Honoré de Balzac (born May 20, 1799, Tours - died August 18, 1850, Paris) was a French writer. The real name - Honore Balzac, the particle "de", meaning belonging to a noble family, began to be used around 1830.
French writer who recreated a complete picture of the social life of his time. Born May 20, 1799 in Tours; his relatives, peasants by origin, came from southern France (Languedoc). The original surname of Balssa was changed by his father when he arrived in Paris in 1767 and began a long official career there, which he continued in Tours from 1798, holding a number of administrative positions. In 1830, the particle "de" was added to the name by the son Honore, claiming a noble origin. Balzac spent six years (1806-1813) as a boarder at the College of Vendôme, completing his education in Tours and Paris, where the family returned in 1814. After working for three years (1816-1819) as a clerk in a judge's office, he persuaded his parents to allow him to try his luck in literature . Between 1819 × 1824 Honoré published (under a pseudonym) half a dozen novels influenced by J. J. Rousseau, W. Scott and "horror novels". In collaboration with various literary day laborers, he published many novels of a frankly commercial nature.
Architecture is an expression of morals.
Balzac Honore de
In 1822, his relationship with the forty-five-year-old Madame de Berni (d. 1836) began. A passionate feeling at first emotionally enriched him, later their relationship turned into a platonic plane, and Lily in the valley (Le Lys dans la vallée, 1835-1836) gave an extremely ideal picture of this friendship.
An attempt to make a fortune in the publishing and printing business (1826-1828) involved Balzac in large debts. Turning again to writing, he published in 1829 the novel The Last Shuan (Le dernier Shouan; revised and published in 1834 under the title Les Chouans). It was the first book that came out under his own name, along with a humorous manual for husbands Physiology of marriage (La Physiologie du mariage, 1829), she attracted public attention to the new author. At the same time, the main work of his life began: in 1830 the first Scenes of Private Life (Scènes de la vie privée) appeared, with an undoubted masterpiece House of a cat playing ball (La Maison du chat qui pelote), in 1831 the first Philosophical novels and stories were published ( Contes philosophiques). For several more years, Balzac worked as a freelance journalist, but the main forces from 1830 to 1848 were given to an extensive cycle of novels and short stories, known to the world as the Human Comedy (La Comédie humaine).
The contract for the publication of the first series of Etudes de moeurs (1833-1837) Balzac concluded when many volumes (12 in total) were not yet completed or had just begun, since he used to first sell the finished work for publication in periodicals, then release his separate book and, finally, to include in a particular collection. The sketches consisted of Scenes - private, provincial, Parisian, political, military and rural life. Scenes of private life, devoted mainly to youth and its inherent problems, were not tied to specific circumstances and places; on the other hand, scenes of provincial, Parisian, and country life were played out in precisely defined environments, which is one of the most characteristic and original features of the Human Comedy.
In addition to seeking to portray the social history of France, Balzac intended to diagnose society and offer medicines to cure its ailments. This goal is clearly felt throughout the cycle, but it occupies a central place in the Philosophical Studies (Études philosophiques), the first collection of which was published between 1835 × 1837. The Studies on Morals were supposed to present "consequences", and the Philosophical Studies - to reveal "causes". The philosophy of Balzac is a curious combination of scientific materialism, the theosophy of E. Swedenborg and other mystics, the physiognomy of I.K. Lavater, the phrenology of F.J. Gall, the magnetism of F.A. Mesmer and occultism. All this was coupled, sometimes in a very unconvincing way, with official Catholicism and political conservatism, in support of which Balzac openly spoke. Two aspects of this philosophy are of particular importance to his work: firstly, a deep belief in "second sight", a mysterious property that gives its owner the ability to recognize or guess facts or events that he was not a witness to (Balzac considered himself extremely gifted in this respect); secondly, based on the views of Mesmer, the concept of thought as a kind of "ethereal substance", or "fluid". Thought consists of will and feeling, and a person projects it into the surrounding world, giving it a greater or lesser impulse. From this arises the idea of the destructive power of thought: it contains vital energy, the accelerated expenditure of which brings death closer. This is vividly illustrated by the magical symbolism of shagreen leather (La Peau de chagrin, 1831).
The third main section of the cycle was supposed to be Analytical studies (Études analytiques), dedicated to "principles", but Balzac did not clarify his intentions in this regard; in fact, he completed only two volumes of the series of these Etudes: the half-serious, half-joking Physiology of Marriage and the Petites Misères de la vie conjugale, 1845-1846.
Balzac determined the main contours of his ambitious plan in the autumn of 1834 and then successively filled in the cells of the outlined scheme. Allowing himself to be distracted, he wrote, in imitation of Rabelais, a number of amusing, albeit obscene, "medieval" stories called Mischievous Tales (Contes drolatiques, 1832-1837), which were not included in the Human Comedy. A title for the ever-growing cycle was found in 1840 or 1841, and a new edition, first bearing this title, began to appear in 1842. It retained the same principle of division as in the Études 1833-1837, but Balzac added to it "a preface in which he explained his goals. The so-called "final edition" 1869-1876 included Naughty Tales, Theater (Théâtre) and a series of letters.
Nobility of feelings is not always accompanied by nobility of manners.
Balzac Honore de
There is no unanimity in criticism as to how correctly the writer managed to portray the French aristocracy, although he himself was proud of his knowledge of the world. With little interest in artisans and factory workers, he achieved the highest, reputedly, persuasiveness in describing various representatives of the middle class: office workers - Officials (Les Employés), judicial clerks and lawyers - The Case of Guardianship (L'Interdiction, 1836), Colonel Chabet (Le Colonel Chabert, 1832); financiers - Nucingen Banking House (La Maison Nucingen, 1838); journalists - Lost Illusions (Illusions perdues, 1837-1843); small manufacturers and merchants - The history of the greatness and fall of Caesar Birotto (Histoire de la grandeur et decadence de César Birotteau, 1837). Among the Scenes of private life dedicated to feelings and passions, the Abandoned Woman (La Femme abandonnée), the Thirty-Year-Old Woman (La Femme de trente ans, 1831-1834), and Eve's Daughter (Une Fille d'Ève, 1838) stand out. The scenes of provincial life not only recreate the atmosphere of small towns, but also depict painful "storms in a teacup" that disrupt the peaceful course of habitual life - Tours priest (Le Curé de Tours, 1832), Eugenie Grandet (Eugénie Grandet, 1833), Pierrette (Pierrette, 1840). The novels of Ursule Mirouët and La Rabouilleuse (1841-1842) show violent family strife over inheritance. But even more gloomy is the human community in the Scenes of Parisian life. Balzac loved Paris and did much to preserve the memory of the now forgotten streets and corners of the French capital. At the same time, he considered this city an infernal abyss and compared the "struggle for life" going on here with the wars on the prairies, as one of his favorite authors F. Cooper portrayed them in his novels. Of greatest interest from the Scenes of political life is the Dark Case (Une Ténébreuse Affaire, 1841), where the figure of Napoleon appears for a moment. Scenes of military life (Scènes de la vie militaire) include only two works: Chouana's novel and the story Passion in the Desert (Une Passion dans le désert, 1830) - Balzac intended to significantly supplement them. Scenes of village life (Scènes de la vie de campagne) are generally devoted to the description of the dark and predatory peasantry, although in such novels as the Rural Doctor (Le Médecin de campagne, 1833) and the Rural Priest (Le Curé de village, 1839), a significant place given to the presentation of political, economic and religious views.
Honoré de Balzac - famous French novelist, born May 20, 1799 in Tours, died August 18, 1850 in Paris. For five years he was sent to an elementary school in Tours, and at the age of 7 he entered the Jesuit College of Vendôme, where he stayed for 7 years. In 1814, Balzac moved with his parents to Paris, where he completed his education - first in private boarding schools, and then in Sorbonne where he enthusiastically listened to lectures Gizo, Cousin, Willeman. At the same time, he was studying law to please his father, who wanted to make him a notary.
Honore de Balzac. Daguerreotype 1842
Balzac's first literary experience was the tragedy in verse "Cromwell", which cost him a lot of work, but turned out to be worthless. After this first failure, he abandoned tragedy and turned to romance. Motivated by material need, he began to write one after another very bad novels, which he sold for several hundred francs to various publishers. Such work because of a piece of bread was extremely burdensome for him. The desire to get out of poverty as soon as possible involved him in several commercial enterprises that ended in complete ruin for him. He had to liquidate the business, taking on more than 50,000 francs of debt (1828). Subsequently, thanks to new loans to pay interest and other financial losses, the amount of his debts increased with various fluctuations, and he languished under their burden all his life; only shortly before his death did he finally manage to get rid of his debts. In the early 1820s, Balzac met and became close friends with Madame de Berny. This woman was the good genius of his youth in the most difficult years of struggle, deprivation and uncertainty. By his own admission, she had a huge influence both on his character and on the development of his talent.
Balzac's first novel, which was a resounding success and put him forward among other novice writers, was The Physiology of Marriage (1829). Since then, his fame has been growing continuously. His fertility and tireless energy are truly amazing. In the same year, he published 4 more novels, the next - 11 ("Thirty-year-old Woman"; "Gobsek", "Shagreen Skin", etc.); in 1831 - 8, including the "Country Doctor". Now he works even more than before, with extraordinary care he finished his works, several times redoing what he had written.
Geniuses and villains. Honore de Balzac
Balzac was more than once tempted by the role of a politician. In his political views, he was strict legitimist. In 1832, he put forward his candidacy for deputies in Angouleme and on this occasion expressed the following program in one private letter: “The destruction of all nobility, with the exception of the chamber of peers; separation of the clergy from Rome; the natural frontiers of France; complete equality of the middle class; recognition of true superiority; cost savings; increasing revenues through better distribution of taxes; education for all".
Having failed in the elections, he took up literature with new zeal. 1832 11 new novels were published, among other things: "Louis Lambert", "Abandoned Woman", "Colonel Chabert". At the beginning of 1833, Balzac entered into a correspondence with Countess Hanska. From this correspondence arose a romance that lasted 17 years and ended in marriage a few months before the death of the novelist. A monument to this novel is the voluminous volume of Balzac's letters to Mrs. Ganskaya, later published under the title Letters to a Stranger. During these 17 years, Balzac continued to work tirelessly, and in addition to novels, he wrote various articles in magazines. In 1835 he began publishing the Paris Chronicle himself; this edition lasted for a little over a year and as a result brought him 50,000 francs of a net deficit.
From 1833 to 1838 inclusive, Balzac published 26 stories and novels, among them "Eugenia Grande", "Father Goriot", "Seraphite", "Lily of the Valley", "Lost Illusions", "Caesar Biroto". In 1838 he again left Paris for a few months, this time for a commercial purpose. He dreams of a brilliant enterprise that can immediately enrich him; he goes to Sardinia, where he is going to exploit the silver mines, known since the days of Roman rule. This venture ends in failure, as a more dexterous businessman took advantage of his idea and interrupted his path.
Until 1843, Balzac lived almost without a break in Paris, or in his estate Les Jardies, near Paris, which he bought in 1839 and turned into a new source of constant expenses for him. In August 1843, Balzac went to St. Petersburg for 2 months, where Mrs. Ganskaya was at that time (her husband owned vast estates in Ukraine). In 1845 and 1846 he twice traveled to Italy, where she spent the winter with her daughter. Urgent work and various urgent obligations forced him to return to Paris and all his efforts were aimed at finally paying off his debts and arranging his affairs, without which he could not fulfill his cherished dream of his life - to marry his beloved woman. To a certain extent, he succeeded. Balzac spent the winter of 1847 - 1848 in Russia, at the estate of Countess Hanskaya near Berdichev, but a few days before the February Revolution, money matters called him to Paris. However, he remained completely alien to the political movement and in the autumn of 1848 he again went to Russia.
In 1849 - 1847, 28 new novels by Balzac appeared in print (Ursula Mirue, The Country Priest, Poor Relatives, Cousin Pons, etc.). Since 1848, he has been working little and publishing almost nothing new. The second trip to Russia turned out to be fatal for him. His body was exhausted by “excessive work; this was joined by a cold that fell on the heart and lungs and turned into a long drawn-out illness. The harsh climate also had a detrimental effect on him and interfered with his recovery. This state, with temporary improvements, dragged on until the spring of 1850. On March 14, the marriage of Countess Ganskaya with Balzac finally took place in Berdichev. In April, the couple left Russia and went to Paris, where they settled in a small hotel bought by Balzac a few years before and decorated with artistic luxury. The health of the novelist, however, was deteriorating, and finally, on August 18, 1850, after a severe 34-hour agony, he died.
The significance of Balzac in literature is very great: he expanded the scope of the novel and, being one of the main founders realistic and naturalistic trends, showed him new paths, along which in many ways he went until the beginning of the 20th century. His basic view is purely naturalistic: he looks at every phenomenon as the result and interaction of certain conditions, a known environment. According to this, Balzac's novels are not only an image of individual characters, but also a picture of the entire modern society with the main forces that govern it: the general pursuit of the blessings of life, the thirst for profit, honors, position in the world, with all the various struggles of large and small passions. At the same time, he reveals to the reader the entire behind-the-scenes side of this movement in the smallest detail, in its everyday life, which gives his books the character of burning reality. When describing characters, he highlights one main, predominant feature. According to Fai, for Balzac every person is nothing more than "some kind of passion, which is served by the mind and organs and which is counteracted by circumstances." Thanks to this, his heroes receive extraordinary relief and brightness, and many of them have become household names, like the heroes of Molière: thus, Grande became synonymous with stinginess, Goriot - fatherly love, etc. Women occupy a large place in his novels. With all his merciless realism, he always puts a woman on a pedestal, she always stands above the environment, and is a victim of the egoism of a man. His favorite type is a woman of 30-40 years old (“Balzac age”).
The complete works of Balzac were published by himself in 1842 under the general title " human comedy”, with a preface where he defines his task as follows: “to give a history and at the same time a criticism of society, an investigation of its ailments and an examination of its beginnings.” One of the first translators of Balzac into Russian was the great Dostoevsky (his translation of "Eugenie Grande", made even before hard labor).
(For essays on other French writers, see the "More on the topic" section below the text of the article.)
Honore de BalzakFrance, 05/20/1799 - 08/18/1850 French novelist, considered the father of the naturalistic novel. Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours (France). Honore de Balzac's father, Bernard Francois Balssa (some sources indicate the name of Waltz), is a peasant who became rich during the years of the revolution by buying and selling confiscated noble lands, and later became an assistant to the mayor of the city of Tours. Entering the service in the military supply department and being among the officials, he changed his native surname, considering it plebeian. At the turn of the 1830s. Honore, in turn, also modified the surname, arbitrarily adding to it the noble particle de, justifying this with a fiction about his origin from the noble family of Balzac d "Entreg. Honore Balzac's mother was 30 years younger than his father, which, in part, was the reason her betrayal: the father of Honore's younger brother - Henri - was the owner of the castle.In 1807-1813, Honore studied at the College of Vendome; in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, while serving as a clerk in a notary's office.Balzac's father sought to prepare him for advocacy ", but Honore decided to become a poet. At the family council, it was decided to give him two years to fulfill his dream. Honore de Balzac writes the drama Cromwell, but the newly convened family council recognizes the work as useless and Honore is denied financial assistance. This was followed by a streak of material adversity. Literary Balzac's career began around 1820, when he began to print action novels under various pseudonyms and composed moral codes of secular behavior. Later, some of the first novels appeared under the pseudonym of Horace de Saint-Aubin. The period of anonymous creativity ended in 1829 with the publication of Chouans, or Brittany in 1799. Honore de Balzac called the novel Shagreen Leather (1830) the starting point of his work. Beginning in 1830, short stories from modern French life began to be published under the general title Scenes of Private Life. In 1834, Balzac decided to connect the common heroes already written since 1829 and future works, combining them into an epic, later called the Human Comedy (La comedie humaine). Twice Balzac tried to make a political career, putting forward his candidacy for the Chamber of Deputies in 1832 and 1848, but failed both times. In January 1849, he also failed in the elections to the French Academy. In 1832, Balzac began to correspond with the Polish aristocrat E. Hanska, who lived in Russia. In 1843 the writer visited her in St. Petersburg, and in 1847 and 1848 in Ukraine. The official marriage with E. Ganskaya was concluded 5 months before the death of Honore de Balzac, who died on August 18, 1850 in Paris. In 1858, Honore de Balzac's sister, Ms. Surville, wrote a biography of the writer - “Balzac, sa vie et ses oeuvres d" apres sa correspondance ". The authors of biographical books about Balzac were Stefan Zweig (Balzac), Andre Maurois (Prometheus, or Life Balzac), Wurmser (The Inhuman Comedy).Among the works of Honore de Balzac are stories, short stories, philosophical studies, stories, novels, plays.
Honore de Balzac, biography
The life and work of Honore de Balzac
Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in Tours. His grandfather, a farmer, had the surname Balsa, but his father, becoming an official, changed it to an aristocratic one - Balzac.
From 1807 to 1813, Balzac studied at the College of Vendôme, and it was here that his love for literature manifested itself.
Moving with his father to Paris in 1814, he studied at private institutions. In 1816, he was a free student at the Faculty of Law, at the same time he worked as a scribe at a notary, three years later he graduated from the faculty with a bachelor's degree, but, despite the wishes of his parents, he did not become a lawyer, and devoted himself to literature.
Having settled in the attic, Honore began his first unsuccessful attempt to write, it was a tragedy in verse "Cromwell". He also wrote and published various action novels and social codes under pseudonyms. Some of them were published under the pseudonym of Horace de Saint-Aubren. Soon he decided to devote himself to a genre that would help in gaining recognition - it became a novel.
His first novel, Chouans, was published in 1829, but Balzac himself considered the novel Shagreen Skin, published in 1830, to be the most significant in his work. The following works were combined into the epic The Human Comedy, this epic brought fame to the author. Balzac was very fond of the aristocratic lifestyle. But, despite this, in his "Human Comedy" all the classes of the then France are described, and not only urban life, but also the life of provinces and villages. Honore de Balzac created a truly unique work in which he typified the entire French society contemporary to him. Balzac moved away from typical novels, he was not interested in history, he was not interested in the exploits of one person. He painted a portrait of real France, all of France, without embellishment and romance.
He never waited for inspiration. He was a workaholic writer, working 12-14 hour shifts. He drank a lot of coffee, which he prepared for himself. His works are not the favor of the muse, but persistent studies of human nature, the psychology of society, its way of life and culture. He himself, in the preface to The Human Comedy, draws a parallel between the development of the animal world and the world of people, notes that the formation of the personality and the characteristics of development largely depend on the environment and upbringing.
In 1832, Honore de Balzac received a letter from Odessa from Evelina Ganskaya, who lived in Verkhovna near Kiev, they corresponded for 18 years. In March 1850, he married Evelina, these were the last months of his life.
See also:
- Summary of the novel by Honore de Balzac "Gobsek"
- "Gobsek", artistic analysis of the novel by Honore de Balzac
- Composition based on the story of Honore de Balzac "Gobsek"
- "Shagreen Skin", an analysis of the novel by Honore de Balzac
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 into 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 excessive descriptions and passion of 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.
