Among his own novels this was one of Balzac's favorites. In 1835 he wrote to Madame Hanska: "I am writing a great and beautiful work, entitled Le Lys dens la Vallee, the heroine of which is to represent terrestrial perfection as Seraphita is to represent celestial perfection." A little later he wrote: "But the Lily! If the Lily is not a breviary for women, I am nothing! In it virtue is sublime and not at all tiresome." He also called it "the poetic pendant of The Country Doctor, and in his dedication to Dr. Nacquart he wrote: "Here is one of the most highly wrought stones of the second story of a literary edifice that is being slowly and laboriously constructed." The book was published in 1836, before which time parts of it had appeared in the Revue de Paris. It was not finished in that publication, because it was the occasion of a lawsuit, which Balzac won. An account of this appeared in the first edition. Some of the characters appear in other books: the hero, Felix de Vandenesse, in tine Fate d'Eve (" A Daughter of Eve"); his brother Charles in La Femme de Trente Ans ("The Woman of Thirty"); Madeleine de Mortsauf in Memoires de Deux Jeunes Mariees (" Memoirs of Two Young Wives") and Splendeurs et Miseres (" Splendors and Miseries"); and Natalie de Manerville in Le Contrat de Mariage ("The Marriage Contract"). When writing his introduction to the Comedic Humaine, Balzac remarked: "A sure grasp of the purport of this work will make it clear that I attach to common, daily facts, hidden or patent to the eye, to the acts of individual lives and to their causes and principles, the importance which historians have hitherto ascribed to the events of public national life. The unknown struggle which goes on in a valley of the Indre between Madame de Mortsauf and her passion is perhaps as great as the most famous of battles. In one, the glory of the victor is at stake; in the other, it is heaven."
这是一部描写凄婉哀怨的爱情悲剧的优秀作品!
费利克斯是一个青年贵族,他爱上了有夫之妇莫瑟夫伯爵夫人!伯爵夫人的家庭生活极为不幸,她的丈夫性格暴躁,对她缺乏真正的爱!这样缺乏爱情的生活自然枯燥#平淡!费利克斯进入到莫瑟夫伯爵夫人的生活后,在她一潭死水的生活中掀起了波澜!
但是莫瑟夫伯爵夫人对丈夫却十分忠诚,她压抑着内心的痛苦,拒绝一种不道德的生活方式!
后来,费利克斯到达巴黎,在贵妇人迪特利的引诱之下,堕入爱河!莫瑟夫伯爵夫人得知这个消息,痛不欲生,她选择了死亡作为自己解除痛苦的办法,看成自己命运的结局!在她临终时,费利克斯来到她的身边,读到了她留下的信!这封信中她表露了她的真实情怀以及不得已的苦衷!
这部小说结合了当时的时代风云,我们从中可以读到百日政变《宫廷的演变》法国贵族的流亡等等情节,这是巴尔扎克驾轻就熟的技巧,正是通过这种背景,把这曲爱情悲歌演绎得如泣如诉#缠绵悱恻!这部小说可以称得上是巴尔扎克的代表作之一,是法国文学的宝贵遗产,也是世界文学史上一部不可多得的爱情小说!
本书的作者巴尔扎克,是十九世纪著名的法国文学家!代表作还有《欧也妮·葛朗台》、《高老头》等!