The life of a balzac. Balzac. Balzac. Biography. Women of Balzac age

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 achievements were combined with petty ambition. Excellent knowledge of highly specialized fields 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 laws. The life of Honore de Balzac will be no exception.

Short biography of Honore de Balzac

The father of the writer was Bernard François Balsa, born into a poor family of peasants. He was born on June 22, 1746 in the village of Nougueira in the department of Tarn. His family had 11 children, of which he was the oldest. The family of Bernard Balsse predicted a spiritual career for him. However, the young man, with an extraordinary mind, love of life and activity, did not want to part with the temptations of being, 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 entertained himself with love intrigues until old age. This man was eccentric. He became rich thanks to the French Revolution, selling and buying up the confiscated land of the nobles. He later became assistant to the mayor of the French city of Tours. Bernard Balssa changed his last name, thinking it was plebeian. In the 1830s, his son Honore will also change his surname by adding to it a noble particle "de", he will justify this act with a version of his noble origin from the Balzac d'Antreg 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. Mother Honoré was a sensitive and intelligent woman. Despite her penchant for mysticism and resentment towards the whole wide world, she, like her husband, did not shun romance on the side. She loved her illegitimate children more than her firstborn Honore. She constantly demanded obedience, complained of non-existent diseases and grumbled. This poisoned Honoré's childhood and affected his behavior, affection and creativity. But the execution of his uncle, his father's brother, for killing a pregnant peasant woman was also a big blow to him. 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 noble family has not yet been proven.

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Childhood years of the writer. Education

The writer's childhood years passed outside the parental home. Until the age of three, he was looked after by a nurse, and after that he lived in a boarding house. After he got into the Vendome College of the Oratorian Fathers (he stayed there from 1807 to 1813). The time that he spent within the walls of the college is painted with bitterness in the memory of the writer. Honoré suffered a severe mental trauma 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 indefinitely. For Balzac, reading supplanted real life. Due to immersion in dreams, he often did not hear what was happening in the classroom, for which he was punished.

Honore was once subjected to such a punishment as "wooden pants." They put pads on him, which caused him to have a nervous breakdown. After that, the parents returned their son home. He began to wander like a somnambulist, slowly answered some questions, it was difficult for him to return to real life.

It is still not clear whether Balzac was being 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 solicitor, but this did not fascinate him.

Later life of Balzac

Honoré decided to become a writer. He asked his parents for financial help for his dream. The family council decided to help his son for 2 years. Honore's mother initially opposed this, but soon she was the first to understand the hopelessness of attempts to contradict her son. As a result, Honoré 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 was doing "day 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 is engaged in writing "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". The works began to be published under their own name.

Balzac had his own rather tough and very peculiar daily routine. The writer went to bed no later than 6-7 pm and got up to work at 1 am. 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 was at his desk until four o'clock in the afternoon. Then the writer took a bath and sat down to work again.

The difference between the writer and his father was that he did not intend to live long. Honoré was very frivolous about his own health. He had dental problems, but he did not go to the doctors.

The year 1832 was critical for Balzac. He was already famous. Novels were created that brought him popularity. Publishers are generous and pay advances for works not yet finished. All the more unexpected was the writer's illness, the origins of which probably go back to childhood. Honoré has verbal impairments, 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 full of rumors about the strangeness in the behavior of the writer, about the incoherence of his speech and incomprehensible pensiveness. In an attempt to stop this, Balzac goes to Sasha, where he lives with old acquaintances.

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

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 doping. For four years Balzac experienced 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 did not last long; the very next day the writer felt only some weakness. After this incident, Balzac often complains of headaches.

This fainting 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 graduating from 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 to measure with unwashed hair. But as soon as he joined the conversation, as those around him turned their eyes to him, ceasing to notice the strangeness of his appearance. No one was indifferent to his knowledge, intelligence and talent.

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

In 1849, heart weakness began to increase, and shortness of breath appeared. He began to suffer from bronchitis. Due to hypertension, retinal detachment began. There was a short-term improvement, which again gave way to a worsening of the condition. Heart hypertrophy and edema began to develop, fluid appeared in the abdominal cavity. Gangrene and intermittent delusions soon followed. Friends visited him, including Victor Hugo, who left very tragic notes.

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

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Personal life of the writer

Balzac was very timid and awkward by nature. And he felt timid even when a pretty young lady approached him. Next to him lived the de Berny family, who held a higher position. The writer had a passion for Laura de Bernie. She was 42 years old and had 9 children, while Balzac had just passed the milestone 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 Bernie. She was an aristocrat unattainable for Balzac, but she too fell before him after 8 months.

Few ladies were able to resist Honore. But such a highly moral woman was also found. Her name was Zulma Karro. It was a Versailles girlfriend of his sister Laura de Surville. Honoré had a passion for her, but she was only a mother's tenderness for him. The woman firmly said that they can only be friends.

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

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

But their marriage took place only in 1850, when the writer was already mortally ill. There were no invitees. After the newlyweds arrived in Paris, and on August 19, Honore passed away. 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 Gigoux, 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)

The first independent novel was Chuan, published in 1829. Fame was also brought to him by the following "Physiology of marriage". Further were created:

· 1830 - "Gobsek";

· 1833 - "Eugene Grande";

· 1834 - "Godis-Sar";

· 1835 - "Forgiven Melmot";

· 1836 - "Dinner of the Atheist";

· 1837 - "Museum of Antiquities";

· 1839 - "Pierre Grasse" and many others.

This also includes "Mischievous Tales". The real fame of the writer was brought by "Shagreen leather".

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

· "Studies on morals" (devoted to social phenomena);

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

· "Analytical studies" (about morals).

Writer innovation

Balzac moved away from the novel of the 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 outlines the life of estates, social phenomena, society. The line of works in the victory of the bourgeoisie over the aristocracy and the weakening of morality.

Quotes by Honore de Balzac

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

· "Eugenia Grande": "True love is given by foresight and knows that love evokes love."

· "Chuanas": "To forgive insults, you need to remember them."

· "Lily of the Valley": "People are more forgiven for a secret blow than for an offense inflicted in public."

Balzac's life was not ordinary, and neither was his mind. The works of this writer have conquered the whole world. And his biography is as interesting as his novels.

LECTURE 12-13

THE WORKS OF ONORE DE BALZAC

1. The life of a writer.

2. The versatility of the concept, the thematic and genre composition, the basic principles of the construction of the epic "The Human Comedy" by O. de Balzac.

3. Ideological and artistic analysis of the works "Eugenie Goande", "Shagreen leather".

1. The life of a writer

The first half of the 19th century did not know a brighter figure than ONORE BALZAC (1799-1850), who was rightly called "the father of modern realism and naturalism." His life is a living embodiment of the conditions in which the European, and especially, the French writer of the 19th century, found himself. Balzac lived for only 51 years, leaving the reader with 96 works. He planned to write about 150 of them, but did not manage to complete his grandiose plan. All of his works are interconnected by cross-cutting characters, who in some novels were the main characters, and in others - minor characters.

With Balzac, everyone finds their own. Some were impressed by the completeness and coherence of the picture of the world that he outlined. Others were worried about Gothic secrets, inscribed in this objective picture. Still others admired the colorful characters that the writer's imagination created, raised above reality by their greatness and their baseness.

Honore Balzac (he added the particle "de" to his surname later and quite arbitrarily) was born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours. His father Bernard François - a peasant son who was hard and for a long time getting into people - married only at fifty, taking a young girl from a wealthy family (she was 32 years younger than him). Mother hurried to get the firstborn out of her hands. The baby was sent to the village as a wet nurse, in which he spent 3 years. Mother did not visit often. Secular life and love affair with one of the local aristocrats completely absorbed her. Even after returning to the parental home, the mother saw her son only on Sundays. Honoré's childhood was difficult and joyless. The family almost did not engage in his upbringing.

Parents considered themselves to be educated people, so they did not spare money for the education of their children. At the age of 8, Honore was sent to study at the Vendomsky College, which became a "spiritual prison" for him, because there was strict supervision over the pupils, they were not even allowed to go home for the holidays. All letters were re-read by the censor, even resorting to corporal punishment. Young Balzac felt abandoned and oppressed in college, apparently because he studied mediocre and had a reputation among educators as an uncollected and poorly gifted student. Here he first began to write poetry and became interested in literature.

Having received his secondary education, with great difficulties Balzac enrolled as a free student at the Paris School of Law. In November 1816 he entered the Sorbonne Faculty of Law, and became interested in philosophy and fiction. And at the same time he had to work as a clerk in the office of a notary. The experience gained during the service became the source of many plot collisions in the works of The Human Comedy.

In 1819 Balzac graduated from the Faculty of Law and received a Bachelor of Laws degree. However, Honoré had no desire to vegetate in a notary's office, he wanted to become a writer (this happened in 1819, when the Napoleonic escapades irrevocably ended and the country was already ruled by the restored Bourbons). Mother did not want to hear about such a dubious career, but old Bernard François unexpectedly agreed to give her son something like a two-year probationary period. He even entered into a kind of deal with him on this, which provided for scanty financial assistance; after all, as A. Maurois wrote, “Balzac was born into a family where money was worshiped”.

When the military quartermaster Bernard-François Balzac was dismissed, the family settled in Vilpari, and Honoré remained in Paris, where he experienced creative torment, sitting in his attic in front of a blank sheet of paper. He wanted to become a writer, having no idea what he was going to write about; and took up a heroic tragedy - the genre of his talent is most contraindicated. Inspired by hopes, the young man worked on the tragedy "Cromwell", but the work came out weak, secondary, focused not on life, but on the canons of 17th century art. The tragedy was not recognized even in the family circle.

In 1820 - 1821. Balzac began work on the novel in letters "Steni, or Philosophical Wanderings", focusing on the work of J.-J. Russo and I. V. Goethe, as well as on the experience of personal experiences and impressions. However, this work remained unfinished: the writer lacked skill and maturity.

The spring of 1822 brought him a meeting with a woman who played an important role in his future life. Lara de Bernie, goddaughter of Louis XVI, was married and 22 years older than Balzac. This is the angel of friendship that accompanied Honoré for 15 years. She helped him with money and advice, was his critic. She became for him that motherly principle, which he had been looking for from his mother all his childhood. Balzac thanked her with love, but this did not mean that he remained faithful. Young girls rarely became his passions. It is no coincidence that in his work, exploring the evolution of the female soul from a young age to a ripe old age, the writer drew attention to the 30 - year - old, "Balzac" age. Indeed, it is at this time that a woman, in his opinion, reaches the heyday of physical and spiritual capabilities, frees herself from the illusions of youth.

Honore Balzac was a tutor to Madame Bernie's children. “Soon the Balzacs begin to notice something. First, Honore, even when he does not give lessons, goes to Bernie's house and spends days and evenings there. Secondly, he began to dress carefully, became friendlier, more accessible and much more welcoming. " When the mother found out about Madame Bernie's relationship with her son, she aroused a feeling of jealousy, moreover, soon rumors began to circulate in the city about Honore's frequent visits. To protect her son from this woman, the mother sent him to her sister.

From 1821 to 1825 Honoré de Balzac, first in co-authorship with others, and then independently began to write and publish novels full of secrets, horrors and crimes. He settled down in the attic on Ledig street and, encouraging himself with coffee, one by one wrote novels: “The Biragska heiress” (1822), “The Last Fairy, or New Magic Lamp” (1822), etc. The young prose writer signed various pseudonyms and in the future he refused to include his works in the collection, but the work did not bring any fame or royalties for a comfortable life.

In 1836, already well-known, he republished some of them, but under the pseudonym Horace de Saint-Aubin. Although the pseudonym was nothing more than a secret, Balzac never dared to publish these books for his own. He wrote in 1842 in the "Preface to the" Human Comedy "": "... I must draw the attention of readers to the fact that I recognize as my own only those works that came out under my name. In addition to The Human Comedy, I only own One Hundred Playful Stories, two plays and a few articles - and by the way, they are all signed. "

Researchers have often been tempted not to take into account the writer's early works at all. And it is hardly worth giving in to this temptation. Without them, the image of the writer would not be complete. In addition, they became a kind of testing field for him.

For some time, Honore Balzac generally turned into a literary day laborer, did not disdain any order that brought money. And that money was considerable at that time (especially for a novice writer, unknown to anyone, anonymous), and the family stopped thinking that Honore was wasting time on stupid things. He himself, however, was dissatisfied, because he hoped that literary work would immediately bring him pennies, fame and power. And young Balzac, pushed by ardent impatience, resorted to commercial speculation: he began to publish classics, bought a printing house, and then a foundry. He devoted almost three years to this activity - from 1825 to 1828, and as a result - bankruptcy and a huge debt, which was partly covered by the have, and partly by the already middle-aged mistress Madame de Berny. But Honore did not completely get rid of his debt until the end of his days, for over time he only increased it.

“For Balzac, - wrote another of his biographers, Stefan Zweig, - Midas, on the contrary (because everything he touched turned not into gold, but into debts) - everything and always ended in financial collapse ...”. He repeatedly embarked on adventures (published newspapers and magazines, bought shares in abandoned silver mines, worked for the theater in order to earn money), and all with the same result: instead of gold - debts, which gradually grew to truly astronomical figures.

In the second iol. 20s XIX century. articles and essays by Balzac appeared in the Paris press, which were talented sketches of typical characters and scenes from the life of different strata of French society. Many of them became the basis for images and situations in the works of The Human Comedy.

"The Last Chuan, or Brittany in 1800" (1829) - the first work of Balzac, signed by his last name (he generally called this novel his first work) - was published a year before "Red and Black" by Stendhal. But "Red and Black" is a masterpiece, a great monument of new realism, and "The Last Shuan" is something in between, immature.

Undoubtedly, Stendhal and Balzac are very different artistic personalities. The creativity of the first is, first of all, two peaks: "Red and Black" and "Parma Monastery". If he didn't even write anything else, he would still remain Stendhal. Balzac had things that he did better, and some worse. And yet, above all, he is the author of The Human Comedy as a whole. He knew and himself said about it: "The work on which the author is working will receive recognition in the future, primarily due to the breadth of its design, and not the value of individual details."

Real balzakivska creativity began on the eve of the revolution of 1830, which the writer accepted, but very quickly realized that the people would be deceived. Nevertheless, a significant part of his works revealed the theme of the Restoration ("Gobsek", "Shagreen leather", "Colonel Chabert", "Father Goriot", "Museum of Antiquities", "Glitter and poverty of courtesans").

In 1833, the novel "Eugene Grandet" was published, which defined a new era in the creative development of O. de Balzac. The subject of the depiction in the new work is bourgeois everyday life with its external and real current. Immediately after the publication of the book in Balzac, the idea arose to combine all his works into an epic.

In 1834, Jules Sandot found a temporary shelter in Balzac's apartment, and Aurora's companion Dupin was rejected. The writer offered him the post of secretary. Sando witnessed the dinner parties. But after a year and a half, he fled from Balzac, because he believed that it was better to die of hunger than to work like that.

After 30 years, Balzac began to dream of marriage with a noble, beautiful, young and rich woman, which would help him to improve his financial and personal problems.

In 1832 he received a letter with an Odessa stamp, which was signed "Outlander". The secret correspondent turned out to be Countess Evelina Hanska (born Rzhevusskaya), who belonged to a well-known Polish family and was only a year younger than Honore. She was married to Venueslav of Hansky, a wealthy landowner in Volyn. The correspondence soon grew into love, which was destined to continue until the writer's death. At first glance, Ganskaya did not occupy a special place in Balzac's life. In the intervals between meetings with his beloved, which took place in Switzerland, then in Germany, then in Italy, Balzac courted women, wrote novels ... However, everything changed when in 1841 Evelina became a widow. They spent more and more time together. Balzac often traveled to Russia, Ukraine, to Evelina's estate. In 1845 he was very shocked by the news of her pregnancy. In his dreams, the writer saw himself as a father, not doubting at all that he would have a son. The artist even named him Victor-Honore and began to make plans for the future. But the dreams were not destined to come true, because the baby was born 6 months old and died. On March 14, 1850 Balzac and Ganskaya got married in Berdichev. She knew perfectly well that she was waiting for the care of her sick husband and the position of the writer's widow, and yet she agreed to the marriage.

In 1835, after the publication of the novel "Father Goriot", real fame and recognition came to the writer. Short stories and novels appeared one after another. The beginning of the 30s. marked not only by the intense literary activity of Balzac. His successes opened the doors of aristocratic salons for him, which flattered his pride. Material affairs have stabilized, old dreams of a house, a carriage, a shoemaker have come true. The artist lived widely and freely.

When fame came, when he became the master of thoughts, his huge fees could no longer change anything. The money disappeared before it appeared in the wallet; devour debts, they poured, as if into an abyss, not satisfying even a small part of creditors. The great Balzac ran away from them like a frivolous rake, and once (albeit for a short time) even ended up in a debt prison.

All this radically changed his life. To pay off debts, he had to work at a feverish speed (in about two decades, he wrote 74 novels, many short stories, essays, plays, articles), and in order to maintain the fame of a successful dandy spoiled by success, he had to go into debt again and again.

However, Honore did not seek a way out of this vicious circle. Apparently, the eternal haste, the atmosphere of an increasing number of falls and adventures were indispensable conditions for his existence, and only under such circumstances, probably, could Balzac's genius manifest itself. So, at first, Balzac quite soberly set himself the goal of becoming a writer, and only then, "after ten years of random searches ... discovered his true vocation." He wrote 12-14 hours a day without interruption in an almost somnambulistic state, turning night into day and fighting sleep and fatigue with giant servings of black coffee; coffee eventually drove him to his grave.

40s of the XIX century - the last period of Balzac's creativity and no less significant and fruitful. There were 28 new novels by the prose writer. However, from the autumn of 1848 he worked little and did not print almost anything, because his health condition deteriorated sharply: heart disease, liver disease, severe headaches. The powerful organism of the creator of The Human Comedy was broken by overwork. Balzac actually burned out in labor, having lived to almost 50 years. This happened on August 18, 1850. However, the conclusion of his creative activity and skill was the "Human Comedy", which brought him real recognition and immortality for centuries.

In his funeral speech V. Hugo said: "This powerful and tireless worker, this philosopher, this thinker, this genius lived among us a life full of dreams, struggle, battles - a life that all great people live at all times."

2. The versatility of the concept, the thematic and genre composition, the basic principles of the construction of the epic "The Human Comedy" by O. de Balzac

The circle of literary interests of O. de Balzac was evidence that he felt the need to develop his own reasoned view of the world. The result of such searches was the formation of the philosophical foundation of the future grandiose epic of Balzac: the concept of the world and man, implemented in the "Human Comedy" even before he approached its creation.

"Congratulate me. After all, it has only deteriorated that I am a genius ”, - so, according to the recollections of Balzac's sister Surville, the writer himself announced the emergence of a new idea, which had no analogues in world literature. In 1833, he openly declared his desire to combine his novels into one epic. A peculiar feature that symbolized the beginning of the creation of a new book was the novel "Father Goriot", which the author graduated from in 1835. Starting with this work, Balzac began to systematically take the names and characters of the heroes from his previous works.

The power of gold has become one of the cross-cutting themes of world literature. Almost all outstanding writers of the XIX-XX centuries. turned to her. The outstanding French prose writer Honore de Balzac, the author of a cycle of novels under the general title "The Human Comedy", which he wrote for over 20 years, was no exception. In these works, the writer strove to embody an artistic generalization of the life of French society in the period 1816-1848.

The connection between the artist's prose and the real life of France in the era of the Restoration is complex and numerous. He skillfully mixed up references to historical details and real events with the names of the heroes of The Human Comedy and the events described in it. But Balzac did not intend to recreate an exact copy of reality. He did not hide the fact that what France appeared in The Human Comedy had the imprint of his ideas about the meaning and content of human life and the history of civilization as a whole. But we can say for sure that he consistently implemented in his work a humanistic view of the history of civilization. The story of morality that Balzac wrote is a story seen through people with all their dreams, passions, grief and joys.

The writer decided in his works to show the widest possible panorama of the life of France of his era, but later became convinced that this could not be done within the framework of one novel. This is how a cycle began to take shape, which in 1842 was named "The Human Comedy".

Since the plan of the balzac epic matured gradually, the principles of classification of works that were included in it changed many times. Initially, the artist planned to name the main work of his life "Social Studies", but later "The Divine Comedy" Dite led him to another idea about the title of the work. The grandiose work demanded a majestic title. She did not come to the writer immediately, but much later (by analogy with Dante's Divine Comedy). Tragedy of the 18th century replaced by the comedy of the middle of the XIX century. The writer himself explained the chosen title in the following way: “The huge scope of the plan, simultaneously covers the history and criticism of society, the analysis of its shortcomings and discussion of its foundations allows, I think, to give it the title under which it will appear -“ The Human Comedy ”. Or is he pretentious, just correct? It will be decided by the readers themselves when the work is finished. "

The first step on the way to "The Human Comedy" was Balzac's appeal to the genre of "physiological essay", which had nothing to do with physiology in the medical sense of the word. It was a kind of study of certain social phenomena. "Physiological Sketch" - art journalism, touching upon contemporary topics and developed a rich material of social, everyday and psychological observations.

The first sketches of the grandiose work appeared in 1833 ("Shagreen Skin"), work on the last pages ended shortly before the author's death ("The wrong side of modern history", 1848). In 1845, the writer compiled a list of all the works of The Human Comedy, which included 144 titles. But he did not have time to realize his plan in full.

In a letter to Madame Carro, he wrote: “My work should include all types of people, all social conditions, he should embody all social shifts so that no life situation, no person, no character, male or female, or one way of life, not one profession, not anyone's views, not a single French province, not even something from childhood, old age, adulthood, politics, law or military affairs were not forgotten. "

Ordinary phenomena - both secret and explicit - as well as events in his personal life, their reasons and perceptible foundations, Balzac gave no less weight than historians attached to the events of the social life of peoples. “It’s not an easy job to describe 2–3 thousand people who somehow stand out against the background of their era, for approximately so many types will eventually accumulate that represent each generation, and“ L. To." will contain all of them. Such a number of persons, characters, such a multitude of destinies needed a certain framework and - may they forgive me for this statement - galleries. "

The society, which became the fruit of the creative energy of the writer, possessed all the signs of reality. From one work to another, "common characters" passed, which, along with the universality of the creative method and the author's concept, strengthened the writer's intention, giving it the scale of the architectural structure. Gradually, Balzac had his own doctors (B "yanshon, Deplein), detective (Corantin, Perad), lawyers (Dervil, Desroche), financiers (Nussingen, the Keller brothers, du Tillet), usurers (Gobsek, Palme, Bidault), nobility ( Listomeri, Kergaruti, Monfrin'zi, Granly, Ronkeroli, Rogani), etc.

To comprehend the grandioseness of the general idea of ​​Balzac allowed the "Preface to the" Human Comedy ". "The original idea of ​​the" Human Comedy "appeared before me as a dream, as one of those vague plans, you grow them, but you cannot clearly imagine ...".

The main provisions of the "Preface ..."

The idea of ​​this work was born as a result of comparing humanity with the animal world.

The desire to find a single mechanism in society, since, in his opinion, it is similar to Nature.

The writer identified three forms of human existence: "men, women and things."

The main idea of ​​the plan is to give a huge panorama of society based on the law of selfishness.

Balzac did not profess Russoist ideas about the "natural kindness of man."

"The Human Comedy" is divided into three parts, each of which Balzac called etudes (vivchennias): "Studies on morals", "Philosophical studies", "Analytical studies". The central place in it was occupied by "Studies on Customs", which the writer divided into different scenes of life. This scheme was of a conditional nature, some works passed from one section to another. According to the scheme, the author arranged his novels in this way (the most important works):

1. "Studies on morals".

A) Scenes of private life. "House of the Cat Playing Ball", "Ball in So", "Marital Consent", "Spin-off Family", "Gobsek", "Silhouette of a Woman", "30-Year-Old Woman", "Colonel Chabert", "Abandoned Woman" , "Father Goriot", "Marriage Contract", "Lunch of the Atheist", "Daughter of Eve", "Beatrice", "First Steps to Science".

B) Scenes of provincial life. "Eugenia Grande", "The Illustrious Godissard", "Provincial Muse", "The Old Maid", "Pyretta", "The Life of a Bachelor", "Lost Illusions".

C) Scenes of Parisian life. The Story of the Thirteen, The Splendor and Poverty of the Courtesans, Facino Canet, The Business Man, The Prince of Bohemia, Cousin Betta.

D) Scenes of political life. "The wrong side of modern history", "Dark business", "Episodes of the era of terror."

E) Scenes of military life. Shuani, Passion in the Desert.

F) Scenes of rural life. "Rural Doctor", "Rural Priest", "Peasants".

2. "Philosophical studies".

"Shagreen Skin", "Forgiven Melmoth", "Unknown Masterpiece", "Cursed Child", "Search for the Absolute", "Goodbye", "Executioner", "Elixir of Longevity".

3. "Analytical studies".

"Philosophy of Marriage", "Small Adversities of Married Life."

"Studies on morals" constituted the general history of society, where all events and deeds are collected. Each of the six sections corresponded to one of the main thoughts. Each had its own meaning, its own meaning and covered a certain period of human life:

“Scenes from private life depict childhood, adolescence and age-specific mistakes.

Scenes of provincial life portray passions in their adulthood, describing calculations, interests and ambitions.

Scenes of Parisian life paint a picture of tastes, vices and irrepressible manifestations of life associated with the customs that flourish in the capital, where you can simultaneously meet both unique good and unique evil.

The scenes of political life reflect the interests of many or all - that is, we are talking about a life that seems to flow not in a common channel.

Scenes of military life show the grandiose picture of the Society in a state of the highest tension, when it transcends its existence - when it defends itself against an enemy invasion or goes on campaigns of conquest.

Scenes of country life are like the evening of a long day. In this section, the reader will for the first time meet the purest characters and will show how to implement the high principles of order, politics and morality. "

It is difficult to name all the themes of the works of Honore de Balzac. The author took into account seemingly anti-artistic themes: the enrichment and bankruptcy of the merchant, the history of the estate changed the owner, speculation in land plots, financial scams, the fight over the will. In the novels, it was these main events that determined the relationship between parents - children, women - men, lovers - mistresses.

The main theme that united Balzac's works into one whole is the desire to explain the laws of reality. The author was interested not only in specific topics and problems, but also in the interrelation of these problems; not only individual passions, but also the formation of a person under the influence of the environment.

These methods allowed the writer to draw certain conclusions in the book about the degradation of man in bourgeois society. However, he did not absolutize the influence of the environment, but led the hero to an independent choice of his life path.

Such a huge number of works and characters were united by the following: Balzac developed an important motive for human actions - the desire to get rich.

The inner structure of The Human Comedy is such that great novels and novellas alternated in it with novellas-“crossroads” - “The Prince of Bohemia”, “The Business Man”, “Comedians unknown to themselves”. Rather, these are sketches involuntarily written, the main value of which is a meeting with characters well known to the writer, who for a short time were once again united by intrigue.

The writer built the "Human Comedy" on the principle of cyclicality: most of the characters passed from work to work, acting as the main characters in some and episodic in others. Balzac boldly abandoned the plot, where the biography of one or another hero was given in full.

Thus, an important compositional principle of "The Human Comedy" is the interaction and interconnection of various parts of the cycle (for example, the actions of "Gobsec" and "Father Goriot" took place almost simultaneously, they also had a common character - Anastasi de Resto - the daughter of Gorio's father and the count's wife de Resto).

It is very problematic to accurately and unambiguously define the genre of this work. Most often, two definitions are given: a cycle of novels and an epic. It is unlikely that they can be attributed to the "Human Comedy". Formally, this is a cycle of novels, or rather, works. But many of them lack means of communication with each other - for example, neither plots, nor problems, nor common heroes connected the novels "Shuani", "Peasants", "Glitter and poverty of courtesans" and the story "Shagreen Skin". And there are many such examples. The definition of "epic" also only partially concerns "The Human Comedy". The epic, in its modern form, is characterized by the presence of pivotal characters and a common plot, which Balzac did not have.

The most difficult version of cyclical unity is the unification of works of different genres (novels, short stories, short stories, essays, stories) within the framework of one concept. In this case, a huge life material, a huge number of characters, the scale of the writer's generalizations also made it possible to talk about an epic. As a rule, in this context, first of all, people remember Balzac's The Human Comedy and E. Zola's Rugon-Makkari, created under the influence of Balzac's masterpiece.

3. Ideological and artistic analysis of the works "Eugenie Grandet", "Shagreen leather"

In 1831 Balzac published the novel "Shagreen Skin", which "was supposed to formulate modernity, our life, our egoism." The main theme of the work is that of a talented but poor young man who lost the dreams of her youth in a collision with a selfish and spiritless bourgeois society. Already in this book, the main feature of the writer's work was outlined - the fantastic images did not contradict the realistic display of reality, but, on the contrary, gave the stories a special intrigue and philosophical generalizations.

Philosophical formulas are revealed in the novel by the example of the fate of the protagonist Raphael de Valentin, who was faced with the dilemma of the century: “to desire” and “to be able”. Infected with the disease of time, Raphael, who initially chose the path of a scientist, abandon him for the splendor and pleasures of secular life. Having experienced a complete collapse in his ambitious intentions, rejected by the woman whom he was so fond of, left without a minimum means of subsistence, the hero was already ready to commit suicide. It was at this time that fate brought him together with an amazing old man, an antique dealer, who handed him an omnipotent talisman - shagreen leather, for the owner of which desire and opportunities became reality. However, the payment for all desires is the life of Raphael, who very quickly began to emerge along with the decrease in the size of the pebbled skin. There was only one way out of this situation for the hero - to satisfy all desires.

Thus, the novel reveals two systems of being: a life full of pleasures and passions, which led to the destruction of man, and an ascetic life, whose only pleasure was knowledge and potential power. Balzac portrayed both the strengths and weaknesses of both these systems using the example of Raphael, who at first almost did not destroy himself in the mainstream of passions, and then slowly died in a "vegetable" existence without desires and emotions.

"Raphael could do anything, but he did nothing." The reason for this is the hero's selfishness. Wanting to have millions and having received them, Raphael, previously overflowing with desires and dreams, immediately reborn: "a deeply egoistic thought entered into his very essence and swallowed the universe for him."

All the events in the novel are strictly motivated by a natural coincidence: Raphael, having received shagreen skin, immediately wished for entertainment and orgies, and at the same moment he stumbled upon his old friend, who invited him to “a luxurious party at Tayfer's house; there the hero accidentally met with a notary, who had been looking for the heir of the deceased millionaire for two weeks, it turned out to be Raphael, and so on. So, the fantastic image of shagreen leather acted as "a means of purely realistic reflection of feelings, moods and events" (Goethe).

In 1833, the novel "Eugenie Grandet" was published. The subject of the image in the new work is bourgeois everyday life with its usual course of events. The place of action is Saumur, typical of the French province, which is revealed against the background of the rivalry between two noble families of the city - Cruchon and Grassin, who were arguing for the hand of the heroine of the novel Eugénie, the heiress of the multimillion-dollar property of “Father Grandet”.

The protagonist of the novel is Eugénie's father. Felix Grande is the image of a provincial rich man, an exceptional personality. The thirst for money filled his soul, destroyed all human feelings in him. The news of his brother's suicide left him completely indifferent. In the fate of his orphaned nephew, he did not take any part in the family, quickly sending him to India. The curmudgeon left his wife and daughter without the bare essentials, saving even on doctor's visits. Grande changed his usual indifference to his dying wife only after he learned that her death threatened with the distribution of property, since it was Eugénie who was the legitimate heiress of his mother. The only one to whom he was not indifferent in his own way was his daughter. And that was only because I saw in her the future shore of the accumulated wealth. “Take care of the gold, take care! You will give me an answer in the next world, ”- these are the last words of the father, addressed to the child.

The passion for accumulation not only dehumanized Felix Grande, it is the cause of the premature death of his wife and the lost life of Eugénie, whom his father denied the natural right to love and be loved. Passion also explained the sad evolution of Charles Grandet, who came to his uncle's house as an unspoiled youth, and returned from India cruel and greedy, having lost the best features of his self.

Building a biography of Grandet, Balzac analytically exposed the “roots” of the hero's degradation in a wide exposition, thereby drawing a parallel with bourgeois society, which asserted its greatness with the help of gold. This image was often compared with the image of Gobsek. But the thirst for profit in Gobsec and Grande was of a different nature: if Gobseck's cult of gold was invested in a philosophical understanding of the greatness of wealth, then Grande simply loved money for the sake of money. The realistic image of Felix Grande is not endowed with the romantic traits that made their way alone in Gobsekovі. If the complexity of Gobsek's nature somehow impressed Balzac, then Father Grande, in his primitiveness, did not arouse any sympathy in the writer.

Saumur millionaire is opposed by his daughter. It was Eugénie, with her indifference to gold, high spirituality and desire for happiness, who decided to come into conflict with her father. The origins of the dramatic collision are in the heroine's love for her young cousin Charles. In the fight for Charles - beloved and in love - she showed rare perseverance and audacity. But Grande took a cunning path, sending his nephew to faraway India for gold. If Eugénie's happiness did not come, then Charles himself became the reason for this, betraying youthful love for the sake of money and social status. Having lost the meaning of life with love, the internally devastated Eugénie continued to exist at the end of the novel, as if fulfilling her father's behest: days when her father let her ... Always dressed as her mother dressed. The Saumur house, without sun, without warmth, is constantly filled with melancholy - a reflection of her life. "

This is how sad the story of Eugénie appeared - a woman created by nature for the happiness of being a wife and mother. But through her spirituality and dissimilarity to others, for the despot-father, she "... received neither a husband, nor children, nor a family."

The creative method of the writer

Balzac's heroes were introduced: bright, talented, extraordinary personalities;

Tendency to contrasts and exaggeration;

Balzac worked on the character in three stages:

Sketched the image of a person, starting from someone from his acquaintances or from literature,

Collected all the material into a single whole;

The character became the embodiment of a certain passion, an idea that gave him a certain form;

Everything that happened in his works is the result of numerous causes and consequences;

A significant place in the works was given to descriptions.

Questions for self-control

1. Why is Honore de Balzac called "the father of modern realism and naturalism"?

2. Expand the main idea of ​​the writer of "The Human Comedy".

3. What unites such a mass of Balzac's works into one whole?

4. What are the basic principles of constructing the epic "Human Comedy"?

(1799 - 1850)

French novelist considered the father of the naturalistic novel. Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in Tours (France). Father Honoré de Balzac - Bernard François Balsa (some sources indicate the name of Waltz) - a peasant who got rich during the years of the revolution by buying and selling confiscated noble lands, and later became an assistant to the mayor of Tours.

Having entered the service in the department of military supplies and found himself among the officials, he changed his "native" surname, considering it plebeian. At the turn of the 1830s. Honore, in turn, also changed his surname, adding to it the noble particle "de" without permission, justifying this by the invention of his origin from the noble family of Balzac d "Entregues. Honore Balzac's mother was 30 years younger than his father, which, in part, was the reason for 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 the city of Vendome; in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, serving at the same time as a clerk in a notary office. The father strove to prepare his son for advocacy, but Honoré decided to become a poet. At the family council, it was decided to give him two years to make his dream come true. Honore de Balzac writes the drama "Cromwell", but the newly convened family council recognizes the work as useless and the young man is denied material assistance. This was followed by a streak of material hardships.

Balzac's literary career began around 1820, when, under various pseudonyms, he began to publish action-packed novels and wrote moralistic "codes" of secular behavior. Later, some of the first novels came out under the pseudonym Horace de Saint-Aubin. The period of anonymous creativity ended in 1829 after the publication of the novel "Chouans, or Brittany in 1799". Honore de Balzac called the novel "Shagreen Skin" (1830) the "starting point" of his work. From 1830, under the general title "Scenes of Private Life", short stories from contemporary French life began to be published.

In 1834, the writer decided to link the common heroes already written since 1829 and future works, combining them into an epic, later called "The Human Comedy" (La comedie humaine). Honore de Balzac considered Moliere, François Rabelais and Walter Scott to be his main literary teachers. Twice a novelist writer tried to make a political career, nominating himself in 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.

Since 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 - to Ukraine. An official marriage with E. Hanska was concluded 5 months before the death of Honore de Balzac, who died on August 18, 1850 in Paris. In 1858, the writer's sister, Madame Surville, wrote his biography - "Balzac, sa vie et ses oeuvres d" apres sa correspondance. " or the Life of Balzac "), Wurmser (" Inhuman Comedy ").

Among the works of Honore de Balzac are stories, short stories, philosophical studies, stories, novels, plays (5 plays were published); about 90 works made up the epic "The Human Comedy" (La comedie humaine). The number of characters in the works of the novelist has reached four thousand.

Honore de Balzak France, 20/05/1799 - 18/08/1850 French novelist, considered the father of the naturalistic novel. Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours (France). Father Honoré de Balzac - Bernard François Balsa (some sources indicate the name of Waltz) - a peasant who got rich during the years of the revolution by buying and selling confiscated noble lands, and later became an assistant to the mayor of Tours. After joining the military supply department and being among the officials, he changed his own surname, considering it plebeian. At the turn of the 1830s. Honoré, in turn, also changed his surname, adding to it a part of the nobility de, justifying it with an invention about his origin from the noble family of Balzac d "Entregues. Honore Balzac's mother was 30 years younger than his father, which, in part, was the reason her betrayals: the father of Honore's younger brother - Henri - was the owner of the castle.In 1807-1813 Honore studied at the College of the city of Vendome; in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, serving at the same time as a clerk in a notary office.Balzac's father sought to prepare him for advocacy , but Honoré decided to become a poet. At the family council it was decided to give him two years to fulfill his dream. Honoré de Balzac writes the drama Cromwell, but the newly convened family council recognizes the work as useless and Honoré is denied material assistance. This was followed by a streak of material hardships. Balzac's career began around 1820, when, under various pseudonyms, he began to publish action-packed novels and compose moral new codes of secular conduct. Later, some of the first novels came out under the pseudonym Horace de Saint-Aubin. The period of anonymous creativity ended in 1829 after the publication of the novel Chouana, or Brittany, in 1799. Honore de Balzac referred to the novel Shagreen Leather (1830) as the starting point of his work. From 1830, under the general title Scenes of Private Life, short stories from contemporary French life began to be published. In 1834, Balzac decided to link the common heroes already written from 1829 and future works, combining them into an epic, later called the Human Comedy (La comedie humaine). Balzac twice tried to make a political career, nominating himself in 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 to the Ukraine. Official marriage with E. Hanska 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, Madame Surville, wrote a biography of the writer - “Balzac, sa vie et ses oeuvres d" apres saance. " Balzac), Wurmser (Inhuman Comedy) Among the works of Honore de Balzac - stories, short stories, philosophical studies, stories, novels, plays.

Honore de Balzac - French novelist, one of the founders 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 strained financial situation, worked with perseverance and perseverance, composed a lot of impossible projects to get rich, but never got out of debt and was forced to write novel after novel, studying 12-18 hours a day. The result of this work was 91 novels, which make up one general cycle "The Human Comedy", where more than 2000 persons are described with their characteristic individual and everyday features.

Honore de Balzac. Daguerreotype 1842

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

In his novels, Honoré de Balzac is an apt and thoughtful portrayal of human nature and social relations. He described the bourgeois class, popular mores and characters with a truthfulness and strength almost unknown before him. For the most part, each of the persons he brings out has some one predominant passion, which serves as the motivating cause of 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 so clearly puts these features in dependence on the living conditions 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 set Balzac's heroes into action is money. The author, who spent his whole life invented ways for faster and more reliable enrichment, had the opportunity to study the world of businessmen, swindlers, entrepreneurs with their grandiose plans, exaggerated, fantastic hopes that disappear like soap bubbles and carry away with them both the initiators and those who believed them. Balzac brought this world into his "Human Comedy" along with all the differences that the passion for money creates in people with different mentalities and different habits created by this or that environment. Balzac's description of the latter is often enough to characterize his characters; The smallest details of the situation are portrayed by the author with great accuracy, giving his general picture an idea of ​​the moral side of the heroes. This desire alone 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 in detail the terrain, environment, persons, before taking up the description. He traveled almost all over France, studying the areas in which the action of his novels takes place; he made a variety of acquaintances, tried to talk with people of different professions and different social environment. Therefore, all of his characters are vital, although most of them burn out from one prevailing passion, which can be vanity, envy, avarice, a passion for profit, or, as in Father Goriot, paternal love for daughters has turned into mania.

But as strong as Balzac 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 people mainly those whose vices make it possible to see more clearly the true underlay of human nature. Balzac's shortcomings as a writer include the poverty of his style and the lack of a sense of proportion. Even in the famous image of the hotel in "Father Goriot", the excessive description and passion of the artist are noticeable. The plot of his novels often does not correspond to the realism of characters and setting; romanticism in this respect influenced him mainly with 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 in perfection.