Old Goriot by Balzac

"And who shall say which is more awful, the sight of the bleached skulls or of withered human hearts?"

Oh and how withered some hearts are! It is a wonder that their bodies have not slowly decayed...

"Stately Paris ignores the existence of these faces bleached by moral or physical suffering. But Paris is in truth an ocean that no line can plumb. You may survey its surface and describe it, but no matter what pains you take with your investigations and exploration, no matter how numerous and painstaking the toilers in this sea, there will always be lonely and unsuspected regions in its depths, caverns unknown, where flowers and pearls and monsters of the deep still lie safe, overlooked by literary divers."

Beautiful imagery! Oh how beautiful, to imagine a city as an ocean, its depths never to be penetrated. No matter how one looks, in the deep deep corners, there is something to be hidden. I think this is one of Balzac's best metaphors, I was very much struck by this amazing metaphor. An ocean is so dark and deep...so many mysteries...and so is humanity...Especially in a city where everyone is fake and eroded by debauchery.

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Pub by Classics Club