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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: injured his nature, and given him the sourness of invalided ambition.
Though a brave man and a witty one and capable of great things, envy,
which is the root of existence in Touraine, the inhabitants of which
employ their native genius in jealousy of all things, injured him in
upper social circles, where a dissatisfied man, frowning at the
success of others, slow at compliments and ready at epigram, seldom
succeeds. Had he sought less he might perhaps have obtained more; but
unhappily he had enough genuine superiority to make him wish to
advance in his own way.
At this particular time Monsieur de Chessel's ambition had a second
dawn. Royalty smiled upon him, and he was now affecting the grand
The Lily of the Valley |
