(1799 - 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 François Balssa (some sources indicate Vals's surname), is a peasant who became rich during 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 military supply department and finding himself among officials, he changed his “native” surname, considering it plebeian. At the turn of the 1830s. Honore, in turn, also modified his surname, arbitrarily adding the noble particle “de” to it, justifying this with the fiction of his origins 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 Vendôme; in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, while serving as a clerk in a notary's office. The father sought to prepare his son for lawyering, but Honoré 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 worthless and the young man is denied financial assistance. This was followed by a period of material adversity.
Balzac's literary career began around 1820, when he began publishing action-packed novels under various pseudonyms and composing morally descriptive "codes" of secular behavior. Later, some of the first novels were published 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. Since 1830 under the general name "Scenes" privacy"short stories from modern times began to be published French life.
In 1834 the writer decides to connect common heroes already written since 1829 and future works, combining them into an epic later called “The Human Comedy” (La comedie humaine). Honoré de Balzac considered Moliere, Francois Rabelais and Walter Scott to be his main literary teachers. Twice the novelist tried to make a political career, nominating 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 corresponding with the Polish aristocrat E. Hanska, who lived in Russia. In 1843, the writer went to visit her in St. Petersburg, and in 1847 and 1848 - to 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, the writer's sister, Madame Surville, wrote his biography - "Balzac, sa vie et ses oеuvres d" apres sa correspondance". The authors of biographical books about Balzac were Stefan Zweig ("Balzac"), Andre Maurois ("Prometheus, or the Life of Balzac"), Wurmser ("Inhuman Comedy").
Among the works of Honore de Balzac are stories, novellas, philosophical studies, novellas, novels, plays (5 plays were published); About 90 works made up the epic “The Human Comedy” (La comedie humaine). Number characters in the works of the novelist reached four thousand.
Honore de Balzac, French writer, “the father of the modern European novel,” was born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours. His parents did not have noble origins: his father came from a peasant background with a good commercial streak, and later changed his surname from Balsa to Balzac. The particle “de”, indicating membership in the nobility, is also a later acquisition of this family.
The ambitious father saw his son as a lawyer, and in 1807 the boy, against his wishes, was sent to the College of Vendôme - educational institution with very strict rules. The first years of study turned into real torment for young Balzac; he was a regular in the punishment cell, then he gradually got used to it, and his internal protest resulted in parodies of teachers. Soon the teenager was overtaken by a serious illness, which forced him to leave college in 1813. The forecasts were the most pessimistic, but after five years the illness receded, allowing Balzac to continue his education.
From 1816 to 1819, living with his parents in Paris, he worked in a judge's office as a scribe and at the same time studied at the Paris School of Law, but did not want to connect his future with jurisprudence. Balzac managed to convince his father and mother that a literary career was exactly what he needed, and in 1819 he took up writing. In the period before 1824, the aspiring author published under pseudonyms, issuing one after another frankly opportunistic stories that did not have much significance. artistic value novels, which he himself later defined as “pure literary disgusting,” trying to remember as rarely as possible.
The next stage of Balzac's biography (1825-1828) was associated with publishing and printing activities. His hopes of getting rich were not justified; moreover, huge debts appeared, which forced the failed publisher to pick up the pen again. In 1829, the reading public learned about the existence of the writer Honore de Balzac: the first novel, “The Chouans,” signed with his real name, was published, and in the same year it was followed by “The Physiology of Marriage” (1829), a manual written with humor for married people men. Both works did not go unnoticed, and the novel “Elixir of Longevity” (1830-1831) and the story “Gobsek” (1830) caused quite a wide resonance. 1830, the publication of “Scenes from Private Life” can be considered the beginning of work on the main literary work– a cycle of stories and novels called “The Human Comedy”.
For several years the writer worked as a freelance journalist, but his main thoughts until 1848 were devoted to composing works for the “Human Comedy,” which included a total of about a hundred works. Balzac worked on the schematic features of a large-scale canvas reflecting the life of all social strata of contemporary France in 1834. He came up with the name for the cycle, which was replenished with more and more new works, in 1840 or 1841, and in 1842 the next edition was published with new title. Fame and honor outside his homeland came to Balzac during his lifetime, but he did not even think of resting on his laurels, especially since the amount of debt remaining after the failure publishing activities, was quite impressive. The tireless novelist, correcting the work once again, could significantly change the text and completely redraw the composition.
Despite his busy work, he found time for social entertainment, trips, including abroad, did not ignore earthly pleasures. In 1832 or 1833, he began an affair with Evelina Hanska, a Polish countess who was not free at that time. The beloved gave Balzac a promise to marry him when she became a widow, but after 1841, when her husband died, she was in no hurry to keep it. Mental anguish, impending illness and enormous fatigue caused by many years of intense activity made recent years Balzac's biographies are not the happiest. His wedding with Ganskaya still took place - in March 1850, but in August the news of the writer’s death spread throughout Paris and then throughout Europe.
Balzac's creative heritage is huge and multifaceted, his talent as a narrator, realistic descriptions, ability to create dramatic intrigue, convey the most subtle impulses human soul placed him among the greatest prose writers of the century. His influence was experienced by both E. Zola, M. Proust, G. Flaubert, F. Dostoevsky, and prose writers of the 20th century.
(1799-1850) great French realist writer
Honore de Balzac was born in the city of Tours in the family of a poor official of peasant origin, who changed his surname Balsa to a more noble one. Honoré was the eldest of four children. His mother, a cold and selfish woman by nature, did not love children except youngest son Henri. The cold severity of the mother deeply wounded the soul of the future writer, and at the age of forty Balzac wrote: “I never had a mother.” Until he was four years old, he was raised by a wet nurse in the village. When Honore was eight, his mother sent him to the College Vendôme, which had strict monastic rules. Corporal punishment and solitary confinement were used here, walks around the city were prohibited, and children were not allowed to go home even on vacation. After six years of college, the family took Honore home, as the boy had severe nervous exhaustion.
In 1814 the family moved to Paris. Balzac completed his secondary education in private boarding schools. He then entered the Sorbonne Faculty of Law and began listening to lectures on law and literature. His father wanted his son to become a lawyer. In 1819, Honoré de Balzac quit his studies in law and announced to his family his intention to devote himself to literature.
At the beginning literary career he suffers failure after failure. The failure of his tragedy “Cromwell” (1819) forces the young writer to temporarily change his creative plans. Finding themselves without financial support from their parents,
In 1820, he met young people who made money by writing pulp novels. They offer Honore de Balzac to take a share. From 1821 to 1826 he wrote a series of historical and adventure novels, which he himself would later call “literary dirty tricks” and “literary swinishness.” However, novels “for sale” do not bring in money. Balzac buys a printing house and makes new creative plans, but in 1828 his enterprise fails.
It must be said that throughout his life Honore de Balzac struggled with debt, and all his financial projects failed. However, he remained a very energetic and tireless person.
Honore de Balzac worked very hard. In the thirties, the writer created works that became masterpieces of world literature: “Eugenia Grande” (1833), “Père Goriot” (1835, this is one of the most famous novels of the 19th century century), “Lost Illusions” (1837-1843). The name Gobsek (“Gobsek”, 1830) became a household name.
Honore de Balzac was full of ambition and longed to belong to the elite. He, as a man of simple origin, was dazzled and attracted by the brilliance of a high, aristocratic society, the sophistication of manners, and titles. He bought himself a title, and his pride was gratified by the dedications he wrote in his books: “To the Duchess d'Abrantes. Devoted servant of Honore de Balzac.” However, in the aristocratic salons he was ridiculous in the eyes of the world, at best funny.
Balzac very early had the idea to explore various aspects in his works human life, and then combine these studies into several series. In the early 1830s, he had already outlined a specific plan: to create a “history of modern French society.” Since 1834, Honoré de Balzac has written not separate novels, but one great work, which later, in 1841, would be given the name “Human Comedy”. The idea was grandiose - to create 140 novels and “... compiling an inventory of vices and virtues, collecting the most important cases of manifestation of passions, depicting characters, collecting events from the life of society, creating types by combining individual traits of numerous homogeneous characters, to write a history forgotten by so many historians, history of morals" (Balzac, preface to The Human Comedy). The name of this monumental creation was chosen by analogy with “ Divine Comedy» Dante, Italian Renaissance poet. The entire “Human Comedy” was divided into three episodes:
1) “Studies on Morals”, in which six “scenes” were distinguished: scenes from private, provincial, Parisian, political, military and village life;
2) “Philosophical Sketches”;
3) “Analytical studies.”
Depicting all layers of contemporary French society, both Parisian and provincial, Honore de Balzac collected about three thousand characters in his novels, and the same characters are carried through by the writer through various works. This transition of heroes from one novel to another emphasizes the connection of social phenomena and creates the impression of separate episodes from the life of one society. The period of action is the era of the Restoration and the July Monarchy. Balzac shows the end of the era of aristocracy and the emergence of new masters of life - bourgeois upstarts. The basis public life is a struggle for money. The morality of this society is expressed in the words of one of the characters: “There are no morals - there are only circumstances” (“Père Goriot”).
If the writer’s creative destiny was very successful, then in his personal life he was not so happy. In 1833, the writer Honore de Balzac received an anonymous letter from a woman who was an enthusiastic admirer of his talent. He soon learned her name. This was the Polish Countess Evelina Ganskaya, who lived with her family on an estate in Ukraine. A long correspondence began between Balzac and Hanska. The writer met with the countess several times in Switzerland, France, Holland, and Belgium. In 1841, her husband died, and the issue of marriage between the writer and the countess was resolved. In 1847-1848, Balzac was on the Ganskaya estate in Ukraine. At the beginning of 1850 they got married in a church in county town Berdichev. However, Honore de Balzac was already seriously ill. During the cold winter in Ukraine, he caught a cold, bronchitis turned into severe pneumonia. Returning to Paris, the writer fell ill and died in August 1850.
He did not have time to fully implement his grandiose plan, but the 95 novels of the “Human Comedy” he wrote represent the broadest picture of French society of that time, called by Balzac “the great comedy of our century” or “the comedy of the devil.”
In addition to 95 novels, united under the general title “Human Comedy,” Honore de Balzac wrote dozens of works, five dramas, critical articles and a collection of short stories “Naughty Stories”.
Honore de Balzac, biography
Vital and creative path 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, having become an official, changed it to the 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.
Having moved with his father to Paris in 1814, he studied in private institutions. In 1816, he was a free student at the Faculty of Law, at the same time he worked as a scribe for 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-packed novels and codes of social conduct under pseudonyms. Some of them were published under the pseudonym Horace de Saint-Aubren. Soon he decided to devote himself to a genre that would help him gain recognition - it became the novel.
His first novel, “The Chouans,” was published in 1829, but Balzac himself considered the novel “Shagreen Skin,” published in 1830, to be the most significant in his work. Next 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, his “Human Comedy” describes all the classes of France at that time, and not only city life, but also the life of the provinces and villages. Honore de Balzac created a truly unique work, in which he typified the entire French society of his time. 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 or romance.
He never waited for inspiration. He was a workaholic writer, working 12-14 hours. IN huge quantities I drank coffee that I prepared for myself. His works are not the favor of a muse, but persistent research into human nature, the psychology of society, its life and culture. He himself, in the preface to The Human Comedy, draws a parallel between the development of the animal world and the human world, noting that the formation of personality and developmental features 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, they were recent months his life.
See also:
- Brief summary of Honore de Balzac's story "Gobsek"
- “Gobsek”, artistic analysis of the story by Honore de Balzac
- Essay based on Honore de Balzac's story "Gobsek"
- “Shagreen Skin”, analysis of the novel by Honore de Balzac
Honore de Balzac (born May 20, 1799, Tours - died August 18, 1850, Paris) - French writer. His real name was Honore Balzac, the particle “de” meaning belonging to a noble family, he began to use it around 1830.
French writer who recreated complete picture social life of his time. Born May 20, 1799 in Tours; his relatives, peasants by origin, came from southern France(Languedoc). His father changed his original surname Balssa when he arrived in Paris in 1767 and began a long bureaucratic career there, which he continued in Tours from 1798, holding a number of administrative positions. The particle “de” was added to the name by his son Honore in 1830, claiming 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 convinced his parents to allow him to try his luck in literature . Between 1819 × 1824 Honoré published (under a pseudonym) half a dozen novels, written under the influence of J. J. Rousseau, W. Scott and “horror novels.” In collaboration with various literary hacks, he published many novels of an overtly commercial nature.
Architecture is an exponent of morals.
Balzac Honore de
In 1822, his relationship with forty-five-year-old Madame de Bernis began (d. 1836). The initially passionate feeling emotionally enriched him; later their relationship became platonic, and Lily in the Valley (Le Lys dans la vallée, 1835-1836) gave a highly ideal picture of this friendship.
An attempt to make a fortune in publishing and printing (1826-1828) involved Balzac in large debts. Turning again to writing, in 1829 he published the novel The Last Shuan (Le dernier Shouan; revised and published in 1834 under the title Les Chouans). This was the first book that was published under his own name, along with a humorous manual for husbands, The Physiology of Marriage (La Physiologie du mariage, 1829), it attracted public attention to the new author. That's when it started main work his life: in 1830 the first Scenes of Private Life (Scènes de la vie privée) appeared, with the undoubted masterpiece The House of a Cat Playing Ball (La Maison du chat qui pelote), in 1831 the first Philosophical Tales and Stories (Contes philosophiques) appeared. For several more years, Balzac worked part-time as a freelance journalist, but from 1830 to 1848 his main efforts were devoted to an extensive series of novels and stories, known world as The Human Comedy (La Comédie humaine).
Balzac concluded the agreement to publish the first series of Etudes on Morals (Études de moeurs, 1833-1837) 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 it as a separate book and, finally, included in one or another collection. The sketches consisted of Scenes - private, provincial, Parisian, political, military and village life. Scenes of private life, devoted mainly to youth and its inherent problems, were not tied to specific circumstances and place; but the scenes of provincial, Parisian and village life were played out in a precisely defined environment, which is one of the most characteristic and original features of the Human Comedy.
In addition to his desire to depict the social history of France, Balzac intended to diagnose society and offer remedies to treat its ills. This goal is clearly felt throughout the cycle, but central place occupies in the Philosophical Studies (Études philosophiques), the first collection of which was published between 1835 × 1837. The Studies on Morals were supposed to present “effects”, and the Philosophical Studies were to identify “causes”. Balzac's philosophy is a curious combination of scientific materialism, theosophy of E. Swedenborg and other mystics, physiognomy of I. K. Lavater, phrenology of F. J. Gall, magnetism of F. A. Mesmer and occultism. All this was combined, sometimes in a very unconvincing way, with official Catholicism and political conservatism, in support of which Balzac openly spoke out. Two aspects of this philosophy have special meaning for his work: first, a deep belief in “second sight,” a mysterious property that gives its owner the ability to recognize or guess facts or events that he did not witness (Balzac considered himself extremely gifted in this regard); 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 man projects it into the world around us, giving it more or less impulse. This gives rise to the idea of the destructive power of thought: it contains vital energy, the accelerated waste of which brings death closer. This is clearly illustrated by magical symbolism Shagreen leather(La Peau de chagrin, 1831).
The third main section of the cycle was supposed to be Analytical Etudes (Études analytiques), devoted to “principles,” but Balzac never made clear his intentions in this regard; in fact, he completed only two volumes from the series of these Etudes: the half-serious, half-joking Physiology of Marriage and the Minor Troubles of Married Life (Petites misères de la vie conjugale, 1845-1846).
Balzac defined the main contours of his ambitious plan in the fall of 1834 and then consistently filled in the cells of the intended scheme. Allowing himself to be distracted, he wrote, in imitation of Rabelais, a series of funny, albeit obscene, “medieval” stories called Mischievous Stories (Contes drolatiques, 1832-1837), which were not included in the Human Comedy. A title for the ever-expanding 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 "definitive edition" of 1869-1876 included Mischievous Stories, Theater (Théâtre) and a number of letters.
Nobility of feelings is not always accompanied by nobility of manners.
Balzac Honore de
There is no consensus in criticism as to how accurately the writer managed to portray the French aristocracy, although he himself was proud of his knowledge of the world. Having little interest in artisans and factory workers, he achieved, by all accounts, the highest persuasiveness in his descriptions of 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 - History of the greatness and fall of Cesar Birotteau (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 The Daughter of Eve (Une Fille d’Ève, 1838) stand out. In Scenes of Provincial Life, not only the atmosphere of small towns is recreated, but also the painful “storms in a glass of water” are depicted that disrupt the peaceful flow of everyday life - The Priest of Tours (Le Curé de Tours, 1832), Eugénie Grandet (1833), Pierrette (Pierrette, 1840). The novels Ursule Mirouët and La Rabouilleuse (1841-1842) depict violent family feuds over inheritance. But the human community appears even darker in the Scenes Parisian life. Balzac loved Paris and did a lot to preserve the memory of the now forgotten streets and corners of the French capital. At the same time, he considered this city a hellish abyss and compared the “struggle for life” taking place here with wars on the prairies, as one of his favorite authors, F. Cooper, depicted them in his novels. The most interesting of the Scenes of Political Life is the Dark Affair (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: the novel by Chouan 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 Country Doctor (Le Médecin de campagne, 1833) and the Country Priest (Le Curé de village, 1839), a significant place devoted to the presentation of political, economic and religious views.
