The Firm of Nucingen | Page 3

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Etext prepared Dagny, [email protected] and Bonnie Sala

THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN
BY
HONORE DE BALZAC

Translator James Waring

TO MADAME ZULMA CARRAUD

To whom, madame, but to you should I inscribe this work; to you
whose lofty and candid intellect is a treasury to your friends; to you
that are to me not only a whole public, but the most indulgent of sisters
as well? Will you deign to accept a token of the friendship of which I
am proud? You, and some few souls as noble, will grasp the whole of
the thought underlying The Firm of Nucingen, appended to Cesar
Birotteau. Is there not a whole social lesson in the contrast between the
two stories?
DE BALZAC.

You know how slight the partitions are between the private rooms of
fashionable restaurants in Paris; Very's largest room, for instance, is cut
in two by a removable screen. This Scene is NOT laid at Very's, but in
snug quarters, which for reasons of my own I forbear to specify. We
were two, so I will say, like Henri Monnier's Prudhomme, "I should not
like to compromise HER!"
We had remarked the want of solidity in the wall-structure, so we
talked with lowered voices as we sat together in the little private room,
lingering over the dainty dishes of a dinner exquisite in more senses
than one. We had come as far as the roast, however, and still we had no
neighbors; no sound came from the next room save the crackling of the
fire. But when the clock struck eight, we heard voices and noisy
footsteps; the waiters brought candles. Evidently there was a party
assembled in the next room, and at the first words I knew at once with
whom we had to do--four bold cormorants as ever sprang from the
foam on the crests of the ever-rising waves of this present
generation--four pleasant young fellows whose existence was
problematical, since they were not known to possess either stock or
landed estates, yet they lived, and lived well. These ingenious
condottieri of a modern industrialism, that has come to be the most
ruthless of all warfares, leave anxieties to their creditors, and keep the
pleasures for themselves. They are careful for nothing, save dress. Still
with the courage of the Jean Bart order, that will smoke cigars on a
barrel of powder (perhaps by way of keeping up their character), with a
quizzing humor that outdoes the minor newspapers, sparing no one, not
even themselves; clear-sighted, wary, keen after business, grasping yet
open handed, envious yet self-complacent, profound politicians by fits

and starts, analyzing everything, guessing everything--not one of these
in question as yet had contrived to make his way in the world which
they chose for their scene of operations. Only one of the four, indeed,
had succeeded in coming as far as the foot of the ladder.
To have money is nothing; the self-made man only finds out all that he
lacks after six months of flatteries. Andoche Finot, the self-made man
in question, stiff, taciturn, cold, and dull-witted, possessed the sort of
spirit which will not shrink from groveling before any creature that
may be of use to him, and the cunning to be insolent when he needs a
man no longer. Like one of the grotesque figures in the ballet in
Gustave, he was a marquis behind, a boor in front. And this high-priest
of commerce had a following.
Emile Blondet, Journalist, with abundance of intellectual power,
reckless, brilliant, and indolent, could do anything that he chose, yet he
submitted to be exploited with his eyes open. Treacherous or kind upon
impulse, a man to love, but not