What is the main content of Eugenie Grandet?

The novel narrates a story about money destroying humanity and causing family tragedy. It revolves around the central event of Eugenie’s love tragedy, and uses the waves caused by the autocracy within the Grandet family and the bankruptcies outside the family. The novel is composed of three intertwined plot threads: the open and secret struggle between the family and the notary, and Eugenie's love for Charles Grandet and Charles's betrayal of his faith.

Grandet is the character that the novel focuses on. He was greedy, cunning, and stingy. Money was the only God he worshiped. Watching gold alone became his hobby. Before his death, he never forgot to tell his daughter to watch the gold. He was an expert in business, often pretending to be stuttering and deaf, so as to trick others into being deceived and ensure that he would win.

His family is extremely wealthy, but he saves money. He personally distributes the food for every meal and the candles he lights every day. For money, he disowned his relatives and withheld his wife's expenses. When his daughter was imprisoned, he only gave her cold water and bread. He was indifferent to his brother's bankruptcy. He ignored his nephew's pleas. This image created by the author is extremely vivid and has become one of the four miser images in the history of world literature. Greed and stinginess are his main character traits.

Creative background

The first half of the 19th century was the early stage of the establishment of French capitalism. Napoleon was completely defeated in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Since then, the Bourbon dynasty was restored and its rule has continued. By 1830. Because Charles X's reactionary policies angered the people, the July Revolution overthrew the Restoration Dynasty in just three days and began the 18-year rule of the July Dynasty, in which the financial bourgeoisie took power. "Eugénie Grandet" was published in 1833, which was the beginning of the July Dynasty.

The memory of the recent Restoration Dynasty is still fresh in people’s minds. During the Restoration period, although the nobles returned to France from abroad and showed off their power and arrogance, their actual status was not the same as before the French Revolution because the bourgeoisie had become stronger. Louis XVIII, who had just come to power, had to promulgate a new constitution, implement democratic peace, and make concessions to the bourgeoisie in order to maintain the shaky regime. Although the bourgeoisie lost political power, it relied on its economic strength to compete with the aristocracy.

In the late Restoration Dynasty, the bourgeoisie defeated the nobles not only in the cities, but also in the countryside where the nobles maintained extensive influence. The Restoration Dynasty was actually over. Balzac was more keen than his contemporaries and observed this major social phenomenon with unique insight.