'What holds sway over this country without morals,
beliefs, or feelings? Gold and pleasure.' Sexual
attraction, artistic insight, and the often ironic
relationship between them is the dominant theme in the
three short works collected in this volume. In Sarrasine
an impetuous young sculptor falls in love with a diva of
the Roman stage, but rapture turns to rage when he
discovers the reality behind the seductiveness of the
singer's voice. The ageing artist in The Unknown
Masterpiece, obsessed with his creation of the perfect
image of an ideal woman, tries to hide it from the
jealous young student who is desperate for a glimpse of
it. And in The Girl with the Golden Eyes, the hero is a
dandy whose attractiveness for the mysterious Paquita
has an unexpected origin. These enigmatic and disturbing
forays into the margins of madness, sexuality, and
creativity show Balzac spinning fantastic tales as
profound as any of his longer fictions. His mastery of
the seductions of storytelling places these novellas
among the nineteenth-century's richest explorations of
art and desire.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years
Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest
range of literature from around the globe. Each
affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to
scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a
wealth of other valuable features, including expert
introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to
clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further
study, and much more. |
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