The Purse

By Honoré De Balzac

Honore de Balzac’s The Purse is a short story first published in 1832 to become later a part of Balzac’s voluminous masterpiece The Human Comedy. Like other works by the same French author, The Purse centers on art and the life of artists. The protagonist Hippolyte is a successful painter who befriends his two female neighbors, Adélaide and Madame de Rouville. This happens after they rescued him from an accident in his workshop. Hippolyte, who is emotionally attracted to Adelaide, starts visiting them on a regular basis. He soon becomes suspicious of the two women who claim to be mother and daughter. Indeed, due to their miserable financial condition, people often have many doubts about their demeanor. Hippolyte is even told by some friends that the two women live on prostitution. Furthermore, when Hippolyte once loses his purse, he unhesitatingly suspects his two neighbors of robbing him. Fortunately, he later becomes sure of their innocence and Adelaide’s noble behavior and affection make him even more in love with her. He asks for her hand in marriage. After being alarmed by their very bad reputation, Hippolyte’s mother equally learns the truth about her son’s neighbors and consents to the marriage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A Word To The Wise
• Release date: Aug 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781780006727

Honoré De Balzac

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a French novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Regarded as one of the key figures of French and European literature, Balzac’s realist approach to writing would influence Charles Dickens, Émile Zola, Henry James, Gustave Flaubert, and Karl Marx. With a precocious attitude and fierce intellect, Balzac struggled first in school and then in business before dedicating himself to the pursuit of writing as both an art and a profession. His distinctly industrious work routine—he spent hours each day writing furiously by hand and made extensive edits during the publication process—led to a prodigious output of dozens of novels, stories, plays, and novellas. La Comédie humaine, Balzac’s most famous work, is a sequence of 91 finished and 46 unfinished stories, novels, and essays with which he attempted to realistically and exhaustively portray every aspect of French society during the early-nineteenth century.

Book preview

�(�1^book_preview_excerpt.htmleWK��� �V==���$�4�_Hr8B;4Q$�
�j�to|=�ę��8�x��P���U��>?��S��������zo���KOoq���/�����}��{��拗o~y��������&�6�.E�M��,�ɒ|��d�l+~�Y��Ur16:S�-�5�S��޹ �e�r2�,�W�f vg���-K1>�R�էx2) ~��a6�;a��^��������}F�V��r6Dk�A�&�RقU"i�3Q\�ݟ��4�C�+AY�pk�׺��Y d倥j��.��C)8OI�^ ��+�
D�`Y~��I/-f�-�y�Fىtoo�Wlٚ���~��T��g��b�!q��&Q"߄��N9L/3EU*��"\�Y� צe�🴷 ������Pf\��mч��D�@��@1��|�&>�ƊR�q��i����1Fo%����j��ϰ=��,�MS�� ���)���ݪ��P (g��U�~���Oв��&4��z��ٮ��]�d���i>�<^���|l>�d���6���{ܩKe�~$������ȅi���$��Bs<'`�<.ls� ����:�@}��������_7p 7n)lk�h�^�mqw�U�h�`Ɣ'����0'�i
M�wE[�J9�72��?���Q��&2?V�`�g͋OO��Fn��`p����}˘�кe9c��~ַ�6�,��6;+vש�&�&Bu�|nn��� h�09ÖUY��ڴe��8ܝ��C��m��3Z��@x,0�(�#@�ݹ�����'_t���?c�(��->��-��2�an�������ّ�q!�4�e�u� 3��b��Z�N�ҋ���$} �U�:5���$�2&����7v�u�z��K*�^b��u��"����q�3u��ᥱDgk�Μ8n�O^�>���Q��fm��H�$c_�@��f6�O��JF�:���8�;��� ���a��������,���7�I��ȑ�S�$̲�;�.5Ė�~It��KnӓAG�\�"G9��4׈�̼Չ%Nu~U�)�`ݹ%��&�N��Ԇ�F.4m��j����=-[����+i� ����701~�f|���6�E�[��j��8�%�y�Sk�2�
zr������$s�1�t���ހ���_G-3�C�����)ڵ����"ѥ�s���oen�o�Ғv�l�:K���0~R�d`���~���~��}Lx��q��Cv�@̺��X��\������ͱ�E� ���h@��X|q� �'����:�}Ut~ț���5n�Ur,�X�P�f��8�<^W�V��[$3q��H�h�}S� U|
� �Y%�+н�k����*q�