La Maison Nucingen
 | |
| Author | Honoré de Balzac |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Series | La Comédie humaine |
Publication date | 1837 |
La Maison Nucingen (English "The House of Nucingen") is a short story by Honoré de Balzac. It was published in 1837 and is one of the Scènes de la vie Parisienne of La Comédie humaine.[1]
Plot summary
The story is told in the first person by an anonymous narrator. In the private dining room of a famous Parisian restaurant, the narrator overhears the conversation of four journalists in the next room, Andoche Finot, Émile Blondet, Couture and Jean-Jacques Bixiou, all recurring characters in La Comédie humaine.
They comment on the astonishing success of Rastignac, who owes his wealth to his dealings with Maison Nucingen, the famous Parisian bank. Rastignac is the lover of Nucingen's wife Delphine. Nucingen pretends to be ignorant of this, but also decides to use Rastignac. Nucingen thinks that "capital is a power only when you are very much richer than other people", which is why he embarks on complex operations which can be summed up as follows: he raises the prices of securities and buys them back after having them artificially lowered. He even goes so far as to use men well regarded in the Parisian sphere, of which Rastignac is a part, to believe in his imminent ruin and to fuel the panic which then allows him to speculate. Nucingen has the art of combining false bankruptcies, advancing his pawns in the form of straw men. He can then buy back at a very low price the stocks that he had initially sold at higher prices.
His first liquidation enabled him to acquire a luxury mansion and embark on an extravagant business in shares in the mines of Wortschin. He can then juggle with a second, then a third liquidation. Nucingen used a large number of "straw men", among them the very respectable Eugène de Rastignac, the count of Lupeaulx, who all enriched themselves by his side. In the process some of Nucingen's clients the Aldriggers, and the Beaudenords are financially ruined.
Adaptation
The story was adapted into the French movie Nucingen House in 2008.[2]
References
- ^ Honoré de Balzac. "The Human Comedy: Introductions and Appendix". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
- ^ "Nucingen House publisher=UniFrance". Retrieved 13 August 2021.
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External links