|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: discover that he has an acre of land or a single dividend warrant. The
typical knight errant of our salons, our boudoirs, our boulevards, an
amphibian half-way between a man and a woman--Maxime de Trailles is a
singular being, fit for anything, and good for nothing, quite as
capable of perpetrating a benefit as of planning a crime; sometimes
base, sometimes noble, more often bespattered with mire than
besprinkled with blood, knowing more of anxiety than of remorse, more
concerned with his digestion than with any mental process, shamming
passion, feeling nothing. Maxime de Trailles is a brilliant link
between the hulks and the best society; he belongs to the eminently
intelligent class from which a Mirabeau, or a Pitt, or a Richelieu
Gobseck |
