Honore de balzac biography brevena
Honore De Balzac
| French writer Date of Birth: Country: France |
Biography of Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French writer who created a comprehensive depiction of the social life of his time.
Honore de balzac biography brevena pdf: In her husband died, but Madame Hanska obstinately refused to marry Balzac despite his earnest pleas. Paris: Puf, At the end of , he owed his tailor francs, which was more than his entire yearly budget for food and lodging in Paris. About this article Honore de Balzac All Sources -.
He was born on May 20, , in Tours, France. His family, originally peasants from southern France (Languedoc), changed their surname from Balssa to Balzac when his father moved to Paris in and began a long career in the civil service. From , the family settled in Tours, where his father held various administrative positions.
In , Balzac added the particle "de" to his name, claiming a noble lineage.
Balzac spent six years () as a boarder at the Vendôme College, completing his education in Tours and Paris, where the family returned in After working for three years () as a legal clerk, he convinced his parents to allow him to pursue a career in literature.
Between and , Balzac published a dozen novels, written under pseudonyms, influenced by Rousseau, Scott, and gothic novels. He collaborated with various literary entrepreneurs and produced numerous commercially-oriented novels.
In , Balzac began a relationship with Madame de Berny, who was forty-five years old at the time (she died in ).
Their passionate initial feelings emotionally enriched him, but later, their relationship turned into a platonic friendship. "The Lily of the Valley" (Le Lys dans la vallée, ) portrayed an idealized picture of their friendship. Balzac's attempt to make a fortune in publishing and typography () resulted in substantial debts.
Returning to writing, he published his first book under his own name in , a novel called "The Last Shouan" (Le dernier Shouan), which was later revised and published in as "The Chouans" (Les Chouans). Alongside this novel, his humorous guidebook for husbands, "The Physiology of Marriage" (La Physiologie du mariage, ), caught the public's attention and introduced him as a new author.
In , Balzac began his major work, "Scenes from Private Life" (Scènes de la vie privée), which included the masterpiece, "The Cat and the Playing Ball" (La Maison du chat qui pelote).
The first "Philosophical Tales and Stories" (Contes philosophiques) were published in From to , Balzac devoted most of his efforts to the extensive series of novels and stories known as "The Human Comedy" (La Comédie humaine). When he signed the contract for the publication of the first series of "Studies of Manners" (Études de mœurs, ), many volumes (a total of 12) were still unfinished or in progress.
Balzac had a habit of selling completed works for publication in periodicals before releasing them as separate books and eventually including them in various collections. The "Studies of Manners" consisted of scenes depicting private, provincial, Parisian, political, military, and rural life. While scenes from private life, mainly focusing on youth and its problems, were not tied to specific circumstances or places, the scenes from provincial, Parisian, and rural life took place in well-defined settings, which became one of the most characteristic and original features of "The Human Comedy."
In addition to his desire to reflect the social history of France, Balzac intended to diagnose society's ailments and offer remedies.
This goal is evident throughout the series, but it is especially prominent in the "Philosophical Studies" (Études philosophiques), the first collection of which was published between and The "Studies of Manners" were supposed to present the "consequences," while the "Philosophical Studies" aimed to reveal the "causes." Balzac's philosophy was a curious combination of scientific materialism, theosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg and other mystics, physiognomy of Johann Kaspar Lavater, phrenology of Franz Joseph Gall, magnetism of Franz Anton Mesmer, and occultism.
These ideas were sometimes combined, not always convincingly, with official Catholicism and political conservatism, to which Balzac openly adhered. Two aspects of this philosophy are of particular importance to his writings: firstly, a deep belief in "second sight," a mysterious property that allows its possessor to recognize or guess facts or events of which they were not witnesses (Balzac considered himself exceptionally gifted in this regard); secondly, a concept of thought as an "ethereal substance" or "fluid," based on Mesmer's views.
Thought consists of will and feeling, and a person projects it into the surrounding world, giving it more or less impulse. From this arises the idea of the destructive power of thought: it contains vital energy, and its excessive expenditure brings death closer. This is vividly illustrated in the magical symbolism of "The Wild Ass's Skin" (La Peau de chagrin, ).
Honore de balzac biography brevena Herbert J. In the midst of the rejoicing, however, Balzac announced that the law was not for him; he would be a famous author. Here are several works of fiction that represent key moments in the massive life-worlds created by other authors: Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone , a novel by J. But real fame came to him 2 years later, when he published La Peau de chagrin, a semifantastic story in which the talismanic shagreen skin of the title is discovered to have the magical property of granting whatever wish the owner utters.The third major section of the series, the "Analytical Studies" (Études analytiques), dedicated to the "principles," was never fully realized by Balzac; he only completed two volumes: the half-serious, half-playful "Physiology of Marriage" and "The Petty Annoyances of Married Life" (Petites misères de la vie conjugale, ).
In the autumn of , Balzac defined the main outlines of his ambitious plan and subsequently filled in the cells of the intended scheme.
Allowing himself some diversions, he wrote a series of amusing, although indecent, "medieval" tales in the style of Rabelais, titled "Droll Stories" (Contes drolatiques, ), which were not included in "The Human Comedy." The title for the ever-expanding series was found in or , and the new edition, the first to bear this title, began publication in It maintained the same division principle as the "Studies" of , but Balzac added a "preface" in which he explained his aims.
The so-called "definitive edition" () included the "Droll Stories," the "Theatre" (Théâtre), and a collection of letters. Critics disagree on the extent to which Balzac accurately depicted the French aristocracy, although he took pride in his knowledge of high society. While he showed little interest in artisans and factory workers, he achieved the highest level of persuasiveness in describing various middle-class representatives: office clerks in "The Employees" (Les Employés), judicial clerks and lawyers in "A Matter of Guardianship" (L'Interdiction, ), and Colonel Chabert in "Colonel Chabert" (Le Colonel Chabert, ).
He portrayed financiers in "The Firm of Nucingen" (La Maison Nucingen, ), journalists in "Lost Illusions" (Illusions perdues, ), and small manufacturers and merchants in "The Rise and Fall of César Birotteau" (Histoire de la grandeur et decadence de César Birotteau, ). Among the scenes of private life dedicated to feelings and passions, notable examples include "The Forsaken Woman" (La Femme abandonnée), "The Thirty-Year-Old Woman" (La Femme de trente ans, ), and "A Daughter of Eve" (Une Fille d'Ève, ).
The scenes from provincial life not only recreate the atmosphere of small towns but also portray the distressing "storms in a teacup" that disrupt the peaceful flow of everyday life, as seen in "The Vicar of Tours" (Le Curé de Tours, ), "Eugénie Grandet" (), and "Pierrette" ().
The novels "Ursula Mirouët" and "The Black Sheep" (La Rabouilleuse, ) illustrate the harsh family disputes over inheritances. However, the community is portrayed even more grimly in the scenes from Parisian life. Balzac loved Paris and made great efforts to preserve the memory of now-forgotten streets and corners of the capital. At the same time, he considered the city to be a hellish abyss and compared the struggle for survival here to the wars on the prairies depicted by one of his favorite authors, James Fenimore Cooper.
The most interesting among the scenes from political life is "A Murky Business" (Une Ténébreuse Affaire, ), which briefly introduces the figure of Napoleon. The scenes from military life (Scènes de la vie militaire) include only two novels: "The Chouans" and "A Passion in the Desert" (Une Passion dans le désert, ). Balzac had intended to expand this section significantly.
The scenes from rural life (Scènes de la vie de campagne) mainly focus on portraying dark and predatory peasants, although novels such as "The Country Doctor" (Le Médecin de campagne, ) and "The Village Rector" (Le Curé de village, ) allocate considerable space to the exposition of political, economic, and religious views.
Balzac was the first great writer to pay close attention to the material background and "appearance" of his characters.
Before him, no one had depicted acquisitiveness and ruthless careerism as the main driving forces of life with such convincing power. The plots of his novels often revolve around financial intrigues and speculations. He also became famous for his "cross-over characters": a character who plays a leading role in one novel then appears in others, revealing new facets in different circumstances.
Honore de balzac quotes In January Balzac learned of the death of Wenceslas Hanski. Les Salmigondis: Contes de toutes les coleurs. In her husband died, but Madame Hanska obstinately refused to marry Balzac. At the end of , he owed his tailor francs, which was more than his entire yearly budget for food and lodging in Paris.It is also noteworthy that in developing his theory of thought, Balzac populates his fictional world with people obsessed with ideas or passions. Among them are the usurer in "Gobseck" (), the mad artist in "The Unknown Masterpiece" (Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu, ), the miser in "Eugénie Grandet," the maniacal chemist in "The Search for the Absolute" (La Recherche de l'absolu, ), the love-blinded old man in "Père Goriot" (), the vengeful old maid and incorrigible womanizer in "Cousin Bette" (La Cousine Bette, ), and the hardened criminal in "Père Goriot" and "Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans" ().
This tendency, alongside a penchant for occultism and horrors, questions the view of "The Human Comedy" as the highest achievement of realism in prose. However, the perfection of his narrative technique, descriptive skill, taste for dramatic intrigue, interest in the smallest details of everyday life, intricate analysis of inner experiences, including love (the novel "The Girl with the Golden Eyes" is an innovative study of perverted desire), and the strongest illusion of recreated reality give him the right to be called the "father of the modern novel." Balzac's closest successors in France, Gustave Flaubert (despite his severe critical judgments), Émile Zola and the naturalists, Marcel Proust, as well as contemporary authors of novel cycles, undoubtedly learned a lot from him.
His influence also extended into the twentieth century, when the classical novel began to be considered an outdated form. The nearly one hundred titles in "The Human Comedy" testify to the astonishing versatility of this prolific genius, who anticipated almost all subsequent literary discoveries.
Balzac worked tirelessly and was known to use every proofreading session as an opportunity for radical revisions of composition and substantial changes to the text.
At the same time, he indulged in amusing activities in the spirit of Rabelais, willingly paying visits to high society acquaintances, traveling abroad, and was not a stranger to romantic involvements.
Honore de balzac biography brevena youtube George Henry Calvert. Biography of Herman Melville, American Novelist. Honolulu Community College: Tabular Data. Reading rooms waited impatiently for the next installments.Among these relationships, his connection with the Polish countess and the wife of a Ukrainian landowner, Evelina Hanska, stood out. This relationship, which began in or , resulted in the priceless collection of Balzac's letters to Hanska, titled "Letters to an Unknown Woman" (Lettres à l'étrangère, vols. published ; vols.
published ), and the correspondence (Correspondance, published ) with Zulma Carron, a friendship that lasted throughout his life.
Honore de balzac biography brevena e Balzac had undertaken careful research on the background, traveling to Britanny in order to ensure that his descriptions of the countryside and its inhabitants would be authentic. One of his most famous literary dandies, Henry de Marsay, epitomizes the sexual appeal and ambiguity of Balzac's version of the dandy. He was especially attracted by the theme of the individual in conflict with society: the adventurer, the scoundrel, the unscrupulous financier, and the criminal. What messages does he seem to be sending?Hanska promised to marry him after her husband's death. This happened in , but complications arose. Balzac's exhaustion from his colossal work, Hanska's indecisiveness, and the first signs of a serious illness marred Balzac's final years. When they finally married in March , he only had five months left to live. Balzac died in Paris on August 18,