henri publiquement à coups de mouchoir: - Suivez-moi…
- As-tu jamais vu mieux jeter le mouchoir? dit Henri à Paul de Manerville.
Puis apercevant un fiacre prêt à s’en aller après avoir amené du monde, il fit signe au cocher de rester.
- Suivez ce coupé, voyez dans quelle rue, dans quelle maison il entrera, vous aurez dix francs. - Adieu, Paul.
Le fiacre suivit le coupé. Le coupé rentra rue Saint-Lazare, dans un des plus beaux hôtels de ce quartier.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes: Novella
p. 59The duenna looked fixedly and attentively at the two young men. When the unknown girl and Henri met again, the young girl brushed against him and with her hand pressed the young man's hand. Then she turned, smiled passionately; but the duenna was drawing her very quickly toward the gate of the rue Castiglione. The two friends followed the young girl, admiring the magnificent torsion of that neck to which the head was joined by a combination of vigorous lines, and from which a few rolls of short hair rose forcefully. The girl with the golden eyes had that well-attached, slender, curved foot that offers so many attractions to fastidious imaginations. Accordingly she was elegantly shod and wore a short dress. During this passage she turned from moment to moment to see Henri again, and appeared to follow reluctantly the old woman whose mistress and slave she seemed to be at once: she could have her beaten mercilessly, but could not have her dismissed. All this could be seen. The two friends reached the gate. Two liveried servants were unfolding the step of a tasteful coupé laden with coats of arms. The girl with the golden eyes entered it first, took the side where she was to be seen when the carriage turned; put her hand on the door, and waved her handkerchief without the duenna's knowledge, mocking the curious spectators' what-will-people-say and publicly saying to Henri with strokes of the handkerchief: “Follow me...”
“Have you ever seen the handkerchief thrown better?” Henri said to Paul de Manerville.
Then, perceiving a hackney cab ready to leave after bringing people, he signaled the driver to remain.
“Follow that coupé; see into which street, into which house it enters; you will have ten francs. Farewell, Paul.”
The hackney cab followed the coupé. The coupé went into the rue Saint-Lazare, into one of the finest mansions in that quarter.
Socrates
Reading The Girl with the Golden Eyes · Novella · ¶¶ 45–49
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.