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Cover of Modeste Mignon

Fiction

Modeste Mignon

With Clara Bell

Translated by Clara Bell

A young daughter seeks independence on her own terms.

First published
1844
Length
93,992 words
Reading time
About 6 hr 32 min
Language
English (US)

About the book

Modeste Mignon is a young woman living with her blind mother and watched over by her absent father’s majordomo and wife. They’re determined to keep her from men until her father returns from his long sea voyage. She’s by all appearances the perfect daughter, but her mother believes Modeste has a secret: she’s in love! The attempts to determine whether this is true, and the aftermath, is Balzac at his wittiest. But even though she may seem like the ideal daughter, Modeste is somewhat subversive, at odds with the prevailing ideas of the time of how an ingénue should behave.

Modeste Mignon , written in 1844, is one of Balzac’s last additions to the Human Comedy .

First published 1844; the Read4Max reading text contains approximately 93,992 words arranged in 4 navigable sections.

The source metadata identifies Annotator: Clara Bell; Translator: Clara Bell.

About the author

Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) is described by Wikidata as French novelist and playwright (1799–1850), with citizenship or national association recorded as France.

Recorded occupations include novelist, literary critic, writer, prose writer, journalist, and art critic. Languages recorded for Honoré de Balzac include French. The structured record associates Honoré de Balzac with literary realism. Wikidata lists Père Goriot, The Human Comedy, Illusions perdues, Eugénie Grandet, Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, and La Peau de chagrin among Honoré de Balzac's notable works. Open Library identifies The Fatal Skin ... Translated ... by Cedar Paul (Novel Library.) as a leading work in its author record. Open Library catalogs 1 works under this author record. The Read4Max catalog currently includes A Daughter of Eve, A Marriage Settlement, A Start in Life, A Woman of Thirty, Albert Savarus, Eugénie Grandet, and Letters of Two Brides under Honoré de Balzac's authorship.

Contributors

Annotator

Clara Bell

Translator

Clara Bell

Reading options

  • A complete text with direct section navigation in the browser reader.
  • A downloadable EPUB for phones, tablets, desktop reading apps, and compatible ereaders.
  • Book and contributor metadata are checked against the source edition before indexing.

Themes and ideas

  • France--Social life and customs--19th century--Fiction
  • Historical fiction, French
  • French fiction

Table of contents

Open reader
  1. Dedication
  2. Modeste Mignon
  3. Modeste Mignon
  4. Endnotes