Annie's Reviews > The Human Comedy: Selected Stories

I know, I know. 91 works and all the attention I’m giving the entirety of The Human Comedy, magnum opus of Honore de Balzac, is one 400-page selection?

Yeah, well, suck my clit. My to-read list looms like Mount Doom as it is. I’m not adding another 91.

Maybe someday I’ll read more of the Human Comedy. Maybe. But right now, me and Honore are doing it quick and dirty.

Like most one night stands, I’m not sure how I feel about this one. Hence the 3-star rating. I loved some of the stories and hated others. Here’s the breakdown:

Facino Cane: 1 star
Another Study of Womankind: ...0 star? Can I 0 star this one?
The Red Inn: 1 star
Sarrasine: 2 star
A Passion in the Desert: 5 star
Adieu: 4 star
Z Marcas: 2 star
Gobseck: 1 star
The Duchesse de Langeais: 5 star

Passion in the Desert & Duchesse de Langeais were phenomenal and had me thinking about them hours afterwards. Adieu was fairly good as well. The rest… not so much.

I love long-winded reflection or description as long as it either:
1)Has a point, or
2)Is innately beautiful.

Most of this book was neither. It was just… words. Just words on a page. Just plodding, pointless, unadorned description. Going nowhere.

In comparison, take authors like Milan Kundera or Henry James or DH Lawrence or Virginia Woolf. They don’t love action or even dialogue. Most of their books are just introspection or description. But they’re all favourites of mine because they do it well.

Balzac, with the 3 exceptions mentioned above, doesn’t really. I was neither intellectually nor emotionally stimulated by most of these stories.

I don’t know if most of the complete Human Comedy saga is more like Desert & Duchesse or more like the rest of the stories. I guess I’ll have to read the real deal someday to find out.

...but based on this sampling, I’m mysteriously not going to get around to that for a long, long time.