The Village Rector

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Honoré de Balzac. The Village Rector

I. THE SAUVIATS

II. VERONIQUE

III. MARRIAGE

IV. THE HISTORY OF MANY MARRIED WOMEN IN THE PROVINCES

V. TASCHERON

VI. DISCUSSIONS AND CHRISTIAN SOLICITUDES

VII. MONTEGNAC

VIII. THE RECTOR OF MONTEGNAC

IX. DENISE

X. THIRD PHASE OF VERONIQUE’S LIFE

XI. THE RECTOR AT WORK

XII. THE SOUL OF FORESTS

XIII. FARRABESCHE

XIV. THE TORRENT OF THE GABOU

XV. STORY OF A GALLEY-SLAVE

XVI. CONCERNS ONE OF THE BLUNDERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

XVII. THE REVOLUTION OF JULY JUDGED AT MONTEGNAC

XVIII. CATHERINE CURIEUX

XIX. A DEATH BLOW

XX. THE LAST STRUGGLE

XXI. CONFESSION AT THE GATES OF THE TOMB

ADDENDUM

Отрывок из книги

In the lower town of Limoges, at the corner of the rue de la Vieille-Poste and the rue de la Cite might have been seen, a generation ago, one of those shops which were scarcely changed from the period of the middle-ages. Large tiles seamed with a thousand cracks lay on the soil itself, which was damp in places, and would have tripped up those who failed to observe the hollows and ridges of this singular flooring. The dusty walls exhibited a curious mosaic of wood and brick, stones and iron, welded together with a solidity due to time, possibly to chance. For more than a hundred years the ceiling, formed of colossal beams, bent beneath the weight of the upper stories, though it had never given way under them. Built en colombage, that is to say, with a wooden frontage, the whole facade was covered with slates, so put on as to form geometrical figures, – thus preserving a naive image of the burgher habitations of the olden time.

None of the windows, cased in wood and formerly adorned with carvings, now destroyed by the action of the weather, had continued plumb; some bobbed forward, others tipped backward, while a few seemed disposed to fall apart; all had a compost of earth, brought from heaven knows where, in the nooks and crannies hollowed by the rain, in which the spring-tide brought forth fragile flowers, timid creeping plants, and sparse herbage. Moss carpeted the roof and draped its supports. The corner pillar, with its composite masonry of stone blocks mingled with brick and pebbles, was alarming to the eye by reason of its curvature; it seemed on the point of giving way under the weight of the house, the gable of which overhung it by at least half a foot. The municipal authorities and the commissioner of highways did, eventually, pull the old building down, after buying it, to enlarge the square.

.....

Veronique was, as a matter of fact, absolutely ignorant of the value of things. She had never wanted for anything; she never saw a piece of gold till the day of her marriage; she had no money of her own; her mother bought and gave her everything she needed and wished for; so that even when she wanted to give alms to a beggar, the girl felt in her mother’s pocket for the coin.

“If that’s so,” remarked the hatmaker, “she can’t cost you much.”

.....