Other editions of book Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

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Lucien de Rubempré and Vautrin have made a pact, in which Lucien will arrive at success in Paris if he agrees to follow Vautrin's instructions on how to do so. Esther van Gobseck throws a wrench into Vautrin's plans, however, because she falls in love with Lucien. Instead of forcing Lucien to abandon her, Vautrin allows him this secret affair, but also makes good use of it. For four years, Esther remains locked away in a house in Paris, taking walks only at night. One night, however, the Baron de Nucingen spots her and falls deeply in love with her. When Vautrin realizes that Nucingen's obsession is with Esther, he decides to use her powers to help advance Lucien. Vautrin and Lucien are 60,000 francs in debt because of the lifestyle that Lucien has had to maintain. They also need one million francs to buy the old Rubempré land back. Vautrin wants to use Esther as a tool in order to extract as much money as possible out of the impossibly rich Nucingen, but things don't work out perfectly.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ...business with a light heart. Nothing could be more fatal to Esther than the steps taken by Nucingen. The hapless girl, in defending her fidelity, was defending her life. This very natural instinct was what Carlos called prudery. Now Asie, not without taking such precautions as usual in such cases, went off to report to Carlos the conference she had held with the Baron, and all the profit she had made by it. The man's rage, like himself, was terrible; he came forthwith to Esther, in a carriage with the blinds drawn, driving into the courtyard. Still almost white with fury, the double-dyed forger went straight into the poor girl's room; she looked at him--she was standing up--and she dropped on to a chair as though her legs had snapped. "What is the matter, monsieur?" said she, quaking in every limb. "Leave us, Europe," said he to the maid. Esther looked at the woman as a child might look at its mother, from whom some assassin had snatched it to murder it. "Do you know where you will send Lucien?" Carlos went on when he was alone with Esther. "Where?" asked she in a low voice, venturing to glance at her executioner. "Where I come from, my beauty." Esther, as she looked at the man, saw red. "To the hulks," he added in an undertone. Esther shut her eyes and stretched herself out, her arms dropped, and she turned white. The man rang, and Prudence appeared. ' "Bring her round," he said coldly; "I have not done." He walked up and down the drawing-room while waiting. Prudence-Europe was obliged to come and beg monsieur to lift Esther on to the bed; he carried her with an ease that betrayed athletic strength. They had to procure all the...

In 1824, at the last opera ball of the season, several masks were struck by the beauty of a youth who was wandering about the passages and greenroom with the air of a man in search of a woman kept at home by unexpected circumstances. The secret of this behavior, now dilatory and again hurried, is known only to old women and to certain experienced loungers. In this immense assembly the crowd does not trouble itself much to watch the crowd; each one's interest is impassioned, and even idlers are preoccupied.

French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac is widely regarded as the founder of realism in European fiction, due to his keen observations and his unfiltered presentation of society. Although Balzac was a prolific writer finishing over ninety works in his life time he left many unfinished. During his life he attempted to be a publisher, businessman, critic and politician; failing at everything but writing he used his personal experiences that he got from each of these endeavors into his work.