Balzac, Honoré de
BALZAC, Honoré de
Nationality: French. Born: Tours, 20 May 1799. Education: Pension Le Guay-Pinel, Tours, 1804-07; Collège de Vendome, 1807-13; L'Institution Lepître, Paris, 1815; L'Institution Ganzer et Beuzelin, Paris, 1815-16; attended law lectures, the Sorbonne, Paris, Baccalaureat of Law 1819. Family: Married Mme. Hanska (Eve Rzewuska) in 1850. Career: Clerk for M. Guillonnet de Merville, 1816-18, and M. Passez, 1818-19; writer, editor, magazine writer: obtained printer's license, 1826-28; owner, La Chronique de Paris, 1835-36; editor, La Revue Parisienne, 1840; president, Société des Gens de Lettres, 1839. Awards: Chevalier, Legion of Honor, 1985. Died: 18 August 1850.
Publications
Collections
The Human Comedy, edited by George Saintsbury. 40 vols., 1895-98.
Works. 1901.
Ouvres complètes, edited by Marcel Bouteron and Henri Longnon.40 vols., 1912-40.
La Comédie humaine, edited by Marcel Bouteron. 11 vols., 1951-58; revised edition, edited by Pierre-George Castex and Pierre Citron, 1976—.
Collected Short Stories (in French), edited by A.W. Raitt. 1979.
Short Stories
Scènes de la vie privée. 1830; augmented edition, 1832.
Romans et contes philosophiques. 1831.
Contes bruns, with Philarète Chasles and Charles Rabou. 1832.
Les Salmigondis: Contes de toutes les coleurs. 1832; as La Comtesse à deux maris, in Scènes de la vie privée, 1835; as Le Colonel Chabert, in Comédie humaine, 1844.
Les Cent Contes Drolatiques. 3 (of an intended 10) vols., 1832-37;Quatrième dixain (fragments); 1925; translated as Contes drolatiques (in English), 1874.
Nouveaux contes philosophiques. 1832.
Le Provincial à Paris (includes Gillette, Le Rentier, El Verdugo).1847; as Gillette, or The Unknown Masterpiece, 1988.
Selected Short Stories. 1977.
Novels
L'Héritage de Birague, with Le Poitevin de Saint-Alme and Etienne Arago. 1822.
Jean-Louis; ou, La Fille trouvée, with Le Poitevin de Saint-Alme. 1822.
Clotilde de Lusignan; ou, Le beau juif. 1822.
Le Centenaire; ou, Les Deux Beringheld. 1822; as Le Sorcier, inOeuvres complètes de Horace de Saint-Aubin, 1837.
Le Vicaire des Ardennes. 1822.
La Dernière Fée; ou, La Nouvelle Lampe merveilleuse. 1823.
Annette et le criminel. 1824.
Wann-Chlore. 1825; as Jane la pâle, in Oeuvres complètes, 1836.
Le Dernier Chouan; ou, Le Bretagne au 1800. 1829; revised edition, as Les Chouans; ou, Le Bretagne en 1799, 1834; as Le Chouan, 1838; as The Chouans, 1893.
Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la révolution française, with Lheritier de l'Ain. 1829.
La Physiologie du mariage; ou, Méditations de philosophie éclectique. 1829; as The Physiology of Marriage, 1904.
Le Peau de chagrin. 1831; edited by S. de Sasy, 1974; as The Magic Skin, 1888; as The Wild Ass's Skin, in Human Comedy, 1895-98.
Le Médecin de campagne. 1833; excerpt, as Histoire de Napoléon.1833; edited by Patrick Barthier, 1974.
Études de moeurs au XIXe siècle. 12 vols., 1833-37; includes reprints and the following new works:
La Fleur des pois. 1834.
La Recherche de l'absolu. 1834; as Balthazar; or, Science and Love, 1859; as The Alchemist, 1861; as The Quest of the Absolute, in Human Comedy, 1895-98; as The Tragedy of a Genius, 1912.
Eugénie Grandet. 1833; translated as Eugenie Grandet, 1859.
La Femme abandonnée. 1833.
La Grenadière. 1833.
L'illustre Gaudissart. 1833.
La Vieille Fille. 1837.
Illusions perdues (part 1: Les deux poètes). 1837.
Les Marana. 1834.
Histoire des treize. 1834-35; as History of the Thirteen, 1974; translated in part as The Mystery of the Rue Soly, 1894, The Girl with the Golden Eyes, 1928, and The Duchess of Langeais, 1946.
Le Père Goriot. 1835; translated as Pere Goriot, 1886; as Old Goriot, 1991.
Le Livre mystique (includes Louis Lambert and Séraphita).1835; translated as Louis Lambert and Seraphita, 2 vols., 1889; Séraphita, 1989.
Études philosophiques. 20 vols., 1835-40; includes reprints and the following new works:
Un Drame au bord de la mer. 1835.
Melmoth réconcilié. 1836.
L'Interdiction. 1836.
La Messe de l'Athée. 1837.
Facino cane. 1837.
Les Martyrs ignorés. 1837.
Le Secret des Ruggieri. 1837.
L'Enfant maudit. 1837.
Une Passion dans le désert (novella). 1837; as A Passion in the Desert, 1985.
Le Lys dans la vallée. 1836; as The Lily of the Valley, 1891.
L'Excommuniée, with Auguste de Belloy, in Oeuvres complètes de Horace de Saint-Aubin. 1837.
La Femme supérieure. 1837; as Les Employés, 1865; as Bureaucracy, 1889.
Histoire de César Birotteau. 1838; as History of the Grandeur and Downfall of Cesar Birotteau, 1860; as The Bankrupt, 1959.
La Femme supérieure, La Maison Nucingen, La Torpille. 1838.
Les Rivalités en province. 1838; as Le Cabinet des antiques(includes Gambara), 1839; as The Jealousies of a Country Town, in Human Comedy, 1895-98.
Gambara; Adieu. 1839; translated as Gambara, in Human Comedy, 1895-98.
Une Fille d'Eve (includes Massimilla Doni). 1839; as A Daughter of Eve and Massimilla Doni, in Human Comedy, 1895-98.
Un Grand Homme de province à Paris (Illusions perdues 2). 1839; as A Great Man of the Provinces in Paris, 1893.
Beatrix; ou, Les Amours forcées. 1839; edited by Madeleine Fergeaud, 1979; translated as Beatrix, 1895.
Pierrette. 1840; translated as Pierrette, 1892.
Physiologie de l'employé. 1841.
Physiologie du rentier de Paris et de province, with Arnould Frémy. 1841.
Le Curé de village. 1841; as The Country Parson, in Human Comedy, 1895-98.
Oeuvres complètes: La Comédie humaine. 20 vols., 1842-53; includes reprints and the following new works:
Albert Savarus. 1842; translated as Albert Savarus, 1892.
Autre étude de femme. 1842.
Illusions perdues (part 3). 1843; parts 1 and 3 translated as Lost Illusions, 1893.
Esquisse d'homme d'affaires; Gaudissart II; Les Comédiens sans le savoir. 1846.
Un Épisode sous la terreur; L'Envers de l'histoire contemporain; Z; Marcas. 1846; L'Envers… translated as Love, 1893.
Ursule Mirouët. 1842; translated as Ursula, 1891.
Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux. 1842.
Mémoires de deux jeunes mariées. 1842; as Memoirs of Two Young Married Women, 1894.
Une Tenebreuse Affaire. 1842; edited by René Guise, 1973; as The Gondreville Mystery, 1898; as A Murky Business, 1972.
Les Deux Frères. 1842; as Un Ménage de garçon en province, inComédie humaine, 1843; as La Rabouilleuse, in Oeuvres complètes, 1912; edited by René Guise, 1972; as The Two Brothers, 1887; as A Bachelor's Establishment, in Human Comedy, 1895-98; as The Black Sheep, 1970.
Un Début dans la vie (includes La fausse maîtresse). 1844.
Catherine de Médicis expliquée; Le Martyr calviniste. 1845; translated as Catherine de' Medici, 1894.
Honorine (includes Un Prince de la Bohème). 1845.
Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes: Esther. 1845; as A Harlot's Progress, in Human Comedy, 1895-98; as A Harlot High and Low, 1970.
La Lune de miel. 1845.
Petites misères de la vie conjugale. 1845-46; as The Petty Annoyances of Married Life, 1861.
Un Drame dans les prisons. 1847.
Les Parents pauvres (includes La Cousine Bette and Le Cousin Pons). 1847-48; as Poor Relations, 1880; as Cousin Pons, 1886; as Cousin Betty, 1888.
La Dernière Incarnation de Vautrin. 1848.
Le Député d'Arcis, completed by Charles Rabou. 1854; as The Deputy of Arcis, 1896.
Les Paysans, completed by Mme. Balzac. 1855; as Sons of the Soil, 1890; as The Peasantry, in Human Comedy, 1895-98.
Les Petits Bourgeois, completed by Charles Rabou. 1856; as The Lesser Bourgeoisie, 1896; as The Middle Classes, 1898.
Sténie; ou, Les Erreurs philosophiques, edited by A. Prioult. 1936.
La Femme auteur et autres fragments inédits, edited by le Vicomte de Lovenjoul. 1950.
Mademoiselle du Vissard, edited by Pierre-George Castex. 1950.
Plays
Vautrin (produced 1840). 1840; translated as Vautrin, in Works, 1901.
Les Ressources de Quinola (produced 1842). 1842; as The Resources of Quinola, in Works, 1901.
Paméla Giraud (produced 1843). 1843; translated as Pamela Giraud, in Works, 1901.
La Marâtre (produced 1848). 1848; as The Stepmother, inWorks, 1901.
Le Faiseur (produced 1849). 1851; translated as Mercadet, inWorks, 1901.
L'École des ménages, edited by le Vicomte de Lovenjoul (produced 1910). 1907.
Other
Du droit d'ainesse. 1824.
Histoire impartiale des Jésuites. 1824.
Code des gens honnêtes; ou, L'Art de ne pas être dupe des fripons. 1825.
Mémoires de Mme. la Duchesse d'Abrantes, with the duchess. vol.1 only, 1831.
Maximes et pensées de Napoléon. 1838.
Traité de la vie élégante. 1853.
Lettres à l'etrangère (to Mme. Hanska). 4 vols., 1899-1950.
Cahiers balzaciens, edited by Marcel Bouteron. 8 vols., 1927-28.
Le Catéchisme social, edited by Bernard Guyon. 1933.
Traité de la prière, edited by Philippe Bertault. 1942.
Journaux à la mer, edited by Louis Jaffard. 1949.
Correspondance, edited by Roger Pierrot. 5 vols., 1960-68.
Editor, Oeuvres complètes, by La Fontaine. 1826.
Editor, Oeuvres complètes, by Moliere. 1826.
*Bibliography:
A Balzac Bibliography and Index by W. Hobart Royce, 1929-30; Bibliography of Balzac Criticism, 1930-1990 by Mark W. Waggoner, 1990.
Critical Studies:
Balzac and the Novel by Samuel G.A. Rogers, 1953; Balzac: A Biography, 1957, and Balzac's Comédie Humaine, 1959, both by Herbert J. Hunt; Balzac the European by Edward J. Oliver, 1959; Prometheus: The Life of Balzac by André Maurois, 1965; Balzac: An Interpretation of the Comédie Humaine by F.W.J. Hemmings, 1967; The Hero as Failure: Balzac and the Rubempré Cycle by Bernard N. Schilling, 1968; Balzac by V.S. Pritchett, 1973; Balzac's Comedy of Words by Martin Kanes, 1975;Balzac's Recurring Characters by Anthony Pugh, 1975; Balzac Criticism in France (1850-1900) by David Bellos, 1976; Balzac: Fiction and Melodrama by Christopher Prendergast, 1978; Balzac: Illusions Perdues by Donald Adamson, 1981; Balzac and His Reader by Mary Susan McCarthy, 1983; Balzac and the Drama of Perspective: The Narrator in Selected Works of La Comédie Humaine by Joan Dargan, 1985; Family and Plots: Balzac's Narrative Generations by Janet L. Beizer, 1986; The Golden Scapegoat: Portrait of the Jew in the Novels of Balzac by Frances Schlamovitz Grodzinsky, 1989; Balzac and Music: Its Place and Meaning in His Life and Work by Jean-Paul Barricelli, 1990; A Fable of Modern Art by Dore Ashton, 1991; The Sadomasochistic Homotext: Readings in Sade, Balzac, and Proust by Douglas B. Saylor, 1993; The Poetics of Death: The Short Prose of Kleist and Balzac by Beatrice Martina Guenther, 1996.
* * *For a writer who produced such in immense amount of serious fiction in a relatively brief life, Honoré de Balzac was a slow starter. It is meaningless to impose a rigid distinction between the short stories of 1830 to 1835 and the longer fictional pieces into which they were often dovetailed or absorbed. They became part of the coherent description of French society known from 1840 as La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy). In 1834, when Balzac first became aware of the inner coherence of his work, he thought it would be a general study of human behavior, which he intended to classify in an essay on human energy.
Although he did write what were always intended to be short stories, most of Balzac's short fiction originated as drafts or episodes for works that were to be serialized, expanded, or combined into novels. It is therefore understandable that, along with the rather dubious and experimental pastiche of Rabelais's manner in Les Cent Contes Drolatiques (Contes drolatiques or the "Droll Stories"), most of Balzac's short fiction should have been written while he was still feeling his way from the early pseudonymous potboilers, through the various "physiologies," "codes," and "arts," towards the novels with recurring characters, which started with La Père Goriot (Old Goriot), written from 1834 to 1835. Balzac's short fiction also must be seen against other contemporary vogues, for "scenes," semi-dramatic "proverbs," and for the mocking sketches of the freelance journalism to which, in articles for Le Voleur, La Mode, La Caricature, and Le Charivari, Balzac reverted around 1830. What Balzac specifically wrote as short fiction were the "contes," normally focusing on the narration of an event, and the "nouvelles," dealing with a rather more static situation or state of mind.
If Balzac had not gone on to write the novels, it is unlikely that the "Droll Stories" would be remembered. Balzac's decision to revive the bawdy medieval conte, whose point frequently lays in some mistaken, surprising, or grotesque sexual encounter, counter-balanced his increasing concern with the sentimental mystical values explored in Séraphita of 1834 to 1835 and Le Lys dans la vallée of 1835 to 1836. It gave expression to the sturdy, lusty side of his temperament, in some ways also both fastidious and feminine. The idea for the "Droll Stories" is contained in a satirical article printed in La Mode, in February 1830. In the course of that year, Balzac conceived the notion of transposing them into French renaissance language and style, both of which he sometimes got wrong, and of writing a hundred of them, as in Boccaccio's Decameron. The first tale, "The Archbishop," appeared in La Caricature on 4 November 1830, introducing Impéria, a Roman courtesan, in the early fifteenth century. Her adventures were going to be the subject of the first droll story, ten of which came out in April 1832, with a further ten in July 1833. Most of the third decade was destroyed in a warehouse fire in December 1835 and had to be rewritten for publication in 1837, and we have fragments of a fourth and a fifth decade.
They are almost all boisterous and often cruel stories of lechery and sexual and pecuniary trickery involving late medieval Touraine, the homeland Balzac shared with Rabelais. Very few of the characters are anything but pruriently enthusiastic at the prospect of erotic pleasure, and the women are as salacious in their attitudes as the men. It is the rather inept pseudo-medieval pastiche, with the narrative pace and focus of the sixteenth-century conte, its realistic rogues and spontaneous courtiers, which keeps the robust vulgarity from being titillatingly pornographic, and which allows the coarse subject matter, with its mischievous delight in trickery, fraud, and more serious misdemeanor, to be relieved by the occasional intrusion of real delicacy of feeling and lightness of touch.
But there is a foretaste of the novels to come. Sharp perceptiveness about human motivation, wit, and self-parody betray the narrator's amusement at the naivete of his characters and even plots. There are isolated instances of heroism, and of a sense of honor or humor, and dramatic values are exploited. The narrator sometimes shows true sympathy or feeling for his characters, but on the whole the droll stories do not represent Balzac's sensibility at its most attractive. Real love overtakes Impéria, but when Véron, the most flamboyant literary and musical impresario in nineteenth-century Paris, was offered the story for the Revue de Paris, he turned it down, saying, "If possible, my dear Balzac, be chaste, even if only to show the full range of your talent."
The nouvelles, while intended for publication in the form in which they were written, differ from the contes, but still represent Balzac's real talent at an inchoate stage of its development. Of those written in the autumn of 1829, some were concerned to give impressions of domestic life and personal feelings, while others belong to the tradition of mystery, horror, and the fantastic. Six of these studies were grouped together in Scènes de la vie privée (Scenes of Private Life), but the titles of three were changed on subsequent rewriting.
"Domestic Peace" recounts the way in which an older woman guides a young wife to regain the lost affections of an errant husband, while "The Virtuous Woman" (later "A Double Family"), notable for its anti-clericalism, examines how a wife, dominated by a puritanical devotion, drives her husband into the arms of another woman, who disillusions him. The story "La Vendetta," about a Corsican family blood-feud, was much strengthened on rewriting years later, when Balzac added the father's gloating joy at the sudden death of the son-in-law who had brought him the news of his daughter's starvation. "The Dangers of Misconduct" (now "Gobseck") had begun as the physiology of a money-lender for Le Monde and centers on the greed of the comtesse de Restaud. The money-lender's character is fully developed in the 1835 revision, in which he sides with the dying Restaud against the comtesse and her lover. The comtesse has sold him her diamonds, an episode that links the nouvelle to the novelOld Goriot, but "Gobseck" remains a violent story about adultery, culminating in family break-up, while Old Goriot was the conscious foundation for the later panoramic survey of French society.
The best of the nouvelles is generally thought to be "Gloire et malheur," which later became "La Maison du chat-qui-pelote," about the domestic background of Augustine, a draper's daughter who marries a painter but can never rise above her family's shopkeeper values. It is an early Balzac study of feminine feeling. By 1832, however, Balzac had almost abandoned the short story as a literary form. Six tableaux of 1831 and 1832 were put together in 1834 as "Même histoire" and in 1842 were presented in a composite novel as "La Femme de trente ans." There is plenty of outside evidence that Balzac was a brilliant raconteur, and he did contribute two further short stories to a collaborative volume, Contes bruns, in 1832, but gradually the storytelling skills that suited short fiction made way for the lengthier studies of human behavior in his novels. His fictional imagination outgrew the short story.
—A. H. T. Levi
See the essays on "A Passion in the Desert" and "The Unknown Masterpiece."