The one hundred and fourty-sixth book: #85 Eugenie Grandet - Honore de Balzac
Eugenie Grandet is a novel about miserable people. It's not a miserable read, but it's hard to like many of the characters by the end of it. For example, Eugenie's father is a miser, greedy while denying himself and his family everything. His turning point appears to be when his wife is about to die and he might lose her half of the estate, but it never rings true. Her mother is an incredibly religious, subservient woman, indulging all these faults and letting herself go as a martyr - something that fits some of the perceptions of the time, but reads as extreme even in their reading. Her cousin, who she falls in love with, goes from carefree to miserable after his father's death, effectively steals Eugenie's savings (she's listed as a creditor but never gets it back) and becomes as greedy as his uncle. And Eugenie goes from the naive romantic female protagonist to being as miserable as her father. It's something that grows throughout the latter half of the novel, even if most of it is explained in a one chapter time jump. It's frustrating to read and the transformation only at times earned as it is more stated than being seen through her actions, but it feels like a good enough theme. It's a story about cycles and how misery persists, frustrating to read both as the initial innocence and later turnaround, and while the lack of introspection is telling, any sort of it would be slightly more helpful even if it seems inevitable.