Download or read book The Quest of the Absolute and Other Stories (Classic Reprint) written by Honoré de Balzac and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-12 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Quest of the Absolute and Other Stories But "The Quest of the Absolute" is, as has been said, a novel in itself. Taking minor points only, it is a masterpiece. That there is a certain parallelism, probably unconscious, between the way in which Balthazar Claes as unconsciously kills his wife and the way in which Monsieur Grandet kills his, is certainly no drawback to the book; for the repetition, if it is a repetition, only shows how genius can repeat. Indeed, there is the same demonstration contained in the same books in the representation of the diverse martyrdoms of Madame Claes and her daughter Marguerite, fatal in the former case, happily changed in the latter. In no book is Balzac's faculty of Dutch drawing, as far as scenes and details go, more brilliantly shown; in none are the minor characters - from the famulus Le Mulquinier, with his fatal belief in his master's madness, downwards - better; while Marguerite Claes and her mother, especially Marguerite, are by common consent to be ranked among Balzac's greatest triumphs in portraying "honest women." But these things, though they illustrate the general principle that the presence of a great central interest and figure will radiate greatness and interest on its surroundings, would contribute comparatively little to the effect of the book if it were not for the seeker after the absolute himself. Nowhere, perhaps, has the hopeless tyranny of the fixed idea, the ferocious (not exactly selfish) absorption in the pursuit of a craze, been portrayed with quite the same power as here. And we know and feel that the energy, the fire, the perfection of the handling are due to sympathy - that Balzac a few generations earlier would have sought the Philosopher's Stone with the same desperate energy as Balthazar. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.