A Woman of Thirty (Tridtsatiletnyaya Zhenshchina)

Honoré de Balzac's celebrated novel, 'A Woman of Thirty,' is part of the 'Scenes from Private Life' section of his extensive 'Human Comedy' cycle, and it is thanks to it that the popular expression 'woman of Balzac's age' was coined. Work on the novel, composed of standalone stories, some previously published in magazines, lasted over ten years. In a sequential series of stories, the author unfolds the life story of Julie d'Aiglemont, whom we meet on the opening pages 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, parental love, modern marriage, and contemporary society. This edition features a new translation of the novel.