"Eugénie Grandet" is a novel by French author Honoré de Balzac, first published in 1833. Felix Grandet, master cooper, married the daughter of a wealthy timber merchant at a time when the French Republic had confiscated the lands of the Church in the district of Saumur. When the land was auctioned his wife's dowry and his existing savings enabled him to buy substantial property. On Eugénie's birthday, Felix Grandet is celebrating with his favoured coterie of Grassinistes and Cruchotins. They are disturbed by a confident knock on the door and a young stranger is admitted, who hands a letter to Felix. It is from brother Guillaume, unseen and unresponsive in Paris for 30 years asking Felix to assist Charles his son to travel to the Indies. The next day newspaper headline announces the fact of Guillaume's death, and debts, which causes Charles to break down. While he sleeps Eugénie reads a letter to his mistress and assumes he is dismissing Annette and planning to marry her: Another letter impels Eugénie to collect up the rare gold coins her father gave her on her birthdays. Later she offers the gold to Charles who asks her to guard a gold dressing case given to him by his mother. After Charles has left, Balzac reserves a final degradation for Grandet. His wife, who had been patient, loving and supportive throughout their married life, had been physically ground down by their austere life. As she lay ill in bed, with Eugénie pleading for a fire to warm her and the services of doctor, he does nothing and she dies. The final scenes - Grandet's death, Charles's cynical return and Eugénie's relative goodness – wrap up the narrative threads, but it is Felix Grandet's moral decay that is the scaffolding in this wonderfully crafted novel.