Eugénie Grandet

Eugénie lives in provincial Saumur under the authority of her wealthy, miserly father. The arrival of her Parisian cousin Charles disrupts the household and awakens her first love. Her wish to help him comes into conflict with a family world governed by profit and inheritance. Balzac contrasts generosity with accumulation and loyalty with calculation. Through the details of provincial life, the novel becomes a story of growing up and disappointed hopes, asking how wealth can restrict freedom as surely as poverty.