A report on honora de balzac. Brief biography of balzac
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). Balzac's heart disease worsened 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, Honoré de Balzac is an apt and thoughtful portrayal of human nature and social relations. He described the bourgeois class, popular mores and characters 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 makes these traits so clearly dependent 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, disappearing like soap bubbles, and enthralling 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 terrain in which his novels take 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, stinginess, a passion for profit, or, as in Father Goriot, paternal love for daughters 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.
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Honore de Balzac
"Honore de Balzac"
A classic of French literature. According to the plan of the writer, his main work "The Human Comedy" was supposed to consist of 143 books. He completed 90 books. This is a grandiose picture of French society. He penned the novels "Shagreen Skin" (1831), "Eugene Grande" (1833), "Father Goriot" (1835), "Lily of the Valley" (1836), "Lost Illusions" (1835-1843), "Glitter and Poverty courtesans "(1838-1847) and others.
Honore Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours. His father, Bernard François Balzac, an official of the military department, was engaged in the supply of provisions for the division stationed in this town. He was 53 years old when Honore was born. The mother of the future writer, Anne-Charlotte Salambier, a well-bred daughter of a Parisian bourgeois, was 32 years younger than her husband. Bernard François jokingly boasted of his distant kinship with the ancient Gaulish knightly surname Balzac d'Antrag. However, the son would later turn this fantasy into an indisputable fact. "De Balzac". So he began to sign his letters and books, and decorated his crew with the coat of arms of d'Antrags, preparing to go to Vienna. Meanwhile, all the documents that have come down to us do not confirm the noble origin of Honore.
The early childhood of the future writer passed outside the parental home. At first he lived with a wet nurse, a simple peasant woman from Touraine. When the boy was four years old, he was sent to the Lege boarding house. Balzac spent eleven years with short interruptions behind the dull walls of various boarding schools and boarding schools. His seven years of stay at the Vendome College, a closed institution run by oratorian monks, were the darkest for him. Two hundred students of the college had to unquestioningly obey the harsh monastic regime. The slightest offense was followed by a flogging or a dark, damp punishment cell. Balzac had few friends. He was known as a gloomy, careless student.
During these years, Honore joined the world of books. He became a frequenter of the college library. I tried to write myself, but this only aroused the ridicule of his comrades, who gave him the ironic nickname Poet.
Balzac was fifteen years old when his father was transferred to Paris. It was 1814. Napoleon's empire has just collapsed. France became the kingdom of the Bourbons again.
At the insistence of his father, the young man studied at the School of Law and at the same time worked as a scribe in the office of the lawyer Guillon de Merville. And in secret from his parents he attended lectures on literature at the Sorbonne, spent long hours in the Arsenal library, studying the works of philosophers and historians.
The year 1819 began for him with final exams. Honore successfully graduated from the School of Law, but unexpectedly for his parents decided to devote himself to literature. At this time, my father retired, and the whole family moved to the town of Villeparisi, not far from the capital.
Honoré settled in a working class district of Paris and lived in a small attic. He wrote to his sister with humor: "Your brother, who is destined for such glory, eats just like a great man, in other words, he is dying of hunger."
The first literary experience in the genre of tragedy was criticized by the family council. Then Honoré drew attention to "gothic" novels, where heartless villains act, terrible crimes are committed, ominous secrets are revealed and virtuous beauties are rewarded. First, in co-authorship with the experienced literary businessman Le Poitvin de l'Egreville, and then independently, Balzac released about a dozen novels for five years, which did not bring him the long-awaited material independence.
Until the age of thirty, he avoided women. Balzac, stormy and unrestrained in his mature years, in his youth was timid to the point of soreness. However, he avoided women not for fear of falling in love, no, he was afraid of his own passion. In addition, Balzac knew that he was short-legged and clumsy by nature, that he would be ridiculous if, like the beauties of that time, he flirted with beauties. But this feeling of inferiority forced him again and again to run away from women in solitude to his desk.
Sometimes Balzac lived with his parents in little Villeparisis. Here in 1821 he met Laura de Bernie, a 45-year-old woman, a mother of many children, very unhappy in her family life. Her husband, Monsieur Gabriel de Berny, son of the governor, was an adviser to the imperial court, a scion of an ancient noble family. Every day he saw worse and worse. Balzac's mother forced Honore to study with Laura's son, Alexander. They were almost the same age. Soon Madame Balzac began to notice something. She believed that her son was in love with the lovely Emmanuelle, who was only a few years younger than Honore. But the heart of the young writer was given to Laura, who gave birth to her husband nine children!
Laura de Bernie - Balzac's first love - played a big role in his life. “She was my mother, friend, family, companion and advisor,” he later admitted. “She made me a writer, she comforted me in my youth, she awakened my taste, she cried and laughed with me like a sister, she always came to me with a beneficent slumber that soothes pain ... Without it, I would simply die. " She did everything for him that a woman could do for a man. This relationship for a whole decade, from 1822 to 1833, remained sensually intimate. Balzac expressed the significance of this connection for him in immortal words: "Nothing can compare with the last love of a woman who gives a man the happiness of his first love."
Laura did not immediately respond to his feeling, but young Honore threw her letters with confessions: “How good you were yesterday! dreams ". Madame de Berny yielded to him on a warm May night. Honore was blissful: "Oh Laura! I am writing to you, and I am surrounded by the silence of the night, a night full of you, and in my soul the memory of your passionate kisses lives! What else can I think? .. I see our bench all the time; I I feel how your lovely hands embrace me anxiously, and the flowers in front of me, although they have already withered, retain an intoxicating aroma. "
Madame de Bernie was full of passion and fire. But soon their connection became known in the world. Society condemned lovers. In the meantime, all of Honoré's publishing projects were failing. Laura helped her lover not only with a word of consolation, but also financially. They remained friends until her death in 1836 and corresponded. Laura de Bernie served as the prototype for the heroine of the novel "Lily of the Valley", although, as the writer himself noted, "the image of Madame de Morsauf in" Lily of the Valley "is only a pale reflection of the smallest merits of this woman."
Since then, Balzac was satisfied only by those women who surpassed him in experience and, oddly enough, in age. He was not seduced by young beauties who demanded too much and rewarded too little. "A forty-year-old woman will do everything for you, a twenty-year-old - nothing!"
The Duchess d'Abrantes, widow of General Junot, when Balzac met her in about 1829 at Versailles, was hopelessly mired in debt and was not respected in society. She traded her memoirs. The Duchess easily led the young writer out of the arms of the aging Laura de Bernie. Titles and aristocratic surnames made an irresistible impression on Balzac until the last day of his life. Sometimes they simply fascinated him.
Balzac triumphed, becoming the beloved of the Duchess. However, this relationship did not last long; over time, their relationship became purely friendly. The Duchess introduced Balzac to Madame de Recamier's salon and to the houses of some of her high society acquaintances. He helped her sell her memoirs and, possibly, participated in their writing.
Around this time, another woman, Zulma Carro, entered Balzac's life. Ugly, lame, she did not like her husband, the manager of a gunpowder factory, whose military career was not successful. But she respected his noble character and deeply sympathized with him as a person broken by failures. Zulma's meeting with Honore at his sister's house was happiness for both - for her and for Balzac.
Balzac began to comprehend the spiritual greatness of this woman, capable of amazing self-sacrifice. He wrote to her: "A quarter of an hour that I can spend in the evening with you means more to me than all the bliss of a night spent in the arms of a young beauty ..."
But Zulma Carro understood that she did not have a female attractiveness that could forever bind a person whom she puts above everyone else. And besides, she could not deceive or leave her unhappy husband.
"Honore de Balzac"
Zulma offered the writer friendship, "holy and good friendship." In her letters, she spoke frankly about the works of Balzac. He thanked her for her criticism. "You are my audience. I am proud to meet you, to you, which gives me the courage to strive for improvement." Before his death, Honore, looking over his entire past life, admitted that Zulma was the most significant, the best of his friends. And he took the pen, and after a long silence he wrote her a farewell letter ...
Balzac showed the correct psychological flair when, of all the great women around him, he became especially close to the noble Marceline Debord-Valmor, to whom he dedicated one of his beautiful creations and to whom, breathlessly, climbed the steep stairs to the attic in the Palais Royal. With Georges Sand, whom he called "Brother Georges", he was connected only by cordial friendship, without the slightest hint of intimacy. Balzac's pride did not allow him to be included in the extensive list of her lovers.
Balzac did not have time to look for a woman, look for a beloved. For fourteen, fifteen hours he worked at his desk. The rest he spent on sleep and urgent matters. But the women themselves were looking for acquaintance with the famous writer, bombarding him with letters. Women's letters occupied him, delighted and worried. On October 5, 1831, he received a letter signed by an English pseudonym. About a miracle! She turned out to be a marquise. The father of the future Duchess Henriette-Marie de Castries was the Duke de Mayer, a former Marshal of France whose lineage dates back to the eleventh century. Her mother was the Duchess Fitz-James, in other words, of the Stuarts and therefore of royal blood. The Marquis was thirty-five years old, which fully corresponded to Balzac's ideal. She survived a novel that made a splash in society. Madame de Castries fell in love with the son of the almighty Chancellor Metternich. The feeling turned out to be mutual. The novel ended tragically: while hunting, the Marquis fell from her horse and broke her spine, and since then she was forced to spend most of her time in a chaise lounge or bed. Young Metternich soon died of consumption. Balzac decided to win the favor of this unfortunate woman. They met in the salon of the Palais de Castellane. Three hours of conversation passed quickly. "You received me so kindly," he wrote to her, "you gave me such a sweet watch, and I am firmly convinced: you alone are my happiness!"
The relationship became more and more cordial. Balzac's crew stopped every evening at the Castellane Palace, and conversations dragged on long into the night. He accompanied her to the theater, wrote letters to her, read her his new works, he asked her for advice, gave her the most precious of all that he could give: the manuscripts of "Thirty-year-old woman", "Colonel Chabert" and "Commission". For a single woman who had been grieving for the deceased for many weeks and months, this spiritual friendship meant a kind of happiness; for Balzac, it meant passion.
However, as soon as his courtship approached a dangerous line, the duchess began to defend herself decisively and adamantly. For several months, she allowed the writer "only slowly moved forward, making small conquests with which a shy lover should be satisfied", stubbornly refusing to "confirm the devotion of her heart by adding her own person to it." Maybe she decided to remain faithful to her husband, the father of her child, or maybe she was ashamed of her injury, or she feared that Balzac would let out his connection with an aristocrat. Alas, the writer realized for the first time that his will is not omnipotent. However, the story of Madame de Castries was not a catastrophe for Balzac, but only a minor episode.
The Duchess de Castries is not the only acquaintance Balzac owes to the postman. There was a whole string of gentle friends, in most cases only their names are known - Louise, Claire, Marie. These women usually came to Balzac's home, and one of them carried away the illegitimate child from there. Balzac once remarked: "It is much easier to be a lover than a husband, for the simple reason that it is much more difficult to demonstrate intelligence and wit all day long than to say something clever only from time to time." But can't genuine love flare up someday instead of adultery?
In 1832, a seemingly insignificant event took place. On February 28, Balzac's publisher Gosslen handed him a letter postmarked "Odessa". The letter was from an unknown reader who signed "Inostranka". After a while, a second letter came from her with a request to confirm the receipt of letters through the newspaper Cotidien, which was widespread in Russia, which, intrigued, Balzac did. He soon found out the name of his correspondent. It was a wealthy Polish landowner, a Russian subject, Evelina Ganskaya, nee Countess of Rzhevusskaya. She spoke in French, English, German. Her husband Wenceslas Hansky, who was in his late fifties, was often ill. Both were bored in their castle in Volyn, in Verkhovna. Eva gave birth to her husband seven (according to other sources - five) children. But only one daughter survived. Evelina, a stately, sensual woman, was thirty years old.
From the beginning of 1833, a lively correspondence began between the Ghanaian and the French novelist, which lasted fifteen years. Each time his messages became more and more exalted. "You alone can make me happy, Eva. I am on my knees before you, my heart belongs to you. Kill me with one blow, but do not make me suffer! I love you with all the strength of my soul - do not make me part with these beautiful hopes!"
In the fall of 1833, in the small Swiss town of Neuchâtel, Balzac's first meeting with Hanska took place. Unfortunately, this important scene in the novel of Balzac's life has not reached us. There are different versions. According to one, he allegedly saw the Ghanaian, when he stood at the window of the "Villa Andre", and was shocked how much her appearance coincided with the appearance that he saw in his prophetic dreams, according to the other, she immediately recognized him from his portraits and approached him. On the third, she could not hide how disappointed she was with the appearance of her troubadour. Balzac met the Gansky family. Its head was delighted with the acquaintance with the famous writer. Honoré and Evelyne hardly managed to be alone. Nevertheless, Balzac returned to Paris inspired. The stranger was perfection itself! He loved everything about her: her sharp foreign accent, her mouth, testifying to kindness and voluptuousness. He was in awe, he was frightened when he saw that his whole life belonged to her: "There is no other woman in the whole world, only you are alone!"
In 1833, Honoré worked on several novels at once. Balzac is increasingly returning to the idea that arose in him back in 1831, while working on "Shagreen Skin" - to combine the novels into one huge cycle. In the early thirties, the hectic, strenuous pace of work developed, which has become characteristic of Balzac over the years. He usually wrote at night, with the curtains closed and the light of candles. In a quick, impetuous handwriting he wrote page after page, barely keeping up with the rapid pace of his imagination and thought, and so ten, twelve, fourteen, and sometimes sixteen, eighteen hours a day. So day after day, month after month, maintaining strength with a huge amount of black coffee. Then he allowed himself to relax with friends and mistresses. He confessed to Hanska: "For three years now I have been living chastely, like a young girl," although the day before he proudly told his sister that he had become the father of an illegitimate child.
Balzac continued to bombard the Stranger from Verkhovna with letters. "How do you want me not to love you: you are the first, who appeared from afar, to warm a heart that was languishing for love! I did everything to attract the attention of a heavenly angel; glory was my beacon - no more. And then you figured out everything: soul, heart, person. Even last night, rereading your letter, I was convinced that only you alone are able to understand my whole life. You ask me how I find time to write to you! Well, dear Eva (let me shorten your name, so it will better prove to you that you personify for me all the feminine principle - the only woman in the world; you fill the whole world for me, like Eve for the first man.) Well, you are the only one who asked the poor artist, who always lacks time, does he sacrifice something great, thinking and turning to his beloved? No one around me thinks about it; anyone would take all my time without hesitation.
And now I would like to devote my whole life to you, think only of you, write only to you. With what joy, if I were free from all worries, I would have thrown all my laurels, all my glory, all my best works, like grains of incense, on the altar of love! Love, Eve, is my whole life! "
They agreed to meet again. On December 25, 1833, Balzac arrives at the Hotel Del Arc in Geneva and finds his first greetings there - a precious ring into which a lock of amazing black hair was sealed. The ring that promised so much, the talisman that Balzac wore, without removing, until the end of his days.
Ghana did not immediately yield to her lover. But Honoré was insistent: "You will see: the intimacy will make our love only more tender and stronger ... How can I express everything to you: your delicate aroma drunk me, and no matter how much I possess you, I will only get drunk more and more." Four weeks passed before happiness smiled at Balzac: "Yesterday I kept repeating to myself all evening: she is mine! Ah, the blessed in paradise are not as happy as I was yesterday." The lovers swore to each other that they would unite forever, when Evelina, after the death of her husband, would become the owner of the Supreme and the heiress of millions.
In the same year, when Balzac vowed to be loyal to Evelina, he fell in love with another woman, more in love than ever before. In 1835, at one of the high society receptions, he noticed a lady of about thirty, a tall, plump blonde of dazzling beauty, relaxed and clearly sensual. Countess Guidoboni-Visconti willingly allowed to admire her bare shoulders, admire herself and take care of herself. Balzac, forgetting about the Ghanaian oath of allegiance, tried to take possession of the heart (and not only the heart) of a charming Englishwoman. He celebrated the victory - he became the beloved of the Countess Visconti and, in all likelihood, the father of Lionel Richard Guidoboni-Visconti - one of the three illegitimate babies who did not inherit either the name or genius of their father.
The Countess was the novelist's mistress for five years. In difficult times, she helped the writer and was ready for any sacrifice for him. She gave herself to him completely and passionately, she did not care what Paris said. The Countess Visconti appeared with Balzac in her box. She hid him in her house when he did not know how to escape from creditors. Fortunately, her husband was not jealous ...
Naturally, Evelina Ganskaya learned from the newspapers about the scandalous relationship of her lover. She showered him with reproaches. Balzac defended himself, claiming that he had extremely friendly feelings with the countess.
In the meantime, the Countess Visconti arranged for Balzac a trip to Italy, which did not cost him a penny. The novelist set off on a journey not with an amiable countess, but with a certain young man Marcel. Balzac loved love adventures. In Italy he was accompanied by Mrs. Carolina Marbuti, the wife of a senior judicial official, dressed in a man's dress. Her black hair was cropped short. Balzac met her with the help of a postman. The very first date dragged on for three days, and he liked the young blooming person so much that he invited her to go with him on a trip to Touraine, and then to Italy. The last offer was met with delight by her.
They arrived in Italy not without incident. The next day, the newspapers announced the arrival of a celebrity in the city. Balzac, who could never resist the raptures of princesses, countesses and marquis, graciously accepted the invitations of the Piedmontese aristocracy. Of course, the salons learned that young Marcel was a lady in disguise. And ... they mistook Caroline Marbuti for the famous novelist Georges Sand, who cut her hair short, smoked cigars and wore pants. Balzac's companion suddenly became the center of attention. Gentlemen and ladies surrounded her, chatted with her about fine literature, were ready in advance to admire her wit and tried to get a George-Sandov autograph from her. The writer hardly got out of this difficult situation. Three weeks later they left for Paris, and the road took them ten whole days, for they stopped in all cities on the way. Honore was delighted with his young brunette ...
Balzac was thirty-seven when he became the lover of the young brunette noblewoman Helene de Valette. He tried to attract a certain Louise to himself in the usual way - by correspondence. He became a regular at dinners, where the most famous Parisian cocottes did not skimp on bait and affection.
"Extraordinary women can only be captivated by the charm of the mind and nobility of character," the writer believed. The wife of a general, with whom the writer was visiting, immediately noticed a poorly tailored dress, and a nasty hat, and an excessively large head of the guest ... But as soon as the hat was taken off, the general's wife stopped noticing her surroundings: “I only looked at his face. who have never seen him, it is difficult to imagine his forehead and eyes. His forehead was large, as if reflecting the light of a lamp, and his brown eyes with a golden sheen were more expressive than any words. "
Balzac was a keen connoisseur and connoisseur of antiques. He also collected walking sticks with grips adorned with gold, silver and turquoise. One of them, he once told friends, contained a portrait of his mistress.
"A woman is a well-laid table," Balzac once remarked, "at which a man looks differently before and after meals." Apparently, Balzac simply devoured his mistresses as greedily as a good dinner.
At the end of 1841, the husband of Ghana died. The woman to whom Balzac made a vow of loyalty suddenly became free. She is a rich widow - here she is, an ideal wife: an aristocrat, young, intelligent, majestic. She will free him from debts, give him the opportunity to create, she will inspire him to the greatest deeds, raise him in her own eyes, satisfy his desires. Honore made an offer to Evelina, despite the fact that in recent years, relations with Mrs. Hanska became more and more formal. But Evelina resolutely refused her lover. However, even if she answered with consent, then it was by no means in her will to realize this desire. According to the laws of the Russian Empire, only the sovereign himself could give permission to marry a foreign citizen and to export a generic state abroad. In addition, we must not forget about the resistance of relatives, who saw in Balzac only a hunter for an inheritance.
In June 1843 Balzac left Paris for Ganskaya in St. Petersburg, where he settled on Bolshaya Millionnaya in Titov's house. Ganskaya lived in the house opposite. The novelist returned to France only in the fall and again plunged into work. His health deteriorated.
In 1845 Balzac met with Hanska in Dresden. Then he accompanied her to Italy and Germany, showed her Paris. And although his financial situation improved significantly, he even bought a house in Paris, began collecting paintings - but life became a real tragedy for him. His physical and creative powers were broken.
The marriage with Hanska, which he idealized in his rich imagination, now seemed to him the only salvation. In September 1847, despite his illness, Balzac decided to go to the Ganskaya estate in Verkhovna, sixty kilometers from Berdichev. The Ghanaian still hesitated. She was afraid of losing her estates in Ukraine by marrying a foreigner. In addition, she was frightened by the violent, irrepressible nature of the writer. Balzac left Verkhovna without hearing the long-awaited "yes".
Hanska's second stay in Paris is shrouded in mystery. They probably made plans for a new home together. They had a child. Obviously, he was born prematurely, maybe died immediately. It was a girl, and Balzac wrote that the latter circumstance tempered his grief.
Even now, the Hanskaia hesitated to take the plunge. She found new excuses. However, in September 1848, the novelist came to Verkhovna again. He was a completely sick person. He was tormented by pains in his heart, attacks of suffocation. At night, he still tried to overpower himself and sat down to write. Alas, his pen was powerless. And then Ganskaya decided to marry. On March 14, 1850, the wedding of Balzac with Hanska took place in the church of St. Barbarians in the city of Berdichev. He was full of bright hopes for the future and wrote to Zulme Carro: "I did not know either a happy youth, or a blooming spring, but now I will have the sunniest summer and the warmest autumn."
However, his dreams were not destined to come true. The sick Balzac's journey with his wife from Berdichev to Paris lasted about a month. Since the end of June, he has not left the room. On August 18, the great novelist passed away.
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Honore de Balzak France, 20/05/1799 - 18/08/1850 French novelist, considered the father of the naturalistic novel. Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours (France). Father Honoré de Balzac - Bernard François Balsa (some sources indicate the name of Waltz) - a peasant who got rich during the years of the revolution by buying and selling confiscated noble lands, and later became an assistant to the mayor of the city of Tours. Having entered the service of the department of military supplies and found himself among the officials, he changed his own surname, considering it plebeian. At the turn of the 1830s. Honoré, in turn, also changed his surname, arbitrarily adding to it a part of the nobility de, justifying this with an invention about his origin from the noble family of Balzac d "Entregues. Honore Balzac's mother was 30 years younger than his father, which, in part, was the reason her betrayals: the father of Honore's younger brother - Henri - was the owner of the castle.In 1807-1813 Honore studied at the College of the city of Vendome; in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, serving at the same time as a clerk in a notary office.Balzac's father sought to prepare him for the legal profession , but Honoré decided to become a poet. At the family council it was decided to give him two years to fulfill his dream. Honoré de Balzac writes the drama Cromwell, but the newly convened family council recognizes the work as useless and Honoré is denied material assistance. This was followed by a streak of material hardships. Balzac's career began around 1820, when, under various pseudonyms, he began to publish action-packed novels and compose moral new codes of secular conduct. Later, some of the first novels were published under the pseudonym Horace de Saint-Aubin. The period of anonymous creativity ended in 1829 after the publication of the novel by Chouana, or Brittany, in 1799. Honore de Balzac referred to the novel Shagreen Leather (1830) as the starting point of his work. From 1830, under the general title Scenes of Private Life, short stories from contemporary French life began to be published. In 1834, Balzac decided to link the common heroes already written from 1829 and future works, combining them into an epic, later called the Human Comedy (La comedie humaine). Twice Balzac tried to make a political career, nominating himself in the Chamber of Deputies in 1832 and 1848, but failed both times. In January 1849 he also failed in the elections to the French Academy. In 1832, Balzac began to correspond with the Polish aristocrat E. Hanska, who lived in Russia. In 1843 the writer visited her in St. Petersburg, and in 1847 and 1848 to the Ukraine. Official marriage with E. Hanska was concluded 5 months before the death of Honore de Balzac, who died on August 18, 1850 in Paris. In 1858, Honore de Balzac's sister, Madame Surville, wrote a biography of the writer - “Balzac, sa vie et ses oeuvres d" apres saance. " Balzac), Wurmser (Inhuman Comedy) Among the works of Honore de Balzac - stories, short stories, philosophical studies, stories, novels, plays.
Balzac. Balzac. Biography Balzac. Balzac. Biography
Balzac Honore de (1799 - 1850)
Balzac. Balzac.
Biography
French novelist considered the father of the naturalistic novel. Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours (France). Father Honoré de Balzac - Bernard François Balsa (some sources indicate the name of Waltz) - a peasant who got rich during the years of the revolution by buying and selling confiscated noble lands, and later became an assistant to the mayor of Tours. After joining the military supply department and being among the officials, he changed his "native" surname, considering it plebeian. At the turn of the 1830s. Honore, in turn, also changed his surname, adding to it the noble particle "de" without permission, justifying this by the fiction of his origin from the noble family of Balzac d "Entregues. Honore Balzac's mother was 30 years younger than his father, which, in part, was the reason for her betrayal: the father of Honore's younger brother - Henri - was the owner of the castle.
In 1807-1813 Honore studied at the College of the city of Vendome; in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, serving at the same time as a clerk in a notary office. Balzac's father sought to prepare him for the profession, but Honore decided to become a poet. At the family council, it was decided to give him two years to make his dream come true. Honore de Balzac writes the drama "Cromwell", but the newly convened family council recognizes the work as useless and Honore is denied material assistance. This was followed by a streak of material hardships. Balzac's literary career began around 1820, when, under various pseudonyms, he began to publish action-packed novels and wrote moralistic "codes" of secular behavior. Later, some of the first novels were published under the pseudonym Horace de Saint-Aubin. The period of anonymous creativity ended in 1829 after the publication of the novel "Chouans, or Brittany in 1799". Honore de Balzac called the novel "Shagreen Skin" (1830) "the starting point" of his work. From 1830, under the general title "Scenes of Private Life", short stories from contemporary French life began to be published. In 1834, Balzac decided to link the common heroes already written from 1829 and future works, combining them into an epic, later called "The Human Comedy" (La comedie humaine). Honore de Balzac considered Moliere to be his main literary teachers. Moliere., Rabelais François and Scott Walter. Twice Balzac tried to make a political career, nominating himself in the Chamber of Deputies in 1832 and 1848, but failed both times. In January 1849 he also failed in the elections to the French Academy.
In 1832, Balzac began to correspond with the Polish aristocrat E. Hanska, who lived in Russia. In 1843 the writer visited her in St. Petersburg, and in 1847 and 1848 to the Ukraine. Official marriage with E. Hanska was concluded 5 months before the death of Honore de Balzac, who died on August 18, 1850 in Paris. In 1858, Honore de Balzac's sister, Madame Surville, wrote a biography of the writer - “Balzac, sa vie et ses oeuvres d“ apres saance. ”The authors of biographical books about Balzac were Stephan Zweig. Maurois) ("Prometheus, or the Life of Balzac"), Wurmser ("Inhuman Comedy").
Among the works of Honore de Balzac - stories, short stories, philosophical studies, stories, novels, plays (5 plays were published); about 90 works made up the epic "The Human Comedy" (La comedie humaine): "Chouans, or Brittany in 1799" (Les derniers Chouans; 1829; novel), "Shagreen skin" (La peau de chagrin; 1830-1831; novel) , "Gobsek" (1830; original title - "The Dangers of Dissatisfaction", the title of the publication in 1835 - "Daddy Gobsek", under the title "Gobsek" the book was first published in 1842; story; plot connected with the novel "Father Goriot"), "The Marriage contract "(1830)," Unknown masterpiece "(1831, new edition - 1837; philosophical study)," Mischievous stories "(1832-1837)," Assignment "(1832)," Unknown masterpiece "(1832)," Colonel Chabert "(1832; the original name is" The World Deal ", the second name is" Count Chabert ", the third is" The Countess-Two-Oiled ", the name" Colonel Chabert "first appeared in the 1844 edition; the story)," The Abandoned Woman "(1832), "Father Goriot" (Le pere Goriot; 1832; first publication - in December 1834 - February 1835 in the magazine "Paris Review"; novel; about thirty characters of the novel protrusion They are also found in other novels or novellas of Balzac's epics "The Human Comedy"), "Eugenie Grande" (Eugenie Graudet; 1833; novel), The Marriage Contract (1835), The Atheist's Lunch (1836), The Trusteeship Case (1836), The Lost Illusions (1837-1843; novel), The Banker's House of Nucingen (1838; novel) , "Daughter of Eve" (1838; novel), "Pierrette" (1839), "Albert Savarius" (1842), "Imaginary Lover" (1842), "Honorina" (1843), "Provincial Muse" (1843-1844) , "The Peasants" (1844; novel), "Cousin Pons" (1846-1847; novel), "Stepmother" (1848; play), "The Country Doctor", "The Country Priest", "The Search for the Absolute". The number of characters in the works of Honore de Balzac has reached four thousand.
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Sources of information:
Encyclopedic resource www.rubricon.com (Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron)
The project "Russia congratulates!" - www.prazdniki.ru
(Source: "Aphorisms from all over the world. Encyclopedia of wisdom." Www.foxdesign.ru)
... Academician. 2011.
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- (Balzac, Honore de) ONORE DE BALZAC (1799 1850), a 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 ... ... Collier's Encyclopedia
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- (Balzac) (1799 1850), French writer. The epic "The Human Comedy" of 90 novels and short stories is connected by a common concept and many characters: the novels "Unknown Masterpiece" (1831), "Shagreen Skin" (1830 1831), "Eugene Grandet" (1833), "Father ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
The father of the future writer was a peasant from Languedoc, who managed to make a career during the French bourgeois revolution and become rich. The mother was much younger than her father (even outlived her son) and also came from a wealthy family of a Parisian cloth merchant.
The surname Balzac was taken by the father of the future writer after the revolution, the real family name was the surname of Balsa.
Education
The writer's father, who became an assistant to the mayor of the city of Tours, dreamed of making his son a lawyer. He sent it first to the Vendome College, and then to the Paris Law School.
In Vendome College, Honore did not like it right away. He studied poorly and could not establish contact with teachers in any way. Contact with family during school was prohibited, and living conditions were extremely harsh. At the age of 14, Honoré fell seriously ill and was sent home. He never returned to college, completing it in absentia.
Even before his illness, Honore became interested in literature. He avidly read the works of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Holbach. Even after entering the Paris School of Law, Honoré did not give up his dream of becoming a writer.
Early creativity
From 1823 Balzac began to write. His first novels were written in the spirit of romanticism. The author himself considered them unsuccessful and tried not to remember them.
From 1825 to 1828, Balzac tried to take up publishing, but failed.
Success
According to the short biography of Honore de Balzac, the writer was a real workaholic. He worked 15 hours a day and published 5-6 novels a year. Gradually, fame began to come to him.
Balzac wrote about his surroundings: about the life of Paris and the French provinces, about the life of the poor and aristocrats. His novels were rather philosophical novels, revealing the full depth of the social contradictions that existed then in France and the severity of social problems. Gradually Balzac combined all the novels he wrote into one large cycle, which he called "The Human Comedy". The cycle is divided into three parts: "Studies on Morals" (this part, for example, includes the novel "Glitter and Poverty of Courtesans"), "Philosophical Studies" (this includes the novel "Shagreen Skin"), "Analytical Studies" (this part the author has included partly autobiographical works, such as, for example, "Louis Lambert").
In 1845, Balzac was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.
Personal life
The writer's personal life did not develop until he entered into a correspondence (at first anonymous) with the Polish aristocrat Countess Evelina Hanska. She was married to a very wealthy landowner who had large land plots in Ukraine.
A feeling flared up between Balzac and the Countess of Hanska, but even after the death of her husband, she did not dare to become the lawful wife of the writer, as she was afraid of losing her husband's inheritance, which she wanted to pass on to her only daughter.
Death of a writer
Only in 1850 Balzac, who, by the way, stayed with his beloved for a long time, visiting Kiev, Vinnitsa, Chernigov and other cities of Ukraine with her, and Evelina were able to officially get married. But their happiness was short-lived, since immediately upon returning to his homeland, the writer fell ill and died of gangrene, which developed against the background of pathological vascular arthritis.
The writer was buried with all possible honors. It is known that his coffin during the funeral was carried in turn by all the prominent literary men of that time, including Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo.
Other biography options
- Balzac became very popular in Russia during his lifetime, although the authorities were wary of the writer's work. Despite this, he was allowed to enter Russia. The writer visited St. Petersburg and Moscow several times: in 1837, 1843, 1848-1850. He was received very warmly. Young F. Dostoevsky attended one of these meetings between the writer and his readers. After a conversation with the writer, he decided to translate the novel “Eugene Grande” into Russian. This was the first literary translation and the first publication made by the future classic of Russian literature.
- Balzac loved coffee. He drank about 50 cups of coffee a day.