Lost Souls
Honoré de Balzac
Translated by Raymond N. MacKenzie
PODCAST EPISODE: TRANSLATOR RAYMOND MACKENZIE IN CONVERSATION WITH PRESS DIRECTOR DOUGLAS ARMATO ON THE NOT-SMALL FEAT OF TRANSLATING BALZAC.
The first new translation of Balzac’s 1847 novel Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes in half a century, fully annotated and with an extensive introduction
In Balzac’s brilliant evocation of nineteenth-century Paris, we enter a world of glittering wealth and grinding poverty, teeming with strivers, poseurs, and pleasure seekers along with those who struggle merely to survive.
"Between Lost Illusions and Lost Souls, in two hefty, handsome paperbacks—with scholarly trimmings to help, not impede a reader—we now have both of the novels (technically all seven novels in a trilogy followed by a tetralogy… published between 1837 and 1847 in not entirely chronological order… because Balzac?) tracing the fate of Lucien de Rubempre, in print as though they belong together, on your to-be-read lists and your shelves. They are a remarkable itinerary." —LitHub
Tags
In Lost Souls, Honoré de Balzac’s brilliant evocation of nineteenth-century Paris, we enter a world of glittering wealth and grinding poverty, teeming with strivers, poseurs, and pleasure seekers along with those who struggle merely to survive. Between the heights of Parisian society and the criminal world lurking underneath, fate is about to catch up with Lucien de Rubempré, last seen in Lost Illusions, as his literary aspirations, his love for the courtesan Esther van Gobseck, and his scheme to marry the wealthy Clotilde become entangled in the cunning and ultimately disastrous ambitions of the Abbé Herrera, a villain for the ages.
An extraordinary volume in Balzac’s vast Human Comedy (in which he endeavored to capture all of society), Lost Souls appears here in its first new English translation in half a century. Keenly attuned to the acerbic charm and subtleties of Balzac’s prose, this edition also includes an introduction presenting thorough biographical, literary, and historical context, as well as extensive notes throughout the text—an invaluable resource for today’s readers as they navigate Balzac’s copious allusions to classical and contemporaneous politics and literature.
$19.95 paper ISBN 978-1-5179-0544-6
512 pages, 6 x 9, March 2021
Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) worked as a clerk, printer, and publisher before devoting himself entirely to writing fiction. A leading figure in the development of realism in European literature, he wrote more than one hundred volumes of stories, novellas, and novels, including Père Goriot, Le Peau de chagrin, and Lost Illusions (Minnesota, 2020), the prequel to Lost Souls.
Raymond N. MacKenzie is professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. His previous translations include Barbey d’Aurevilly’s Diaboliques, Stendhal’s Italian Chronicles, Lamartine’s Graziella, and Balzac’s Lost Illusions (all from Minnesota).
Beautifully written book.
Book Post
Between Lost Illusions and Lost Souls, in two hefty, handsome paperbacks—with scholarly trimmings to help, not impede a reader—we now have both of the novels (technically all seven novels in a trilogy followed by a tetralogy… published between 1837 and 1847 in not entirely chronological order… because Balzac?) tracing the fate of Lucien de Rubempre, in print as though they belong together, on your to-be-read lists and your shelves. They are a remarkable itinerary.
LitHub
Here’s a gift to the world literature in English that keeps on giving: Raymond Mackenzie keeps making fine translations of Balzac’s huge, great novels and the University of Minnesota Press keeps publishing them in the same handsome format: after Lost Illusions, Lost Souls. They have given us convincing, eminently readable versions of Balzac.
David Ball, METAMORPHOSES
About This Book
Related Publications
Related News & Events
LitHub: This Wild and Crazy Summer, Give in to the Chaos of Balzac
Rain Taxi Review of Books: French Writers in English Translation
LitHub: This Wild and Crazy Summer, Give in to the Chaos of Balzac
Drew Johnson in Praise of a “Disorderly, Conflicted, Brilliant Clod”
Rain Taxi Review of Books: French Writers in English Translation
Are these 1,066 pages worth the trouble? Unequivocally.