Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau Grandeur Et Decadence de Cesar Birotteau written by George Saintsbury and published by . This book was released on 2017-08-19 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Selected Works of Honore de Balzac written by Honore de Balzac and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on with total page 19641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Half-way down the Rue Saint-Denis, almost at the corner of the Rue du Petit-Lion, there stood formerly one of those delightful houses which enable historians to reconstruct old Paris by analogy. The threatening walls of this tumbledown abode seemed to have been decorated with hieroglyphics. For what other name could the passer-by give to the Xs and Vs which the horizontal or diagonal timbers traced on the front, outlined by little parallel cracks in the plaster? It was evident that every beam quivered in its mortices at the passing of the lightest vehicle. This venerable structure was crowned by a triangular roof of which no example will, ere long, be seen in Paris. This covering, warped by the extremes of the Paris climate, projected three feet over the roadway, as much to protect the threshold from the rainfall as to shelter the wall of a loft and its sill-less dormer-window. This upper story was built of planks, overlapping each other like slates, in order, no doubt, not to overweight the frail house. One rainy morning in the month of March, a young man, carefully wrapped in his cloak, stood under the awning of a shop opposite this old house, which he was studying with the enthusiasm of an antiquary. In point of fact, this relic of the civic life of the sixteenth century offered more than one problem to the consideration of an observer. Each story presented some singularity; on the first floor four tall, narrow windows, close together, were filled as to the lower panes with boards, so as to produce the doubtful light by which a clever salesman can ascribe to his goods the color his customers inquire for. The young man seemed very scornful of this part of the house; his eyes had not yet rested on it. The windows of the second floor, where the Venetian blinds were drawn up, revealing little dingy muslin curtains behind the large Bohemian glass panes, did not interest him either. His attention was attracted to the third floor, to the modest sash-frames of wood, so clumsily wrought that they might have found a place in the Museum of Arts and Crafts to illustrate the early efforts of French carpentry. These windows were glazed with small squares of glass so green that, but for his good eyes, the young man could not have seen the blue-checked cotton curtains which screened the mysteries of the room from profane eyes. Now and then the watcher, weary of his fruitless contemplation, or of the silence in which the house was buried, like the whole neighborhood, dropped his eyes towards the lower regions. An involuntary smile parted his lips each time he looked at the shop, where, in fact, there were some laughable details. A formidable wooden beam, resting on four pillars, which appeared to have bent under the weight of the decrepit house, had been encrusted with as many coats of different paint as there are of rouge on an old duchess' cheek. In the middle of this broad and fantastically carved joist there was an old painting representing a cat playing rackets. This picture was what moved the young man to mirth. But it must be said that the wittiest of modern painters could not invent so comical a caricature. The animal held in one of its forepaws a racket as big as itself, and stood on its hind legs to aim at hitting an enormous ball, returned by a man in a fine embroidered coat. Drawing, color, and accessories, all were treated in such a way as to suggest that the artist had meant to make game of the shop-owner and of the passing observer. Time, while impairing this artless painting, had made it yet more grotesque by introducing some uncertain features which must have puzzled the conscientious idler. For instance, the cat's tail had been eaten into in such a way that it might now have been taken for the figure of a spectator—so long, and thick, and furry were the tails of our forefathers' cats. To the right of the picture, on an azure field which ill-disguised the decay of the wood, might be read the name "Guillaume," and to the left, "Successor to Master Chevrel." Sun and rain had worn away most of the gilding parsimoniously applied to the letters of this superscription, in which the Us and Vs had changed places in obedience to the laws of old-world orthography. To quench the pride of those who believe that the world is growing cleverer day by day, and that modern humbug surpasses everything, it may be observed that these signs, of which the origin seems so whimsical to many Paris merchants, are the dead pictures of once living pictures by which our roguish ancestors contrived to tempt customers into their houses. Thus the Spinning Sow, the Green Monkey, and others, were animals in cages whose skills astonished the passer-by, and whose accomplishments prove the patience of the fifteenth-century artisan. Such curiosities did more to enrich their fortunate owners than the signs of "Providence," "Good-faith," "Grace of God," and "Decapitation of John the Baptist," which may still be seen in the Rue Saint-Denis.
Download or read book The Poetics of Death written by Beatrice Martina Guenther and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1996-07-12 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses literary representations of death to explore the relation between writing and death--death understood as both the death of the individual and the death of meaning.
Download or read book The National Union Catalog Pre 1956 Imprints written by Library of Congress and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Human Comedy written by Honoré de Balzac and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-08-31 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.
Download or read book Catalogue of Books in the Legislative Library of the Province of Ontario on November 1 1912 written by Ontario. Legislative Library and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 942 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Human Comedy written by Honore de Balzac and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2019-09-25 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproduction of the original: The Human Comedy by Honore de Balzac
Download or read book The Human Comedy Introductions and Appendix written by Honoré de Balzac and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-09-15 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Human Comedy: Introductions and Appendix" by Honoré de Balzac. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Download or read book Sequels written by Janet G. Husband and published by American Library Association. This book was released on 2009-07-30 with total page 793 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.
Download or read book The Works of Honor de Balzac written by Honoré de Balzac and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 944 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Whole Story written by John E. Simkin and published by K. G. Saur. This book was released on 1996 with total page 1228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is the only comprehensive guide to sequels in English, with over 84,000 works by 12,500 authors in 17,000 sequences.
Download or read book Mary Chesnut s Civil War written by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1981-01-01 with total page 954 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authorized account of the Civil War, drawn from the diaries of a Southern aristocrat, records the disintegration and final destruction of the Confederacy.
Download or read book Books in Series written by and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 938 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vols. for 1980- issued in three parts: Series, Authors, and Titles.
Download or read book Books in Series 1876 1949 Series written by and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 936 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film written by Alan Goble and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-09-08 with total page 1044 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Books in Series 1876 1949 Titles written by R.R. Bowker Company and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 990 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Books in Series 1876 1949 Titles written by and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 962 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
