Blondet’s Maxims

Blondet’s Maxims are a cluster of five aphorisms about fortune, risk, and worldly advancement that Lucien adopts as reassurance while falling into debt. They turn uncertainty into a promise: that affairs will settle themselves, that poverty leaves little to lose, and that a clever man can reach success by going with events. Their irony lies in the gap between the confidence they offer and Lucien’s worsening circumstances.

The Five Assurances

The maxims advance a linked argument. Everything eventually comes right; those who possess nothing have nothing to lose; only the fortune one is pursuing can be lost; following the current will eventually carry a person somewhere; and a man of intelligence with a foothold in society can make his fortune whenever he chooses. Together, they make passivity sound like strategy and ambition sound like a guarantee.

Lucien’s Use of the Maxims

Lucien leans on these assurances after adopting the debt-tolerant outlook of the pleasure-seeking young men around him. The figures make the gap between his confidence and his means concrete: the 1,500 francs still due from the sale of Les Marguerites and the first 500 francs he earned have already been spent. Over three months, his articles bring him little more than 1,000 francs, although he believes he has worked enormously.

Rather than reckon with how differently his companions are situated—some have inheritances, reliable prospects, recognized talent, or determined plans—Lucien trusts in his own future and in the maxims’ promise that things will arrange themselves. His reliance on them is not simply a general optimism: it becomes a way to avoid judging the risks of his present life.

Irony and Consequences

The aphorisms sound like practical knowledge, but Lucien’s circumstances expose their evasions. He expects ministerial generosity to settle his accounts and relieve Coralie’s hidden distress, while repeatedly promising to work and then letting dissipation displace the promise. The maxims thus help him mistake a hoped-for change in fortune for a solution to debts already accumulating.

Their effect is sharpened by the contrast between reassurance and consequence. Lucien’s new political prospects seem to offer a route upward, yet his confidence rests on the belief that fortune will follow without sustained effort or sober accounting. Blondet’s maxims capture the seductive logic by which Lucien converts uncertainty into permission to continue as before.