EUGENIE GRANDET
By Honoré De Balzac
ABSTRACT by Manda Djinn
Love came to Eugenie Grandet in the middle of a lotto game on her twenty-first birthday in November, 1819. Madame Grandet had just won sixteen sous when someone thumped on the front door. Monsieur and Madame Grassins and their son, Adolphe and the Cruchots were players, solid citizens of Saumur, in the west of France. At the door is Cousin Charles from Paris. This apparition has finely curled hair, wears satiny gloves and Moroccan leather boots. A letter from his
father, brought by him to his uncle, Monsieur Grandet, explains his bankruptcy and his suicide. Charles learns this the following day.
Monsieur Grandet, Eugenie’s father, loves
gold and has plenty of it. His household, however, is poor advertisement for his wealth. Until Charles’s arrival,
mother and sister are content living poorly. Nanon, the housekeeper, doles out daily rations after the orders of Monsieur Grandet.
New sensations stirring in Eugenie make her feel the confines of the regime Monsieur Grandet forces upon her. He, in turn, senses the bond growing between Eugenie and cousin Charles, not only a pauper but an orphan too, making him an undesirable suitor.
Eugenie’s birthday gift each year is a gold coin. Since she goes nowhere, except to church, the gold coins accumulate.
Charles decides his fortune lies in the Indies. He and Eugenie live a short, virginal romance with two kisses, stolen out of her father’s sight.
Monsieur Grandet, as wily as any moneylender, finds a way to turn his brother’s misfortune to his advantage; taking over his debts in the guise of clearing the father’s name and helping the son.
Before Charles leaves, Eugenie surprises him with the gift of her gold. He accepts, giving in return a precious box, once his mother’s. Eugenie promises she’ll guard it until his return.
Usually, on her birthday, Eugenie shows her father the collection of gold pieces received from him over the years. The following year, of course, the gold is gone. She and her mother stall when Grandet asks for the collection but finally Eugenie blurts out the truth: no more gold.
He raves, mostly because in his mind Eugenie’s gold pieces were already invested in the government. Now his plan to make a fortune on government bonds is thwarted. During the ensuing argument, her mother falls ill and takes to her bed. In his rage, Grandet punishes Eugenie: she is confined to her room on a diet of bread and water. Nanon sneaks food to her late at night. For months Eugenie lives on this and memories of stolen kisses.
During Eugenie’s punishment, Madame’s health declines steadily until she is finally close to death.
When Monsieur Grandet learns that Eugenie will inherit her mother’s estate, troubling his income, he suddenly transforms into a loving father and husband, putting aside his miserly ways.
At her mother’s death, though, he asks that she waive all claims to her mother’s estate, in effect reducing her to a pauper. But she is, after all, his heiress. Over the next five years Eugenie is initiated in the running of the household, accepting rents – he owns many vineyards - and in general learning his business.
In 1827, the wealthy winegrower is eighty-two and aware of his aging faculties. He depends on Eugenie and confides in her. Near the year’s end a stroke leaves him with no hope of recovery. During his last days, he’s wheeled in front of the fire and sits watching the door to his storeroom of gold. At the end, the priest performs his last rites and the dying man tells Eugenie, ”Take good care of everything! You will have to give me an account of it all some day.” She’s left alone with the faithful servant, Nanon, as a companion.
Meanwhile, Charles loses all his ideals, making money anyway he can, bargaining slaves and other merchandise, becoming as greedy as his uncle, Monsieur Grandet. Eugenie’s love is a vague memory. His aim is to return to Parisian society a rich man. With this in mind, hewrites Eugenie telling her of his proposed
marriage with a Marquis’s daughter. This marriage will give him the opportunity to rise in society. Also, he asks that she return the box left in her keeping and finally, encloses a check for the sum, with interest, of her gold pieces.
The Marquis however, forbids his daughter’s marriage with a bankrupt’s son. Eugenie hears this from the notary’s wife, Madame des Grassins. She and Madame Cruchot still hope Eugenie marries one of their sons.
Eugenie strikes a bargain with Monsieur Cruchot, known as Monsieur Bonfons, the President: He must visit Paris and pay off the remaining debts of Charles’s father so that Charles may marry the Marquis’s daughter; then she will wed Monsieur Cruchot but the marriage will never be consummated. Eugenie gives him the money for the debts.
Monsieur Cruchot, now known as Monsieur Bonfons, marries Eugenie and dies not long after, leaving her widowed at the age of thirty-three.
So it happens that the wealthy widow, whose goodness overcame her childhood misery, finds herself with no husband, no children to comfort her. Gossip says marriage looms with the Marquis de Froidfond, Madame des Grassins’s son. And even that Nanon and her husband are in favor but this is not true. It is doubtful they know anything of the world’s corruptions.
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