Reviews for The Groom's Guide

The average rating for The Groom's Guide based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-08-10 00:00:00 Robert Murdoch Our heart is a treasury; if you spend all its wealth at once you are ruined. We find it as difficult to forgive a person for displaying his feelings in all its nakedness as we do to forgive a man for being penniless. Old Goriot is the first book I have read by Balzac and it took me completely by surprise. I must confess that the irony of the series title - La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy) - was initially lost on me and I had no idea I was about to open one of the most depressing books I have ever read. Star ratings always feel woefully inadequate. Did I like this book? Did I enjoy it? Not in the slightest. It made me miserable and anxious. The detailed descriptions of places and people are dreary, or else grotesque. This story of an ageing man who is losing everything, growing older and poorer and more ridiculed by those around him, all as a result of his own selflessness, well, it's painful to read. It is a story which feels just so terribly... unfair. That's what it is. It's not fair. I felt a bit like a foot-stomping, wailing toddler reading this book because everything seemed so very unfair. And yet, I guess I must in some way like wallowing in this misery because I could not stop reading in wide-eyed horror. Enjoyable it may not be, but compelling it definitely was. Balzac begins with a richly-detailed description of Madame Vaquer's dismal boarding house. Into this wander our characters. A couple of older men and women, a young woman cut off from her father's fortune, a criminal in hiding, Eugène de Rastignac - a young and ambitious student, and Monsieur Goriot, who is known by the more mocking name of "Old Goriot". This latter is regarded with ridicule by his fellow boarders as someone who has blown his money on mistresses and other frivolities. Eugène de Rastignac's social ambitions lead him to uncover the truth about Old Goriot, a truth which he uses to his own advantage. Balzac was writing about a very interesting time in French society, offering not-so-subtle criticisms of the ruthless social ambitions people held. Madame de Beauseant tells us: The more cold-blooded your calculations, the further you will go. Strike ruthlessly; you will be feared. Men and women for you must be nothing more than post-horses; take a fresh relay, and leave the last to drop by the roadside; in this way you will reach the goal of your ambition. Old Goriot is a victim of this emerging culture, blinded by an unconditional love for those too concerned with social climbing to give him the time of day. It is a bleak picture that the author paints-- one where money, social status, fancy clothes and upper-class balls have become far more important than love and kindness. Expect misery from start to finish, and one instance of particularly revolting racism. I'm making it sound wonderful, aren't I? I guess it all depends whether you read to feel good or read to have your heart ripped out. Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review # 2 was written on 2017-11-13 00:00:00 Robin Lasater 920. Le Père Goriot = Father Goriot = Old Goriot = Old Man Goriot, Honoré de Balzac Le Père Goriot, Old Goriot or Father Goriot, is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), included in the Scenes of privacy section of his novel sequence The Human Comedy. Set in Paris in 1819, it follows the intertwined lives of three characters: the elderly doting Goriot; a mysterious criminal-in-hiding named Vautrin; and a naive law student named Eugène de Rastignac. بابا گوریو - اونوره دو بالزاک؛ انتشاراتیها: (امیرکبیر، کتابهای جیبی، ققنوس، دوستان، بنگاه نشر و ترجمه، علمی فرهنگی؛ فرخی، گلشائی - ارغوان، نشر مرکز، ...) ادبیات فرانسه؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: در ماه دسامبر سال 1978میلادی عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: م.ا به آذین؛ تهران، سازمان کتابهای جیبی، چاپ چهارم 1341،در 329ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، دوستان، 1382، در 280ص، چاپ یازدهم 1389، شابک 9789646207219؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، امیرکبیر، چاپ پنجم 1391، در 295ص، شابک 9789640014943؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان فرانسوی - سده 19م عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: ادوارد ژزف؛ تهران، بنگاه ترجمه و نشر کتاب، چاپ دوم 1341،در 359ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، علمی فرهنگی، چاپ ششم 1393، شابک 9786001216343؛ عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: بهروز بهزاد؛ تهران، فرخی، 1347،در 444ص؛ عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: شهرام پورانفر؛ تهران، گلشائی - ارغوان، 1368،در 408ص؛ عنوان: بابا گوریو؛ نویسنده: انوره دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: مهدی سحابی؛ تهران، نشر مرکز، 1388، در 352ص؛ شابک 9789642130566؛ اثری گرانقدر است؛ از نویسنده ی فرانسوی «اونوره دو بالزاک»، که داستان پدری فداکار، و از خود گذشته، در شهر «پاریس»، و محافل و مجالس اعیان و ثروتمندان، تا پانسیونهای اجاره ای، در بدترین کوچه های شهر را، با واژه های خویش، به تماشای چشم خوانشگران خویش میگذارد؛ «راستینیاک»، نماینده ی «بالزاک»، در این داستان است، برخی خواسته اند «بابا گوریو» را، داستان پدر بدبختی بدانند، که دخترانش همه ی محبت، و فداکاری پدر خویش را، با ناسپاسی پاسخ میگویند؛ «گوریو»، بدی، و زشتکاری دخترانش را، به جان میخرد، تا چهره ی آن دو را پاک، و تابناک، در دل خویش نگاه دارد؛ به موازات سرگذشت «گوریو»؛ داستان دیگری نیز، پیش میرود، که همچو داستان نخست، شورانگیز است؛ داستان آشنایی «راستینیاک»، جوان ساده ی شهرستانی، با زندگی در شهر پاریس...؛ تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 10/06/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی