Audiobook · read by volunteers
Sarrasine
Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850)
Read by Chip · 1 chapter · 1 h 39
About the book
A young sculptor, a mysterious singer, a Roman palace and a secret that unfolds in a Parisian salon: Balzac’s short tale begins at a glittering Parisian ball, where a narrator is asked by a beautiful woman about the origin of an old, strangely compelling figure. His answer takes us back across decades and borders to Italy, to the artist Sarrasine and his burning devotion to beauty. Written in 1830, the story is a masterpiece of atmosphere, with its sharp portrait of society, its passion and its disquiet. It is also a story about art, desire and illusion, whose layers unfold slowly. This English version, translated by Clara Bell, takes under two hours and offers a fascinating first meeting with Balzac. Roland Barthes later devoted an entire book, S/Z, to this story.
Introduction
Honoré de Balzac, who lived from 1799 to 1850, is often called one of the fathers of realism. His enormous cycle of novels and stories, collected under the title La Comédie humaine, paints a portrait of French society in the first half of the nineteenth century. Sarrasine, published in 1830, is one of his shorter pieces and one of the most analysed, since it has been the subject of much critical discussion over the years, most famously in Roland Barthes’s book S/Z.
The story opens in a salon of Paris society at a time when the Bourbon monarchy was nearing its end. A narrator listens to a question about a mysterious old person and replies with a tale that carries us from France to Italy, where a young sculptor goes in search of both his craft and his muse. It is a story of passion and of the dangers of a love built on illusion, told with Balzac’s taste for social observation, for rich description and for suspense.
The English translation used here is by Clara Bell, a prolific Victorian translator of French and German works. The recording is a single continuous piece and lasts about one hour and forty minutes, which makes it a good choice for an evening.
LibriVox volunteers recorded the text for free listening. Listeners should know that the tale touches on mature themes and on desire, and it rewards attentive listening, because its pleasure lies partly in how the narrator reveals what he knows. For those who have never tried Balzac, Sarrasine is a brief, vivid and memorable way to begin.
Public domain
Honoré de Balzac died in 1850: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text