Am I despised at the time of Felix and the delicacies of the Countess of Mortsauf engaged in an impossible love between a young man starting out in life and a wife and virtuous? Probably not, although maybe I have not included all ... Advancing in my reading, I understood why I had erased from my memory this beautiful and sad story: the shackles imposed by both the time, religion, and the protagonists themselves certainly shocked me, because it confined to self-destruction. And self-destruction shocks me still: even considered from the perspective of the Catholic religion, it seems to me that our first duty is first to live, and that life can only be nourished by sacrifices ... But I get carried away! Let calmer.
This novel is full of subtlety perfectly constructed. Putting ourselves in the shoes of a young man, who narrates this story to another woman, Nathalie Mannerville, we first allowed to marinate in the delights and torments of first love, restrained by both the conventions and timidity of the young man, his inexperience and lack of calculation. We are touched, the both saddened by the obstacles that stand between the lovers and exalted by the sublime feelings and their expression. At this stage of the novel, it is true that would be hard to give sound advice to the young Felix to give a different turn in its history because, like him, it's hard to contemplate all the fatal consequences.
It disappoints us when it probably is seduced by Lady Dudley, although it is understandable that the drives can not forever be dominated by a young man. But we perceive it already has destroyed all the rest ... and then prove us right. According to his character, we find sublime or stupid secret that Lady Mortsauf maintain throughout his life around his real feelings for the young Felix, and the torments she endured in silence, mortification that will kill her.
From that moment, one is struck by the fine analysis of Balzac, who long before psychoanalysis shows us that guilt destroyed, and it should be disposed to live his destiny. And it gives us the coup de grace in the last chapter, where the famous Nathalie Mannerville, to whom all this prose, finally takes the floor to give Felix a lesson about love, at once magisterial and eternal .
short, reputation of the Lily of the valley not misused, it is one of the masterpieces of Balzac, which however did no writing that is insignificant. The text is beautifully served by reading subtle Victoria audio.com for Literature, which I warmly thanked and congratulated for this work, including listening captivated me.
