'A Woman of Thirty' occupies a place of honor in Balzac's legacy, complementing the vibrant palette of 'Scenes from Private Life.' This elegant and tender narrative of love in its highest manifestations simultaneously becomes a requiem for married life. The novel's heroine, Julie, an extraordinary, independent woman free to express her emotions, bids farewell to her youthful illusions and becomes disillusioned with marriage. After all, 'it is not sorrows themselves that often destroy us, but lost hopes.' And when you melt under the weight of your husband's indifference and coldness, doesn't it sometimes seem that legitimate love is more burdensome than criminal passion?
'...And since in France, and throughout the world, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of women feel misunderstood and disappointed, they find in Balzac the doctor who first gave a name to their affliction. He excuses any of their false steps, if only this step is taken out of love, he dares to say that not only a 'thirty-year-old woman,' but also a 'forty-year-old woman,' and even she, who has known and comprehended everything, has the highest right to love.' Stefan Zweig