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 31 of 66
Novella · ¶¶ 67–77
French
p. 64- Dame, monsieur Laurent, je me nomme Moinot. Mon nom s’écrit absolument comme un moineau: M-o-i-n-o-t, not, Moinot.
- Effectivement, dit Laurent.
- Je demeure rue des Trois-Frères, nº 11, au cintième, reprit Moinot; j’ai une femme et quatre enfants. Si ce que vous voudrez de moi ne dépasse pas les possibilités de la conscience et mes devoirs administratifs, vous comprenez! je suis le vôtre.
- Vous êtes un brave homme, lui dit Laurent en lui serrant la main.
- Paquita Valdès est sans doute la maîtresse du marquis de San-Réal, l’ami du roi Ferdinand. Un vieux cadavre espagnol de quatre-vingts ans est seul capable de prendre des précautions semblables, dit Henri quand son valet de chambre lui eut raconté le résultat de ses recherches.
- Monsieur, lui dit Laurent, à moins d’y arriver en ballon, personne ne peut entrer dans cet hôtel-là.
- Tu es une bête! Est-il donc nécessaire d’entrer dans l’hôtel pour avoir Paquita, du moment où Paquita peut en sortir?
- Mais, monsieur, et la duègne?
- On la chambrera pour quelques jours, ta duègne.
- Alors, nous aurons Paquita! dit Laurent en se frottant les mains.
- Drôle! répondit Henri, je te condamne à la Concha si tu pousses l’insolence jusqu’à parler ainsi d’une femme avant que je ne l’aie eue. Pense à m’habiller, je vais sortir.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes: Novella
p. 65“Well, Monsieur Laurent, my name is Moinot. My name is written absolutely like a sparrow: M-o-i-n-o-t, not, Moinot.”
“Indeed,” said Laurent.
“I live at number 11, rue des Trois-Frères, on the fifth floor,” Moinot resumed; “I have a wife and four children. If what you want from me does not exceed the possibilities of conscience and my administrative duties, you understand! I am yours.”
“You are a good man,” Laurent told him, shaking his hand.
“Paquita Valdès is no doubt the mistress of the Marquis de San-Réal, the friend of King Ferdinand. An old Spanish corpse of eighty is alone capable of taking such precautions,” Henri said when his valet de chambre had related to him the result of his researches.
“Monsieur,” Laurent told him, “unless one arrives there by balloon, no one can enter that mansion.”
“You are a beast! Is it then necessary to enter the mansion in order to have Paquita, when Paquita can come out of it?”
“But, monsieur, and the duenna?”
“That duenna of yours will be confined for a few days.”
“Then we shall have Paquita!” said Laurent, rubbing his hands.
“Rascal!” Henri replied. “I condemn you to Concha if you carry insolence so far as to speak thus of a woman before I have had her. Think of dressing me; I am going out.”
Socrates
Reading The Girl with the Golden Eyes · Novella · ¶¶ 67–77
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.