French literature

Honore de Balzac

Biography

BALZAC, ONORE (Balzac, Honor de) (1799-1850), French writer who recreated a complete picture of the social life of his time. Born May 20, 1799 in Tours; his relatives, peasants by origin, were from southern France (Languedoc). The original surname Balssa was changed by his father when he arrived in Paris in 1767 and began a long bureaucratic career there, which he continued in Tours from 1798, holding a number of administrative positions. The particle "de" in 1830 was added to the name by the son of Honore, claiming a noble birth. Balzac spent six years (1806-1813) as a boarder at the Vendome College, completing his education in Tours and Paris, where the family returned in 1814. After working for three years (1816-1819) as a clerk in a judicial office, he convinced his parents to let him try his luck in literature ... Between 1819 and 1824 Honore published (under a pseudonym) half a dozen novels, influenced by J. J. Rousseau, W. Scott, and "horror novels." In collaboration with various literary day laborers, he released many novels of a frankly commercial sense.

In 1822, he began his relationship with the forty-five-year-old Madame de Bernie (d. 1836). A passionate feeling at first emotionally enriched him, later their relationship turned into a platonic plane, and Lily in the Valley (Le Lys dans la valle, 1835-1836) gave an extremely ideal picture of this friendship.

An attempt to make a fortune in publishing and printing (1826-1828) led Balzac into large debts. Returning to writing, he published in 1829 the novel The Last Chouan (Le dernier Shouan; revised and published in 1834 under the name Chouans - Les Chouans). It was the first book to be published under his own name, along with the humorous manual for husbands Physiology of marriage (La Physiologie du mariage, 1829), she attracted the public's attention to the new author. At the same time, the main work of his life began: in 1830 the first Scenes of Private Life (Scnes de la vie prive) appeared, with the undoubted masterpiece House of the Cat Playing Ball (La Maison du chat qui pelote), in 1831 the first Philosophical Novels and Stories were published ( Contes philosophiques). For several more years, Balzac worked part-time as a freelance journalist, but the main forces from 1830 to 1848 were given to an extensive cycle of novels and stories, known to the world as the Human Comedy (La Comdie humaine).

The contract for the publication of the first series of Etudes on morals (tudes de moeurs, 1833-1837) Balzac concluded when many volumes (12 in total) were not yet completed or just begun, since he used to first sell the finished work for publication in periodicals, then release its a separate book and, finally, include it in a particular collection. The sketches consisted of Scenes - private, provincial, Parisian, political, military and country life. The scenes of private life, devoted mainly to youth and its inherent problems, were not tied to specific circumstances and places; but the scenes of provincial, Parisian and country life were played out in a precisely designated environment, which is one of the most characteristic and original features of the Human Comedy.

In addition to trying to portray the social history of France, Balzac set out to diagnose society and offer medicines to cure its illnesses. This goal is clearly felt throughout the cycle, but it is central to the tudes philosophiques, the first collection of which was published between 1835 and 1837. Studies on morals were supposed to present "consequences", and Philosophical studies were to reveal "causes." Balzac's philosophy is a curious combination of scientific materialism, theosophy of E. Swedenborg and other mystics, physiognomy of IK Lavater, phrenology of F.J. Gall, magnetism of F.A. Mesmer and the occult. All this was combined, sometimes in a very unconvincing way, with official Catholicism and political conservatism, in support of which Balzac openly spoke. Two aspects of this philosophy are of particular importance for his work: first, a deep faith in "second sight", a mysterious property that gives its owner the ability to recognize or guess facts or events that he was not a witness (Balzac considered himself extremely gifted in this relation); secondly, based on Mesmer's views, the concept of thought as a kind of "etheric substance" or "fluid". Thought consists of will and feeling, and a person projects it into the world around him, giving it more or less impulse. Hence the idea of ​​the destructive power of thought arises: it contains vital energy, the accelerated waste of which brings death closer. This is vividly illustrated by the magical symbolism of Shagreen leather (La Peau de chagrin, 1831).

The third major section of the cycle was supposed to be tudes analytiques, devoted to "principles", but Balzac never made clear his intentions on this score; in fact, he completed only two volumes from the series of these Etudes: the semi-serious-half-joking Physiology of Marriage and Petites misres de la vie conjugale, 1845-1846).

Balzac defined the main outlines of his ambitious plan in the fall of 1834 and then consistently filled in the cells of the outlined scheme. Allowing himself to be distracted, he wrote in imitation of Rabelais a number of amusing, albeit obscene "medieval" stories called Mischievous Tales (Contes drolatiques, 1832−1837), not included in the Human Comedy. The title for the ever-expanding cycle was found in 1840 or 1841, and a new edition, first equipped with this title, began to appear in 1842. It retained the same division principle as in the Etudes 1833-1837, but Balzac added to it “a preface ", In which he explained his goals. The so-called "definitive edition" of 1869-1876 included Mischievous Tales, Theater (Thtre) and a number of letters.

There is no unanimity in the criticism about how correctly the writer managed to portray the French aristocracy, although he himself was proud of his knowledge of the world. With little interest in artisans and factory workers, he achieved what was reputedly the greatest persuasiveness in describing various members of the middle class: clerical workers - Les Employs, judicial clerks and lawyers - Custody Case (L "Interdiction, 1836), Colonel Chabet (Le Colonel Chabert, 1832); financiers - Banker's house of Nucingen (La Maison Nucingen, 1838); journalists - Lost illusions (Illusions perdues, 1837-1843); small manufacturers and merchants - The story of the greatness and fall of Caesar Birotto (Histoire de la grandeur et decadence de Csar Birotteau, 1837) Among the Scenes of private life dedicated to feelings and passions, the Abandoned Woman (La Femme abandonne), the Thirty-year-old woman (La Femme de trente ans, 1831-1834), The Daughter of Eve (Une Fille d've , 1838) Scenes of provincial life not only recreate the atmosphere of small towns, but also depict painful "storms in a glass of water" that disrupt the peaceful course of everyday life - Tours priest (Le Cur de Tours, 1832), Eugnie Grandet (1833), Pierrette (Pierrette, 1840). The novels of Ursule Mirout and La Rabouilleuse (1841-1842) show violent family strife over inheritance. But the human community appears even darker in Scenes of Parisian life. Balzac loved Paris and did a lot to preserve the memory of the now forgotten streets and corners of the French capital. At the same time, he considered this city a hellish abyss and compared the "struggle for life" going on here with the prairie wars, as one of his favorite authors, F. Cooper, portrayed them in his novels. The most interesting of the Scenes of Political Life is the Dark Cause (Une Tnbreuse Affaire, 1841), where the figure of Napoleon appears momentarily. Scenes of military life (Scnes de la vie militaire) include only two works: Chuana's novel and the story Passion in the Desert (Une Passion dans le dsert, 1830) - Balzac intended to significantly complement them. Scenes of village life (Scnes de la vie de campagne) are generally devoted to the description of the dark and predatory peasantry, although in such novels as the Country Doctor (Le Mdecin de campagne, 1833) and the Country Priest (Le Cur de village, 1839), a significant place is assigned to the presentation of political, economic and religious views. Balzac was the first great writer to pay close attention to the material background and "appearance" of his characters; before him no one had portrayed money-grubbing and ruthless careerism as the main stimuli in life. The plots of his novels are often based on financial intrigue and speculation. He also became famous for his "cross-cutting characters": the person who played the leading role in one of the novels then appears in others, revealing himself from a new side and in different circumstances. It is also noteworthy that in the development of his theory of thought, he inhabits his artistic world with people possessed by an obsession or some kind of passion. Among them - the usurer in Gobseck (Gobseck, 1830), the mad artist in the Unknown masterpiece (Le Chef-d "oeuvre inconnu, 1831, new edition 1837), the curmudgeon in Eugene Grande, the maniac chemist in Search of the Absolute (La Recherche de l 'absolu, 1834), an old man blinded by love for his daughters in Father Goriot (Le Pre Goriot, 1834−1835), a vengeful spinster and incorrigible womanizer in Cousin Bette (La Cousine Bette, 1846), an inveterate criminal in Father Goriot and Splendor and poverty courtesans (Splendeurs et misres des courtisanes, 1838-1847) This trend, along with a penchant for the occult and horror, casts doubt on the view of Human Comedy as the highest achievement of realism in prose. to the smallest details of everyday life, a sophisticated analysis of emotional experiences, including love ones (the novel The Golden-Eyed Girl - La Fille aux yeux d'or was an innovative study of perverse attraction), as well as the strongest The second illusion of the recreated reality gives him the right to be called "the father of the modern novel." The closest successors to Balzac in France, G. Flaubert (for all the severity of his critical assessments), E. Zola and naturalists, M. Proust, as well as modern authors of novels cycles, undoubtedly learned a lot from him. Its influence was also felt later, already in the twentieth century, when the classical novel was considered an obsolete form. The collection of nearly one hundred titles of the Human Comedy testifies to the amazing versatility of this prolific genius, who anticipated almost all of the subsequent discoveries. Balzac worked tirelessly, he was famous for using the next proofreading for a radical revision of the composition and significant changes in the text. At the same time, he paid tribute to entertainments in the Rabelaisian spirit, willingly paid visits to high society acquaintances, traveled abroad and was far from being averse to love interests, among which his relationship with the Polish countess and the wife of the Ukrainian landowner Evelina Hanska stands out. Thanks to these relationships, which began in 1832 or 1833, Balzac's invaluable collection of letters to the Ghanaian Letters to a Stranger (Lettres l'trangre, vols. 1-2 publ. 1899-1906; vols. 3−4 publ. 1933−1950) and Correspondence (Correspondance, publ. 1951) with Zulma Karro, with whom the writer carried his friendship throughout his life. Ghana promised to marry him after the death of her husband. This happened in 1841, but then complications arose. Overwork from the colossal work, the indecision of Hanska and the first signs of a serious illness darkened the last years of Balzac, and when the wedding finally took place in March 1850, he had only five months to live. Balzac died in Paris on August 18, 1850.

Balzac Honore was born into a peasant family in 1799 in southern France. His father changed his surname Balzas to Balzac in 1767, when he began his work as an official in Paris, which he continued after moving to Tula. Already in 1830, the prefix "de" was added to the surname. From 1806 Balzac studied at the Vendome College for 6 years. He graduated from his studies in Paris and Tula.

From 1816 he worked in a judicial office as a clerk, but three years later he managed to convince his parents and try his hand at literary activity. For 5 years, working under a pseudonym, he creates 6 novels, which he was inspired by the works of Zh-J Rousseau and V. Scott. In addition, Balzac publishes a large number of commercial novels. In 1822 he meets Madame de Bernie, who was twice the age of the writer. Their passionate relationship soon turned platonic. In 1836 after her death, in memory of their feelings, Balzac painted Lilia in the valley.

From 1826 he tried to get rich in publishing and printing business, but his plans did not come true and the writer was in huge debts.

Balzac tried to write again, and in 1829 the first book appeared under his name. The first works interested readers. From that moment on, all the books with his last name on the cover get success, he signs contracts with publishers, sometimes even for unfinished works.

Balzac seeks to describe the social history of his country, point readers to the diseases of society and ways to cure.

Balzac works day and night, creating more and more new creations. But work does not interfere with his love interests. Balzac's new lover was a married woman - the Polish Countess Evelina Hanska. It was to her that the beautiful Letters to a Stranger were dedicated. The countess assured that immediately after the death of her husband, a Ukrainian landowner, they would be together. In 1841 this day came.

After a while, Balzac fell seriously ill. His fatigue and the indecision of his beloved only worsened the condition of the writer. Only in 1850 Ghana and Balzac were united by marriage. The writer lived for five months in marriage with his beloved, and on August 18 of the same year, Ganskaya became a widow for the second time.

Artworks

Balzac comes from a peasant family, his father was engaged in buying up the noble lands, which were confiscated from the owners, then resold them.

Honore would not have been Balzac if his father had not changed his surname and bought a particle "de", because the former seemed to him plebeian.

As for the mother, she was the daughter of a merchant from Paris. Balzac's father saw his son only in the field of advocacy.

That is why in 1807-1813 Oner was a student of the Vendome College, and in 1816-1819 the Paris Law School became the place of his further education, at the same time the young man worked as a scribe for a notary.

But a legal career did not appeal to Balzac, and he chose the literary path. He received almost no attention from his parents. Not surprisingly, at Wandoms College, he found himself against his will. There, family visits were allowed once a year - during the Christmas holidays.

During his first years in college, Honore was often in a punishment cell, after the third grade he began to get used to college discipline, but he did not stop laughing at the teachers. At the age of 14, due to illness, he was taken home, for five years she did not give up and hopes for recovery dried up. And suddenly, in 1816, after moving to Paris, he finally recovered.

Since 1823, Balzac published several works under pseudonyms. In these novels, he adhered to the ideas of "violent romanticism", this was justified by Honoré's desire to follow fashion in literature. Later, he did not want to remember this experience.

In the years 1825-1828, Balzac tried himself in the profession of a publisher, but to no avail. As a writer, Honore de Balzac was influenced by the historical novels of Walter Scott. In 1829, the first was published under the name "Balzac" - "Chuana".

This was followed by the following works of Balzac: "Scenes of Private Life" - 1830 The story "Gobsek" - 1830, the novel "Elixir of Longevity" - 1830-1831, the philosophical novel "Shagreen Skin" - 1831. Begins work on the novel "Thirty-year-old woman", cycle "Mischievous stories" - 1832-1837. Partially autobiographical novel "Louis Lambert" - 1832, "Seraphita" - 1835, the novel "Father Goriot" - 1832, the novel "Eugene Grandet" - 1833

As a result of his unsuccessful business activities, considerable debts arose. Glory came to Balzac, but his material condition did not increase. Wealth remained only in dreams. Honoré did not stop working hard - it took 15-16 hours a day to write works. The result was to publish up to six books a day. In his first works, Balzac raised various topics and ideas. But they all concerned various spheres of life in France and its inhabitants.

The main characters were people from various social strata: clergy, merchants, aristocracy; from various social institutions: state, army, family. The actions took place in villages, provinces and in Paris. In 1832 Balzac began a correspondence with an aristocrat from Poland - E. Hanska. She lived in Russia, where he arrived in 1843.

Subsequent meetings took place in 1847 and 1848. already in Ukraine. Officially, the marriage with E. Hanska was registered shortly before the death of Honore de Balzac, who died in Paris on August 18, 1850. There he was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery. The biography of Honore de Balzac was written by his sister Madame Surville in 1858.

(French Honoré de Balzac, May 20, 1799, Tours - August 18, 1850, Paris) - French writer. The real name - Honore Balzac, the particle "de", meaning belonging to a noble family, began to be used around 1830.
Biography
Honore de Balzac was born in Tours to a family of peasants from Languedoc. In 1807-1813 he studied at the Vendome College, in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, at the same time he worked as a scribe for a notary; abandoned a legal career and devoted himself to literature.
From 1823 he published a number of novels under various pseudonyms in the spirit of "violent romanticism." From 1825 to 1828 B. was engaged in publishing, but failed.
In 1829 the first book signed with the name "Balzac" was published - the historical novel "Chouans" (Les Chouans). Subsequent works of Balzac: "Scenes of Private Life" (Scènes de la vie privée, 1830), the novel "Elixir of Longevity" (L "Élixir de longue vie, 1830–31, a variation on themes from the legend of Don Juan); the story of Gobseck (Gobseck, 1830) attracted wide attention of readers and critics.In 1831 Balzac publishes his philosophical novel "Shagreen Skin" and begins the novel "Thirty Years Old Woman" (La femme de trente ans). In the cycle "Mischievous Stories" (Contes drolatiques, 1832-1837) Balzac ironically stylized the novelism of the Renaissance.In the partly autobiographical novel "Louis Lambert" (Louis Lambert, 1832) and especially in the later "Seraphîta" (Séraphîta, 1835), B.'s fascination with the mystical concepts of E. Swedenborg and Cl. de Saint-Martin was reflected. His hope of getting rich has not yet been realized (since a huge debt is gravitating - the result of his unsuccessful commercial ventures), but his hope of becoming famous, his dream of conquering Paris and the world with his talent, has not yet been realized. with many of his young contemporaries. He continued to lead a diligent working life, sitting at his desk 15-16 hours a day; working until dawn, annually publishing three, four and even five, six books.
In the works created in the first five or six years of his writing career, the most diverse areas of contemporary French life are depicted: the countryside, the province, Paris; various social groups: merchants, aristocracy, clergy; various social institutions: family, state, army. The huge amount of artistic facts contained in these books demanded their systematization.
Innovation Balzac
The late 1820s and early 1830s, when Balzac entered literature, was the period of the greatest flowering of romanticism in French literature. The great novel in European literature before the arrival of Balzac had two main genres: the novel of a personality - an adventurous hero (for example, Robinson Crusoe) or a self-absorbed, lonely hero (The Suffering of Young Werther by W. Goethe) and a historical novel (Walter Scott).
Balzac departs from both the personality novel and the historical novel by Walter Scott. He seeks to show the "individualized type", to give a picture of the whole society, the whole people, the whole of France. Not a legend about the past, but a picture of the present, an artistic portrait of bourgeois society is at the center of his creative attention.
The standard-bearer of the bourgeoisie is now a banker, not a commander; its shrine is a stock exchange, not a battlefield.
Not a heroic personality and not a demonic nature, not a historical act, but modern bourgeois society, the France of the July monarchy - this is the main literary theme of the era. In the place of the novel, whose task is to give in-depth experiences of the personality, Balzac puts a novel about social mores, in the place of historical novels - the artistic history of post-revolutionary France.
"Studies on Morals" unfolds the picture of France, depicts the life of all classes, all social conditions, all social institutions. The key to this story is money. Its main content is the victory of the financial bourgeoisie over the land and tribal aristocracy, the desire of the entire nation to become in the service of the bourgeoisie, to become related to it. The lust for money is the main passion, the highest dream. The power of money is the only indestructible force: love, talent, family honor, family hearth, parental feeling are submissive to it.

Honore de Balzac - French novelist, one of the founders realistic and naturalistic trends in prose. Born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours, he was at one time a clerk at a notary, but did not want to continue this service, feeling a vocation for literature. Throughout his life, Balzac struggled with a strained financial situation, worked with perseverance and perseverance, composed a lot of impossible projects to get rich, but never got out of debt and was forced to write novel after novel, studying 12-18 hours a day. The result of this work was 91 novels, which make up one general cycle "The Human Comedy", where more than 2000 persons are described with their characteristic individual and everyday features.

Honore de Balzac. Daguerreotype 1842

Balzac did not know family life; he married only a few months before his death to the Countess of Ghansk, with whom he had been in correspondence for 17 years and to visit with whom he came more than once to Russia (Ganskaya's husband owned vast estates in Ukraine). The heart disease that Balzac suffered from intensified during his last trip, and, having arrived in Paris with his wife, whom he had married in Berdichev, the writer died three months later, on August 18, 1850.

In his novels, Honore de Balzac is an apt and thoughtful portrayal of human nature and social relations. The bourgeois class, popular mores and characters are described by him with a truthfulness and strength, almost unknown before him. For the most part, each of the persons he brings out has some one predominant passion, which is the motivating cause of his actions and very often also the cause of his death. This passion, despite its all-consuming dimensions, does not give this person an exceptional or fantastic character: the novelist so clearly puts these features in dependence on the living conditions and the moral physiognomy of the subject that the reality of the latter remains beyond doubt.

Geniuses and villains. Honore de Balzac

One of the most active and frequent springs that set Balzac's heroes into action is money. The author, who spent his whole life invented ways for faster and more reliable enrichment, had the opportunity to study the world of businessmen, swindlers, entrepreneurs with their grandiose plans, exaggerated, fantastic hopes that disappear like soap bubbles and carry away with them both the initiators and those who believed them. Balzac brought this world into his "The Human Comedy" along with all the differences that the passion for money creates in people with different mentalities and different habits created by this or that environment. Balzac's description of the latter is often enough to characterize his characters; The smallest details of the situation are portrayed by the author with great accuracy, giving his general picture an idea of ​​the moral side of the heroes. This desire alone to reproduce the life situation of the characters in all its details can explain why Emile Zola saw in Balzac the head of naturalism.

Balzac studied in detail the terrain, environment, persons, before taking up the description. He traveled almost all over France, studying the areas in which the action of his novels takes place; he made a variety of acquaintances, tried to talk with people of different professions and different social environment. Therefore, all of his characters are vital, although most of them burn out from one prevailing passion, which can be vanity, envy, avarice, a passion for profit, or, as in Father Goriot, paternal love for daughters has turned into mania.

But as strong as Balzac in describing human characters and social relations, he is just as weak in describing nature: his landscapes are pale, dull and banal. He is only interested in man, and among people mainly those whose vices make it possible to see more clearly the true underlay of human nature. Balzac's shortcomings as a writer include the poverty of his style and the lack of a sense of proportion. Even in the famous image of the hotel in "Father Goriot", the excessive description and passion of the artist are noticeable. The plot of his novels often does not correspond to the realism of characters and setting; romanticism in this respect influenced him mainly with its bad side. But the general picture of the life of the bourgeois class in Paris and in the provinces, with all its shortcomings, vices, passions, with all the variety of characters and types, is presented to them in perfection.

). Balzac's father became rich buying and selling confiscated noble lands during the revolution, and later became an assistant to the mayor of the city of Tours. Has nothing to do with the French writer Jean-Louis Gueuze de Balzac (1597-1654). Father Honoré changed his name and became Balzac. Mother Anna-Charlotte-Laura Salambier (1778-1853) was significantly younger than her husband and even outlived her son. She came from the family of a Parisian cloth merchant.

The father was preparing his son for advocacy. In -1813 Balzac studied at the Vendome College, in - - at the Paris School of Law, at the same time he worked as a scribe with a notary; however, he gave up a legal career and devoted himself to literature. Parents did little to do with their son. In the Vendome College, he was placed against his will. Meetings with relatives there were prohibited all year round, except for the Christmas holidays. During the first years of his studies, he had to be in the punishment cell many times. In the fourth grade, Honore began to come to terms with school life, but he did not stop making fun of the teachers ... At the age of 14, he fell ill, and his parents took him home at the request of the college administration. For five years Balzac was seriously ill, it was believed that there was no hope of recovery, but soon after the family moved to Paris in 1816, he recovered.

The director of the school, Marechal-Duplessis, wrote in his memoirs about Balzac: "Since the fourth grade, his desk was always full of writings ...". Honore was fond of reading from an early age, he was especially attracted by the works of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Holbach, Helvetius and other French enlighteners. He also tried to write poetry and plays, but his children's manuscripts have not survived. His work "A Treatise on the Will" was taken away by the teacher and burned before his eyes. Later, the writer will describe his childhood years in an educational institution in the novels "Louis Lambert", "Lily in the Valley" and others.

His hopes of getting rich had not yet materialized (debt gravitates - the result of his failed business ventures) when fame began to come to him. Meanwhile, he continued to work hard, working at his desk 15-16 hours a day, and annually publishing from 3 to 6 books.

In the works created during the first five or six years of his literary activity, the most diverse areas of contemporary life in France are depicted: the countryside, the province, Paris; various social groups - merchants, aristocracy, clergy; various social institutions - family, state, army.

In 1845, the writer was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Honoré de Balzac died on August 18, 1850, at the age of 52. Cause of death - gangrene, which developed after he injured his leg on the corner of the bed. However, the fatal illness was only a complication of several years of excruciating malaise associated with the destruction of blood vessels, presumably arteritis.

Balzac was buried in Paris, at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. " All the writers of France came out to bury him.". From the chapel, where they said goodbye to him, and to the church, where he was buried, among the people carrying the coffin were