Finished: Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans (de Balzac) I just finished my ninth de Balzac book, a part of his body of work called La Comedie Humaine. This book continues the story of the main character of Lost Illusions, the charming, good-looking, but completely broke Lucien de Rubempre. I hesitate to call Lucien the "hero" or the "protagonist" because he's such a horribly selfish person. In Lost Illusions he took nearly every penny from his mother and sister just to promote himself in society, and he betrayed the closest person he had to a brother, David Sechard. I don't know why Lucien wasn't on my list of Least Favorite Characters....maybe I found him too pathetic before. In any event, after his behavior in this book, he belongs there now. As the book opens, Lucien has sold himself to the human incarnate of the devil, the evil Vautrin from Le Pere Goirot. Vautrin and Lucien had met in the last pages of Lost Illusions...Vautrin on the run from the law, and Lucien having lost every penny to his name. Vautrin will sink lower than low to get money to promote Lucien in society, hoping to benefit from it for the rest of his life once Lucien marries into a rich family and gains a title. The problem, though, is that Lucien is in love with a beautiful young courtesan, Esther, and she with him. Lucien would be happy to spend the rest of his life with Esther, but Vautrin (in the story disguised as a priest, Father Abbe) has different plans. Vautrin convinces both Lucien and Esther that Lucien must be married to a wealthy society woman, and then he can keep Esther as his mistress on the side. Both of the young people reluctantly agree, however it becomes a mute point. Despite Lucien's ability to quickly make the rich, young, not very attractive Clotilde Grandlieu fall in love with him...her father the Duke will hear nothing of courtship or marriage until Lucien brings a one million dollar estate to the family as proof of his worth. Conveniently for Vautrin, Esther has been espied by the multi-millionaire Baron de Nucingen. Completely smitten, the baron has become ill with instant love. He will do anything to find the mysterious girl he saw walking in the park and make her his wealthy mistress. Here's where Lucien goes past the point of moral character return for me. He agrees to let Vautrin arrange for the baron to meet Esther, and save her from her debt by paying off several false notes that Vautrin has forged. Lucien knows that Esther will basically have to become the baron's lover for his plan to succeed. Ugh. Through a series of underhanded events, Vautrin quickly bilks de Nucingen of five hundred thousand francs using the beautiful Esther. Esther, unaware of exactly what is going on just knows that she's helping her beloved Lucien by going along with the plan. When Esther realizes she is supposed to become de Nucigen's mistress, she becomes distraught. The baron actually gives her over a month before he expects her to consummate their relationship. He's getting a house ready for her and says they will wait until the housewarming. This buys Esther a little time, but just the thought of being with anyone but Lucien, who she had an exclusive, loving, five year relationship with, makes her contemplate suicide. There are lots of characters who come into play, all trying to one up each other, to spy on each other, to undo each other's plans...to gain their cut of the money as everyone strives to dupe the baron. Just when it looks like Lucien is about to convince the Duke that he's got the money, and has been all but given his blessing to marry Clotilde, the house of cards comes tumbling down when two detectives with their own stake in the game uncover Lucien's lies and inform the Duke of Lucien's dubious character. In the meantime, Esther is being lavished upon by the baron and has began enjoying dinner parties with old friends. However, when she hears of Lucien's troubles, her heart breaks for him. Little does she know, as we readers find out at the end, Esther is really the heiress of a seven million dollar fortune. However, when Lucien comes to her lamenting his loss, he tells her how he still loves her, but how he's got to try and get Clotilde to marry him despite her father. Heartbroken, Esther goes through with the consummation of her relationship with the baron, and then takes her own life...days before she would have found out about her own wealthy status. Someone finally recognizes Vautrin and he is arrested. And, Lucien is also arrested for fraud and as an accomplice to a murder that Vautrin has committed to hide their illegal doings. That is the end of the book! I'll need to do some research and see if Lucien turns up again in another book. What a sad, sad ending for Esther, though. :-( On the only happy note, one of my favorite de Balzac characters, most prominent in Le Pere Goriot, Eugene de Rastignac, shows up here and there at various social events in Splendors and Miseries. :-) He's in several of the books of the La Comedie Humaine. Despite the sadness of the tale, I definitely enjoyed this book and really like Honore de Balzac as an author!

Finished: Some Luck (Smiley) A very low-key, but interesting book about four generations of an Iowa farm family, concentrating on the main family, the Langdons, Rosanna and Walter, and their six children, Frank, Joe, Mary Elizabeth, Lillian, Henry and Claire as they are born, grow up, live their lives, have their own children, etc. Each chapter is a different year in their lives and the point of view switches from person to person, even within chapters. We see the true highs and lows of a farm family starting in 1920 and the hardships they had to deal with, the weather, the depression, the wars, etc. We get to know a little bit about each person, and grow to really care for them. Frank, the oldest boy, is brilliant, but hard to get a read on whether he truly loves anyone back or not. A large part of the story is spent about his time in World War II. Joe becomes a farmer like his father, and becomes even more successful at it than he does. Mary Elizabeth dies as a baby in a freak accident. Lillian becomes the perfect daughter who finds happiness in marrying and raising her own family. Henry is a smart college student when the story ends, who loves books of all kinds, but mostly 18th century literature. And Claire, the baby, is a young teen when the book ends. She has grown up closer to her father than her mother and is devastated at the end of the book when 57 year old Walter, who knows he's not as healthy as he should be, goes out to the farm land, lays down and dies. Of course, Rosanna and Walter are the backbone of the family and their story is one of love, dedication, sacrifice and hard work. Walter's death is at the end of this book which is supposed to be the first book in a trilogy. Darn it. I'll probably have to read the next one to see what happens to everyone! Smiley is a very nice writer and I enjoyed the book very much. :-)