The Illustrious Gaudissart

Honoré de Balzac' s short story ´The illustrious Gaudissaart´ reveals the arrogance and prejudice on both sides of the city-country divide. When a slick salesman from the big city visits the provincial town of Vouvray, he is confident that the locals will buy anything. But Gaudissart' s apparent belief in the doctrine of Saint-Simonianism, which teaches that industrialization will empty the countryside and create a Utopian society of workers, riles a local man named Vernier. He tricks him into selling items to his unstable neighbor Margaritis, who convinces the salesman to buy two non-existent wine barrels. This vindictive practical joke then escalates into legal action and a dramatic duel ensues. For more insights into life in 1830s Europe, try Elizabeth Gaskell\' s \' Ruth\' and \' North and South\'.