Honore de Balzac - biography, information, personal life. History of foreign literature of the 19th - early 20th centuries Philately and numismatics

Honoré de Balzac (French: Honoré de Balzac). Born May 20, 1799 in Tours - died August 18, 1850 in Paris. French writer, one of the founders of realism in European literature.

Balzac's largest work is the series of novels and stories "The Human Comedy", which paints a picture of the life of a modern writer in French society. Balzac's work was very popular in Europe and, during his lifetime, earned him a reputation as one of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century. The works of Balzac influenced the prose of Faulkner and others.

Honoré de Balzac was born in Tours in the family of a peasant from Languedoc, Bernard François Balssa (06/22/1746-06/19/1829). Balzac's father became rich by buying and selling confiscated noble lands during the revolution, and later became an assistant to the mayor of Tours. No relation to the French writer Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654). Father Honore changed his last name and became Balzac, and later bought himself the particle “de”. Mother was the daughter of a Parisian merchant.

The father prepared his son to become a lawyer. In 1807-1813, Balzac studied at the College of Vendôme, in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, and at the same time worked as a scribe for a notary; however, he abandoned his legal career and devoted himself to literature. The parents did not do much with their son. He was placed at the Collège Vendôme against his will. Meetings with family were prohibited there all year round, with the exception of the Christmas holidays. During the first years of his studies, he had to be in a punishment cell many times. In the fourth grade, Honore began to come to terms with school life, but did not stop ridiculing teachers... At the age of 14, he fell ill, and his parents took him home at the request of the college authorities. For five years Balzac was seriously ill, it was believed that there was no hope of recovery, but soon after the family moved to Paris in 1816, he recovered.

After 1823, he published several novels under various pseudonyms in the spirit of “frantic romanticism.” Balzac strove to follow literary fashion, and later he himself called these literary experiments “sheer literary swinishness” and preferred not to remember them. In 1825-1828 he tried to engage in publishing, but failed.

In 1829, the first book signed with the name “Balzac” was published - the historical novel “The Chouans” (Les Chouans). Balzac's formation as a writer was influenced by the historical novels of Walter Scott. Balzac's subsequent works: “Scenes of Private Life” (Scènes de la vie privée, 1830), the novel “The Elixir of Longevity” (L"Élixir de longue vie, 1830-1831, a variation on the theme of the legend of Don Juan); the story “Gobsek” ( Gobseck, 1830) attracted the attention of readers and critics. In 1831, Balzac published his. philosophical novel“Shagreen Skin” (La Peau de chagrin) and begins the novel “The Thirty-Year-Old Woman” (French) (La femme de trente ans). The cycle “Mischievous Stories” (Contes drolatiques, 1832-1837) is an ironic stylization of Renaissance short stories. The partially autobiographical novel Louis Lambert (1832) and especially the later Seraphîta (1835) reflected Balzac’s fascination with the mystical concepts of E. Swedenborg and Cl. de Saint Martin.

His hope of getting rich has not yet come true (debt is looming - the result of his unsuccessful commercial enterprises), when fame began to come to him. Meanwhile, he continued to lead a hard working life, working at a desk for 15-16 hours a day, and publishing three, four and even five, six books annually.

The end of the 1820s and the beginning of the 1830s, when Balzac entered literature, was the period of greatest flowering of the work of romanticism during French literature. Great novel In European literature, by the time Balzac arrived, there were two main genres: the novel of the individual - an adventurous hero (for example, Robinson Crusoe) or a self-absorbed, lonely hero (The Sorrows of Young Werther by W. Goethe) and a historical novel (Walter Scott).

Balzac departs from both the personal novel and the historical novel. He strives to show an "individualized type." The center of his creative attention, according to a number of Soviet literary scholars, is not a heroic or outstanding personality, but modern bourgeois society, France of the July Monarchy.

“Studies on Morals” unfolds the picture of France, depicts the life of all classes, all social conditions, all social institutions. Their leitmotif is the victory of the financial bourgeoisie over the landed and clan aristocracy, the strengthening of the role and prestige of wealth, and the associated weakening or disappearance of many traditional ethical and moral principles.

The works created in the first five or six years of his writing activity depict the most diverse areas of his contemporary life. French life: village, province, Paris; various social groups: merchants, aristocracy, clergy; various social institutions: family, state, army.

In 1832, 1843, 1847 and 1848-1850. Balzac visited Russia, St. Petersburg.

From August to October 1843, Balzac lived in Titov's house at 16 Millionnaya Street in St. Petersburg.

In the unfinished “Letter about Kyiv” and private letters he left mentions of his stay in the Ukrainian towns of Brody, Radzivilov, Dubno, Vishnevets and others. He visited Kyiv in 1847, 1848 and 1850.

He was buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise cemetery.

"Human Comedy"

In 1831, Balzac conceived the idea of ​​creating a multi-volume work - a “picture of the morals” of his time, a huge work, which he later entitled “The Human Comedy.” According to Balzac, The Human Comedy was supposed to be artistic history and the artistic philosophy of France as it developed after the revolution. Balzac worked on this work throughout his entire subsequent life; he included most of the already written works in it, and revised them specifically for this purpose. The cycle consists of three parts: “Etudes on Morals”, “Philosophical Etudes” and “Analytical Etudes”.

The most extensive is the first part - “Etudes on Morals”, which includes:

"Scenes from Private Life"
“Gobsek” (1830), “A Thirty-Year-Old Woman” (1829-1842), “Colonel Chabert” (1844), “Père Goriot” (1834-35), etc.;
"Scenes of Provincial Life"
“The Priest of Tours” (Le curé de Tours, 1832), “Eugénie Grandet” (1833), “Lost Illusions” (1837-43), etc.;
"Scenes from Parisian Life"
trilogy “The History of the Thirteen” (L'Histoire des Treize, 1834), “César Birotteau” (1837), “The Banker's House of Nucingen” (La Maison Nucingen, 1838), “The Splendor and Poverty of the Courtesans” (1838-1847) etc.;
"Scenes political life»
“A Case from the Time of Terror” (1842), etc.;
"Scenes of Military Life"
"Chouans" (1829) and "Passion in the Desert" (1837);
"Scenes of Village Life"
"Lily of the Valley" (1836), etc.

Subsequently, the cycle was replenished with the novels “Modeste Mignon” (Modeste Mignon, 1844), “Cousin Bette” (La Cousine Bette, 1846), “Cousin Pons” (Le Cousin Pons, 1847), and also, in its own way summing up the cycle, the novel “The Underside of Modern History” (L'envers de l'histoire contemporaine, 1848).

“Philosophical Studies” are reflections on the laws of life: “Shagreen Skin” (1831), etc.

The greatest “philosophy” is inherent in “Analytical Etudes”. In some of them, for example, in the story “Louis Lambert,” the volume of philosophical calculations and reflections many times exceeds the volume of the plot narrative.

Personal life of Honore de Balzac

In 1832 he met Evelina Ganskaya (widowed in 1842), with whom he married on March 2, 1850 in the city of Berdichev, in the Church of St. Barbara. In 1847-1850 lived on the property of his beloved in Verkhovna (now a village in the Ruzhinsky district of the Zhitomir region, Ukraine).

Novels by Honoré de Balzac

Chouans, or Brittany in 1799 (1829)
Shagreen Leather (1831)
Louis Lambert (1832)
Eugenia Grande (1833)
The Story of Thirteen (1834)
Father Goriot (1835)
Lily of the Valley (1835)
Banking house of Nucingen (1838)
Beatrice (1839)
Country Priest (1841)
Screwtape (1842)
Ursula Mirue (1842)
Woman of Thirty (1842)
Lost Illusions (I, 1837; II, 1839; III, 1843)
Peasants (1844)
Cousin Betta (1846)
Cousin Pons (1847)
The Splendor and Poverty of Courtesans (1847)
MP for Arsi (1854)

Tales and stories of Honore de Balzac

The House of the Cat Playing Ball (1829)
Marriage contract (1830)
Gobsek (1830)
Vendetta (1830)
Goodbye! (1830)
Country Ball (1830)
Conjugal Consent (1830)
Sarrasine (1830)
Red Hotel (1831)
An unknown masterpiece (1831)
Colonel Chabert (1832)
Abandoned Woman (1832)
Belle of the Empire (1834)
Involuntary Sin (1834)
The Devil's Heir (1834)
The Constable's Wife (1834)
Salvation cry (1834)
The Witch (1834)
Perseverance of Love (1834)
Bertha's Repentance (1834)
Naivety (1834)
The Marriage of the Beauty of the Empire (1834)
Forgiven Melmoth (1835)
Mass of the Atheist (1836)
Facino Canet (1836)
The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan (1839)
Pierre Grassu (1840)
The Imaginary Mistress (1841)

Film adaptations of Honore de Balzac

The brilliance and poverty of courtesans (France; 1975; 9 episodes): director M. Cazeneuve
Colonel Chabert (film) (French Le Colonel Chabert, 1994, France)
Don't touch the ax (France-Italy, 2007)
Shagreen leather (La peau de chagrin, 2010, France)

Balzac Honore (Balzac Honoré) (05/20/1799, Tours - 08/18/1850, Paris), signed Honoré de Balzac, - French writer, the largest representative of critical realism of the first half of the 19th century. In the official literary criticism Until the beginning of the last century, Balzac was declared a minor writer. But in the twentieth century, the writer’s fame became truly worldwide.

The beginning of creative activity. Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours in the family of an official, whose ancestors were peasants with the surname Balssa (the change of the surname into the aristocratic “Balzac” belongs to the writer’s father). Balzac wrote his first work, the treatise “On the Will,” at the age of 13, while studying at the Jesuit Vendôme College of Oratorian monks, which was famous for its extremely harsh regime. The mentors, having found the manuscript, burned it, and the young author was roughly punished. Only Honore's serious illness forced his parents to take him away from college.

By the way, as E. A. Varlamova notes from French sources (Varlamova E. A. Refraction of the Shakespearean tradition in the works of Balzac (“Père Goriot” and “King Lear”): Abstract of thesis ... candidate of philology - Saratov , 2003, further described on pp. 24-25), Balzac’s acquaintance with the work of Shakespeare could have occurred precisely at the College of Vendôme, based on the arrangement by Pierre-Antoine de Laplace (1745-1749) or in the translation by Pierre Letourneur (1776-1781). According to the college library catalog, at that time there was an eight-volume edition of “Le Theater anglois” (“ English theater"), five volumes of which contained Shakespeare's plays arranged by Laplace. In Laplace’s collection, Balzac, who “literally devoured every printed page” (A. Maurois), could read the following translated works: “Othello”, “Henry VI”, “Richard III”, “Hamlet”, “Macbeth”, “Julius Caesar” ", "Antony and Cleopatra", "Timon", "Cymbeline", "Women of Good Mood", etc. The French version of all these plays was prose. Moreover, in some places the translation of Shakespeare's text was replaced by its presentation, sometimes very condensed. Sometimes Laplace even omitted some episodes. Entering In a similar way, Laplace sought to “avoid the reproaches of both peoples and give Shakespeare exactly what he has the right to expect from a French translator” (Le theater anglois. T. l. - Londres, 1745. - P. CX-CXI, trans. B. G. Reizov ), in other words, the free handling of Shakespeare’s text was not the whim of Laplace and was explained by Shakespeare’s alienation from the norms of French classicism. Nevertheless, Laplace to a certain extent fulfilled his task - to convey Shakespeare's work to his compatriots. Balzac himself testifies to this: he calls Laplace “the compiler of collections of the 18th century”, from whom he found “a volume interesting plays"(Balzac H. La Comedie Humaine: 12 vol. / Sous la réd. de P.-G. Castex. - P. : Gallimard, 1986-1981. - T. X. - P. 216). A much later edition of Letourneur, also available in the library of the Collège Vendôme, contained almost all of Shakespeare's works in a relatively accurate (albeit also prosaic) translation.

The family moved to Paris. Balzac, having received legal education, spent some time practicing in the offices of a lawyer and a notary, but dreamed of becoming a writer.

Early novels: from pre-romanticism to realism. Balzac comes to realism from pre-romanticism. Having experienced failure with the youthful tragedy “Cromwell” (1819-1820), written in the spirit of late classicism, Balzac, influenced by the “Gothic” features of the work of Byron and Maturin, tries to write the novel “Falturn” (1820) about a vampiric woman, then becomes an assistant to the tabloid writer A . Vielergle (pseudonym of Lepointe de l'Aigreville, son famous actor, whose stage fate intersected with Shakespearean material) in the creation of low-grade novels “The Two Hectors, or Two Breton Families” and “Charles Pointel, or the Illegitimate Cousin” (both novels were published in 1821 without any indication of Balzac’s collaboration). Balzac's pseudonym “Lord R'oon” appears next to the name of A. Vielergle in the novel “The Birag Heiress” (1822). The action of the novel takes place in the 17th century, it introduces a number of historical characters, in particular, Cardinal Richelieu, who helps the heroes of the novel and acts as positive character. The work widely uses fashionable pre-romantic cliches. Thus, a hoax technique was used: the manuscript supposedly belongs to Don Rago, the former abbot of the Benedictine monastery, Vielergle and Lord R'oon are the author's nephews, who decided to make the found manuscript public. Vielergle also co-authored the novel “Jean-Louis, or the Found Daughter” (1822), which shows that even in early novels created to suit the tastes of an undemanding public, the writer develops the views of pre-romanticists on society, which go back to the democracy of Rousseau. The heroes of the novel - Jean-Louis Granvelle, the son of a coal miner, a participant in the American struggle for independence, a general of the revolutionary troops in France, and Fanchetta, the adopted daughter of a coal miner, confront the evil aristocrats.

In 1822, Balzac released his first independent novel, “Clotilde de Lusignan, or the Handsome Jew,” where he again used a hoax (Lord R'oon published a manuscript found in the archives of Provence), then until 1825, novels followed by Horace de Sainte -Obin ( new nickname Balzac): “The Vicar of Ardennes”, “The Century, or Two Beringelds”, “Annette and the Criminal”, “The Last Fairy, or the Night Magic Lamp”, “Vann-Clor”. Already from the titles one can see the young Balzac’s commitment to monastic secrets, banditry, pirate adventures, supersensual phenomena and other pre-romantic stereotypes that became widespread in the “grassroots” literature of the 1820s.

Balzac worked a lot (according to scientists, he wrote up to 60 pages of text daily). However, he was not mistaken about the low quality of his works of this period. So, after the release of “The Birag Heiress,” he proudly reported in a letter to his sister that the novel brought him literary income for the first time, but asked his sister that she should under no circumstances read this “real literary disgusting.” References to Shakespeare's plays appear in Balzac's early works. Thus, in the novel Falturn (1820) Balzac mentions Shakespeare's Cymbeline, in the novel Clotilde de Lusignan (1822) - King Lear, in the novel The Last Fairy (1823) - The Tempest, etc. In “The Heiress of Birag” (1822), Balzac and his co-author quote Shakespeare (two lines from Hamlet, V, 4) twice, according to Ducie’s arrangement and in their own “translation”. Often in his early novels, Balzac resorted to pseudoquotations from Shakespeare, composing them himself, which reflected the characteristic features of the formation of the cult of Shakespeare in Paris in the 1820s.

It should be assumed that Balzac did not miss the opportunity to get acquainted with Shakespeare on stage, not only in Ducie’s adaptations, which were popular and were performed on the stage of the country’s main theater, the Comédie Française, but also in the English interpretation. In 1823, an English troupe visited Paris, and, despite the failure of the performances and scandals (which was reflected in Stendhal’s “Racine and Shakespeare”), it came to Paris twice more, in 1827 and 1828, when it was already enthusiastically received. The troupe included Edmund Kean and William Charles Macready. In Paris, the British performed Coriolanus, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, and The Merchant of Venice. The performances were given in the original language, and Balzac did not know English (according to at least, to the extent that was necessary to understand Shakespeare’s text), but he was not alone in this, which the entrepreneurs took into account when supplying the audience French translations plays.

At the end of the 1820s, Balzac showed extraordinary interest in adaptations of Shakespeare's plays according to French canons, carried out at the end of the 18th century by François Ducis. Balzac published 8 volumes of the works of the “venerable Ducis” (“vénérable Ducis,” as Balzac calls him in the preface to “Shagreen Skin”). It is noteworthy that quotations from Shakespeare in The Human Comedy, as well as in earlier novels and stories not included in it, are not necessarily given in Letourneur's translation. Citing lines from “Hamlet”, “Othello”, “King Lear”, as well as “Romeo and Juliet” and “Macbeth”, Balzac also turns to the “Shakespearean” texts of Ducie, whose works he had at hand (see: Varlamova E . A. Decree. - P. 26). But at the same time he wants to have the most accurate translation of Shakespeare that exists, and this is Le Tourneur's translation. On December 25, 1826, Balzac writes a letter to the bookseller Fremaux with a request to sell him a republished translation of the entire Shakespeare by Le Tourneur (Balzac H. de. Correspondance. - T. I. - P., 1960. - P. 293). On March 29, 1827, an agreement was concluded between Balzac and Fremaux’s son, according to which Balzac should receive one copy of Shakespeare’s collected works in the “Foreign Theaters” collection. Moreover (as follows from Fremaux’s letter dated November 4, 1827), the merchant, who was the writer’s debtor, expressed a desire to repay the debt with books, the list of which includes one copy of Shakespeare in 13 volumes. It is believed that this transaction took place. Thus, Balzac received the most complete edition of Shakespeare in the best translation, with an extensive preface by F. Guizot (this preface became one of the important aesthetic documents of the romantic movement in France). Moreover, Balzac, as the publisher of a series of complete works of classics (works by Molière and La Fontaine were published), decided to publish Shakespeare, and even began this work, as evidenced by typographical prints title page publication, unfortunately, was not carried out.

"Chouans". In 1829, the first novel was published, which Balzac signed with his own name - “The Chouans, or Brittany in 1799.” In it, the writer turned from pre-romanticism to realism. The subject of the image was recent historical events - the counter-revolutionary uprising of the Chouans (royalist peasants waging a guerrilla war to restore the monarchy) in Brittany in 1799. Romantic plot (Marie de Verneuil was sent by the Republicans to the royalists in order to seduce and betray their leader, the Marquis de Montoran, but love breaks out between them, ultimately leading both to death) is presented against a realistic background created with the help of numerous details. The writer's approach to creating a work has changed: before writing the novel, he visited the scene of action, met with still living witnesses of the described historical events, wrote many versions of the text, carefully selected episodes (a number of fragments written during the work on the novel, but not included in it, Balzac processed and published in 1830 in two volumes entitled “Scenes of Private Life”).

"Shagreen skin". In the novel “Shagreen Skin” (1830-1831), Balzac builds the plot on a fantastic assumption: the young man Raphael de Valentin becomes the owner of shagreen skin, which, like a fairy-tale self-assembled tablecloth, fulfills any of his desires, but at the same time shrinks in size and thereby reduces the duration of Raphael’s life mystically connected with her. This assumption, similar to a romantic myth, allows Balzac to create a realistic picture of modern society and present the character of the hero in development, in its conditioning by social circumstances. Raphael gradually turns from a romantic, passionate young man into a soulless rich man, an egoist and a cynic, whose death does not evoke any sympathy. The novel brought Balzac all-European fame. One of the reader's responses came in 1832 from Odessa with the signature “Stranger”. The ensuing correspondence led Balzac to next year to meeting the author of the letters - a wealthy Polish landowner, Russian subject Evelina Ganskaya. In the year of his death, Balzac (who had previously visited Russia in 1843, 1847-1848 and 1849-1850) married Evelina (the wedding took place in Berdichev), but returned with his wife to Paris, where he bought and furnished home for his young wife, Balzac died suddenly.

"Human Comedy". Already during the completion of “Shagreen Skin,” Balzac decided to create a grandiose cycle, which would include the best of those already written and all new works. Ten years later, in 1841, the cycle acquired its complete structure and the name “Human Comedy” - as a kind of parallel and at the same time opposition to Dante’s “Divine Comedy” from the point of view of the modern (realistic) understanding of reality. Trying to combine the achievements in the “Human Comedy” modern science with the mystical views of Swedenborg, exploring all levels of life from everyday life to philosophy and religion, Balzac demonstrates the amazing scale of artistic thinking. Balzac conceived The Human Comedy as a single work. Based on the principles of realistic typification he developed, he consciously set himself the task of creating a grandiose analogue of contemporary France. In the “Preface to The Human Comedy” (1842), he wrote: “My work has its own geography, as well as its own genealogy, its own families, its own localities, settings, characters and facts; he also has his own armorial, his nobility and bourgeoisie, his artisans and peasants, politicians and dandies, his army - in a word, the whole world.”

However, it is no coincidence that, having divided the “Human Comedy” into three parts, like Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” the writer, nevertheless, did not make them equal. This is a kind of pyramid, the base of which is a direct description of society - “Etudes on Morals”, above this level there are a few “Philosophical Etudes”, and the top of the pyramid is made up of “Analytical Etudes”. In “Analytical Etudes” he wrote only 2 of 5 planned works (“Physiology of Marriage”, 1829; “Minor Troubles of Married Life”, 1845-1846), the section that required some kind of over-generalization remained undeveloped (obviously, the very task of this section was not close to the personality of Balzac the writer). In “Philosophical Studies” 22 of the 27 planned works were written (including “Shagreen Skin”; “Elixir of Longevity”, 1830; “Red Hotel”, 1831; “An Unknown Masterpiece”, 1831, new edition 1837; “Search for the Absolute”, 1834; "Seraphita", 1835). But in “Etudes of Morals” 71 of 111 works were written. This is the only section that includes subsections (“scenes,” as Balzac designated them, which indicates the connection between his novelistic work and drama). There are six of them: “Scenes of Private Life” (“The House of a Cat Playing Ball”, 1830; “Gobsek” (1830-1835); “A Thirty-Year-Old Woman”, 1831-1834); "Colonel Chabert", 1832; "Père Goriot", 1834-1835; “The Case of Guardianship,” 1836; and etc.); “Scenes of Provincial Life” (“Eugenia Grande”, 1833; “Museum of Antiquities”, 1837; “Lost Illusions”, parts 1 and 3, 1837-1843; etc.); “Scenes of Parisian life” (“History of the Thirteen”, 1834; “Facino Canet”, 1836; “The Greatness and Fall of Caesar Birotteau”, 1837; “The Banking House of Nucingen”, 1838; “Lost Illusions”, part 2; “Brilliance and the poverty of courtesans,” 1838-1847; “The Secrets of Princess de Cadignan,” 1839; “Cousin Betta,” 1846; “Cousin Pons,” 1846-1847); “Scenes of Military Life” (“Chouans”, 1829; “Passion in the Desert”, 1830); “Scenes of Political Life” (“Episode of the Age of Terror”, 1831; “Dark Affair”, 1841; etc.); “Scenes of Village Life” (“The Village Doctor”, 1833; “The Village Priest”, 1841; “The Peasants”, 1844; the completed version of the novel by E. Ganskaya was published in five volumes in 1855). Thus, Balzac seeks to create a portrait of modern society.

Art world. “The greatest historian of modern France, which lives entirely in his grandiose work,” Anatole France called Balzac. At the same time, some leading French critics of the turn of the century looked for flaws in Balzac's picture of reality. Thus, E. Fage complained about the absence of images of children in the “Human Comedy”; Le Breton, analyzing the artistic world of Balzac, wrote: “Everything that is poetic in life, everything that is ideal, encountered in the real world, is not reflected in his work.” . F. Brunetière was one of the first to use a quantitative approach, from which he concluded that “the depiction of life is clearly incomplete”: only three works are devoted to rural life, which does not correspond to the place of the peasantry and the structure of French society; we hardly see the workers of large-scale industry (“the number of which, in truth, was small in Balzac’s era,” Brunetière makes a reservation); the role of lawyers and professors is poorly shown; but too much space is occupied by notaries, solicitors, bankers, moneylenders, as well as girls of easy virtue and notorious criminals, who are “too numerous in Balzac’s world.” Later, researchers Surfburr and Christophe compiled a list according to which in Balzac’s “Human Comedy”: aristocrats - about 425 people; bourgeoisie - 1225 (of which 788 belong to the large and medium, 437 - to the petty bourgeoisie); domestic servants - 72; peasants - 13; small artisans - 75. However, attempts, based on these calculations, to doubt the accuracy of the reflection of reality in the artistic world of the “Human Comedy” are groundless and rather naive.

Literary scholars continue their in-depth study of Balzac's world as an integral analogue contemporary writer society. There is a growing tendency to go beyond pure factuality and to understand the world of the “Human Comedy” in a more general, philosophical way. One of the brightest exponents of this position was the Danish balzac scholar P. Nykrog. “Balzac’s world, which is considered very concrete and definite, is conceived as something very abstract,” the scientist believes. The question of Balzac's artistic world became the focus of research by Balzac scholars. The creation of this world on the basis of clearly understood principles of realistic typification lies the main innovation of the writer. To confirm this, we cite the words about Balzac by one of the most authoritative scientists of France, Philippe Van Tieghem: “The collection of his novels constitutes one whole in the sense that they describe different aspects of the same society (French society from 1810 to approximately 1835 and, in particular, the society of the Restoration period), and that the same persons often act in different novels. This is precisely the fruitful innovation that gives the reader the feeling that he, as often happens in reality, is confronted with his own environment that is well known to him.”

Art space. Interesting information shows to what extent Balzac is characterized by the truthfulness of details assumed by realism, in particular when creating artistic space. Particularly valuable in this regard are the “Balzac Yearbooks,” which have been published since 1960 by the Society for the Study of Balzac, organized at the Sorbonne. For example, in the article by Miriam Lebrun, “Student Life in the Latin Quarter,” published in the 1978 issue, it was established that the hotels, shops, restaurants and other houses of the Latin Quarter mentioned by Balzac actually existed at the addresses indicated by the writer, which are precisely indicated by him prices for rooms, the cost of certain products in shops in this area of ​​​​Paris and other details. “...Balzac knew Paris well and placed in his works a lot of objects, buildings, people, etc., that existed in real life in the 19th century,” the researcher concludes.

Balzac often chooses monasteries, prisons and others as the setting for his novels, so characteristic of pre-romantic and romantic literature topoi. In his work you can find detailed descriptions of monasteries that keep the secrets of many generations (for example, in “The Duchess of Langeais” a Carmelite monastery is depicted, founded by Saint Teresa, a famous Christian figure who lived in the 16th century), prisons, on the stones of which a chronicle of suffering and attempts is imprinted escape (see, for example, “Facino Cane”).

However, already in works dating back to the late 1820s, Balzac uses pre-Romantic techniques to describe the castle for polemical purposes. Thus, the comparison of the trading shop in the story “The House of the Cat Playing Ball” (1830) and the “Gothic” castle (which is not mentioned, but the image of which should have emerged in the memory of contemporaries due to the similarity in the methods of description) has a certain aesthetic purpose: Balzac wants to emphasize that a trading shop, a moneylender's house, the interior of a banker's house, a hotel, streets and alleys, artisans' houses, back staircases are no less interesting, no less mysterious, no less terrifying at times with their stunning human dramas than any “Gothic” castle with secret passages, animated portraits, hatches, walled-up skeletons and ghosts. The fundamental difference between pre-romanticists and realists in depicting the scene is that if for the first old building embodies fate, unfolded in time, the atmosphere of history, all the more mysterious as it is ancient, that is, the atmosphere of mystery, then for the latter it acts as a “fragment of the way of life”, through which one can reveal the secret, reveal a historical pattern. Transitional characters. In The Human Comedy, the unity of the artistic world is achieved primarily through the characters moving from work to work. Back in 1927, the French researcher E. Preston analyzed the methods used by the writer to reintroduce his characters into the narrative: “Caseous mentions, transfer of characters from Paris to the provinces and vice versa, salons, lists of characters belonging to the same social category, the use of one character in order to write from him another, a direct reference to other novels.” Even from this far from complete list it is clear that Balzac in The Human Comedy developed complex system returning characters. Balzac was not the inventor of returning characters. Among his immediate predecessors one can name the Rousseauist Retief de la Bretonne, Beaumarchais with his trilogy about Figaro. Balzac, who knew Shakespeare well, could find examples of the return of characters in his historical chronicles: Henry VI, Richard III, Henry IV, Henry V, Falstaff, etc. In Balzac's epic, the return of characters allows for a realistic, multifaceted revelation of characters and destinies people XIX centuries.

Rastignac. An idea of ​​such an approach to character can be given by the biography of Rastignac, the first example of which was made by Balzac himself in 1839: “Rastignac (Eugene Louis de) - the eldest son of the Baron and Baroness de Rastignac - was born in the castle of Rastignac, in the department of Charente, in 1799 G.; Having arrived in Paris in 1819 to study law, he settled in the house of Vauquer, met Jacques Collin there, hiding under the name Vautrin, and became friends with the famous physician Horace Bianchon. Rastignac fell in love with Madame Delphine de Nucingen just at the time when de Marsay left her; Delphine is the daughter of a certain Mr. Goriot, a former noodle maker, whom Rastignac buried at his own expense. Rastignac - one of the lions high society- becomes close to many young people of his time [follows a list of names of a number of characters in The Human Comedy]. The story of his enrichment is told in The Banking House of Nucingen; he appears in almost all “Scenes” - in particular in the “Museum of Antiquities”, in the “Custody Case”. He marries both of his sisters: one to Martial de la Roche-Hugon, a dandy from the times of the Empire, one of the characters in “Matrimonial Happiness,” the other to a minister. His younger brother Gabriel de Rastignac, secretary to the Bishop of Limoges in The Country Priest, set in 1828, is appointed bishop in 1832 (see Eve's Daughter). The scion of an old noble family, Rastignac nevertheless accepted, after 1830, the post of assistant secretary of state in the ministry of de Marsay (see “Scenes of Political Life”), etc.” Scientists are completing this biography: Rastignac makes a fast career, in 1832 he occupies a prominent government post (“Secrets of the Princess de Cadignan”); in 1836, after the bankruptcy of the banking house of Nucingen (“Banking House of Nucingen”), which enriched Rastignac, he already had 40,000 francs in annual income; in 1838 he married Augusta Nucingen, his daughter ex-lover Dolphins, which he shamelessly robbed; in 1839 Rastignac became minister of finance and received the title of count; in 1845 he is a peer of France, his annual income is 300,000 francs (“Cousin Bette”, “Deputy from Arcy”).

"Gobsek". In 1830, Balzac wrote the essay “The Moneylender.” In the two-volume “Scenes of Private Life” (1830), the story “The Dangers of Dissipation” was published, the first part of which consisted of the essay “The Moneylender”, and the second “Attorney”) and the third (“Death of the Husband”) parts introduced a novelistic element into the work: in the center the story turned out to be love triangle Count de Resto - Anastasi - Count Maxime de Tray. The history of the aristocratic family pushes into the background the image of the moneylender Gobsek (endowed with a number of positive traits in the story, in the finale he renounces usury and becomes a deputy). Five years later, in 1835, Balzac reworks the story and gives it the title “Papa Gobsek.” The image of Gobsek (telling name: “Zhivoglot”) comes to the fore - a kind of “ stingy knight» modernity. Therefore, the story is given a different ending: Gobsek dies among the treasures accumulated through human dramas, which lose all value in the face of death. The image of the moneylender Gobsek reaches such a scale that it becomes a household word for a miser, surpassing in this respect Harpagon from Molière’s comedy “The Miser.” It is important that the image does not lose its realism and retains a living connection with Balzac’s modernity. Balzac's Gobsek is a typical character. Later, the story was included by the writer in “Etudes on Morals” (included in “Scenes of Private Life”) and acquired the final name “Gobsek”.

"Evgenia Grande". The first work in which Balzac consistently embodied the features of critical realism as an integral aesthetic system was the novel Eugenie Grande (1833). In each of the few characters in the novel, the principle of personality formation under the influence of social circumstances is implemented. Papa Grande got rich during the revolution, he is very rich, but he became incredibly stingy, causing a scandal to his wife, daughter, and maid over the most meager expenses. The meeting of Eugenie Grande with her unfortunate cousin Charles Grande, whose father, having gone bankrupt, committed suicide, leaving him without a livelihood, promises the reader a romantic story of love and selflessness. Evgenia, having learned that her father refused to support the young man, gives him the gold coins that the stingy father Grande gave her once a year, which leads to a scandal and the premature death of Evgenia’s mother, but only strengthens the girl’s determination and her hope for happiness with her loved one. But the reader’s expectations are deceived: the desire to get rich turns Charles into a cynical businessman, and Eugenia, who became the owner of millions after the death of Father Grande, is becoming more and more like her stingy father. The novel is intimate, laconic, there are few details, and each one is extremely rich. Everything in the novel is subordinated to the analysis of character changes under the pressure of life circumstances. Balzac appears in the novel as an outstanding psychologist, enriching psychological analysis with the principles and techniques of realistic art.

Another possible path for Rastignac is represented by Bianchon, an eminent physician. This is the way of an honest working life, but it leads too slowly to success.

The third path is shown to him by the Viscountess de Bosseant: he must discard romantic ideas about honor, dignity, nobility, love, he must arm himself with meanness and cynicism, act through secular women, without really getting involved in any of them. The Viscountess speaks about this with pain and sarcasm; she herself cannot live like this, so she is forced to leave the world. But Rastignac chooses this path for himself. The ending of the novel is wonderful. Having buried the unfortunate Father Goriot, Rastignac, from the heights of the hill on which the Père Lachaise cemetery is located, challenges Paris spread out before him: “And now who will win: me or you!” And, having thrown his challenge to society, he first went to dinner with Delphine Nucingen. In this ending, all the main plot lines are connected: it is the death of Father Goriot that leads Rastignac to the final choice of his path, which is why the novel (a kind of novel of choice) is quite naturally called “Father Goriot.”

But Balzac found a compositional means of connecting the characters not only in the finale, but throughout the entire novel, preserving its “polycentricity” (Leon Daudet’s term). Without highlighting one main character, he made the central image of the novel, as if in contrast to the image of the cathedral from “The Cathedral” Notre Dame of Paris» Hugo, a modern Parisian house - the boarding house of Madame Vauquer. This is a model of Balzac’s contemporary France; here the novel’s characters live on different floors in accordance with their position in society (primarily financial situation): on the second floor (the most prestigious) live the owner herself, Madame Vauquer, and Victorine Taillefer; on the third floor - Vautrin and a certain Poiret (who later reported Vautrin to the police); on the third are the poorest, Father Goriot, who gave all the money to his daughters, and Rastignac. Ten more people came to Madame Vauquer’s boarding house just to have dinner, among them the young doctor Bianchon.

Balzac pays great attention to the world of things. Thus, the description of Madame Vauquer's skirt takes several pages. Balzac believes that things retain the imprint of the destinies of the people who owned them and touched them; from things, just as Cuvier restored “a lion by claw,” one can reconstruct the entire way of life of their owners.

Below we will consider the parallel, noted by the writer’s contemporaries, between “Père Goriot” and W. Shakespeare’s tragedy “King Lear”.

Dramaturgy. There is no doubt that Balzac had the ability and knowledge of life material in order to create mature, significant realistic drama.

Themes, ideas, problems, conflict in Balzac's plays often come very close to the program of his “Human Comedy”. The “central picture” of Balzac’s “Human Comedy” is present in his plays “The School of Marriage”, “Vautrin”, “Pamela Giraud”, “The Businessman”, “Stepmother”. In general, it should be noted that, apart from the early dramatic works, Of the many plans, Balzac completed almost exclusively those in which this “central picture” is recreated - the displacement of the nobility by the bourgeoisie and the disintegration of the family as a consequence of the power of monetary relations. Features of the French theater of the first half of the 19th century. limited Balzac's ability to create realistic drama. But they were an additional incentive for the writer to turn to the novel, giving him new means of realistic analysis of reality. It was in prose that he achieved such a degree of truthful portrayal of man that many of his characters seem to the reader to be living people living in the real world. This is how the author himself treated them. Dying in his Parisian home on August 18, 1850, Balzac said: “If Bianchon had been here, he would have saved me.”

For a century and a half, this topic continues to interest literary scholars. Among the works that appeared already in the 21st century, one should name the candidate’s thesis of E. A. Varlamova, who compared “Père Goriot” by O. Balzac and “King Lear” by W. Shakespeare (Varlamova E. A. Refraction of the Shakespearean tradition in the works of Balzac (“Father Goriot” and “King Lear”): Dissertation... cand. The abstract of this dissertation notes that the peak of the cult of Shakespeare in France occurred in the 1820s. It was in the early 1820s that Balzac began his writing career. In other words, the seemingly insurmountable distance of more than two centuries of time separating Balzac from Shakespeare is miraculously shortened. Moreover, Balzac’s “years of study” chronologically precisely coincide with the moment when the attention of the art world was most focused on Shakespeare and his theater. The atmosphere of the romantic cult of the English playwright, in which the young Balzac finds himself, naturally becomes a significant factor for the future creator of The Human Comedy. literary education and formation (pp. 5-6 abstract).

During the period of widespread cult of Shakespeare, Balzac delved into the works of the English playwright. An aspiring writer is aware of the advanced scientific and aesthetic thought of his time, aware of innovative theoretical literature, where the "broad Shakespearean drama" appears as a fundamental element of the new aesthetics. The problem of creating a universal genre of the New Age, capable of fully and fully reflecting the picture of the changed reality, is especially acutely felt by the romantics. The same problem worries Balzac, who is about to become “secretary of the French Society.” Organically incorporating the tradition of Shakespearean drama, so relevant for his time, Balzac significantly transforms the genre structure of the novel.

Further, E. A. Varlamova notes that immediately after the publication of the novel “Père Goriot” (1835), in newspaper and magazine articles dedicated to Balzac’s new novel, the name of the English playwright appears next to the name of its author (L'Impartial, 8 mars 1835 ; Le Courrier français, 15 April 1835; La Chronique de Paris, 19 April 1835; However, these first comparisons of Balzac and Shakespeare were rather superficial and mostly incorrect in relation to Balzac, reproaching him for outright plagiarism. Thus, the anonymous author of an article in L'Impartial, in a very ironic manner, informed readers that Balzac “now takes pleasure in the fact that he enters into a daring struggle with high and powerful geniuses,” Philaret Chales (Chales F.) in the pages of “La Chronique de Paris" in its article dedicated to "Père Goriot", also criticizes Balzac, reproaching him for his lack of imagination and reducing the image of the novel's protagonist to a "bourgeois counterfeit of Lear." Finally, in April of the same 1835, two more articles appeared about “Père Goriot” and its author, where, when comparing Balzac’s novel with Shakespeare’s tragedy about King Lear, a very low assessment was given to “Père Goriot” in the sense of artistic, as well as moral qualities

But two years later, the barely defined theme of “Balzac and Shakespeare” sounded in a new way. One of the first, in February 1837, was the critic Andre Maffe who noted that Honoré de Balzac is the writer “who, after the English tragedian, penetrated most deeply into the secrets of the human heart” (quoted from: Prior H. Balzac à Milan // Revue de Paris, 15 juillet 1925). The words of A. Maffe, included in the context of the literary situation of that time (i.e., the general cult of the English playwright), meant, firstly, that Balzac was a genius whose talent was not inferior to that of Shakespeare, for this logically followed from such a comparison, and secondly, they assumed a certain commonality in the aesthetics of both writers, who strove in their work to reveal “the depths of the human heart” (pp. 6-7 abstract).

E. A. Varlamova names works that appeared in the second half of the 19th century. in France, both generalizing and specifically dedicated to Balzac, in which a comparison is made of the French novelist with Shakespeare (such authors as C.-O. Sainte-Beuve, I. Taine, G. Lanson, F. Brunetiere, C. Lowenjoul, P . Fly, R. Bernier). Thus, I. Taine in his famous sketch of 1858 ranks the genius of Balzac among the heights of the world belles lettres and, comparing him with Shakespeare, points to the truth, depth and complexity of the images they created, to the scale of the artistic world of both. In the 90s of the XIX century. this kind of rapprochement was carried out by Paul Flat (P. Flat) in his “Essay on Balzac” (p. 8 of the abstract).

From the works of the first decades of the twentieth century. E. A. Varlamova highlights the monograph “Foreign Orientations in Honoré de Balzac” by Sorbonne University professor Fernand Baldansperger (Baldesperger F. Orientations étrangères chez Honoré de Balzac. P., 1927). At the end of the 1920s. for F. Baldansperger, the very comparison of the names of Balzac and Shakespeare already looks “banal” (primarily because of “Père Goriot” and “King Lear”). However, according to the researcher, there is nothing in common between Balzac and Shakespeare and their works, even if Balzac himself compares his heroes with Shakespeare’s. Thus, by mentioning Iago and Richard III in Cousin Bette, speaking of Genie as a “reincarnated Othello” and calling Aunt Cibo “the terrible Lady Macbeth,” “Balzac,” according to the critic, “is making the same mistake as our playwrights.” XVIII century, all these Diderot and Mercier, who neglected the aristocratic or royal essence of Shakespeare’s heroes in order to preserve only the “human” essence in them.” According to the scientist, the greatness and scale of Shakespeare’s images are determined by the heroes’ belonging to the family of lords. Their inner world is much more complex than the “relentless physiology” that Balzac endowed with the creatures that came out of his head.” F. Baldansperger clearly objects to any points of contact between Balzac and Shakespeare.

His contemporary and colleague Helena Altziler enters into a peculiar polemic with Baldansperger, whose monograph “Genesis and plan of characters in the work of Balzac” (Altszyler H. La genèse et le plan des caractères dans l'oeuvre de Balzac. - P., 1928) represents the opposite point of view on this problem.

Shakespeare, according to the researcher, is “soul”, emotion; Balzac - “reason”, fact. Shakespeare experiences the conflicts of his era, Balzac states them. Hence the main difference in artistic means: the English playwright reveals the flaws of the human soul, exaggerating them when creating images, the French novelist does the same, depicting them in abundance. However, having outlined clear differences between the two masters of words, E. Altziler also writes about what they have in common: “Shakespeare’s drama and Balzac’s drama equally awaken in us the desire for truth; they differ only in external means, but achieve the same moral and intellectual results.”

E. A. Varlamova especially highlights Trimoin’s study from these works. Trimoen actually sees the influence of Shakespeare, firstly, in Balzac’s “imitation” of Shakespeare’s characters, which Balzac, in his opinion, perceives as symbols, types (for example, Iago is a villain, Lear is a father, Othello is a jealous person, Ariel is a guardian angel, etc.), and, secondly, in Balzac’s “imitation” of Shakespeare’s “romantic” aesthetics, which is manifested, according to Trimoin, in the French writer’s desire for eloquence, inclusiveness, and depiction of a riot of passions and in weakness to large effects. Trimoin, unlike Delyatre and Amblard, recognizes a literary continuity between Balzac and Shakespeare, believing that conscious references to Shakespeare made it possible for Balzac to point out the nature and evolution of many of the phenomena described in The Human Comedy (p. 15 of the author's abstract) .

We used some materials from E. A. Varlamova’s dissertation, noting the thoughtfulness and certain completeness of her review of French sources on the topic “Balzac and Shakespeare.” It is necessary to at least briefly introduce this dissertation itself, in which the topic under consideration is presented monographically. Particular relevance of the work is given by the appeal to the work of Balzac, studied in detail in Russian literary criticism in the 1950-1960s (see, for example, the wonderful study of B. G. Reizov “Balzac”, 1960) and then left to the attention of philologists. However, Balzac is still recognized as one of the greatest French writers.

In the first chapter of E. A. Varlamova’s dissertation, “The formation of Balzac’s creative individuality in the context of the historical and literary process of France in the first third of the 19th century” (pp. 22-69 of the dissertation), the degree and depth of Balzac’s acquaintance with the work of Shakespeare is described in detail. Collecting relevant material was not easy. And here, numerous studies with which the dissertation candidate is well acquainted and which, referring to this work, we described above, came in handy.

Balzac’s appeal to Shakespeare’s model turned out to be fundamental for Balzac during the development of a new type of novel, which is well revealed in the second chapter of the dissertation - “Balzac’s new type of novel. Shakespearean reminiscences in “The Human Comedy” (pp. 70-103 diss.). E.V. Varlamova’s considerations about Balzac’s poetics of the “novel-drama,” a genre that she successfully defines as a kind of “drama for reading” (p. 81 of the dissertation), are very valuable. A large amount of material shows that “with the expansion of the epic plan, the “novel-drama” is increasingly giving way to “drama in the novel”” (p. 86 of the dissertation). Important consequences of this genre development are noted: “The structure of the tragedy novel was based on the dramatic nature of the characters. However, as the hero’s personal drama loses the status of tragedy, becoming an ordinary phenomenon, more and more space in the novel is occupied by the image of comedy” (pp. 90-91 dis.); “Dramas are endless, tragedies are commonplace. Emotion gives way to fact - the drama turns into a novel” (p. 91 dis.); “The drama of characters loses its primary importance, giving way to the drama of circumstances”; “If in the “drama-novel” the maniac heroes possessed effective dramatic energy, then the “drama in the novel” is determined by the dramatic energy of the “action directors”” (p. 13 of the abstract). The researcher rightly considers Vautrin to be the most brilliant Balzac “director”.

The third chapter - “Père Goriot” and “King Lear” (pp. 104-144 diss.) contains material developed most subtly and in detail. The analysis of the use of Shakespearean allusions in Balzac's novel is carried out very skillfully. It is especially remarkable that E. A. Varlamova does not begin it with a completely obvious parallel in the plots of both works - the story of a father and ungrateful daughters. In general, this topic, which has become a common place, is given a very modest place, and the main attention is paid to less studied aspects. In particular, the problem of novel time is interestingly considered. The events in “Père Goriot” cover a year and three months - from the end of November 1819 to February 21, 1821, but the week from February 14 to 21, 1821 “accounts for the highest rhythm and concentration of action,” which confirms the researcher’s position: “Unity time and place in Balzac’s novel gravitate towards their Shakespearean version” (p. 15 of the abstract, where thoughts are presented more precisely than in the corresponding place of the dissertation, pp. 111-115). When studying such forms of dramatization (our term is V.L.), as monologues - dialogues - polylogues, the three main monologues in the novel are successfully highlighted - the Viscountess de Beauseant, Vautrin and Goriot. In general, this chapter contains many successful examples of analysis of such a complex and at the same time studied work as “Père Goriot.”

But the researcher does not understand that Shakespeare has not one, but three dramaturgical models (which was analyzed by L. E. Pinsky: Pinsky L. E. Shakespeare: The Basic Principles of Drama. - M., 1971, the fourth, relating to Shakespeare’s late plays, Pinsky did not analyze). In particular, Pinsky emphasized that the returning characters holding the historical chronicles Shakespeare into a single cycle are impossible in his tragedies (Pinsky compared Richard III in the chronicles “Henry VI” and “Richard III”, Henry V in the chronicles “Henry IV” and “Henry V” - on the one hand, and Anthony as a hero tragedies "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra", showing that in the latter case Shakespeare created two completely different heroes, and not one "returning hero"). This would be important for the researcher in the section where she talks about Balzac's Shakespearean tradition of using returning characters.

Other comments can be made. But at the same time, it should be noted that, in essence, E. A. Varlamova is one of the few who did not dwell on the external rapprochement between Shakespeare and Balzac (plots, characters, direct quotes, etc.), but made an attempt to identify more deep structural, conceptual connection between their work. And this attempt was successful.

A comparison of the works of such great writers as Shakespeare and Balzac, begun by F. Barbet d’Aurevilly almost a century and a half ago, and three decades earlier, indicated in reviews of the novel “Père Goriot” in the French press, gives new material for the fundamental conclusions of comparative studies about the deep relationships that exist in world literature and, ultimately, leading to the emergence of world literature as a single whole.

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Biography, life story of Honore de Balzac

Honore de Balzac - famous French writer XIX century, one of the creators of the realistic movement in European literature.

Origin

Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in Tours, located near the Loire River. The daughter of a merchant from Paris gave birth to a boy. His father, Bernard Francois, was a simple peasant, but was able to become a fairly rich man thanks to his ability in trading.

Bernard was so successful in buying and then reselling land plots confiscated from nobles during the revolution that he was able to become a popular man. Real name Balsa, for some reason, did not suit Father Honore, and he changed it to Balzac. In addition, by paying officials a certain amount of money, he became the owner of the “de” particle. Since then, he began to be called more nobly, and by the sound of his first and last name he could well pass for a representative of the privileged class. However, in those days in France, many ambitious commoners who had at least some francs in their souls did this.

Bernard believed that without studying law, his son would forever remain the son of a peasant. Only advocacy, in his opinion, could somehow bring the young man closer to the circle of the elite.

Studies

In the period from 1807 to 1813, fulfilling the will of his father, Honore completed a course of study at the College of Vendôme, and in 1816-1819 he learned the basics of science at the Paris School of Law. The young Balzac did not forget about practice, performing the duties of a scribe for a notary.

At that time he firmly decided to devote himself literary creativity. Who knows, his dream could have come true if the father had paid more attention to his son. But the parents did not pay due attention to what young Honore lived and breathed. Father was busy own affairs, and his mother, who was 30 years younger than him, had a frivolous character and often found delight in the chambers of strange men.

It should be noted that the future famous writer I didn’t want to become a lawyer at all, so I studied at these institutions, overcoming myself. Moreover, he amused himself by mocking the teachers. Therefore, it is not surprising that the careless student was repeatedly locked in a punishment cell. At the College of Vendôme, he was generally left to his own devices, because there parents could visit their children only once a year.

CONTINUED BELOW

In 1816, the family moved to the capital, and here the disease suddenly subsided.

The beginning of a creative journey

Beginning in 1823, young Balzac began to assert himself in literary circles. He published his first novels under fictitious names, and tried to write in the spirit of extreme romanticism. Such conditions were dictated by the fashion that prevailed in France at that time. Over time, Honore was skeptical about his attempts at writing. So much so that in the future I tried not to think about them at all.

In 1825, he tried not to write books, but to print them. Attempts with varying success lasted for three years, after which Balzac became completely disillusioned with the publishing business.

Writing craft

Honoré returned to creativity again, finishing work on historical novel"Chouans". By that time, the aspiring writer had such confidence in his abilities that he signed the work with his real name. Then everything went very smoothly, “Scenes of Private Life”, “Elixir of Longevity”, “Gobsek”, “Shagreen Skin” appeared. The last of these works is a philosophical novel.

Balzac worked with all his strength, spending 15 hours a day at his desk. The writer was forced to write to the limit of his capabilities, since he owed creditors a large sum of money.

Honore needed considerable finances for various dubious enterprises. At first, cherishing the hope of buying a silver mine at a reasonable price, he rushed to Sardinia. Then he acquired a spacious estate in the countryside, the maintenance of which took a toll on the owner’s pockets. Finally, he founded a couple of periodicals, the release of which was not commercially successful.

However, such hard work brought him good dividends in the form of fame. Balzac published several books every year. Not every colleague could boast of such a result.

At the time when Balzac loudly declared himself in French literature (the end of the 1820s), the direction of romanticism blossomed wildly. Many writers created the image of an adventurous or lonely hero. However, Balzac sought to move away from describing heroic individuals and focus on bourgeois society as a whole, which was the France of the July Monarchy. The writer depicted the life of representatives of almost all strata, from village workers and merchants to priests and aristocrats.

Marriage

Balzac visited Russia several times, in particular St. Petersburg. During one of his visits, fate brought him together with Evelina Ganskaya. The Countess belonged to a noble Polish family. A romance began, which ended in a wedding. The solemn event took place in the Church of St. Barbara in the city of Berdichev early in the morning, without outsiders.

Balzac's beloved had an estate in Verkhovna, a village located in Ukraine in the Zhitomir region. The couple settled there. Their love lasted almost 20 years, at the same time Balzac and Ganskaya often managed to live separately and not see each other for several years.

Balzac's hobbies

Previously, Balzac, despite his shy nature, awkward behavior and rather short stature, had many women. All of them could not resist Honore's energetic pressure. The young man's partners were mostly ladies much older than him.

As an example, we can recall the history of his relationship with 42-year-old Laura de Berni, who raised nine children. Balzac was 22 years younger, however, this did not stop him from achieving a mature woman. And this can be understood, because in this way he tried, albeit with great delay, to receive the portion of maternal affection due to each child. Those that he was deprived of as a child.

Death of a Writer

IN last years Throughout his life, the writer was often sick. Apparently, a disdainful attitude towards one’s own body made itself felt. Balzac never sought to lead healthy image life.

The famous writer found his last earthly refuge in the famous Parisian cemetery Père Lachaise. Death occurred on August 18, 1850.

). Balzac's father became rich by buying and selling confiscated noble lands during the revolution, and later became an assistant to the mayor of Tours. No relation to the French writer Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654). Father Honore changed his last name and became Balzac. Mother Anne-Charlotte-Laure Salambier (1778-1853) was much younger than her husband and even outlived her son. She came from the family of a Parisian cloth merchant.

The father prepared his son to become a lawyer. In -1813, Balzac studied at the College Vendôme, at the Paris School of Law, and at the same time worked as a scribe for a notary; however, he abandoned his legal career and devoted himself to literature. The parents did not do much with their son. He was placed at the Collège Vendôme against his will. Meetings with family were prohibited there all year round, with the exception of the Christmas holidays. During the first years of his studies, he had to be in a punishment cell many times. In the fourth grade, Honore began to come to terms with school life, but did not stop ridiculing teachers... At the age of 14, he fell ill, and his parents took him home at the request of the college authorities. For five years Balzac was seriously ill, it was believed that there was no hope of recovery, but soon after the family moved to Paris in 1816, he recovered.

The director of the school, Marechal-Duplessis, wrote in his memoirs about Balzac: “Starting from the fourth grade, his desk was always full of writings...”. Honore was fond of reading from an early age; he was especially attracted to the works of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Holbach, Helvetius and other French educators. He also tried to write poetry and plays, but his children's manuscripts have not survived. His essay “Treatise on the Will” was taken away by his teacher and burned before his eyes. Later, the writer would describe his childhood years at an educational institution in the novels “Louis Lambert”, “Lily in the Valley” and others.

His hope of becoming rich had not yet been realized (he was weighed down by debt - the result of his unsuccessful business ventures) when fame began to come to him. Meanwhile, he continued to work hard, working at his desk for 15-16 hours a day, and publishing 3 to 6 books annually.

The works created during the first five or six years of his writing career depict the most diverse areas of contemporary life in France: the village, the province, Paris; various social groups - merchants, aristocracy, clergy; various social institutions - family, state, army.

In 1845, the writer was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Honore de Balzac died on August 18, 1850, at the age of 52. The cause of death was gangrene, which developed after he injured his leg on the corner of the bed. However, the fatal illness was only a complication of a painful illness that lasted several years, associated with the destruction of blood vessels, presumably arteritis.

Balzac was buried in Paris, in the Père Lachaise cemetery. " All the writers of France came out to bury him." From the chapel, where they said goodbye to him, and to the church, where they buried him, among the people bearing the coffin were

Name: Honore de Balzac

Age: 51 years old

Activity: writer

Family status: was married

Honore de Balzac: biography

Honore De Balzac is a French writer and one of the best prose writers. The biography of the founder of realism is similar to the plots of his own works - stormy adventures, mysterious circumstances, difficulties and bright achievements.

On May 20, 1799, in France (the city of Tours), a child was born into a simple family, who later became the father of a naturalistic novel. Father Bernard Francois Balssa had a legal education and was engaged in business, reselling the lands of the poor and bankrupt nobles. This type of business brought him profit, so Francois decided to change family name to become “closer” to the intelligentsia. Balssa chose the writer Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac as his “relative.”

Honore's mother, Anne-Charlotte-Laure Salambier, had aristocratic roots and was 30 years younger than her husband, adored life, fun, freedom and men. Love affairs I didn’t hide it from my husband. Anna had an illegitimate child, to whom she began to show more care than to the future writer. Honore was cared for by a wet nurse, and after that the boy was sent to live in a boarding house. The novelist’s childhood can hardly be called kind and bright; the problems and stress he experienced later manifested themselves in his works.

His parents wanted Balzac to become a lawyer, so their son studied at Vendôme College with a legal focus. Educational institution was famous for its strict discipline; meetings with loved ones were allowed only during the Christmas holidays. The boy rarely adhered to local rules, for which he acquired a reputation as a robber and slob.

At the age of 12, Honore de Balzac wrote his first children's work, which his classmates laughed at. The little writer read books by French classics, composed poems and plays. Unfortunately, his childhood manuscripts could not be preserved, school teachers forbade the child to develop literary, and one day, one of his first works, “Treatise on the Will,” was burned in front of Honore’s eyes.

Difficulties associated with communication among peers, with teachers, and lack of attention contributed to the development of diseases in the boy. At the age of 14, the family took the seriously ill teenager home. There was no chance of recovery. He spent several years in this state, but still got out

In 1816, Balzac's parents moved to Paris, and there the young novelist continued his studies at the School of Law. Along with studying science, Honore got a job as a clerk in a notary's office, but did not get any pleasure from it. Literature attracted Balzac like a magnet, then the father decided to support his son in the direction of writing.

Francois promised him funding for two years. During this period, Honore must prove his ability to make money doing what he loves. Until 1823, Balzac created about 20 volumes of works, but most of them were expected to fail. His first tragedy "" was subjected to severe criticism, and later Balzac himself called his young creativity erroneous.

Literature

In his first works, Balzac tried to follow literary fashion, wrote about love, and was engaged in publishing, but unsuccessfully (1825-1828). The writer's subsequent works were influenced by books written in the spirit of historical romanticism.

Then (1820-1830) writers used only two main genres:

1. Romanticism of the individual, aimed at heroic achievements, for example, the book “Robinson Crusoe”.
2. The life and problems of the hero of the novel associated with his loneliness.

Re-reading the works of successful writers, Balzac decided to move away from the novel of personality and find something new. The “main role” of his works began to be played not by the heroic individual, but by society as a whole. In this case, the modern bourgeois society of his native state.

In 1834, Honore created a work aimed at showing the “picture of morals” of that time and worked on it throughout his life. The book was later called "The Human Comedy". Balzac's idea was to create an artistic philosophical history of France, i.e. what the country became after surviving the revolution.

The literary edition consists of several parts, including a list of various works:

1. “Etudes on Morals” (6 sections).
2. “Philosophical Studies” (22 works).
3. “Analytical research” (1 work instead of 5 intended by the author).

This book can easily be called a masterpiece. It describes ordinary people, notes the professions of the heroes of the works and their role in society. “The Human Comedy” is filled with non-fictional facts, everything from life, everything about the human heart.

Works

Honoré de Balzac finally formed his life position in the field of creativity after writing the following works:

• "Gobsek" (1830). Initially, the work had a different title - “The Dangers of Dissipation.” The qualities clearly displayed here are greed and greed, as well as their influence on the fate of the heroes.
• “Shagreen Skin” (1831) - this work brought success to the writer. The book is imbued with romantic and philosophical aspects. It describes in detail life issues and possible solutions.
• "Woman of Thirty" (1842). main character the writer has far from the best character traits, leads a life that is condemning from the point of view of society, thereby pointing out to readers mistakes that have a destructive effect on other people. Here Balzac wisely expresses his thoughts about human essence.

• “Lost Illusions” (publication in three parts, 1836-1842). In this book, Honore, as always, managed to approach every detail, creating a picture moral life French citizens. Vividly reflected in the work: human egoism, passion for power, wealth, self-confidence.
• “The brilliance and poverty of courtesans” (1838-1847). This novel is not about the life of Parisian courtesans, as its title initially suggests, but about the struggle between secular and criminal society. Another brilliant work, included in the “multi-volume” “Human Comedy”.
• The work and biography of Honore de Balzac is among the required materials to study in schools around the world according to the educational program.

Personal life

You can write a separate novel about the personal life of the great Honore de Balzac, but it cannot be called happy. As a child, the little writer did not receive enough mother's love and throughout his conscious life he looked for care, attention and tenderness in other women. He often fell in love with ladies much older than himself.

The great writer of the 19th century was not handsome, as can be seen from the photo. But he had exquisite eloquence, charm, and knew how to conquer arrogant young ladies in a simple monologue with just one remark.

His first woman was Mrs. Laura de Berni. She was 40 years old. She was old enough to be a mother to young Honore, and, perhaps, managed to replace her, becoming a faithful friend and adviser. After the breakup of their romance, the former lovers maintained friendly relations and maintained correspondence until their death.

When the writer achieved success with readers, he began to receive hundreds of letters from different women, and one day Balzac came across a sketch of a mysterious girl, admired by the talent of a genius. Her subsequent letters turned out to be clear declarations of love. For some time, Honore corresponded with a foreigner, and then they met in Switzerland. The lady turned out to be married, which did not bother the writer at all.

The stranger's name was Evelina Ganskaya. She was smart, beautiful, young (32 years old) and the writer immediately liked her. Afterwards, Balzac awarded this woman the title of the main love in his life.

The lovers rarely saw each other, but often corresponded and made plans for the future, because... Evelina’s husband was 17 years older than her and could have passed away at any moment. Having sincere love in his heart for Ganskaya, the writer did not restrain himself from courting other women.

When Wenceslav Gansky (husband) died, Evelina pushed Balzac away, because a wedding with a Frenchman threatened her with separation from her daughter Anna (threat), but a few months later she invited her to Russia (her place of residence).

Only 17 years after they met, the couple got married (1850). Honore was then 51 years old and was the happiest man in the world, but they failed to live a married life.

Death

The talented writer could have died at the age of 43, when various diseases began to overcome him, but thanks to the desire to love and be loved by Evelina, he held on.

Literally immediately after the wedding, Ganskaya turned into a nurse. Doctors diagnosed Honore terrible diagnosis- cardiac hypertrophy. The writer could not walk, write or even read books. The woman did not leave her husband, wanting to fill his last days with peace, care and love.

On August 18, 1950, Balzac died. After himself, he left his wife an unenviable inheritance - huge debts. Evelina sold all her property in Russia to pay them off and went with her daughter to Paris. There, the widow took guardianship of the prose writer’s mother and devoted the remaining 30 years of her life to perpetuating the works of her lover.

Bibliography

• Chouans, or Brittany in 1799 (1829).
• Shagreen leather (1831).
• Louis Lambert (1832).
• Banking house of Nucingen (1838).
• Beatrice (1839).
• The Constable's Wife (1834).
• Salvation cry (1834).
• The Witch (1834).
• Perseverance of Love (1834).
• Bertha's Repentance (1834).
• Naivety (1834).
• Facino Canet (1836).
• The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan (1839).
• Pierre Grassu (1840).
• The Imaginary Mistress (1841).