Reviews for Horace

The average rating for Horace based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-08-16 00:00:00 Thomas Hunt Theophile is the narrator in the novel, Horace. He is the loyal and patient friend of the difficult, pretentious, and impetuous university student Horace, who comes to Paris from the provinces. Horace has been spoiled by parents who sacrificed their merger income for their selfish son. Surrounded by the excitement and temptations of the city, Horace forgets his studies and gets entangled in love affairs, becomes a social climber and has aspirations to become a celebrated author, willing to lie and spend money he doesn't have to make his way into the homes of the aristocracy. He creates a lot of drama and brings grief into the lives of the people closest to him, while at the same time keeping his antics well hidden from his doting parents. George Sands' writing in Horace is as witty, wise, and dramatic as in other novels of hers that I've read.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-06-22 00:00:00 James Maxey In Horace, which was motivated by a quarrel between author George Sand and fellow novelist Marie d'Agoult, Sand portrays her friend in a most unflattering manner as the vain and peevish Vicomtesse Léonie de Cahilly. The unfolding of the plot shows the Vicountess Cahilly as flagrantly amoral, egotistical and vindictive, an indifferent mother and un unfaithful wife who indulges herself in numerous affairs, and eventually wreaks petty revenge on the title character, the feckless Latin Quarter dandy Horace Dumontet, by ruining his reputation in Parisian society through gossip and schemes. Of course, Horace is an unsympathetic character to begin with. He is so ruthless in his spending that all the money his devoted parents can spare him for his education goes straight to his vainglorious lifestyle in Paris. It's maddening to read about it. Fortunately, the novel includes some much more sympathetic male characters such as narrator Theophile, a wise medical student of noble birth, and art student Paul Arsène. Sand also creates some likeable working-class women characters who stand up to the typical misogyny and irrational limitations placed on women of the time. Though Sand's motivation may not have been entirely pure when she wrote Horace, she, nevertheless, came up with a very interesting and enjoyable novel about a tumultuous period in French history-two years after the 1830 July Monarchy-when idealistic young men rose up against the Citizen King Louis-Philippe and were crushed for their pains. (The same skirmishes are portrayed in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables). While Horace careens toward his inevitable comeuppance, the other more stolid characters triumph over seemingly unsurmontable odds. Don't worry about the unlikely coincidences that move the plot along. Just flow with Sand's wonderful writing style and enjoy.