10% of the 100% of the things I underlined in Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet (as summarized by Mac OSX’s SummaryService):
This language of secret signs which they alone can interpret forms, as it were, a freemasonry among people of like passions. the torrent of words in which he drowned his thought, trying to economize his expenditure even of muscular energy. with legs measuring twelve inches round the calf, So much, and no more, was known in Saumur about Monsieur Grandet. … For it is true that hard work, which was our salvation, can give him back the fortune I have lost; Excuse me a moment while I blow my nose— applying the genius country people have for a minute analysis It was a rather gloomy view, shut in by the old walls, but one not without the strange beauty of solitary spots and places left to grow wild. … in which the finest ideas are destroyed by an epigram, Nearly all girls are ready to believe unquestioningly the fair promise of a pleasant outward appearance; The vinegrower’s ecstasies of delight always filled them with dismay. just as in Poland in the days of Augustus, when the king drank the whole of Poland got drunk. … In sober truth crowns live and breed like men: they come and go and sweat and bring in wages.’ that happens among the great folk and even sometimes to decent people; with the blank, fascinated gaze of a child who is just beginning to notice objects, and like a child he would painfully smile. … The great never stoop to flattery: it is the resource of mean and petty natures, who diminish themselves still further in order to creep more easily into the heart of the person round whom they wish to revolve. a kind of botanical phenomenon peculiarly disagreeable when appearing in the middle of a pale, bored face.
100% of the things I underlined in Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet:
There is a perpetual duel in progress between celestial forces and terrestrial interests. and among them the sombre dwelling which is the scene of the events of this story. simplicity which it becomes more and more difficult to find in modern France. He owned thirteen small farms, an old abbey, in which he had prudently walled up the windows in order to preserve the stained glass and the traceries. The glance of a man accustomed to drawing huge sums as interest on his capital, like the glance of the sensualist, the gambler, or the toady, necessarily contracts certain indefinable characteristics, a furtive, greedy, secret flicker, which do not pass unnoticed by his fellows who worship at the same shrine. This language of secret signs which they alone can interpret forms, as it were, a freemasonry among people of like passions. the torrent of words in which he drowned his thought, trying to economize his expenditure even of muscular energy. with legs measuring twelve inches round the calf, So much, and no more, was known in Saumur about Monsieur Grandet. But suitability to its purpose is necessary in all things, so they say. who was then young enough to be still sensitive to misery. Pity had taken root in Grandet’s heart and the lonely girl found it entirely acceptable, but there was something revolting in it. It was a vile miser’s pity which cost the old cooper nothing and warmed his heart agreeably, while it was Nanon’s whole sum of human happiness. Who can refrain from repeating ‘Poor Nanon’? God will know his angels by the tones of their voices and the sadness hidden in their hearts. will be revealed in the course of the story, and at the first glance vaguely recalled those cotton-textured fruits that have lost all their flavour and juice. An angelic sweetness of nature, helpless resignation like that of an insect in the hands of tormenting children, unusual devotion to her religion, unvarying evenness of temper, a kind heart, had won for her universal pity and respect. Fate is, at bottom, ironical? They are like the last roses in autumn, which are delightful to the eye, but whose petals have something chilly and pinched about them, and whose scent is fading. a scene of sorry comedy. But is it not, indeed, a scene played out in every country, in every age, shown here in its simplest form? How horrible is man’s condition! He does not own one happiness whose source does not lie in ignorance of some kind. had produced much the same effect as a snail’s invasion of a beehive, a grimace their only expression. In the country, people gradually cease to care about their appearance. For it is true that hard work, which was our salvation, can give him back the fortune I have lost; Excuse me a moment while I blow my nose— applying the genius country people have for a minute analysis It was a rather gloomy view, shut in by the old walls, but one not without the strange beauty of solitary spots and places left to grow wild. The poor child was unjust to herself; but humility, or rather a fear of being unworthy, is one of the first-awakened attributes of love. She felt peculiarly conscious of her own sense of happiness, and was sure, as most of us are in such circumstances, perhaps not without reason, that her thoughts were written on her face for anyone to read. Goodness knows how many grains these lumps of sugar weighed: the worthy miser amused himself by cutting them up, as a spare-time relaxation. The compassion and tenderness of a young girl have a truly magnetic force, and Charles, seeing himself thus waited upon by his cousin and aunt, could not help yielding without a struggle to the influence of the overwhelming current of feeling, that was, as it were, brought to bear upon him. From that moment she began to criticize her father in her mind. She was upright, as a flower growing in the depths of the forest is delicate, and knew nothing of the world’s worldly-wise maxims, its specious arguments, its sophisms: if his epidermis had not resembled Russia leather in everything but its scent of larch bark and incense. Quite often the things that human beings do appear literally incredible although in fact they have done them. He was dreaming as people dream who go to bed supperless. A guileless passion has its own intuition, and knows by instinct that love kindles love. All human power is achieved by a compound of patience and time. The people who accomplish most are the people who exert their will to watch and wait. Oh! has anyone properly understood the meaning of the lamb lying peacefully at God’s feet, that most touching symbol of all the victims of this world, and of their future, the symbol which is suffering and weakness glorified? The miser lets the lamb grow fat, then he pens, kills, cooks, eats, and despises it. It is in the French character to take fire, fly into a passion, in anger or delight, at the appearance of the meteor of the moment, for the sake of some distant floating stick which looks portentous. Have nations and men in the mass no memory? in which the finest ideas are destroyed by an epigram, Nearly all girls are ready to believe unquestioningly the fair promise of a pleasant outward appearance; The vinegrower’s ecstasies of delight always filled them with dismay. just as in Poland in the days of Augustus, when the king drank the whole of Poland got drunk. He had believed such lives as these to be impossible in France, outside legend and August Lafontaine’s novels, and only admitted that they might exist in Germany. ‘Oh! indeed I do,’ he replied with a warmth and sincerity which showed the warmth and sincerity of his feeling. but bored with the boring dullness of existence She carried love like an unborn child. Mam’selle, I can’t help liking it, though you can’t call it love.’ For want of warm sleeves she caught a severe chill after a violent perspiration brought on by one of her husband’s appalling outbursts of rage. In sober truth crowns live and breed like men: they come and go and sweat and bring in wages.’ that happens among the great folk and even sometimes to decent people; with the blank, fascinated gaze of a child who is just beginning to notice objects, and like a child he would painfully smile. ‘There is the sea between us,’ said Eugénie. Love was teaching her the meaning of eternity. The great never stoop to flattery: it is the resource of mean and petty natures, who diminish themselves still further in order to creep more easily into the heart of the person round whom they wish to revolve. a kind of botanical phenomenon peculiarly disagreeable when appearing in the middle of a pale, bored face.
