Honoré de Balzac

“ Frightful condition of the human race! there is no one of its joys that does not come from some species of ignorance.
At the moment when Madame Grandet had won a loto of sixteen sous,—the largest ever pooled in that house,—and while la Grande Nanon was laughing with delight as she watched madame pocketing her riches, the knocker resounded on the house-door with such a noise that the women all jumped in their chairs.
"There is no man in Saumur who would knock like that," said the notary.
"How can they bang in that way!" exclaimed Nanon; "do they want to break in the door?" ”

“ Her kitchen, whose barred windows looked into the court, was always clean, neat, cold,—a true miser's kitchen, where nothing went to waste. When Nanon had washed her dishes, locked up the remains of the dinner, and put out her fire, she left the kitchen, which was separated by a passage from the living-room, and went to spin hemp beside her masters. One tallow candle sufficed the family for the evening. The servant slept at the end of the passage in a species of closet lighted only by a fan-light. Her robust health enabled her to live in this hole with impunity ”

“ At twenty-two years of age the poor girl had been unable to find a situation, so repulsive was her face to almost every one. Yet the feeling was certainly unjust: the face would have been much admired on the shoulders of a grenadier of the guard; but all things, so they say, should be in keeping. Forced to leave a farm where she kept the cows, because the dwelling-house was burned down, she came to Saumur to find a place, full of the robust courage that shrinks from no labor. Le Pere Grandet was at that time thinking of marriage and about to set up his household. ”

“ Sometimes Grandet, reflecting that the poor creature had never heard a flattering word, that she was ignorant of all the tender sentiments inspired by women, that she might some day appear before the throne of God even more chaste than the Virgin Mary herself,—Grandet, struck with pity, would say as he looked at her, "Poor Nanon!" ”

“ Nanon opened the door, and the light from the hearth, reflected on the ceiling, enabled the three Cruchots to find their way into the room.
"Ha! you've come a-greeting," said Nanon, smelling the flowers.
"Excuse me, messieurs," cried Grandet, recognizing their voices; "I'll be with you in a moment. I'm not proud; I am patching up a step on my staircase."
"Go on, go on, Monsieur Grandet; a man's house is his castle," said the president sententiously. ”

“ This result of her long and persistent economy seemed gigantic. Every servant in the town, seeing that the poor sexagenarian was sure of bread for her old age, was jealous of her, and never thought of the hard slavery through which it had been won. ”

“ The notary, sitting in his corner, looked calmly at the abbe, saying to himself: "The des Grassins may do what they like; my property and my brother's and that of my nephew amount in all to eleven hundred thousand francs. The des Grassins, at the most, have not half that; besides, they have a daughter. They may give what presents they like; heiress and presents too will be ours one of these days."
At half-past eight in the evening the two card-tables were set out. Madame des Grassins succeeded in putting her son beside Eugenie. ”

“ Madame des Grassins cast her eyes on the blue vases which held the Cruchot bouquets, looking at the enemy's gifts with the pretended interest of a satirical woman. At this delicate juncture the Abbe Cruchot left the company seated in a circle round the fire and joined Grandet at the lower end of the hall. As the two men reached the embrasure of the farthest window the priest said in the miser's ear: "Those people throw money out of the windows." ”

“ I've earned it," said Nanon; "most people would have broken the bottle; but I'd sooner have broken my elbow holding it up high."
"Poor Nanon!" said Grandet, filling a glass.
"Did you hurt yourself?" asked Eugenie, looking kindly at her.
"No, I didn't fall; I threw myself back on my haunches."
"Well! as it is Eugenie's birthday," said Grandet, "I'll have the step mended. You people don't know how to set your foot in the corner where the wood is still firm." ”

“ After the dinner at which for the first time allusion had been made to Eugenie's marriage, Nanon went to fetch a bottle of black-currant ratafia from Monsieur Grandet's bed-chamber, and nearly fell as she came down the stairs.
"You great stupid!" said her master; "are you going to tumble about like other people, hey?" ”

“ Grandet thought himself very generous to his wife. Philosophers who meet the like of Nanon, of Madame Grandet, of Eugenie, have surely a right to say that irony is at the bottom of the ways of Providence. ”

“ Their feelings, bruised, though they did not know it, but ever-living, were the secret spring of their existence, and made them curious exceptions in the midst of these other people whose lives were purely material. ”

“ The door of the archway was made of solid oak, brown, shrunken, and split in many places; though frail in appearance, it was firmly held in place by a system of iron bolts arranged in symmetrical patterns. A small square grating, with close bars red with rust, filled up the middle panel and made, as it were, a motive for the knocker, fastened to it by a ring, which struck upon the grinning head of a huge nail. This knocker, of the oblong shape and kind which our ancestors called jaquemart, looked like a huge note of exclamation ”

“ In Berry and in Anjou, when a young girl marries, her family, or that of the husband, must give her a purse, in which they place, according to their means, twelve pieces, or twelve dozen pieces, or twelve hundred pieces of gold. The poorest shepherd-girl never marries without her dozen, be it only a dozen coppers. They still tell in Issoudun of a certain "dozen" presented to a rich heiress, which contained a hundred and forty-four portugaises d'or. ”