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Préface îii

Introductory vii

La Recherche de L'Absolu i

Notes 295

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The Life of Balzac

Honoré de Balzac was born în Tours, a cîty now of about 70,000 people, on the Loîre some hundred and twenty-five miles southwest of Paris, the 2ist of May, 1799. His parents were not of the nobility, and Honoré added the "de'' to hîs name hîmself in 1830. The Street where stands the house în which he was born îs now the principal business thoroughfare of Tours. The ground floor of the house is at présent occupied by the local branch of the Crédit Lyonnais, the great French banking house. In a square at one end of this street is a statue of Balzac seated.

Hîs father was from the South and his mother was a native of Paris. The father seems to hâve been a man of gréât vigor, both mental and physical. He lîved to be past eighty, but the son by his unwise habits and overwork exhausted hîs héritage of vigor and died at fifty.

Honoré began hîs éducation with a governess, and at the âge of eight was sent to Vendôme, a quiet little town some fifty miles from Tours, to enter a church scbool. Without a single visit home he remained

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hère untîl, in the Spring of 1813, he fell ÎU, and the head of the school requested his parents to withdraw him. The next year his father, who held a government position, was ordered to Paris, where the lad was soon put to the study of law in an office. His law apprenticeship lasted three years, during which time he also attended lectures at the Sorbonne and continued his gênerai éducation with tutors. '^ • Ail this time his iriterest in literature had been growing, and he now announced his intention of going no farther with the law but of making an attempt to become famous by his pen. He persuaded his family to give him a sufficient allowance to ward off actual starvation and began his literary efforts in a Paris garret. The family was now Kving in a suburb, but the youth was sure he could succeed better by himself in the city.

The first completed work of the future novelist was a tragedy, Cromwell, 1820. This he read in triumph to a choice circle, only to be advised by an old professor to go into any other field than that of literature. The failure of this play, however, merely cleared the young man's mind of a doubt as to wherfe his talent lay, and decided him to dévote himself to the novel.

From 1820 to 1830 he learned his trade in the hard school of failure and disappointment. Except for Les Chouans not a bit of his famé rests on the more than fôrty stories that belong to this décade, They are extravagant taies of wild adventure in the worst man-

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ner of the Romantic school. He made but little money în this way, went înto the prîntîng business, failed, and in 1830 was hopelessly in debt. No man of letters ever had more fondness for trying his hand at business or less head for it. But he had been improvîng at his trade, and in 1829 he brought out an historical novel, Les Chouans, the success of which was a turning point for the struggling writer. This book was shortly followed by the Physiologie du Mariage, a clever satire that was eagerly read and gave Balzac a position in the literary world.

Feeling firm ground beneath his feet by the year 1834, Balzac definitely plunged into the program that was to tax and break down his powers in the next fifteen years. His ambition was to become the historian of French society. He aimed to make the record complète; to présent ail classes of people in ail sorts of conditions. As the conception grew on him and the books flowed f rom his pen he gave the work the title of the Human Comedy, and later he grouped the several books under certain headings. He worked at high pressure, goaded by the need of paying off debts and the désire for famé. The latter goal he attained, but the debts remained with him nearly to the end. Though his earnings were large, he could not save any money. He was extravagant in his habits, he could not keep out of wild get-rich-quick ventures, and his methods of publication were very costly. His revisions of ten cost him fifty cents a page.

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Along with thèse currents in Balzac's life went another that must be noted. Women had a strong influence over hïm. He had many real friendships among them, and one serious love affair. In 1832 he began to receîve unsigned letters from a lady who had been attracted to hîm by admiration for his work. At length she disclosed herself. She was a Madame Hanska, wife of a Russian count. The next year she allowed Balzac to meet her and her family in Swîtzerland. They fell in love with each other, though they seldom met nntil after Count Hanska's death in 1841. Even then she refused to let Balzac consummate his desires in marriage, putting him off on one pretext and another until early in 1850. Then after he had contracted serious bronchial trouble by a trip to the severe climate of her Russian estate, they wcre married, and came to Paris in May of the same year. But happiness had corne to him too late. On the i8th of August he died, his early death beîng the resuit of a hfe spent in overtaxing his strength, in worry over money matters, and perhaps in deferring his hopes in a love affair in which he was sincère.

The Man's Work

Of Balzac's early work nothing more need be said. It is the product of the last twenty years of his life with which we are concerned. In many éditions this amounts to about forty volumes, of which several are

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collections of short storîes. In ail, the Human Comedy contains nearly one hundred différent titles. He also wrote a set of thirty Droïl Stories or taies written in the style of Boccaccio and the language of Rabelais. He composed six completed dramas and found, time to turn out over three hundred miscellaneous articles and pamphlets.

The Human Comedy he divided into classes and made several rearrangements of the classification of the différent books. This classification hère foUows with an example or two for each class. There are two gênerai divisions, the first having subdivisions. I. Études de Mœurs: i. Scènes delà Vie Privée: Le Père Goriot, 2. Scènes de la Vie de Province: Eugénie Grandet, Le Lys dans la Vallée, 3. Scènes de la Vie Parisienne: César Birotteau. 4. Scènes de la Vie Politique: Une ténébreuse Affaire, 5. Scènes de la Vie Militaire: Les Chouans, 6. Scènes de la Vie de Campagne: Le Médecin de Campagne, Le Curé de Village,

II. Études Philosophiques: La Peau de Chagrin, La Recherche de V Absolu. Balzac also planned a third séries, to be classed as Études Analytiques, but did not live to produce it.

Though claimed by the realists as their founder, Balzac had many romantic inclinations. Even after 1830, when he had entered upon his second and great manner, there are marked romantic traits in his work, especially in the earlier numbers of the great séries. It is not difficult to find in Balzac the folio wing qualities,

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usually acceptée! as belonging to the Romantic school; exaggeration, subjectïvity, love of mystery, a taste for the grotesque, attention to local color, the portrayai of ail classes of socïety, an enlarged vocabulary and an inferior style. While Hugo exaggerates everythîng, Balzac usually confines himself to exaggerating the mental and moral qualitîes of the people he créâtes. For him cach individual is possesscd of one maîn îdea' ^ that détermines his life and conduct and excludes aU other impulses. We usually say that the principal personages of his stories are monomaniacs, and this is largely true. Most of them are the victims of vices and evil passions, but this is not always the case. One of his most famous créations, Old Goriot, is the victim of his boundless dévotion to his selfish and thankless daughters. Subjectïvity is exemplified by the manner in which Balzac saturatea his writings with money matters. Always in debt himself, he cannot keep debts and money out of his work. The mysterious sîde of romanticism is évident in his stories dealing with religions mysticism (Balzac was much intcrested in Swedenborgianism and hypnotism). The leaning to the grotesque is seen in his ability to do the ugly and sordid better than the beautiful and good. His local color differs from that of the romantic writers in being accurate and based on observation, while theirs is more often incorrect and based on imagination. From the very title of his work it is évident that Balzac will not confine his picture of life to high life. His subjects

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also compel hîm to employ a large vocabulary, and his style îs so heavy and inadéquate that we must read him for what he has to say and not for the pleasing way in which he says it. Even after many years spent in feeling hîs way, in learning to write, Balzac never acquired a good style. We must enjoy him by taking his work en bloc, by wondering at the vastness and variety of the structure he has reared, and not by seeking for beauty of détail. Those who are interested in the study of French society in the first half of the last century will find in the Human Comedy wherewith to satisfy their désire.

In The Quest of the Absolute Balzac has given us a work which contains most of his good qualities and few of his defects. While it is in no sensé a mère taie, it does not weary the reader by its undue length, as is the case with some of his novels. It is not so crowded with characters as to bewilder the reader, and those it does contain are clearly drawn and sympathetically presented.

Classed by the author among his Études Philosophiques, the book is really a study in psychology which is what he means by "philosophiquet" For though Balzac had fair understanding of mental processes, he was not philosophical in any sensé. None of his books better exemplify his theory that most men are

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dominated by some one overmastering îdea, whîch, having once taken firm hold on them, grows until they are its slaves, and until the outcome is disaster for themselves and those about them. But in thîs case the happy fate of some of the members of the monomaniac's family relieves the feeling of dépression which he often leaves with us.

Balthazar Claes, a wealthy and respectable Flemish citizen, becoming filled with the idea that he is on the verge of a w.onderful discovery in the field of chemistry, squandering his fortune and that of his family so far as he can, lettîng his wife die heart-broken from his folly and neglect, trying to control his mania, failing again and agaîn and dying with the word ^'Eurêka'' on his lips, is a typical Balzacian conception. But to offset this tragic figure, we find two examples of unexcelled womanly dévotion in the persons of the wife and daughter of the mad chemist. In depicting them, Balzac has avoided two of his fréquent faults: making dévotion maudlin and blind, as in the case of Old Goriot, and making good woman vague and unnatural, as in the case of Ursule Mirouet. Madame Claes, sacrificing herself for her husband, does so with her eyes wide open. She is never deceived as to the real state of affairs as is Old Goriot in regard to his heartless children. Mlle Claes is one of the most real and attractive characters Balzac has given us. Dutiful and loving, she is also strong and sensible, and refuses to let her father's folly ruin the rest of the family.

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While the story îs not lackîng in descriptions, except for those dealing wîth the city of Douai and the Claes home, they are not so long as to retard the narrative. Speaking of thèse descriptions, Julien Lemer says {Balzac, sa vie et son œuvre) : "Il est peu de tableaux aussi parfaits que celui de la ville de Douai en 1812 et celui de Tintérieur flamand de Thôtel Van Claes." Another citation from a French critic seems very apropos hère in considering this taie of a scientist and his laboratory. It is a passage cited from Taine by Ferdinand Brunetière (Honoré de Balzac), and runs as follows: "Balzac échauffe et allume lentement sa fournaise; on souffre de ses efforts; on travaille péniblement avec lui dans ses noirs ateliers fumeux, où il prépare, à force de science, les fanaux multiples qu^l va planter par millions et dont les lumières entre-croisées et concentrées vont éclairer la campagne. A la fin tout s'embrase, le spectateur regarde, et il voit moins vite, moins aisément, moins splendidement avec Balzac qu'avec Shakespeare, mais les mêmes choses, aussi loin et aussi avant."

La Recheche de V Absolu was completed and published in 1834. It had been composed along with the famous Père Goriot. Balzac studied chemistry in préparation for this novel and revised its proof more than a dozen times. It was dramatized in 1837 under the fan tas tic title, A +Mx =0+X,or the Dream oj a Savant, Claes is turned into a Parisian chemist and made the candidate for a vacant chair in the Collège de France. The

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outcome was more fortunate for the hero, but even so the play was not a success. When ail is said and done, the story must be considered one of Balzac's masterpieces, to be ranked wîth Père Goriot and Eugénie Grandet.