A thirty year old woman

The novel that made Balzac famous and made the expression "Balzac age" common. On the one hand, it is an elegant and tender story about love in its highest manifestations. On the other hand, it is a requiem for married life. Julie is an extraordinary, independent woman, free in expressing her feelings. Because of her husband's indifference and coldness, she says goodbye to her youthful illusions and becomes disillusioned with marriage. After all, "it is not the sorrows themselves that ruin us, but the lost hopes." And what choice can one make when on one side of the scale there is a burdensome legalized love, and on the other - a criminal passion? A woman who has known and comprehended everything has the highest right to happiness. Hundreds of thousands of women have found a doctor in Balzac, because he excuses any of their wrong steps, as long as this step is made out of love.