The Human Comedy is a cycle of works by the cult French writer Honore de Balzac. This grandiose work became the most ambitious literary idea of ​​the 19th century. Balzac included in the cycle all the novels he wrote during his twenty-year creative career. Despite the fact that each component of the cycle is an independent literary work, The Human Comedy is a single whole, as Balzac said, "my great work ... about man and life."

The idea for this large-scale creation originated with Honoré de Balzac in 1832, when Shagreen Skin was completed and successfully published. Analyzing the works of Bonnet, Buffon, Leibniz, the writer drew attention to the development of animals as a single organism.

Drawing a parallel with the animal world, Balzac determined that society is like nature, since it creates as many human types as the nature of animal species. The material for human typology is the environment in which this or that individual is located. Just as in nature a wolf differs from a fox, a donkey from a horse, a shark from a seal, in society a soldier does not look like a worker, a scientist does not look like an idler, an official does not look like a poet.

The uniqueness of Balzac's idea

In world culture, there are a lot of dry factographs dedicated to the history of various countries and eras, but there is no work that would cover the history of the mores of society. Balzac undertook to investigate the mores of French society in the 19th century (to be precise, the period from 1815 to 1848). He had to create a large work with two or three thousand characters typical of this particular era.

The idea was, of course, very ambitious, the publishers sarcastically wished the writer a "long life", but this does not stop the great Balzac - along with his talent, he had amazing endurance, self-discipline and hard work. By analogy with Dante's Divine Comedy, he calls his work The Human Comedy, emphasizing the realistic method of interpreting modern reality.

Structure of The Human Comedy

Honore de Balzac divided his "Human Comedy" into three structural and semantic parts. Visually, this composition can be depicted as a pyramid. The largest part (it is also the base) is called "Etudes of Morals" and includes thematic subsections / scenes (private, provincial, military, rural life and the life of Paris. "Etudes of Morals" was planned to include 111 works, Balzac managed to write 71.

The second tier of the "pyramid" is "Philosophical Studies", in which 27 works were planned and 22 were written.

The top of the "pyramid" - "Analytical studies". Of the five conceived, the author managed to complete only two works.

In the preface to the first edition of The Human Comedy, Balzac deciphers the themes of each part of the Etudes of Morals. Thus, Scenes of private life depict childhood, youth, and the delusions of these periods of human life.

Balzac really likes to “spy” on the private life of his characters and find the typical, epochal in the everyday life of the characters appearing on the pages of his works. Accordingly, the Scenes of Private Life have become one of the most extensive sections; it includes works written in the period from 1830 to 1844. These are “The House of a Cat Playing Ball”, “A Ball in So”, “Memoirs of Two Young Wives”, “Vendetta”, “Imaginary Mistress”, “Thirty-Year-Old Woman”, “Colonel Chabert”, “The Godless Mass”, the cult “Father Goriot", "Gobsek" and other works".

So, the short novel "The House of the Cat Playing Ball" (alternative title "Glory and Sorrow") tells the story of a young married couple - the artist Theodore de Somervieux and the merchant's daughter Augustine Guillaume. When the dope of love passes, Theodore realizes that a pretty wife is not able to appreciate his work, to become a friend in spirit, a comrade-in-arms, a muse. At this time, Augustine continues to naively and selflessly love her husband. She suffers greatly, seeing how her beloved moves away, how she finds solace in the company of another woman - an intelligent, educated, sophisticated Madame de Carigliano. No matter how hard the poor thing tries, she fails to save the marriage and return her husband's love. One day, Augustine's heart breaks down - it is simply torn from grief and lost love.

The novel "Memoirs of two young wives" is interesting. It is presented in the form of correspondence between two graduates of the convent, friends Louise de Cholier and René de Mocombe. Leaving the walls of the holy monastery, one girl ends up in Paris, the other - in the provinces. Line by line on the pages of girls' letters, two completely different destinies grow.

The cult "Father Goriot" and "Gobsek" tell the story of the lives of two of the greatest misers - the "incurable father" Goriot, painfully adoring his daughters, and the usurer Gobsek, who does not recognize any ideals except the power of gold.

In contrast to private life, the scenes of provincial life are devoted to maturity and its inherent passions, ambitions, interests, calculations, and ambition. This section contains ten novels. Among them are "Eugenia Grande", "Museum of Antiquities", "The Old Maid", "Lost Illusions".

So, the novel "Eugenia Grande" tells about the provincial life of the wealthy Grande family - a stingy tyrant father, a resigned mother and their young beautiful daughter Eugenia. The novel was very fond of the domestic public, was repeatedly translated into Russian and even filmed at the Soviet film studio in 1960.

In contrast to the provincial, Balzac creates Scenes of Parisian life, where, first of all, the vices that the capital gives rise to are exposed. This section includes "Duchess de Lange", "Caesar Birotto", "Cousin Betta", "Cousin Pons" and others. Balzac's most famous "Parisian" novel is "The Brilliance and Poverty of the Courtesans".

The work tells the tragic fate of the provincial Lucien de Rubempre, who made a brilliant career in Paris thanks to the patronage of Carlos Herrera, the abbot. Lucien is in love. His passion is the former courtesan Esther. The imperious abbot forces the young protégé to give up his true love in favor of a more profitable party. Lucien reluctantly agrees. This decision sets off a chain of tragic events in the fates of all the characters in the novel.

Politics, war and the countryside

Politics stands apart from private life. Scenes of political life tell about this original sphere. In the section Scenes of political life, Balzac included four works:

• "A Case from the Time of Terror" about a group of disgraced monarchist aristocrats;
• "Dark Deed" about the conflict of aristocratic adherents of the royal Bourbon dynasty and the government of Napoleon;
• "Z. Markas";
• "Deputy from Arsi" about "fair" elections in the provincial town of Arcy-sur-Aube.

Scenes of military life depict heroes in a state of the highest moral and emotional tension, whether it be defense or conquest. This, in particular, included the novel "Chuans", which brought Balzac, after a series of literary failures and the collapse of the publishing business, the long-awaited glory. "Chuans" is dedicated to the events of 1799, when the last major uprising of royalist rebels took place. The rebels, led by monarchical-minded aristocrats and clergy, were called shuans.

Balzac called the atmosphere of rural life "the evening of a long day." This section presents the purest characters that are formed in the embryo of other areas of human life. Four novels were included in Scenes of Rural Life: The Peasants, The Rural Doctor, The Rural Priest, and Lily of the Valley.

A deep dissection of characters, an analysis of the social drivers of all life events, and life itself in a fight with desire are shown in the second part of the "Human Comedy" - "Philosophical Studies". They included 22 works written between 1831 and 1839. These are "Jesus Christ in Flanders", "Unknown Masterpiece", "Cursed Child", "Maitre Cornelius", "Red Hotel", "Elixir of Longevity" and many others. The bestseller of "Philosophical Studies" is undoubtedly the novel "Philosophical Skin".

The protagonist of Shagreen Skin, the poet Raphael de Valentin, unsuccessfully tries to make a career in Paris. One day he becomes the owner of a magical artifact - a piece of shagreen, which grants any wish, spoken aloud. Valentine immediately becomes rich, successful, loved. But soon the other side of the magic opens up to him - with each wish fulfilled, the shagreen decreases, and with it the life of Raphael himself. When the pebbled skin is gone, he will be gone too. Valentine will have to choose between a long existence in constant deprivation or a bright but short life full of pleasures.

Analytical studies

The result of the monolithic "history of the morals of modern mankind" was "Analytical studies". In the preface, Balzac himself notes that this section is under development, and therefore, at this stage, the author is forced to abandon meaningful comments.

For Analytical Studies, the writer planned five works, but completed only two - these are The Physiology of Marriage, written in 1929, and Minor Adversities of Married Life, published in 1846.

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Honore de Balzac

human comedy

EVGENIYA GRANDE

Father Goriot

Honore de Balzac

EVGENIYA GRANDE

Translation from French by Y. Verkhovsky. OCR & SpellCheck: Zmiy

The story “Gobsek” (1830), the novels “Eugene Grande” (1833) and “Father Goriot” (1834) by O. Balzac, which are part of the “Human Comedy” cycle, belong to the masterpieces of world literature. In all three works, the writer with great artistic power denounces the vices of bourgeois society, shows the detrimental effect of money on the human personality and human relationships.

Your name, the name of the one whose portrait

the best decoration of this work, yes

will be here like a green branch

blessed box, torn

I don't know where, but I'm sure

sanctified religion and renewed in

unchanging freshness pious

hands for storage at home.

de balzac

There are houses in other provincial towns that, by their very appearance, inspire melancholy, similar to that caused by the gloomiest monasteries, the most gray steppes, or the most depressing ruins. In these houses there is something from the silence of the monastery, from the desert of the steppes and the decay of the ruins. Life and movement in them are so calm that they would have seemed uninhabited to a stranger, if he had not suddenly met the eyes of a dull and cold gaze of a motionless creature, whose semi-monastic physiognomy appeared above the window sill at the sound of unfamiliar steps. These characteristic features of melancholy marked the appearance of the dwelling, located in the upper part of Saumur, at the end of a crooked street that rises up the hill and leads to the castle. On this street, now sparsely populated, it is hot in summer, cold in winter, sometimes dark even during the day; it is remarkable for the sonority of its pavement of small cobblestones, constantly dry and clean, the narrowness of the winding path, the silence of its houses belonging to the old city, over which the ancient city fortifications rise. Three centuries old, these buildings, although wooden, are still strong, and their heterogeneous appearance contributes to the originality that attracts the attention of lovers of antiquity and people of art to this part of Saumur. It is difficult to pass by these houses and not admire the huge oak beams, the ends of which, carved in bizarre figures, crown the lower floors of most of these houses with black bas-reliefs. The crossbeams are slate-covered and streak blue across the dilapidated walls of the building, topped with a wooden peaked roof that has sagged with time, with rotten shingles warped by the alternating action of rain and sun. In some places one can see window sills, worn, darkened, with barely noticeable fine carvings, and it seems that they cannot withstand the weight of a dark clay pot with bushes of carnations or roses grown by some poor toiler. Next, a pattern of huge nail heads driven into the gate, on which the genius of our ancestors inscribed family hieroglyphs, the meaning of which no one can unravel, will catch your eye. Either a Protestant here stated his confession of faith, or some member of the League cursed Henry IV. A certain city dweller carved here the heraldic signs of his eminent citizenship, his long-forgotten glorious title of a merchant foreman. Here is the whole history of France. Side by side with the shaky house, the walls of which are covered with rough plaster, immortalizing the work of an artisan, rises the mansion of a nobleman, where, in the very middle of the stone vault of the gate, traces of the coat of arms, broken by the revolutions that shook the country since 1789, are still visible. On this street, the lower floors of merchants' houses are not occupied by shops or warehouses; Admirers of the Middle Ages can here find inviolable storehouse of our fathers in all its frank simplicity. These low spacious rooms without showcases, without elegant exhibitions, without painted glass, are devoid of any decorations, internal and external. The heavy front door is roughly covered with iron and consists of two parts: the upper one leans inward, forming a window, and the lower one, with a bell on a spring, opens and closes every now and then. Air and light penetrate this kind of damp cave either through a transom carved above the door, or through an opening between the vault and the low wall, the height of the counter, - there strong internal shutters are strengthened in the grooves, which are removed in the morning and put on in the evenings. place and push with iron bolts. Goods are displayed on this wall. And here they do not throw dust in the eyes. Depending on the type of trade, the samples consist of two or three tubs filled to the top with salt and cod, from several bales of sailing cloth, from ropes, from copper utensils suspended from ceiling beams, from hoops placed along the walls, from several pieces of cloth on shelves . Sign in. A neat young girl, full of health, in a snow-white scarf, with red hands, leaves knitting, calls her mother or father. One of them goes out and sells what you need, for two sous or for twenty thousand goods, while being indifferent, amiable or arrogant, according to character. You will see a merchant of oak boards sitting at his door and fiddling with his thumbs, talking to a neighbor, and in appearance he only has plain boards for barrels and two or three bundles of shingles; and on the wharf his forest yard supplies all the Angevin coopers; he calculated to a single plank how many barrels he would overpower if the grape harvest was good: the sun - and he was rich, rainy weather - he was ruined; on the same morning wine barrels cost eleven francs, or fall to six livres. In this region, as in Touraine, the vicissitudes of the weather rule over trading life. Vine growers, landowners, timber merchants, coopers, innkeepers, shipmen - all lie in wait for a ray of sunshine; going to bed in the evening, they tremble, as if in the morning they would not find out what was freezing at night; they are afraid of rain, wind, drought and want moisture, warmth, clouds - whatever suits them. There is a continuous duel between heaven and earthly self-interest. The barometer alternately saddens, enlightens, illuminates the physiognomy with merriment. From end to end of this street, the ancient Grand Rue of Saumur, the words “Golden day! ” fly from porch to porch. And each responds to a neighbor. “Luidors are pouring from the sky,” realizing what a ray of sun or rain brings him, arriving in time. In summer, on Saturdays, since noon, not a penny can buy goods from these honest merchants. Everyone has his own vineyard, his own farm, and every day he goes out of town for two days. Here, when everything is calculated - buying, selling, profit - the merchants have ten hours out of twelve for picnics, for all sorts of gossip, incessant peeping at each other. A housewife cannot buy a partridge without the neighbors later asking her husband if the bird was fried successfully. You can't put your head out of a window for a girl, so that a bunch of idle people would not see her from all sides. Here, after all, the spiritual life of everyone is in full view of everyone, just like all the events taking place in these impenetrable, gloomy and silent houses. Almost the entire life of the townsfolk passes in the free air. Each family sits down at its porch, here they have breakfast, and dinner, and quarrel. Anyone who walks down the street is looked at from head to toe. And in the old days, as soon as a stranger appeared in a provincial town, they began to ridicule him at every door. Hence the amusing stories, hence the nickname mockingbirds given to the inhabitants of Angers, who were especially distinguished in these gossip.

The ancient mansions of the old city are located at the top of the street, once inhabited by local nobles. The gloomy house where the events described in this story took place was just one of such dwellings, a venerable fragment of a bygone age, when things and people were distinguished by that simplicity that French customs are losing every day. Passing along this picturesque street, where each meander evokes memories of the past, and the general impression evokes an involuntary dull thoughtfulness, you notice a rather dark vault, in the middle of which the door of Monsieur Grandet's house is hidden. It is impossible to understand the full meaning of this phrase without knowing the biography of Mr. Grande.

Monsieur Grandet enjoyed a special reputation in Saumur, and it will not be fully understood by those who have not lived at least a short time in the provinces. Monsieur Grandet, still called by some "Papa Grandet", although the number of such old men was noticeably decreasing, was in 1789 a simple cooper, but with great prosperity, he could read, write and count. When the French Republic put on sale the lands of the clergy in the Saumur district, the cooper Grandet, who was then forty years old, had just married the daughter of a wealthy timber merchant. With his own cash and his wife's dowry in hand, and only two thousand louis, Grandet went to the main city of the district, where, thanks to a bribe of two hundred doubloons offered by his father-in-law to a stern republican in charge of the sale of national property, he acquired for nothing, if not quite legally, then legally, the best vineyards in the area, an old abbey and several farms. The Saumur townsfolk were little revolutionary, and Grande's father was considered a brave man, a republican, a patriot, a smart head, committed to new ideas, while the cooper was simply attached to the vineyards. He was elected a member of the administration of the Saumur district, and there his peaceful influence was reflected both politically and commercially. In politics, he patronized the former people and opposed the sale of the estates of emigrants with all his might; in commerce. - he supplied the republican armies with a thousand or two thousand barrels of white wine and managed to get paid for them with magnificent meadows from the possessions of a convent, the last to be left for sale. At the Consulate, the good-natured Grandet became mayor, ruled well, and harvested grapes even better; during the Empire he had already become lord of Grande. Napoleon did not like Republicans; Mr. Grandet, who was reputed to be a man sporting a red cap, he replaced with a large landowner, who bore a surname with the particle "de", the future baron of the Empire. M. Grandet parted with municipal honors without the slightest regret. He had already managed to build excellent roads “for the benefit of the city” that led to his own possessions. The house and estates of Grande, very favorably valued for him by the land list, were taxed moderately. Thanks to the constant care of the owner, his vineyards have become the “head of the region” - a technical expression for vineyards that produce wine of the highest quality. He could have asked for the cross of the Legion of Honor. This is what happened in 1806. M. Grande was then fifty-seven years old, and his wife about thirty-six. Their only daughter, the fruit of legitimate love, was then ten years old. Monsieur Grandet, whom Providence no doubt wished to reward for his disgrace, received three successive legacies this year: from Madame de la Godinière, née de la Bertelier, mother of Madame Grandet; then - from the old man de la Bertelier, father of the late mother-in-law; and also from Madame Gentillet, her maternal grandmother, three inheritances, the extent of which no one knew. The stinginess of these three old men turned into such a strong passion that for a long time they kept their money in chests to secretly admire them. The old man de la Bertelliere called any placement of money in circulation a waste, finding more joy in the contemplation of gold than in the income from usury. The city of Saumur allegedly determined Mr. Grandet's savings from his estate. At that time, Grande acquired that lofty title that our insane passion for equality will never destroy: he became the first county taxpayer. He had one hundred arpans of the vineyard, which in good years gave him from seven hundred to eight hundred barrels of wine. He also owned thirteen farms, an old abbey, where, out of thrift, he plastered the windows, arches, and stained-glass windows, which preserved them; moreover, one hundred and twenty-seven arpan meadows, where three thousand poplars, planted in 1793, grew and increased in volume. Finally, the house where he lived was his property. This was how the size of his fortune was determined, obvious to everyone. As for his capitals, only two persons could have had a vague idea of ​​their size: one of these persons was the notary Cruchot, M. Grandet's constant attorney for placement in the growth of his capitals; to another, M. de Grassin, the richest banker in Saumur, in whose operations and profits the winemaker had a share by secret agreement. Although old Cruchot and Monsieur de Grassin knew how to keep a secret - this is trustworthy in the provinces and is beneficial to business - yet both of them very frankly showed such great respect to Monsieur Grandet that observant people could guess the impressive size of the capital of the former mayor in obsequious fawning, the subject of which he was. Everyone in Saumur was sure that Monsieur Grandet had a whole treasure hidden away, that he had a cache full of louis, and there he gave himself unspeakable pleasure at night, contemplating a heap of accumulated gold. The misers felt some confidence in this, looking into the eyes of the old man Grandet, to whom the yellow metal seemed to transfer its colors. The look of a person who is accustomed to extracting huge profits from his capital, like the look of a voluptuary, gambler or courtier, inevitably acquires some indefinable skills, expressing fluent, greedy, mysterious movements of feelings that do not escape from fellow believers. This secret language forms a sort of freemasonry of the passions. So, Monsieur Grandet inspired everyone with respect, like a man who never owed anything to anyone, like an old cooper and an old winemaker, who determined with astronomical accuracy whether a thousand barrels or only five hundred should be prepared for the grape harvest; how a man who did not miss a single speculation, always had barrels to sell when a barrel was worth more than the wine itself, could hide all his new vintage wine in cellars and wait for an opportunity to sell a barrel for two hundred francs when small winemakers give up their five gold. His famous collection of 1811, prudently hidden, slowly sold, brought him more than two hundred and forty thousand livres. In commerce, Monsieur Grandet was like a tiger and a boa: he knew how to lie down, curl up into a ball, stare at his prey for a long time and rush at it; then he opened the mouth of his purse, swallowed another share of the ecu, and calmly laid down like a snake digesting food; he did all this dispassionately, coldly, methodically. As he passed through the streets, everyone looked at him with a sense of respectful admiration and fear. Everyone in Saumur experienced the polite grip of his steel claws: such and such a notary Cruchot got money from him to buy an estate, but from eleven percent; M. de Grassin accepted the bill for this, but at a terrible discount rate. There were few days when M. Grandet's name was not mentioned either in the market or in the evenings in the conversation of the townsfolk. For others, the wealth of the old winemaker was a matter of patriotic pride. And not one merchant, not one innkeeper used to say to visitors with some boastfulness:

- Yes, sir, here we have two or three commercial enterprises worth millions. As for Monsieur Grandet, he himself does not know how to count his money.

In 1816, the most skilful accountants of Saumur valued the landed estates of old Grandet at almost four millions; but since, according to the average calculation, during the period from 1793 to 1817 he had to earn from his possessions one hundred thousand francs annually, it could be assumed that he had an amount in cash almost equal to the value of his real estate. And when, after a game in Boston, or some conversation about the vineyards, Mr. Grande was mentioned, smart people would say:

“Papa Grande? Papa Grande has six or seven million faithful.

“You are smarter than me. I have never been able to find out the total amount, answered Monsieur Cruchot or Monsieur de Grassin, if they heard such a conversation.

When a visiting Parisian spoke of the Rothschilds or M. Lafitte, the people of Saumur asked if they were as rich as M. Grandet. If the Parisian gave a positive answer with a dismissive smile, they looked at each other and shook their heads in disbelief. Such a huge fortune threw a golden veil over all the actions of this person. Formerly, some of the oddities of his life gave rise to ridicule and jokes, but now both ridicule and jokes have dried up. Whatever M. Grandet did, his authority was indisputable. His speech, his clothes, his gestures, the blinking of his eyes were the law for the whole neighborhood, where everyone, having previously studied him, as a naturalist studies the actions of instinct in animals, could know all the deep and silent wisdom of his most insignificant movements.

“It will be a harsh winter,” people said, “papa Grande put on fur gloves. We need to harvest the grapes.

- Papa Grande takes a lot of barrel boards - to be guilty this year.

M. Grandet never bought meat or bread. His exploiting farmers brought him every week an ample supply of capons, chickens, eggs, butter, and wheat. He had a mill; the tenant was obliged, in addition to the contractual payment, to come for a certain amount of grain, grind it and bring flour and bran. Naneta the giant, his only servant, although she was no longer young, baked bread for the family every Saturday. Mr. Grandet arranged with his gardeners to supply him with vegetables. And as for fruit, he collected so many of them that he sent a significant part to sell on the market. For firewood he cut dead wood in his hedges, or used old, half-rotten stumps, uprooting them along the edges of his fields; his farmers brought him firewood already sawn to the city free of charge, out of courtesy they put it in a barn and received verbal thanks. He spent money, as everyone knew, only on consecrated bread, on clothes for his wife and daughter and on paying for their chairs in church, on lighting, on Nanet’s salary, on tinning pots, on taxes, on repairing buildings and expenses for his enterprises. . He had six hundred arpans of wood, recently bought; Grande entrusted the supervision of him to a neighbor's watchman, promising him a reward for this. Only after the acquisition of forest land did they begin to serve game to the table. In address, he was extremely simple, spoke little and usually expressed his thoughts in short, instructive phrases, pronouncing them in an insinuating voice. Ever since the revolution, when Grande had attracted attention, he began to stutter in the most tiresome way, as soon as he had to speak for a long time or endure an argument. The tongue-tied tongue, the incoherence of speech, the flow of words in which he drowned his thought, the obvious lack of logic attributed to the lack of education - all this was emphasized by him and will be adequately explained by some of the incidents of this story. However, four phrases, precise as algebraic formulas, usually helped him to think and resolve all sorts of difficulties in life and trade: “I don’t know. I can not. Don't want. Let's see". He never said yes or no and never wrote. If anything was said to him, he listened in cold blood, supporting his chin with his right hand and leaning his elbow on the palm of his left hand, and formed an opinion about every matter, which he did not change. He thought about even the smallest deals for a long time. When, after a cunning conversation, the interlocutor, confident that he was holding him in his hands, gave him the secret of his intentions, Grandet answered:

“I can’t decide anything until I consult my wife.

His wife, reduced by him to complete slavery, was the most convenient screen for him in business. He never went to anyone and did not invite him to his place, not wanting to arrange dinner parties; never made any noise and seemed to save on everything, even movement. With strangers, he did not touch anything because of the reverence for property that had taken root in him. Nevertheless, in spite of the insinuation of his voice, in spite of his cautious manner, the expressions and manners of a cooper broke through, especially when he was at home, where he restrained himself less than in any other place. In appearance, Grande was a man five feet tall, stocky, stocky, with calves twelve inches in circumference, with knotty joints and broad shoulders; his face was round, clumsy, pockmarked; the chin is straight, the lips without any curve, and the teeth are very white; the expression of the eyes is calm and predatory, which the people attribute to the basilisk; a forehead dotted with transverse wrinkles, not without characteristic bumps, hair - reddish with gray - gold and silver, as some of the youth said, not yet knowing what it meant to play a trick on Monsieur Grandet. On his nose, thick at the end, was a lump with blood veins, which the people, not without reason, considered a sign of deceit. This face betrayed dangerous cunning, cold honesty, the selfishness of a man accustomed to concentrating all his feelings on the pleasures of miserliness; only one creature was at least a little dear to him - the daughter of Eugene, his only heir. His demeanor, manners, gait - everything in him testified to the self-confidence that comes from the habit of success in all your undertakings. Monsieur Grandet, who appeared to be of an easygoing and gentle disposition, had an iron character. He was always dressed the same and in appearance was still the same as in 1791. His rough shoes were tied with leather laces; at all seasons he wore felted woolen stockings, short trousers of thick brown cloth with silver buckles, a double-breasted velvet waistcoat with yellow and dark brown stripes, a loose, chestnut-coloured, long-brimmed frock coat, always tightly buttoned up, a black tie, and a Quaker hat. Gloves, strong as those of the gendarmes, served him for twenty months, and, in order not to get dirty, he put them with a habitual movement on the brim of his hat, always in the same place. Saumur knew nothing more about this man.

Of all the inhabitants of the city, only six enjoyed the right to visit the house of M. Grandet. The most significant of the first three was M. Cruchot's nephew. From the day of his appointment as President of the Court of First Instance of Saumur, this young man added de Bonfont to the family of Cruchot and tried with all his might to make Bonfon prevail over Cruchot. He already signed: K. de Bonfon. The slow-witted plaintiff, who called him "Mr. Cruchot", soon at the court session guessed about his oversight. The judge made peace with those who called him "Monsieur President", and distinguished with the most benevolent smiles of the flatterers who called him "Monsieur de Bonfon". The chairman was thirty-three; he owned the estate of Bonfon; (Boni fontis), which gave seven thousand livres of income; he was waiting for an inheritance after his uncle, a notary, and after his other uncle, the Abbé Cruchot, a high-ranking member of the chapter of Saint-Martin de Tours, both were considered quite rich. These three Cruchots, supported by a fair number of relatives, connected with twenty families in the city, formed a kind of party, as the Medici once did in Florence; and like the Medicis, Cruchot had his Pazzi. Madame de Grassin, the father of a twenty-three-year-old son, came without fail to Madame Grandet to play cards for her, hoping to marry her dear Adolphe to Mademoiselle Eugenie. The banker de Grassin greatly assisted his wife's intrigues by constant services, which he secretly rendered to the old miser, and always appeared on the battlefield in time. These three de Grassins also had their adherents, their relatives, their faithful allies.

On Cruchot's side, the old abbot, Talleyrand of this family, supported by his notary brother, cheerfully challenged the banker's position and tried to secure a rich inheritance for his nephew, the president of the court. The secret battle between Cruchot and the Grassins, in which the hand of Eugenie Grandet was the reward, passionately occupied various circles of Saumur society. Will Mademoiselle Grandet marry Monsieur President or Monsieur Adolphe de Grassin? Some solved this problem in the sense that M. Grandet would not give his daughter to either one or the other. The former cooper, consumed by ambition, they said, is looking for a son-in-law of some peer of France, whom three hundred thousand livres of income will force to reconcile with all the past, present and future casks of the House of Grandet. Others objected that the de Grassin spouses were both of noble birth and very rich, that Adolf was a very nice gentleman, and, unless the nephew of the pope himself wooed Eugene, such a union would have satisfied a man who had come out of a low rank, a former cooper, whom all Saumur was seen with a brace in his hands and, moreover, wearing a red cap in his time. The more sensible pointed out that for Monsieur Cruchot de Bonfond the doors of the house were open at all times, while his rival was received only on Sundays. Some argued that Madame de Grassin was more closely connected than Cruchot with the ladies of the Grande family, that she had the opportunity to inspire certain ideas in them, and therefore, sooner or later, she would achieve her goal. Others objected that the Abbé Cruchot was the most insinuating man in the world and that a woman against a monk was an equal game. “Two boots are a pair,” said a certain Saumur wit.

Local old-timers, more knowledgeable, believed that Grande was too careful and would not let the wealth out of the hands of the family, Eugenie Grande from Saumur would marry the son of Parisian Grande, a wealthy wholesale wine merchant. To this both the Kryushotins and the Grassenists answered:

- First of all, in thirty years the brothers have not seen each other twice. And then the Parisian Grande aims high for his son. He is the mayor of his district, deputy, colonel of the national guard, member of the commercial court. He does not recognize the Saumur Grandes and intends to intermarry with the family of some duke by the grace of Napoleon.

What was not said about the heiress of this fortune, she was judged and dressed up for twenty leagues around and even in stagecoaches from Angers to Blois inclusive! At the beginning of 1819, the Kryushotins clearly gained the upper hand over the Grassenists. Just then the estate of Froifon, remarkable for its park, delightful castle, farms, rivers, ponds, forests, was put up for sale, an estate worth three millions; the young Marquis de Froifon needed money and decided to sell his real estate. The notary Cruchot, the president Cruchot, and the abbe Cruchot, with the help of their adherents, managed to prevent the sale of the estate in small plots. The notary made a very good deal with the marquis, assuring him that it would be necessary to engage in endless lawsuits with individual buyers before they paid for the plots, it would be much better to sell the whole estate to M. Grandet, a man of wealth and, moreover, ready to pay in cash. The fine marquisate of Froiton was escorted down the throat of Monsieur Grandet, who, to the great surprise of all Saumur, after the necessary formalities, taking into account the interest, paid for the estate in chistogan. This event created a stir both in Nantes and in Orleans. Monsieur Grandet went to see his castle, taking advantage of the opportunity - in a cart that was returning there. With a masterly glance over his property, he returned to Saumur, confident that the money he had spent would bring five percent, and with the bold idea of ​​rounding off the marquisate of Froiton by annexing all his possessions to it. Then, in order to replenish his almost empty treasury, he decided to cleanly cut down his groves and forests, and also to sell poplars in his meadows.

Now it is easy to understand the full meaning of the words: "the house of Monsieur Grande", - a gloomy-cold, silent house, located in the high part of the city and covered with the ruins of the fortress wall. The two pillars and the deep arch under which the gate was located were, like the rest of the house, built of sandstone, the white stone that abounds on the Loire coast, so soft that its strength hardly lasts an average of two hundred years. Many uneven, oddly arranged holes, the result of a changeable climate, gave the arch and jambs of the entrance a characteristic look of French architecture, as if they were worm-eaten, and a certain resemblance to prison gates. Above the arch rose an oblong bas-relief of strong stone, but the allegorical figures carved on it - the four seasons - had already weathered and completely blackened. A cornice protruded above the bas-relief, on which grew several plants that had accidentally fallen there - yellow walls, dodder, bindweed, plantain and even a young cherry, already quite tall. The massive oak gate, dark, withered, cracked at all ends, dilapidated in appearance, was firmly supported by a system of bolts that made up symmetrical patterns. In the middle of the gate, in the gate, a small square hole was cut, covered with a frequent grating with iron bars browned with rust, and it served, so to speak, as the basis for the existence of a door knocker, attached to it by a ring and striking the crooked, flattened head of a large nail. This oblong mallet of what our ancestors called "jacmar" looked like a fat exclamation point; examining him carefully, the antiquarian would have found in him some signs of the characteristic buffoonish physiognomy, which he once portrayed; she was worn out from long use of the hammer. Looking through this latticed window, intended during the civil wars to distinguish between friends and enemies, the curious could see a dark greenish vault, and at the back of the courtyard several dilapidated steps leading up to the garden, picturesquely fenced with thick walls, oozing moisture and completely covered skinny tufts of greens. These were the walls of the city fortifications, above which the gardens of several neighboring houses rose on earthen ramparts.

On the lower floor of the house, the most important room was the hall - the entrance to it was arranged under the arch of the gate. Few understand the significance of the hall in the small families of Anjou, Touraine and Berry. The hall is at the same time the front, living room, study, boudoir and dining room, is the main place of home life, its focus; here the local barber came twice a year to cut Monsieur Grandet's hair; farmers, the parish priest, the sub-prefect, the miller's assistant were received here. In this room, with two windows looking out onto the street, the floor was of plank; from top to bottom it was paneled in ancient gray; the ceiling consisted of bare beams, also painted gray, with gaps stuffed with white, yellowed tow. The mantelpiece, built of roughly carved white stone, was adorned with old brass clocks inlaid with horn arabesques; there was also a greenish mirror on it, the edges of which were beveled to show its thickness, they were reflected by a light strip in an old dressing table set in a steel frame with a gold notch. A pair of gilded copper girandoles, placed at the corners of the fireplace, served two purposes: if you remove the roses that served as rosettes, a large branch of which was attached to a stand of bluish marble trimmed with old copper, then this stand could serve as a candlestick for small family receptions. Scenes from La Fontaine's fables were woven on the upholstery of the old-fashioned chairs, but one had to know this in advance in order to make out their plots - with such difficulty one could see the faded colors and the images worn to holes. At the four corners of the hall were placed corner cupboards like cupboards with greasy shelves on the sides. In the wall between two windows was placed an old card table, the top of which was a chessboard. Above the table hung an oval black-rimmed barometer, adorned with gilded wood bands, but so infested with flies that the gilding could only be guessed at. On the wall opposite the fireplace were two portraits, which were supposed to represent Madame Grandet's grandfather, old M. de la Berthelière, in the uniform of a lieutenant of the French guards, and the late Madame Gentillet in the costume of a shepherdess. Two of the windows had red groudethur curtains, intercepted with silk cords with tassels at the ends. This sumptuous furnishings, so little in keeping with Grandet's habits, was acquired by him with the house, as were the dressing table, the clock, the tapestry-covered furniture, and the rosewood corner cupboards. By the window closest to the door was a straw chair with legs propped up so that Madame Grandet could see the passers-by. A simple cherrywood work table occupied the entire niche of the window, and next to it stood a small armchair by Eugenia Grande. For fifteen years from April to November, all the days of mother and daughter passed peacefully in this place in constant work; On the first of November, they could move to the winter position - to the fireplace. Only from that day on did Grande allow a fire to be lit in the fireplace and order it to be extinguished on the thirty-first of March, regardless of the spring and autumn frosts. A foot warmer with hot coals from the kitchen stove, which Nanetta the Hulk skillfully saved for her mistresses, helped them endure the cold mornings or evenings in April and October. Mother and daughter sewed and mended linen for the whole family, both conscientiously worked all day long, like day laborers, and when Eugenia wanted to embroider a collar for her mother, she had to snatch time from the hours appointed for sleep, deceive her father, using furtively candles. For a long time, the miser of the bill had given out candles to his daughter and Naneta, just as he distributed bread and provisions for daily consumption in the morning.

13. "Human Comedy" Balzac.
History of creation, composition, main themes

Balzac (Balzac) Honore de (May 20, 1799, Tours - August 18, 1850, Paris), French writer. The epic "The Human Comedy" of 90 novels and stories is connected by a common idea and many characters: the novel "The Unknown Masterpiece" (1831), "Shagreen Skin" (1830-31), "Eugenie Grandet" (1833), "Father Goriot" (1834 -1835), "Caesar Birotto" (1837), "Lost Illusions" (1837-1843), "Cousin Betta" (1846). Balzac's epic is a realistic picture of French society, grandiose in scope.

Origin. The writer's father, Bernard Francois Balssa (who later changed his surname to Balzac), came from a wealthy peasant family, and served in the military supply department. Taking advantage of the similarity of surnames, Balzac at the turn of the 1830s. began to trace his origins to the noble family Balzac d "Entreg and arbitrarily added the noble particle "de" to his surname. Balzac's mother was 30 years younger than her husband and cheated on him; the younger brother of the writer Henri, his mother's "favorite", was the natural son of the owner of a neighboring Many researchers believe that the attention of Balzac the novelist to the problems of marriage and adultery is explained not least by the atmosphere that prevailed in his family.

Biography.

In 1807-1813 Balzac was a college boarder in the city of Vendôme; the impressions of this period (intensive reading, a feeling of loneliness among classmates distant in spirit) were reflected in the philosophical novel Louis Lambert (1832-1835). In 1816-1819 he studies at the School of Law and serves as a clerk in the office of a Parisian lawyer, but then refuses to continue his legal career. 1820-1829 - the years of searching for oneself in literature. Balzac publishes action-packed novels under various pseudonyms, composes moralistic "codes" of secular behavior. The period of anonymous creativity ends in 1829, when the novel Chouans, or Brittany in 1799 is published. At the same time, Balzac was working on short stories from modern French life, which, starting from 1830, were published in editions under the general title Scenes of Private Life. These collections, as well as the philosophical novel Shagreen Skin (1831), brought Balzac great fame. The writer is especially popular among women who are grateful to him for penetrating into their psychology (in this Balzac was helped by his first lover, a married woman 22 years older than him, Laura de Berni). Balzac receives enthusiastic letters from readers; one of these correspondents, who wrote him a letter in 1832 signed "Foreigner", was the Polish countess, Russian citizen Evelina Ganskaya (nee Rzhevuska), who 18 years later became his wife ., his life was not calm. The need to pay off debts required intensive work; every now and then Balzac embarked on commercial adventures: he went to Sardinia, hoping to buy a silver mine there on the cheap, bought a country house, for the maintenance of which he did not have enough money, twice founded periodicals that did not have commercial success. Balzac died six months after his main dream came true, and he finally married the widowed Evelina Ganskaya.

"The Human Comedy" Aesthetics.

Balzac's extensive heritage includes a collection of frivolous short stories in the "Old French" spirit "Mischievous Tales" (1832-1837), several plays and a huge number of journalistic articles, but his main creation is "The Human Comedy". Balzac began to combine his novels and stories into cycles as early as 1834. In 1842, he began to publish a collection of his works under the title "The Human Comedy", within which he singles out sections: "Etudes on Morals", "Philosophical Studies" and "Analytical Studies". All works are united not only by "through" heroes, but also by the original concept of the world and man. Following the model of natural scientists (primarily E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire), who described animal species that differ from each other in external features formed by the environment, Balzac set out to describe social species. He explained their diversity by different external conditions and differences in characters; each of the people is ruled by a certain idea, passion. Balzac was convinced that ideas are material forces, peculiar fluids, no less powerful than steam or electricity, and therefore an idea can enslave a person and lead him to death, even if his social position is favorable. The history of all the main Balzac heroes is the history of the collision of the passion that owns them with social reality. Balzac is an apologist for the will; only if a person has a will, his ideas become an effective force. On the other hand, realizing that the confrontation of egoistic wills is fraught with anarchy and chaos, Balzac relies on the family and the monarchy - social institutions that cement society.

"The Human Comedy"

Themes, stories, characters. The struggle of individual will with circumstances or another, equally strong passion, form the plot basis of all the most significant works of Balzac. Shagreen Skin (1831) is a novel about how the selfish will of a person (materialized in a piece of skin that shrinks with each fulfilled desire) devours his life. "Search for the Absolute" (1834) - a novel about the search for the philosopher's stone, to which the naturalist sacrifices the happiness of his family and his own. "Father Goriot" (1835) - a novel about paternal love, "Eugenia Grande" (1833) - about the love of gold, "Cousin Betta" (1846) - about the power of revenge that destroys everything around. The novel "The Thirty-Year-Old Woman" (1831-1834) is about love, which has become the lot of a mature woman (the concept of "a woman of Balzac's age" that has become entrenched in the mass consciousness is associated with this theme of Balzac's work).

In the society as Balzac sees and portrays it, either strong egoists achieve the fulfillment of their desires (such is Rastignac, a cross-cutting character who first appears in the novel “Father Goriot”), or people animated by love for their neighbor (the main characters of the novels “Country Doctor”, 1833, "Country Priest", 1839); weak, weak-willed people, such as the hero of the novels "Lost Illusions" (1837-1843) and "Shine and Poverty of Courtesans" (1838-1847) Lucien de Rubempre, do not stand the test and die.

French epic 19th century Each work of Balzac is a kind of “encyclopedia” of a particular class, a particular profession: “The History of the Greatness and Fall of Caesar Biroto” (1837) is a novel about trade; "The illustrious Godissard" (1833) - a short story about advertising; "Lost Illusions" - a novel about journalism; The Banker's House of Nucingen (1838) is a novel about financial scams.

Balzac drew in The Human Comedy an extensive panorama of all aspects of French life, all strata of society (for example, the "Studies on Morals" included "scenes" of private, provincial, Parisian, political, military and rural life), on the basis of which later researchers began classify his work as realism. However, for Balzac himself, the apology of will and strong personality was more important, bringing his work closer to romanticism.

Father Goriot

Father Goriot (Le Pere Goriot) - Roman (1834-1835)

The main events take place in the boarding house "mother" Voke. At the end of November 1819, seven permanent "freeloaders" were found here: on the second floor - a young lady Victorina Taifer with a distant relative of Madame Couture; on the third - a retired official Poiret and a mysterious middle-aged gentleman named Vautrin; on the fourth - the old maid Mademoiselle Michonnot, a former grain merchant Goriot and a student of Eugene de Rastignac, who came to Paris from Angouleme. All the tenants unanimously despise Father Goriot, who was once called "Mr.": having settled with Madame Voke in 1813, he took the best room on the second floor - then he obviously had some money, and the hostess had hope to end her widow's existence. She even entered into some of the costs of the common table, but the "vermicellier" did not appreciate her efforts. Disappointed mother Voke began to look askance at him, and he fully justified bad expectations: two years later he moved to the third floor and stopped heating in the winter. The vigilant servants and tenants guessed the reason for such a fall very soon: lovely young ladies occasionally came secretly to Papa Goriot - obviously, the old debauchee squandered his fortune on his mistresses. True, he tried to pass them off as his daughters - a stupid lie that only amused everyone. By the end of the third year, Goriot moved to the fourth floor and began to walk in rags.

Meanwhile, the measured life of the Voke house begins to change. Young Rastignac, intoxicated by the splendor of Paris, decides to enter the high society. Of all the rich relatives, Eugene can only count on the Viscountess de Beausean. After sending her a letter of recommendation from his old aunt, he receives an invitation to the ball. The young man longs to get close to some noble lady, and the brilliant Countess Anastasi de Resto attracts his attention. The next day, he tells his companions about her at breakfast, and learns amazing things: it turns out that old Goriot knows the countess and, according to Vautrin, recently paid her overdue bills to the usurer Gobsek. From that day on, Vautrin begins to closely monitor all the actions of the young man.

The first attempt to make a secular acquaintance turns out to be a humiliation for Rastignac: he came to the countess on foot, causing contemptuous grins from the servants, he could not immediately find the living room, and the mistress of the house made it clear to him that she wanted to be left alone with Count Maxime de Tray. Enraged Rastignac is imbued with a wild hatred for the arrogant handsome man and vows to triumph over him. To top it all off, Eugene makes a mistake by mentioning the name of Papa Goriot, whom he accidentally saw in the courtyard of the count's house. The dejected young man goes on a visit to the Viscountess de Beausean, but chooses the most inopportune moment for this: his cousin is in for a heavy blow - the Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, whom she passionately loves, intends to part with her for the sake of a profitable marriage. The Duchess de Langeais is pleased to break the news to her "best friend". The viscountess hastily changes the subject of the conversation, and the riddle that tormented Rastignac is immediately resolved: Anastasi de Resto in her maiden name was Goriot. This pathetic man also has a second daughter, Delphine, the wife of the banker de Nucingen. Both beauties actually renounced their old father, who gave them everything. The viscountess advises Rastignac to take advantage of the rivalry between the two sisters: unlike Countess Anastasi, Baroness Delphine is not accepted in high society - this woman will lick all the dirt on the surrounding streets for an invitation to the house of the Viscountess de Beausean.

Returning to the boarding house, Rastignac announces that from now on he takes father Goriot under his protection. He writes a letter to his relatives, begging them to send him one thousand two hundred francs - this is an almost unbearable burden for the family, but the young ambitious man needs to acquire a fashionable wardrobe. Vautrin, having unraveled Rastignac's plans, invites the young man to pay attention to Quiz Tyfer. The girl vegetates in a boarding house, because her father, the richest banker, does not want to know her. She has a brother: it is enough to remove him from the stage for the situation to change - Quiz will become the only heiress. Vautrin takes over the removal of the young Typher, and Rastignac will have to pay him two hundred thousand - a mere trifle compared to a million dowry. The young man is forced to admit that this terrible man said in a rude way the same thing that the Vicomtesse de Beausean said. Instinctively sensing the danger of a deal with Vautrin, he decides to win the favor of Delphine de Nucingen. In this he is helped in every possible way by Father Goriot, who hates both sons-in-law and blames them for the misfortunes of his daughters. Eugene meets Delphine and falls in love with her. She reciprocates his feelings, for he rendered her a valuable service by winning seven thousand francs: the banker's wife cannot pay off her debt - her husband, having pocketed a dowry of seven hundred thousand, left her practically penniless.

Rastignac begins to lead the life of a secular dandy, although he still has no money, and the tempter Vautrin constantly reminds him of Victoria's future millions. However, clouds are gathering over Vautrin himself: the police suspect that this name hides the fugitive convict Jacques Collin, nicknamed Deceive-Death - to expose him, the help of one of the "freeloaders" of the Voke boarding house is needed. For a substantial bribe, Poiret and Michonneau agree to play the role of detectives: they must find out if Vautrin has a brand on his shoulder.

The day before the fateful denouement, Vautrin informs Rastignac that his friend Colonel Franchessini challenged Typher's son to a duel. At the same time, the young man learns that Father Goriot did not waste time: he rented a lovely apartment for Eugene and Delphine and instructed the lawyer Derville to put an end to the atrocities of Nucingen - from now on, the daughter will have thirty-six thousand francs of annual income. This news puts an end to Rastignac's hesitations - he wants to warn the father and son of Tayferov, but the prudent Vautrin makes him drink wine with an admixture of sleeping pills. The next morning, they do the same trick with him: Michono mixes a drug in his coffee that causes a rush of blood to the head, the insensible Vautrin is undressed, and the stigma appears on his shoulder after clapping his palm.

Further events take place rapidly, and mother Voke suddenly loses all her guests. First, they come for Quiz Tyfer: the father calls the girl to him, because her brother is mortally wounded in a duel. Then the gendarmes burst into the boarding house: they were ordered to kill Vautrin at the slightest attempt to resist, but he demonstrates the greatest composure and calmly surrenders to the police. Imbued with an involuntary admiration for this "genius of penal servitude", the students who dine at the boarding house drive out voluntary bastards - Michonneau and Poiret. And father Goriot shows Rastignac a new apartment, begging for one thing - to let him live on the floor above, next to his beloved Delphine. But all the old man's dreams are shattered. Pressed against the wall by Derville, Baron de Nucingen confesses that his wife's dowry has been invested in financial fraud. Goriot is horrified: his daughter is at the mercy of a dishonest banker. However, Anastasi's situation is even worse: saving Maxime de Tray from a debtor's prison, she pawns the family diamonds to Gobsek, and the Comte de Restaud finds out about this. She needs another twelve thousand, and her father spent the last of the money on an apartment for Rastignac. The sisters begin to shower insults on each other, and in the midst of their quarrel, the old man falls down like a wreck - he had a stroke.

Papa Goriot dies on the day when the Vicomtesse de Beauseant gives her last ball - unable to survive the separation from the Marquis d'Ajuda, she leaves the world forever. Saying goodbye to this amazing woman, Rastignac hurries to the old man, who in vain calls his daughters to him. The unfortunate father is buried for the last pennies by poor students - Rastignac and Bianchon. Two empty carriages with coats of arms escort the coffin to the Pere Lachaise cemetery. From the top of the hill Rastignac looks at Paris and takes an oath to succeed at any cost - and first goes to dine with Delphine de Nucingen.

The monumental collection of works by Honore de Balzac, united by a common idea and title - "The Human Comedy", consists of 98 novels and short stories and is a grandiose history of the morals of France in the second quarter of the 19th century. It is a kind of social epic in which Balzac described the life of society: the process of formation and enrichment of the French bourgeoisie, the penetration of upstarts and nouveaux riches into the aristocratic environment of the Parisian high society, their way up, life, customs and philosophy of people who profess faith in only one god - money. He gave a dramatic picture of human passions generated by wealth and poverty, the lust for power and complete lack of rights and humiliation.

Most of the novels that Balzac intended from the very beginning for The Human Comedy were created between 1834 and the end of the 40s. However, when the idea was finally formed, it turned out that the earlier things are organic for the general author's idea, and Balzac includes them in the epic. Subordinate to a single "super task" - to comprehensively cover the life of society of that time, to give an almost encyclopedic list of social types and characters - "The Human Comedy" has a clearly defined structure and consists of three cycles, representing, as it were, three interconnected levels of social and artistic and philosophical generalization of phenomena .

The first cycle and the foundation of the epic is "Studies on Morals" - the stratification of society, given through the prism of the private life of contemporaries. These include the bulk of the novels written by Balzac, and he introduced six thematic sections for him:

"Scenes of Private Life" ("Gobsek", "Colonel Chabert", "Father Goriot", "Marriage Contract", "Lust of the Atheist", etc.);

"Scenes of Provincial Life" ("Eugenia Grande", "The Illustrious Godissard", "The Old Maid", etc.);

"Scenes of Parisian life" ("History of the greatness and fall of Caesar "? irotto", "The banking house of Nucingen", "Shine and poverty of the courtesans", "Secrets of the Princess de Cadignan", "Cousin Betta" and "Cousin Pons", etc.) ;

"Scenes of political life" ("Episode of the era of terror", "Dark matter", etc.);

"Scenes of military life" (Shuans ");

"Scenes of Village Life" ("Village Doctor". Village Priest" and others).

The second cycle, in which Balzac wanted to show the causes of phenomena, is called "PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES" and includes: "Shagreen leather", "Elixir of longevity", "Unknown masterpiece", "Search for the absolute", "Drama on the seaside", "Reconciled Melmoth" and other works.

And finally, the third cycle - "ANALYTICAL STUDIES" ("Physiology of marriage", "Small hardships of married life", etc.). In it, the writer tries to determine the philosophical foundations of human existence, to reveal the laws of society. Such is the external composition of the epic.

Already one list of works included in the "Human Comedy" speaks of the grandeur of the author's intention. “My work,” wrote Balzac, “should incorporate all types of people, all social positions, it must embody all social changes, so that not a single life situation, not a single person, not a single character, male or female, nor whose or the views ... have not been forgotten."

Before us is a model of French society, almost creating the illusion of a full-fledged reality. In all the novels, the same society is depicted, as it were, similar to the real France, but not completely coinciding with it, since this is its artistic embodiment. The impression of an almost historical chronicle is reinforced by the second plan of the epic, where real historical figures of that era act: Napoleon, Talleyrand, Louis XNUMX, real marshals and ministers. Together with fictional authors, characters corresponding to the typical characters of the time, they play the performance of the "Human Comedy".

The effect of the historical authenticity of what is happening is supported by an abundance of details. Paris and provincial towns are given in a wide range of details, ranging from architectural features to the smallest details of the business life and life of heroes belonging to different social strata and estates. In a sense, the epic can serve as a guide for a specialist historian who studies that time.

The novels of the "Human Comedy" are united not only by the unity of the epoch, but also by the method of transitional characters found by Balzac, both major and minor. If one of the heroes of any novel falls ill, the same doctor Bianchon is invited, in case of financial difficulties they turn to the usurer Gobsek, on a morning walk in the Bois de Boulogne and in Parisian salons we meet the same faces. In general, the division into secondary and main characters for the characters of the "Human Comedy" is rather arbitrary. If in one of the novels the protagonist is on the periphery of the narrative, then in the other he and his story are brought to the fore (such metamorphoses occur, for example, with Gobseck and Nucingen).

One of the fundamentally important artistic techniques of the author of The Human Comedy is the openness, the flow of one novel into another. The history of one person or family ends, but the general fabric of life has no end, it is in constant motion. Therefore, in Balzac, the denouement of one plot becomes the beginning of a new one or echoes previous novels, and the cross-cutting characters create the illusion of the authenticity of what is happening and emphasize the basis of the idea. It consists in the following: the protagonist of the "Human Comedy" is society, therefore private destinies are not interesting to Balzac in themselves - they are only details of the whole picture.

Since an epic of this type depicts life in constant development, it is fundamentally not completed, and could not be completed. That is why previously written novels (for example, Shagreen Skin) could be included in the epic, the idea of ​​which arose after their creation.

With this principle of building an epic, each novel included in it is at the same time an independent work and one of the fragments of the whole. Each novel is an autonomous artistic whole that exists within the framework of a single organism, which enhances its expressiveness and the drama of the events experienced by its characters.

The innovation of such an idea and the methods of its implementation (a realistic approach to depicting reality) sharply separate Balzac's work from his predecessors - the romantics. If the latter put the single, exceptional at the forefront, then the author of The Human Comedy believed that the artist should display the typical. Feel for the common connection and meaning of phenomena. Unlike the romantics, Balzac does not look for his ideal outside of reality; he was the first to discover the boiling of human passions and truly Shakespearean drama behind the everyday life of French bourgeois society. His Paris, populated by the rich and the poor, fighting for power, influence, money, and simply for life itself, is a breathtaking picture. Behind the private manifestations of life, starting from the unpaid bill of the poor to the landlady and ending with the story of the usurer who unjustly made his fortune, Balzac tries to see the whole picture. The general laws of the life of bourgeois society, manifested through the struggle, fate and characters of its characters.

As a writer and artist, Balzac was almost fascinated by the drama of the picture that opened up to him, as a moralist, he could not help but condemn the laws that were revealed to him in the study of reality. In Balzac's Human Comedy, besides people, there is a powerful force that has subjugated not only private, but also public life, politics, family, morality and art. And this is money. Everything can become the subject of monetary transactions, everything is subject to the law of purchase and sale. They give power, influence in society, the opportunity to satisfy ambitious plans, just to burn life. To enter the elite of such a society on an equal footing, to achieve its location in practice means a rejection of the basic precepts of morality and morality. To keep your spiritual world pure means to give up ambitious desires and prosperity.

Almost every hero of Balzac's Studies on Morals experiences this collision common to the "Human Comedy", almost everyone endures a small battle with himself. At the end of it, either the way up and the souls sold to the devil, or down - to the sidelines of public life and all the tormenting passions that accompany the humiliation of a person. Thus, the morals of society, the characters and destinies of its members are not only interconnected, but also interdependent, Balzac argues in The Human Comedy. His characters - Rastignac, Nucingen, Gobsek confirm this thesis.

There are not many worthy exits - honest poverty and the comforts that religion can give. True, it should be noted that Balzac is less convincing in depicting the righteous than in those cases when he explores the contradictions of human nature and the situation of a difficult choice for his heroes. Salvation sometimes becomes loving relatives (as in the case of the aged and burned-out Baron Hulot), and the family, but it is also affected by corruption. In general, the family plays a significant role in The Human Comedy. Unlike the romantics, who made the individual the main subject of artistic consideration, Balzac makes the family such. From the analysis of family life, he begins the study of the social organism. And with regret he is convinced that the breakup of the family reflects the general trouble of life. Along with single characters in The Human Comedy, dozens of various family dramas take place in front of us, reflecting various variants of the same tragic struggle for power and gold.

100 Great Books Demin Valery Nikitich

66. BALZAC "THE HUMAN COMEDY"

66. BALZAC

"HUMAN COMEDY"

Balzac is as wide as the ocean. It is a whirlwind of genius, a storm of indignation and a hurricane of passions. He was born in the same year as Pushkin (1799) - only two weeks earlier - but outlived him by 13 years. Both geniuses dared to look into such depths of the human soul and human relations, which no one before them was capable of. Balzac was not afraid to challenge Dante himself, naming his epic by analogy with the main creation of the great Florentine "The Human Comedy". However, with equal justification, it can also be called "Inhuman", because only a titan can create such a grandiose burning.

"The Human Comedy" is the general name given by the writer himself for an extensive cycle of his novels, short stories and short stories. Most of the works combined in the cycle were published long before Balzac picked up an acceptable unifying title for them. The writer himself spoke of his idea in the following way:

In calling "The Human Comedy" a work begun almost thirteen years ago, I consider it necessary to explain its intention, to tell about its origin, to briefly state the plan, and to express all this as if I had no part in it. "..."

The original idea for The Human Comedy came to me like a kind of dream, like one of those impossible ideas that you cherish but fail to grasp; so a mocking chimera reveals its feminine face, but immediately, opening its wings, is carried away into the world of fantasy. However, this chimera, like many others, is embodied: it commands, it is endowed with unlimited power, and one has to obey it. The idea of ​​this work was born from a comparison of humanity with the animal world. “...” In this respect, society is like Nature. After all, the Society creates from man, according to the environment where he acts, as many diverse species as there are in the animal world. The difference between a soldier, a worker, an official, a lawyer, an idler, a scientist, a statesman, a merchant, a sailor, a poet, a pauper, a priest, is just as significant, although more difficult to grasp, as is what distinguishes a wolf, a lion, a donkey from each other, a crow, a shark, a seal, a sheep, etc. Therefore, there are and always will be species in human society, just as there are species in the animal kingdom.

In essence, in the above fragment from the famous Preface to The Human Comedy, Balzac's credo is expressed, revealing the secret of his creative method. He systematized human types and characters, as botanists and zoologists systematized flora and fauna. At the same time, according to Balzac, "in the great stream of life, Animality breaks into Humanity." Passion is all humanity. Man, the writer believes, is neither good nor evil, but simply born with instincts and inclinations. It remains only to reproduce as accurately as possible the material that Nature herself gives us.

Contrary to traditional canons and even formal logical rules of classification, the writer distinguishes three "forms of being": men, women and things, that is, people and "the material embodiment of their thinking." But, apparently, it was precisely this "contrary" that allowed Balzac to create a unique world of his novels and stories, which cannot be confused with anything. And you can’t confuse Balzac’s heroes with anyone either. “Three thousand people of a certain era” - this is how the writer himself characterized them, not without pride.

The "human comedy", as Balzac conceived it, has a complex structure. First of all, it is divided into three parts of different sizes: "Etudes on Morals", "Philosophical Studies" and "Analytical Studies". In essence, everything important and great (with a few exceptions) is concentrated in the first part. This is where such brilliant works of Balzac as “Gobsek”, “Father Goriot”, “Eugenia Grandet”, “Lost Illusions”, “Shine and Poverty of Courtesans”, etc., enter. In turn, “Etudes on Morals” are divided into “scenes ": "Scenes of Private Life", "Scenes of Provincial Life", "Scenes of Parisian Life", "Scenes of Military Life" and "Scenes of Rural Life". Some cycles remained undeveloped: from the Analytical Studies, Balzac managed to write only the Physiology of Marriage, and from the Scenes of Military Life, the adventurous novel Chouans. But the writer made grandiose plans - to create a panorama of all the Napoleonic wars (imagine the multi-volume "War and Peace", but written from a French point of view).

Balzac claimed the philosophical status of his great brainchild and even singled out a special “philosophical part” in it, which, among others, included the novels “Louis Lambert”, “Search for the Absolute”, “Unknown Masterpiece”, “Elixir of Longevity”, “Seraphite” and the most famous from "philosophical studies" - "Shagreen leather". However, with all due respect to the Balzac genius, it should be absolutely definitely said that the writer did not turn out to be a great philosopher in the proper sense of the word: his knowledge in this traditional sphere of spiritual life, although extensive, is very superficial and eclectic. There is nothing shameful here. Moreover, Balzac created his own, unlike any other, philosophy - the philosophy of human passions and instincts.

Among the latter, the most important, according to the Balzac gradation, is, of course, the instinct of possession. Regardless of the specific forms in which it manifests itself: in politicians - in a thirst for power; for a businessman - in a thirst for profit; for a maniac - in a thirst for blood, violence, oppression; in a man - in the thirst of a woman (and vice versa). Of course, Balzac groped for the most sensitive string of human motives and actions. This phenomenon in its various aspects is revealed in various works of the writer. But, as a rule, all aspects, as in focus, are concentrated in any of them. Some of them are embodied in unique Balzac heroes, become their carriers and personifications. Such is Gobsek - the main character of the story of the same name - one of the most famous works of world literature.

Gobsek's name is translated as Zhivoglot, but it was in French vocalization that it became a household name and symbolizes the thirst for profit for the sake of profit itself. Gobsek is a capitalist genius, he has an amazing flair and the ability to increase his capital, while ruthlessly trampling on human destinies and showing absolute cynicism and immorality. To the surprise of Balzac himself, this wizened old man, it turns out, is that fantastic figure that personifies the power of gold - this "spiritual essence of the whole of today's society." However, without these qualities, capitalist relations cannot exist in principle - otherwise it will be a completely different system. Gobsek is a romantic of the capitalist element: it is not so much the receipt of the profit itself that gives him real pleasure, but the contemplation of the fall and distortion of human souls in all situations where he turns out to be the true ruler of people who have fallen into the net of a usurer.

But Gobsek is also a victim of a society dominated by a chistogan: he does not know what a woman's love is, he has no wife and children, he has no idea what it is to bring joy to others. Behind him stretches a train of tears and grief, broken destinies and deaths. He is very rich, but lives from hand to mouth and is ready to bite anyone's throat because of the smallest coin. He is the walking embodiment of wanton miserliness. After the death of the usurer, in the locked rooms of his two-story mansion, a mass of rotten things and rotten supplies was discovered: at the end of his life, being engaged in colonial scams, he received in the form of bribes not only money and jewelry, but all kinds of delicacies, which he did not touch, but locked everything for a feast of worms and mold.

The Balzac story is not a textbook on political economy. The ruthless world of capitalist reality is recreated by the writer through realistic characters and the situations in which they act. But without portraits and canvases painted by the hand of a brilliant master, our understanding of the real world itself would be incomplete and poor. Here, for example, is a textbook characterization of Gobseck himself:

My pawnbroker's hair was perfectly straight, always neatly combed and with a lot of graying - ash gray. His features, motionless, impassive, like those of Talleyrand, seemed to be cast in bronze. His eyes, small and yellow, like those of a ferret, and almost without eyelashes, could not stand bright light, so he protected them with a large visor of a tattered cap. The sharp tip of a long nose, pitted with mountain ash, looked like a gimlet, and the lips were thin, like those of alchemists and ancient old men in the paintings of Rembrandt and Metsu. This man spoke quietly, softly, never got excited. His age was a mystery “…” He was some kind of automaton who was wound up daily. If you touch a woodlice crawling on paper, it will instantly stop and freeze; in the same way, during a conversation, this man suddenly fell silent, waiting until the noise of the carriage passing under the windows subsided, as he did not want to strain his voice. Following the example of Fontenelle, he saved his vital energy, suppressing all human feelings in himself. And his life flowed as silently as sand pours in a stream in an old hourglass. Sometimes his victims were indignant, raised a frantic cry, then suddenly there was dead silence, as in a kitchen when a duck is slaughtered in it.

A few touches to the characterization of one hero. And Balzac had thousands of them - several dozen in each novel. He wrote day and night. And yet he did not have time to create everything that he intended. The Human Comedy was left unfinished. She burned the author himself. In total, 144 works were planned, but 91 were not written. If you ask yourself the question: what figure in the Western literature of the 19th century is the most ambitious, powerful and inaccessible, there will be no difficulty in answering. It's Balzac! Zola compared The Human Comedy to the Tower of Babel. The comparison is quite reasonable: indeed, there is something primordial-chaotic and prohibitively grandiose in the Cyclopean creation of Balzac. There is only one difference:

The Tower of Babel has collapsed, and The Human Comedy, built by the hands of a French genius, will stand forever.

How many works are included in the Balzac cycle "The Human Comedy"? The French writer Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) united 90 novels and short stories, linking them with a single concept and characters, under one title "The Human Comedy". In this epic, created in 1816-1844