It is difficult to find a person as versatile as this writer was. He combined talent, irrepressible temperament and love of life. In his life, great ideas and accomplishments were combined with petty ambition. Excellent knowledge of highly specialized areas allowed him to boldly and reasonably talk about many problems of psychology, medicine and anthropology.

The life of any person is the addition of many patterns. The life of Honore de Balzac will not be an exception.

Short biography of Honore de Balzac

The writer's father was Bernard Francois Balssa, born into a poor family of peasants. He was born on June 22, 1746 in the village of Nugueire in the Tarn department. There were 11 children in his family, of which he was the eldest. The family of Bernard Balss predicted a spiritual career for him. However, the young man, who had an outstanding mind, love of life and activity, did not want to part with the temptations of life, and wearing a cassock was not at all part of his plans. The life credo of this person is health. Bernard Balssa had no doubt that he would live to be a hundred years old, he enjoyed the country air and amuse himself with love affairs until old age. This man was eccentric. He became rich thanks to the French Revolution, selling and buying the confiscated lands of the nobles. He later became assistant to the mayor of the French city of Tours. Bernard Balsa changed his last name, thinking it was plebeian. In the 1830s, his son Honore would also change his surname by adding the noble particle “de” to it, he would justify this act with the version of his noble origin from the Balzac d'Entrague family.

At fifty, Balzac's father married a girl from the Salambier family, receiving with her a decent dowry. She was younger than her fiancé by as much as 32 years and had a penchant for romance and hysteria. Even after his marriage, the writer's father led a very free lifestyle. Honore's mother was a sensitive and intelligent woman. Despite her penchant for mysticism and resentment against the whole wide world, she, like her husband, did not disdain novels on the side. She loved her illegitimate children more than her first-born Honore. She constantly demanded obedience, complained about non-existent diseases and grumbled. This poisoned Honore's childhood and was reflected in his behavior, affections and creativity. But a great blow for him was also the execution of his uncle, his father's brother, for killing a pregnant peasant woman. It was after this shock that the writer changed his last name in the hope of getting away from such a relationship. But his belonging to the family of nobles has not yet been proven.

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Childhood years of the writer. Education

The childhood years of the writer passed outside the parental home. Until the age of three, he was taken care of by a nurse, and after that he lived in a boarding house. After that, he ended up at the Vendôme College of the Oratorian Fathers (he stayed there from 1807 to 1813). The time he spent within the walls of the college is colored with bitterness in the writer's memory. Honoré experienced a severe mental trauma of the writer due to the total absence of any freedom, drill and corporal punishment.

The only consolation at this time for Honore is books. The librarian of the Higher Polytechnic School, who taught him mathematics, allowed him to use them unlimitedly. For Balzac, reading supplanted real life. Due to being immersed in dreams, he often did not hear what was happening in the classroom, for which he was punished.

Once Honore was subjected to such a punishment as "wooden pants". Stocks were put on him, because of which he acquired a nervous breakdown. After that, the parents returned their son home. He began to wander like a somnambulist, slowly answering some questions, it was difficult for him to return to real life.

It is still not clear whether Balzac was treated at this time, but Jean-Baptiste Naccard observed his entire family, including Honore. Later, he became not only a friend of the family, but especially a friend of the writer.

From 1816 to 1819, Honore studied at the Paris School of Law. His father predicted the future of a lawyer for him, but the young man studied without enthusiasm. After graduating from an educational institution without obvious success, Balzac began working as a clerk in the office of a Parisian lawyer, but this did not fascinate him.

Later life of Balzac

Honore decided to become a writer. He asked his parents for financial help for his dream. The family council decided to help my son for 2 years. Honoré's mother was initially opposed to this, but was soon the first to realize the hopelessness of trying to contradict her son. As a result, Honore began his work. He wrote the drama Cromwell. The work read at the family council was declared useless. Honoré was denied further material support.

After this failure, Balzac began a difficult period. He performed "daily work", he wrote novels for others. It is still unknown how many such works and under whose name he created.

Balzac's writing career begins in 1820. Then, under a pseudonym, he releases action-packed novels and writes "codes" of secular behavior. One of his pseudonyms is Horace de Saint-Aubin.

The writer's anonymity ended in 1829. It was then that he published the novel Chouans, or Brittany in 1799. Works began to be published under his own name.

Balzac had his own rather rigid and very peculiar daily routine. The writer went to bed no later than 6-7 pm and got up for work at one in the morning. The work lasted until 8 am. After that, Honoré went to bed again for an hour and a half, followed by breakfast and coffee. After that, he stayed at the desk until four o'clock in the afternoon. Then the writer took a bath and again sat down to work.

The difference between the writer and his father was that he did not think to live long. Honore treated his own health with great frivolity. He had problems with his teeth, but he did not go to the doctors.

The year 1832 became critical for Balzac. He was already famous. Novels were created that brought him popularity. Publishers are generous and pay advances for unfinished works. The more unexpected was the writer's illness, the origins of which probably come from childhood. Honore develops verbal disorders, auditory and even visual hallucinations began to appear. The writer has a symptom of paraphasia (incorrect pronunciation of sounds or replacement of words with similar ones in sound and meaning).

Paris began to be filled with rumors about the strange behavior of the writer, about the incoherence of his speech and incomprehensible thoughtfulness. In an attempt to stop this, Balzac goes to Sasha, where he lives with old acquaintances.

Despite his illness, Balzac retained his intellect, thought and consciousness. His illness did not affect the personality itself.

Soon the writer began to feel better, confidence returned to him. Balzac returned to Paris. The writer again began to drink a huge amount of coffee, using it as a dope. For four years, Balzac had physical and mental health.

During a walk on June 26, 1836, the writer felt dizzy, unsteady and unsteady in his gait, blood rushed to his head. Balzac fell unconscious. The fainting spell was not long, the next day the writer felt only some weakness. After this incident, Balzac often complained of pain in his head.

This syncope was a confirmation of hypertension. For the next year, Balsa worked with his feet in a bowl of mustard water. Dr. Nakkar gave the writer recommendations that he did not follow.

After finishing another work, the writer returned to society. He tried to regain lost acquaintances and connections. Biographers say that he made a strange impression, being dressed out of fashion and with unwashed hair. But as soon as he joined the conversation, how those around him turned their eyes to him, ceasing to notice the oddities of appearance. No one was indifferent to his knowledge, intellect and talent.

The following years, the writer complained of shortness of breath and anxiety. Balzac had rales in his lungs. In the 1940s, the writer suffered from jaundice. After that, he began to experience twitching of the eyelids and stomach cramps. In 1846 there was a relapse of this disease. Balzac had a memory impairment, there were complications in communication. Forgetting nouns and names of objects has become frequent. From the late 40s, Balzac suffered from diseases of the internal organs. The writer suffered from the Moldavian fever. He was ill for about 2 months, and having recovered, he returned to Paris.

In 1849, heart weakness began to increase, shortness of breath appeared. He began to suffer from bronchitis. Due to hypertension, retinal detachment began. There was a short-term improvement, which was again replaced by deterioration. Hypertrophy of the heart and edema began to develop, fluid appeared in the abdominal cavity. Soon, gangrene and periodic delirium joined everything. He was visited by friends, including Victor Hugo, who left very tragic notes.

The writer died in agony in the arms of his mother. Balzac's death occurred on the night of August 18-19, 1850.

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Writer's personal life

Balzac was very timid and clumsy by nature. And he felt timid even when a pretty young lady approached him. Next to him lived the de Bernie family, who occupied a higher position. The writer had a passion for Laura de Berni. She was 42 years old and had 9 children, while Balzac had just crossed the line of 20 years. the lady did not immediately surrender to Honore, but was one of his first women. She revealed to him the secrets of a woman's heart and all the delights of love.

His other Laura was the Duchess d'Abrantes. She appeared in the fate of the writer a year after Madame de Berni. She was an aristocrat inaccessible to Balzac, but she fell before him after 8 months.

Few ladies were able to resist Honore. But such a highly moral woman was found. Her name was Zulma Carro. It was the Versailles friend of his sister Laura de Surville. Honore had a passion for her, but she had only maternal tenderness for him. The woman said firmly that they could only be friends.

In 1831 he received an anonymous letter, which turned out to be from the Marquise de Castries aged 35. the writer was fascinated by her title. She refused to become the writer's mistress, but was a charming coquette.

On February 28, 1832, he will receive a letter mysteriously signed "Outlander". It turned out to be sent by Evelina Ganskaya, nee Rzhevusskaya. She was young, beautiful, rich and married to an old man. Honore confessed his love to her in the 3rd letter. Their first meeting was in October 1833. After that, they parted for 7 years. after the death of Evelina's husband, Balzac thought about marrying her.

But their marriage took place only in 1850, when the writer was already mortally sick. There were no invitees. After the newlyweds arrived in Paris, and on August 19 Honore died. The death of the writer was accompanied by the obscenity of his wife. There is a version that in his last hours she was in the arms of Jean Gigou, an artist. But not all biographers trust this. Later, Evelina became the wife of this artist.

The work of Honore de Balzac and the most famous works (list)

Chouans, published in 1829, was the first independent novel. Fame also brought him published next "Physiology of marriage". The following were created:

1830 - "Gobsek";

1833 - "Eugenia Grande";

1834 - "Godis-sar";

· 1835 - "Forgiven Melmoth";

· 1836 - "Lust of the atheist";

1837 - "Museum of Antiquities";

· 1839 - "Pierre Grasse" and many others.

This also includes "Naughty Stories". The real fame to the writer was brought by "Shagreen leather".

Throughout his life, Balzac wrote his main work, the "picture of manners", called "The Human Comedy". Its composition:

· "Etudes on Morals" (dedicated to social phenomena);

· “Philosophical studies” (play of feelings, their movement and life);

· "Analytical studies" (about morals).

Writer innovation

Balzac moved away from the novel personality of the historical novel. His desire is to designate an "individualized type". The central figure of his works is bourgeois society, not the individual. He describes the life of estates, social phenomena, society. The line of works is in the victory of the bourgeoisie over the aristocracy and the weakening of morality.

Quotes by Honore de Balzac

Shagreen Skin: "He realized what a secret and unforgivable crime he committed against them: he eluded the power of mediocrity."

· "Eugenia Grande": "True love is gifted with foresight and knows that love causes love."

· "Shuans": "In order to forgive insults, you need to remember them."

· “Lily of the Valley”: “People are more likely to forgive a blow received in secret than an insult inflicted in public.”

Balzac's life was not ordinary, nor was his mind. The works of this writer conquered the whole world. And his biography is as interesting as his novels.

Biography

World literature knows many French writers, deserves special attention Honore de Balzac- famous playwright Born May 8 (20), 1799 in Tours, died August 6 (18), 1850 in Paris. Not only by the features of his work, but also by his very personality and literary career, he represents a bright type of writer, who developed under the influence of the wide successes of natural science and positive philosophy, amid severe struggle and fierce competition caused by the growth of industry. His life is the story of a worker who, with tireless energy, strives to break forward, by all means to win fame and fortune for himself. His work is permeated with the desire to transfer the methods of modern natural science to fiction, to erase the line separating literature from science. His father was a vulgar materialist and left a number of writings on social issues; above all, he set the task of the physical improvement of the human race and, with the help of the conclusions of natural science, dreamed of solving the social and moral problems of his time.

The writer got the worldview of his father, his health and iron will. Having received an initial education, first in a provincial, then in a Parisian college, balzac stayed in the capital when his father left with his family for the provinces. Deciding, against the will of his father, to devote himself to literature, he was almost deprived of support from his family. As his letters to his sister show Laure, this did not prevent him from being full of energy and ambitious ideas. In his miserable closet, he dreamed of influence, fame and fortune, of conquering a great city. Under a pseudonym, he writes a number of novels, devoid of literary significance and subsequently not included by him in the complete collection of his works.

In the process of life's trials, a projector and an entrepreneur wake up in a writer. Anticipating the idea of ​​cheap publications that was widely adopted later, balzac the first one starts single-volume editions of the classics and publishes (1825 - 1826) with his own notes Molière and La Fontaine. But his publications were not successful. Just as unsuccessfully did the printing house and word castings he started, which he had to concede to his companions, go.

Even sadder ended the trip Balzac to Sardinia, where he dreamed of discovering the silver left there by the ancient Romans in their mines. As a result of all these enterprises balzac found himself in unpayable debts, forcing him to hard literary work. He writes novels, pamphlets on various issues, collaborates in magazines “Caricature” and “Silhouette”.

With the appearance in 1829 of his novel “Le dernier Chouane ou la Bretagne en 1800” fame begins Balzac. From now on balzac almost does not leave the path on which he entered. One after another, his novels appear, in which he describes all aspects of French life, displays an endless string of the most diverse types, “the greatest collection of documents on human nature”. He is a typical craft writer. Like Zola and in contrast to the romantics, the prophetic poets, he does not wait for inspiration. He works 15 to 18 hours a day, sits down at the table after midnight and hardly leaves a pen until six o'clock the next evening, interrupting work only for a bath, breakfast, and especially for coffee, which maintains energy in himself and which he carefully prepared and used in large quantities.

Novels Shagreen Skin, Thirty-Year-Old Woman and especially "Eugenia Grande"(1833), which appeared in the early thirties, brought him great fame, and Balzac no more chasing publishers. However, he fails to fulfill his dream of wealth, despite his extraordinary fertility; he sometimes publishes several novels a year. Of his famous novels, the best known are: “Country Doctor”, “In Search of the Absolute”, “Father Goriot”, “Lost Illusions”, “Country Priest”, “Bachelor’s Farm”, “Peasants”, “Cousin Pons”, “Cousin Betta”.

He collected all the published novels, added a number of new ones to them, introduced common heroes into them, connected individuals with family, friendship and other ties and, thus, created, but did not complete the grandiose epic, which he called "Human Comedy", and which was supposed to serve as a scientific and artistic material for studying the psychology of modern society.

Perhaps the influence of the scientific zeitgeist on Balzac nothing was more pronounced than in his attempt to combine his novels into one whole. In the preface to "The Human Comedy" he himself draws a parallel between the laws of development of the animal world and human society. Different types of animals represent only a modification of a general type, arising depending on environmental conditions; so, depending on the conditions of upbringing, the environment, etc. - the same modifications of a person as a donkey, a cow, etc. - species of a general animal type.

Apart from novels balzac wrote a number of dramatic works; but most of his dramas and comedies were not successful on the stage. For the purpose of scientific systematization balzac broke all this huge number of novels into series. In 1833 balzac received a letter from an unknown Polish aristocrat Ghanaian, nee countess Rzhevusskaya. Correspondence began between the novelist and the admirer of his talent (published on the centenary of the birth of Balzac). balzac subsequently met several times Ghanaian, by the way, in St. Petersburg, where he came in 1840. When Ghanaian widowed, she accepted the offer Balzac, but for several years, for various reasons, their wedding could not take place. balzac carefully finished the apartment for himself and his wife, but when, finally, in March 1850, the wedding took place in Berdichev, Balzac only a few months left to enjoy family happiness and a relatively secure existence, death was already waiting for him.

Performance Balzac about the meaning of modern life, about the factors that govern modern man, can best be formulated in words that he puts into the mouth of a convict Vautrin teaching a young student: “Jumping out into the people is the task that 50,000 young people in your position are striving to solve. And you are one in this sum. Think what efforts will be required from you, what a fierce struggle lies ahead! You will devour each other like spiders! There are no principles, but there are events; and there are no laws, but only circumstances that an intelligent person adjusts to in order to trade them in his own way. Vice is now in force, and talents are rare. Honesty is no good. You have to crash into this crowd like a bomb, or sneak into it like a plague.”.

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

Honore de Balzac. Daguerreotype 1842

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

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

Geniuses and villains. Honore de Balzac

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

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

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

The father of the future writer was a peasant from Languedoc, who managed to make a career during the French bourgeois revolution and get rich. The mother was much younger than her father (she even outlived her son) and also came from a wealthy family of a Parisian cloth merchant.

The surname Balzac was taken by the father of the future writer after the revolution, the real family name was the surname Balsa.

Education

The writer's father, who became an assistant to the mayor of Tours, dreamed of making his son a lawyer. He gave it first to the College of Vendôme, and then to the Paris School of Law.

Honoré did not like it at once at the Vendôme College. He studied poorly and could not establish contact with teachers. Contact with the family during studies was prohibited, and living conditions were excessively harsh. At the age of 14, Honoré fell seriously ill and was sent home. He never returned to college, graduating in absentia.

Even before his illness, Honore became interested in literature. He avidly read the works of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Holbach. Even after entering the Paris School of Law, Honore did not give up his dream of becoming a writer.

Early work

From 1823 Balzac began to write. His first novels were written in the spirit of romanticism. The author himself considered them unsuccessful and tried not to remember them.

From 1825 to 1828 Balzac tried publishing but failed.

Success

According to a short biography of Honore de Balzac, the writer was a real workaholic. He worked 15 hours a day and published 5-6 novels a year. Gradually, fame began to come to him.

Balzac wrote about what surrounded him: about the life of Paris and the French provinces, about the life of the poor and aristocrats. His novels were rather philosophical short stories, revealing the full depth of the social contradictions that existed then in France and the severity of social problems. Gradually, Balzac combined all the novels he wrote into one big cycle, which he called "The Human Comedy". The cycle is divided into three parts: "Etudes on Morals" (this part, for example, included the novel "Shine and Poverty of Courtesans"), "Philosophical Studies" (this included the novel "Shagreen Skin"), "Analytical Studies" (this part the author included partly autobiographical works, such as, for example, "Louis Lambert").

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

Personal life

The writer's personal life did not develop until he entered into correspondence (at first anonymously) with the Polish aristocratic Countess Evelina Hanska. She was married to a very wealthy landowner who had large land holdings in Ukraine.

A feeling flared up between Balzac and the Countess of Ghana, but even after the death of her husband, she did not dare to become the writer's legal wife, as she was afraid of losing her husband's inheritance, which she wanted to pass on to her only daughter.

Writer's death

Only in 1850, Balzac, who, by the way, stayed with his beloved for a long time, visiting Kyiv, Vinnitsa, Chernigov and other cities of Ukraine with her, and Evelina were able to officially get married. But their happiness was short-lived, because immediately upon returning to his homeland, the writer fell ill and died of gangrene, which developed against the background of pathological vascular arthritis.

The writer was buried with all possible honors. It is known that his coffin was carried in turn during the funeral by all the prominent literati of France of the time, including Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo.

Other biography options

• Balzac became very popular in Russia during his lifetime, although the authorities were wary of the writer's work. Despite this, he was allowed to enter Russia. The writer visited St. Petersburg and Moscow several times: in 1837, 1843, 1848-1850. He was received very warmly. At one of these meetings between the writer and readers, the young F. Dostoevsky was present, who, after a conversation with the writer, decided to translate the novel "Eugene Grande" into Russian. It was the first literary translation and the first publication made by the future classic of Russian literature.
• Balzac loved coffee. He drank about 50 cups of coffee a day.

Honore de Balzac (fr. Honoré de Balzac). Born May 20, 1799 in Tours - died August 18, 1850 in Paris. French writer, one of the founders of realism in European literature.

The largest work of Balzac is a series of novels and short stories "The Human Comedy", which paints a picture of the life of a modern writer of French society. Balzac's work was very popular in Europe and during his lifetime earned him a reputation as one of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century. The works of Balzac influenced prose, Faulkner and others.

Honoré de Balzac was born in Tours in the family of a peasant from Languedoc, Bernard Francois Balssa (Balssa) (06/22/1746-06/19/1829). Balzac's father made a fortune by buying and selling confiscated noble lands during the years of the revolution, and later became assistant to the mayor of the city of Tours. Has no relation to the French writer Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654). Honore's father changed his surname and became Balzac, and later bought himself a de particle. Mother was the daughter of a Parisian merchant.

The father prepared his son for advocacy. In 1807-1813, Balzac studied at the College of Vendome, in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, at the same time he worked as a scribe for a notary; however, he abandoned his legal career and devoted himself to literature. Parents did little for their son. He was placed at the College Vendôme against his will. Meetings with relatives there were forbidden all year round, with the exception of the Christmas holidays. During the first years of his studies, he repeatedly had to be in a punishment cell. In the fourth grade, Honore began to come to terms with school life, but he did not stop mocking teachers ... At the age of 14, he fell ill, and his parents took him home at the request of the college authorities. For five years, Balzac was seriously ill, it was believed that there was no hope of recovery, but soon after the family moved to Paris in 1816, he recovered.

After 1823, he published several novels under various pseudonyms in the spirit of "violent romanticism". Balzac strove to follow the literary fashion, and later he himself called these literary experiments "real literary disgust" and preferred not to think about them. In 1825-1828 he tried to engage in publishing activities, but failed.

In 1829, the first book signed with the name "Balzac" was published - the historical novel "Chuans" (Les Chouans). The formation of Balzac as a writer was influenced by the historical novels of Walter Scott. Balzac's subsequent works: "Scenes of Private Life" (Scènes de la vie privée, 1830), the novel "The Elixir of Longevity" (L "Élixir de longue vie, 1830-1831, a variation on the themes of the legend of Don Juan); the story "Gobsek" ( Gobseck, 1830) attracted the attention of the reader and critics.In 1831, Balzac published his philosophical novel La Peau de chagrin and began the novel La femme de trente ans (La femme de trente ans). stories "(Contes drolatiques, 1832-1837) - an ironic stylization of Renaissance novelistics. In part autobiographical novel" Louis Lambert "(Louis Lambert, 1832) and especially in the later" Seraphite "(Séraphîta, 1835) reflected Balzac's fascination with the mystical concepts of E Swedenborg and Cl. de Saint-Martin.

His hope of getting rich had not yet materialized (heavy debt is the result of his unsuccessful business ventures) when fame began to come to him. Meanwhile, he continued to lead a diligent working life, working at his desk for 15-16 hours a day, and annually publishing three, four and even five, six books.

The end of the 1820s and the beginning of the 1830s, when Balzac entered literature, was the period of the greatest flowering of Romanticism in French literature. The big novel in European literature by the arrival of Balzac had two main genres: a novel of a personality - an adventurous hero (for example, Robinson Crusoe) or a self-deepening, lonely hero (The Suffering of Young Werther by W. Goethe) and a historical novel (Walter Scott).

Balzac departs from both the novel of personality and the historical novel. He aims to show the "individualized type". In the center of his creative attention, according to a number of Soviet literary critics, is not a heroic or outstanding personality, but modern bourgeois society, the France of the July Monarchy.

"Studies on Morals" unfold the picture of France, paint the life of all classes, all social conditions, all social institutions. Their leitmotif is the victory of the financial bourgeoisie over the landed and tribal aristocracy, the strengthening of the role and prestige of wealth, and the weakening or disappearance of many traditional ethical and moral principles associated with this.

In the works created in the first five or six years of his writing activity, the most diverse areas of contemporary French life are depicted: the village, the provinces, Paris; various social groups: merchants, aristocracy, clergy; various social institutions: family, state, army.

In 1832, 1843, 1847 and 1848-1850. Balzac visited Russia, St. Petersburg.

From August to October 1843, Balzac lived in Titov's house at 16 Millionnaya Street in St. Petersburg.

In the unfinished "Letter about Kyiv", private letters left mention of his stay in the Ukrainian towns of Brody, Radzivilov, Dubno, Vyshnevets and others. Kyiv visited in 1847, 1848 and 1850.

He was buried in Paris at the Pere Lachaise cemetery.

"The Human Comedy"

In 1831, Balzac had the idea to create a multi-volume work - a "picture of manners" of his time, a huge work, later entitled by him "The Human Comedy". According to Balzac, The Human Comedy was supposed to be the artistic history and artistic philosophy of France as it developed after the revolution. Balzac works on this work throughout his subsequent life, he includes in it most of the works already written, and reworks them specifically for this purpose. The cycle consists of three parts: "Etudes on Morals", "Philosophical Studies" and "Analytical Studies".

The most extensive is the first part - "Etudes on Morals", which includes:

"Scenes of Private Life"
"Gobsek" (1830), "Thirty-year-old woman" (1829-1842), "Colonel Chabert" (1844), "Father Goriot" (1834-35), etc.;
"Scenes of Provincial Life"
"Turkish Priest" (Le curé de Tours, 1832), "Eugénie Grandet" (Eugénie Grandet, 1833), "Lost Illusions" (1837-43), etc.;
"Scenes of Parisian Life"
trilogy "History of thirteen" (L'Histoire des Treize, 1834), "Caesar Birotto" (César Birotteau, 1837), "The banking house of Nucingen" (La Maison Nucingen, 1838), "Shine and poverty of courtesans" (1838-1847) etc.;
"Scenes of Political Life"
"A case from the time of terror" (1842), etc.;
"Scenes of military life"
Chouans (1829) and Passion in the Desert (1837);
"Scenes of village life"
"Lily of the Valley" (1836), etc.

Subsequently, the cycle was replenished with the novels Modeste Mignon (Modeste Mignon, 1844), Cousin Bette (La Cousine Bette, 1846), Cousin Pons (Le Cousin Pons, 1847), and also, summing up the cycle in its own way, the novel The Reverse Side of Modern History (L'envers de l'histoire contemporaine, 1848).

"Philosophical studies" are reflections on the patterns of life: "Shagreen leather" (1831), etc.

The greatest "philosophy" is inherent in "Analytical Etudes". In some of them, for example, in the story "Louis Lambert", the volume of philosophical calculations and reflections many times exceeds the volume of the plot narrative.

Personal life of Honore de Balzac

In 1832 he met Evelina Hanska (widowed in 1842), whom he married on March 2, 1850 in the city of Berdichev, in the church of St. Barbara. In 1847-1850. lived in the possessions of his beloved in Verkhovna (now - a village in the Ruzhinsky district of the Zhytomyr region, Ukraine).

The novels of Honore de Balzac

Chouans, or Brittany in 1799 (1829)
Shagreen leather (1831)
Louis Lambert (1832)
Eugenia Grande (1833)
History of Thirteen (1834)
Father Goriot (1835)
Lily of the Valley (1835)
Nucingen Banking House (1838)
Beatrice (1839)
Country Priest (1841)
Balamutka (1842)
Ursula Mirue (1842)
Thirty Years Old Woman (1842)
Lost Illusions (I, 1837; II, 1839; III, 1843)
Peasants (1844)
Cousin Betta (1846)
Cousin Pons (1847)
The Luster and Poverty of the Courtesans (1847)
MP for Arcee (1854)

Novels and short stories by Honore de Balzac

House of a Cat Playing Ball (1829)
Marriage Contract (1830)
Gobsek (1830)
Vendetta (1830)
Goodbye! (1830)
Country Ball (1830)
Marital Consent (1830)
Sarrazin (1830)
Red Inn (1831)
Unknown Masterpiece (1831)
Colonel Chabert (1832)
The abandoned woman (1832)
Belle of the Empire (1834)
Involuntary Sin (1834)
The Devil's Heir (1834)
The constable's wife (1834)
Shout of salvation (1834)
Witch (1834)
The Perseverance of Love (1834)
Bertha's Remorse (1834)
Naivete (1834)
The Marriage of the Belle of the Empire (1834)
Forgiven Melmoth (1835)
Mass of the Godless (1836)
Facino Canet (1836)
Secrets of the Princess de Cadignan (1839)
Pierre Grasse (1840)
The Imaginary Mistress (1841)

Screen adaptations of Honore de Balzac

Glitter and Poverty of Courtesans (France; 1975; 9 episodes): director M. Kaznev
Colonel Chabert (film) (fr. Le Colonel Chabert, 1994, France)
Don't touch the ax (France-Italy, 2007)
Shagreen leather (fr. La peau de chagrin, 2010, France)