Book Review: The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac

The first thing to say is that I adore the cover of this book. Another wonderful example of the designer’s art by the NYRB. This drew my attention to the book on the bookshelf and then I saw it was quite thin and by Balzac. Those three facts put together made me buy the book as I’m almost 100% sure I’ve not previously read a book by this author, other than perhaps Pere Goriot.

I liked this book a lot and I want to read another book in the Human Comedy series by Balzac.

The first chapter doesn’t really add much to the story as Balzac seems intent on finding ways to insult Parisians, he appears to find them a human tragedy rather than a human comedy if you like, but the rest of the book is wonderful.

Henri de Marsay is a consummate hedonist who falls for the girl of the title, whose name is Paquita Valdes, the first time he sees her. The feeling is mutual and they contrive to meet a number of times, before she says something that Henri finds repulsive. He can’t stop thinking about Paquita though and with the help of a secret society Henri manages to gain access to her home.

Here he finds bloodshed and discovers the truth about the girl and his own half-sister.