A Woman of Thirty (Dodo Press) Paperback – May 10, 2006

Almost all the first half of the somewhat story was a testimony of Balzac romanticizing one of his most self indulgent and egocentric of any of his characters that I have read. I thought surely there would be a later twist of redemption or justification for the life of the woman he plied with sympathy. So, I read on. But for the rest of the somewhat story is, as one reviewer has previously put it, disjointed and mismatched. The episodes are not within a scheme or theme that can be followed. The result is a gushing over the anguishing of womanhood even though titled, rich, recognized in society, with really quite dutiful and loving children, raised by nannies and not appreciated by this "unfortunate woman". There were times in the book that I wondered if it was a joke, or was he really serious. Unfortunately, it was the latter.The book is not entitled to even one star except that it is Balzac and many of the descriptions of surroundings, atmosphere, environment etc. are lucid and clear. Also, the translation is good.

I have two reviews for this book, but the most essential piece of information I can offer is that this book is very shoddily made - upon reading the book only once, it now looks like a well loved used book. Sections of pages cracked right out of the binding. Also, the edition has some strange text/typing issues which didn't bother me as much, but by all means spring for the other, slightly more expensive version.I won't expound with a full review here, however this book is worth reading, especially to die-hard Balzac fans (of which I'm one). Learning that the piece was culled from unrelated stories made the somewhat shaky plot lines defensible, but it's strength is in just a few fantastic passages on women and age. A short read with some gems of prose - and how can you beat plot twists involving pirate queens? You'll see . . .

Great Deal, much appreciated.

I love French literature and Balzac has an extraordinary insight into human nature. I always wanted to read this book however the translation is not the best.

Tedious yet unbelievable

The book started off good, but as it continued I didn't care for the moral undertones. Can't say I would recommend it.

Even when I don't like a book, I don't usually give anything less than five stars to recognized classics, but this novel is such an obvious hack job that I feel guilty in giving it even two stars rather than just one.The structure of the novel, if we can call it that, is a series of formative episodes in the life of Julie d'Aiglemont. The first describes how she came to marry her husband, and the last brings the reader to her death. So far so good, but the problem is that to be called a structure, the object must somehow hold itself up.The truth is that in this novel, we find nothing in early episodes that supports what we find in later sections. The beginning of one story does not follow from the end of the previous story. People fall in love, are born, and die for no apparent reason. The whole fails the test of logic and falls apart.OK, one could argue that life is like that. Life does not follow an Aristotelian progression unified in time or place. If this novel were an attempt at presenting life from a different perspective, the way the novels of Proust and Virginia Woolf do, or even the more approachable novels of Indian author R.K. Narayan, I would accept it on those terms.But "A Woman of Thirty" is not an abstract rethinking of how to represent the lives of people. It clearly aims to be a standard novel ranking with those of other authors and set within Balzac's Comedie Humaine, complete with characters we've met before and will encounter again.As such it fails.The only two things that earn it an extra star are the opening scene where the daughter falls in love, against her father's advice, with her husband, and a later story about murderers and pirates. That particular episode is ludicrous and, unusually for Balzac who tends to shuns that particular contrivence popular among nineteenth century novelists, full of unbeliveable coincidences. But at least it has action & violence, which is also something unusual in Balzac.Vincent Poirier, Quebec CityNote: This novel is a only a very small part of the Human Comedy, which on the whole is a five-star work!

This novel actually follows our leading character, Julie, from being a teenager; in chapter 1 her father takes her to a review of the troops and notices her absorption in a certain handsome colonel whom he counsels her against marrying. The story moves on, father dies and Julie does indeed marry Victor. I dont want to spoil the book for you but there is marital discord, illicit love, parenting problems with one child ever left out in the cold (and the repercussions of THAT!) and the trials of old age. The book's weakness comes when Balzac leaves the more mundane themes of relationships and goes off on a flight of fancy with Helene's bizarre elopement and frankly unbelievable exploits thereafter

this novel actually follows our lead character, Julie, from being a teenager; in Chapter 1, her father takes her to a review of the troops and notices her absorption in a certain handsome colonel, whom he counsels her against marrying. The story moves on, father dies and Julie does indeed marry Victor. I don't want to spoil the book for you but there is marital discord, illicit love, poor parenting, with one child ever left 'out in the cold' (and the repercussions of that) and the trials of old age. The book's weakness comes when Balzac leaves the more mundane themes of relationships, and goes off on a flight of fancy with Helene's bizarre elopement and frankly unbelievable expoloits thereafter.