Houses in a provincial town
The author opens the novel with the descriptions of “houses in certain provincial towns” within which “there is the silence of the cloister, the barrenness of moors, the skeleton of ruins”. The image of a house helps the author to provide a picture of life in such houses, which is “so stagnant there that a stranger might think them uninhabited”. One of such sad dwelling-house is in Saumur town, which “stands at the end of the steep street … street—now little frequented, hot in summer, cold in winter, dark in certain sections”. This is the house of the main characters of the novel – Eugenie Grandet and her parents. Novels that belong to the French realism of the 19th century is characterized by abundance of images of backgrounds, everyday lives, characters, and their appearance. The given image of the house provides a picture of people’s life and conditions of life, and phrases that evoke the house of Monsieur Grandet provide a picture of his life “without giving the biography of Monsieur Grandet himself”.
Inside the house
The description of the Grandet’s house, which is “cold, silent, pallid dwelling, standing above the town and sheltered by the ruins of the ramparts,” is essential in understanding the mode of life, but what is inside is of even more importance. Into this house leads “a door of the archway made of solid oak, brown, shrunken, and split in many places”, then the “hall is at one and the same time antechamber, salon, office, boudoir, and dining-room; it is the theatre of domestic life, the common living-room” – it is the most important room in the house. “This room, with two windows looking on the street, was entirely of wood. Gray panels with ancient mouldings covered the walls from top to bottom; the ceiling showed all its beams, which were likewise painted gray, while the space between them had been washed over in white, now yellow with age”. The overall appearance of the room is scanty and poor, to say nothing of all the rest rooms in the house. it is the only room which was heated in the winter. Grandet was a person of great property; he had a lot of money, but made his wife and daughter live in poverty. This fact helps a reader to better understand the character of Grandet.
Madame Grandet
The novel is filled with descriptions of personal appearances as well, and among these is the image of Grandet’s wife: “Madame Grandet was a dry, thin woman, as yellow as a quince, awkward, slow, one of those women who are born to be down-trodden. She had big bones, a big nose, a big forehead, big eyes, and presented at first sight a vague resemblance to those mealy fruits that have neither savor nor succulence. Her teeth were black and few in number, her mouth was wrinkled, her chin long and pointed”. Due to her appearance, especially to the conditions of her teeth, it becomes obvious that her life is not easy.
