Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — ZCerfberr, Anatole
General
Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z
Cerfberr, Anatole
Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850. Comédie humaine
boudoir of Carabine, and he was seen there, one evening in 1845, along
with Jenny Cadine, Gazonal, Bixiou, Leon de Lora, Massol, Claude
Vignon, Trailles, F. du Bruel, Vauvinet, Marguerite Turquet, and the
Gaillards of the rue Menars. [The Firm of Nucingen. Father Goriot.
Pierrette. Cesar Birotteau. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial
at Paris. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. Another Study of Woman. The
Secrets of a Princess. A Man of Business. Cousin Betty. The Muse of
the Department. The Unconscious Humorists.]
NUCINGEN (Baronne Delphine de), wife of the preceding, born in 1792,
of fair complexion; the spoiled daughter of the opulent
vermicelli-maker, Jean-Joachim Goriot; on the side of her mother, who
died young, the granddaughter of a farmer. In the latter period of the
Empire she contracted, greatly to her taste, a marriage for money.
Madame de Nucingen formerly had as her lover Henri de Marsay, who
finally abandoned her most cruelly. Reduced, at the time of Louis XVIII.,
to the society of the Chaussee-d'Antin, she was ambitious to be admitted
to the Faubourg Saint-Germain, a circle of which her elder sister,
Madame de Restaud, was a member. Eugene de Rastignac opened to her the
parlor of Madame de Beauseant, his cousin, rue de Greville, in 1819,
and, at about the same time, became her lover. Their liaison lasted
more than fifteen years. An apartment on the rue d'Artois, fitted up
by Jean-Joachim Goriot, sheltered their early love. Having entrusted
to Rastignac a certain sum for play at the Palais-Royal, the baroness
was able with the proceeds to free herself of a humiliating debt to
Marsay. Meanwhile she lost her father. The Nucingen carriage, without
an occupant, however, followed the hearse. [Father Goriot.] Madame de
Nucingen entertained a great deal on the rue Saint-Lazare. It was
there that Auguste de Maulincour saw Clemence Desmarets, and Adolphe
des Grassins met Charles Grandet. [The Thirteen. Eugenie Grandet.]
Cesar Birotteau, on coming to beg credit of Nucingen, as also did
Rodolphe Castanier, immediately after his forgery, found themselves
face to face with the baroness. [Cesar Birotteau. Melmoth Reconciled.]
At this period, Madame de Nucingen took the box at the Opera which
Antoinette de Langeais had occupied, believing undoubtedly, said
Madame d'Espard, that she would inherit her charms, wit and success.
[Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. The Commission
in Lunacy.] According to Diane de Cadignan, Delphine had a horrible
journey when she went to Naples by sea, of which she brought back a
most painful reminder. The baroness showed a haughty and scornful
indulgence when her husband became enamored of Esther van Gobseck.
[Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] Forgetting her origin she dreamed of
seeing her daughter Augusta become Duchesse d'Herouville; but the
Herouvilles, knowing the muddy source of Nucingen's millions, declined
this alliance. [Modeste Mignon. The Firm of Nucingen.] Shortly after
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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