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debjazzergal's review
2.0
Hard to keep track of characters as they have multiple names. Story is interrupted by long comments re politics and the like.
msgtdameron's review
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
There are no lovable or even likeable characters in this work. It is well written and Balzac has done his research on the French Police, Law courts, and criminal underworld. The picture is a wonderful picture of 19th Century France with it's King, Counts, Marquess, Prosecutors, and drawing room scandals. These are used by shysters, con-men, criminals, and opportunists to collect money from people who have to much and don't know how to be decent with it. None of these people are loveable much less nice characters. Many of them should die of something before the end of the work but they don't. Which ones just read and discover. Just don't expect to like any one by the end.
beforefirecouldcatch's review against another edition
3.0
Okay, the more Balzac I read the easier it gets. I actually enjoyed this book for the most part, and I’m excited about the final paper I’m writing about it. Cheers to reading Le Père Goriot sometime in the near future!
coleton's review
5.0
This is Balzac at his cruelest. The way in which people's lives get destroyed like pawns in the ridiculous game of one-upmanship that this book depicts (for the first two-thirds at least) is like a particularly harsh version of "House of Cards". However, the humanity is more deeply felt as well. Treating this as a single novel following Père Goriot and Lost Illusions is an experience the profundity of which cannot be stressed enough. I'm inclined to believe that this is the best of those three, but only because of the strength it carries having had the prior two novels to thoroughly set the stage.
cinnamonfox's review
2.0
Mi-a plăcut mult romanul Iluzii pierdute, însă nu am reușit să mă atașez de Lucien de Rubempré și de celelalte personaje care apar și aici; povestea m-a plictisit pe alocuri și am răsuflat ușurată când am terminat cartea. Cred că unele personaje sunt destinate a fi eroii unei singuri povești.
frances_ab's review
2.0
I pushed through to the end of this book mainly because I was the one who had nominated it for a bookclub. I found it confusing, there were too many characters with multiple names and too many schemes and machinations, both in the Aristocracy and in the criminal underworld for me to follow. As one in the larger La Comedie Humaine series, perhaps it would have been easier to follow if I had read the earlier novels.
lozzatragic10's review
4.0
this book was so LONG but i felt clever reading balzac and esther got done mega dirty
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