Lost Illusions tells the story of a good looking young man who lusts after fame in Paris and as a result brings his supportive good-natured provincial family to bankruptcy. It's a rather long-winded novel. In common with many 19th century novelists Balzac does like to give elaborate descriptions of everything he sees. Thus every room is presented to us in meticulous detail - wonderful if you want to research interior design in 19th century France; on the tedious side otherwise; every character's physiognomy is put under a microscope even though they may never appear again. It's a facet of the novel that has been greatly improved over the decades. He's also rather over-keen on aphorisms. But on the whole this was a brilliantly moving novel which very convincingly created an entire world in a particular moment of history. In an ideal world though it would be clipped of a couple hundred of its very many pages.

Balzac is on every serious reader's to-read list. I've had the B&N edition on my shelf for a while now. Years. So when a spanking new edition came up on Netgalley, I decided to take the plunge. I'm versed (not quite well-) in Zola, so I fell very quickly into nineteenth-century Paris, a sort of dreamworld for the élan of the romantic. This edition is translated, introduced, and (very helpfully) noted by Raymond N. McKenzie. Its 600+ pages went by like a breeze. Lucien, our weak-beamed protagonist, is a vessel for disappointment. He never follows advice or understands true friendship, is given a vast array of opportunities, and proceeds to ruin the lives of his family and friends, all while remaining somehow blameless - his friends continue to help him even after he's thrown them under the bus, and his family (disconcertingly) embraces the prodigal son on his return. I loathed him. It was so much fun! This novel was a little top-heavy, the first half being a perfect blend of character-building and commentary, while the second half was all dialogue and plot. Which is fine, there was just a lack of consistency. McKenzie's introduction explains the reasons for this very well - the intense editing, taking apart, and putting back together of what would ultimately become Lost Illusions made the actual existence of the novel in its current form quite inconceivable. And yet, here it is. I'm looking forward to McKenzie's upcoming translation of the sequel that he has re-titled Lost Souls.