The Thirtieth Year Woman

The famous novel by Honoré de Balzac «The Thirtieth Year Woman» belongs to the section «Scenes from Private Life» of the vast cycle «The Human Comedy», and it is thanks to this work that the phrase «Balzacian age woman» was born. The work on the text of the novel, composed of independent stories, some of which were previously published in magazines, lasted more than ten years. In the consecutively arranged stories, the author unfolds before the reader the story of the life of Julie d’Eglemont, who we first meet as a young girl hopelessly in love with her future husband. Observing the heroine's fate, the author reflects on the nature of love between a man and a woman and parental love, on modern marriage and modern society. In this edition, the novel «The Thirtieth Year Woman» is published in a new translation. In addition to it, the collection includes two other famous works from the cycle «The Human Comedy»: the novellas «The Unknown Masterpiece» and «Colonel Chabert».