The Illustrious Gaudissart

La Comédie Humaine #34

by Honoré de Balzac

A gifted travelling salesman finds his master in a provincial lunatic. A comedic short story written by Balzac in one night.

Genres: French Literature, Fiction, France, Short Stories, Classics, 19th Century

26 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1833

About the author

French writer Honoré de Balzac (born Honoré Balzac), a founder of the realist school of fiction, portrayed the panorama of society in a body of works, known collectively as La comédie humaine .

Honoré de Balzac authored 19th-century novels and plays. After the fall of Napoléon in 1815, his magnum opus, a sequence of almost a hundred novels and plays, entitled, presents life in the years.

Due to keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation, European literature regards Balzac. He features renowned multifaceted, even complex, morally ambiguous, full lesser characters. Character well imbues inanimate objects; the city of Paris, a backdrop, takes on many qualities. He influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles John Huffam Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac as well as important philosophers, such as Friedrich Engels. Many works of Balzac, made into films, continue to inspire.

An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac adapted with trouble to the teaching style of his grammar. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. Balzac finished, and people then apprenticed him as a legal clerk, but after wearying of banal routine, he turned his back on law. He attempted a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician before and during his career. He failed in these efforts From his own experience, he reflects life difficulties and includes scenes.

Possibly due to his intense schedule and from health problems, Balzac suffered throughout his life. Financial and personal drama often strained his relationship with his family, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; five months later, he passed away.

Reviews

[Olga · Rating 4 out of 5]

'L'illustre Gaudissart' is a satire on the representatives of a new occupation in the 19th century - a travelling salesman or a commercial traveller. In this story the illustrious Gaudissart, an artful, self-assured, boastful and eloquent commercial traveller is outwitted by an insane villager.

'How many great qualities must such a man possess! You will find in all countries many such diplomats of low degree; consummate negotiators arguing in the interests of calico, jewels, frippery, wines; and often displaying more true diplomacy than ambassadors themselves, who, for
the most part, know only the forms of it. No one in France can doubt the powers of the commercial traveller; that intrepid soul who dares all, and boldly brings the genius of civilization and the modern inventions of Paris into a struggle with the plain commonsense of remote villages,
and the ignorant and boorish treadmill of provincial ways. Can we ever forget the skilful manoeuvres by which he worms himself into the minds of the populace, bringing a volume of words to bear upon the refractory, reminding us of the indefatigable worker in marbles whose file eats slowly into a block of porphyry? Would you seek to know the utmost power of language, or the strongest pressure that a phrase can bring to bear against rebellious lucre, against the miserly proprietor squatting in the recesses of his country lair?--listen to one of these great
ambassadors of Parisian industry as he revolves and works and sucks like an intelligent piston of the steam-engine called Speculation.'

[Ionuț Anastasiu · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stele.
Nuvela Ilustrul Gaudissart este dovada cea mai bună că Balzac nu a fost doar un scriitor preocupat de dimensiunea tragică a existenţei umane, ci și un talentat umorist. Modul în care este descris eroul principal este foarte elocvent: "Gaudissart era un bărbat de treizeci şi opt de ani, de statură mijlocie, voinic şi gras, ca un bărbat deprins să umble cu diligenta; cu o faţă rotundă ca un dovleac, roşcovană, cu trăsături regulate, ca acele chipuri clasice adoptate de sculptorii tuturor ţărilor pentru statuile Belşugului, Legii, Puterii, Negoţului, şi aşa mai departe… Pântecul lui proeminent avea forma unei pere. Avea picioare scurte, dar era sprinten şi nervos".
Episodul "negocierii" dintre voiajorul comercial Gaudissart și nebunul Margaritis, ce s-au înțeles atât de bine, deși fiecare era preocupat doar de sine, fiind complet neatent la ceea ce afirmă celălalt, este plin de savoare; la fel de savuros este și finalul, ce ne arată că Gaudissart a rămas la fel de brav precum îl știam, în vorbe și nu neapărat în fapte. Poate că există un Gaudissart în fiecare dintre oamenii ce locuiesc în capitala unei țări ce iese la iveală atunci când aceștia fac afaceri în provincie, cine știe? Lectură plăcută!

[Catherine Vamianaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Μια σύντομη ιστορία του Μπαλζακ με κεντρικό ήρωα τον Γκωτισαρ έναν εμπορικό αντιπρόσωπο που φεύγει απο το Παρίσι για την Τουραιν. Εκει θα συναντήσει τους κατοίκους της περιοχής με απώτερο σκοπό την πώληση κάποιων προϊόντων. Απο μια ατυχία θα εμπλακεί και σε μονομαχία.
Εκδόθηκε το 1833 και είναι απο τα λιγότερα γνωστά του έργα.
Το προτείνω σε όσους αγαπούν το έργο του

[Armin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Soziologische Humoreske über Handlungsreisende im Allgemeinen und einen ganz Bestimmten im besonderen, der in der Tourraine vom örtlichen Eulenspiegel erst mal hinters Licht geführt wird.
Im Vergleich zu Gaudissart II gibt es immerhin einen Handlungskern.

[Sladjana Kovacevic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honoré de Balzac-L'illustre Gaidisart
"Il se nommait Gaudissart, et sa renommée, son crédit, les éloges dont il était accablé, lui avaient valu le surnom d’ illustre. Partout où ce garçon entrait, dans un comptoir comme dans une auberge, dans un salon comme dans une diligence, dans une mansarde comme chez un banquier, chacun de dire en le voyant : – Ah ! voilà l’illustre Gaudissart. Jamais nom ne fut plus en harmonie avec la tournure, les manières, la physionomie, la voix, le langage d’aucun homme. Tout souriait au Voyageur et le Voyageur souriait à tout."
🇷🇸
🍷Ume Balzak da bude urnebesno smešan
🍷Kratka ali efektna pripovetka(57 stranica u pdf-u)
🍷Godisar je trgovački putnik koji je rešio da se skrasi i posveti "poštenom poslu"
🍷Šta drugo da postane trgovac nego agent za prodaju osiguranja
🍷Kad klijent nema para,može i trampa
🍷Recimo-isplata u vinu
🍷Ali nema ni vina
🍷Klijent koga je Godisar smatrao budalom zapravo je lud
🍷Lud ali dobroćudan,žena i meštani se staraju o njemu
🍷Ko će koga nadigrati i ko je dovitljiviji,Godisar ili stanovnici provincijskog gradića ?
🇺🇸
🍷Very funny Balzac
🍷Short but great story
🍷Gaudisart is a traveling salesman trying to settle down and open a "regular business"
🍷What else could he do but sell insurance policies
🍷If the client doesn't have money,he can pay in merchendise
🍷Wine,for exemple
🍷But there isn't any wine
🍷The man Gaudisart took for a fool is actually crazy
🍷Crazy but good natured,and his wife and city falks take care of him
🍷Who is going to outwit who and who wins,Gaudisart or smalltawn's falk?

#7sensesofabook #classicliterature #knjige #literature #bookstagram #readingaddict

[Vila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me kete novele kushtuar teresisht nje karakteri Balzak deshmon mjeshterine e tij portretizuese.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balzac's The Illustrious Gaudissart is a short humorous story that shows how a Parisian salesman can be tricked by the slow moving provincial people.

I did not read this edition but from a Delphi collection of his works which included the below.

"Published initially in 1833, this short story features an arrogant commercial traveller, who claims to be the friend of all he meets, while inwardly scheming to sell them his dubious goods. "


❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌

I am adding this here because under "Ceasar Birotteau" I was unable to add to review in why Gaudissart was indebted to Popinot helped him from death.


"In 1816 a young commercial traveler named Gaudissart, who frequented the Cafe David, sat drinking from eleven o’clock till midnight with a half-pay officer. He was so rash as to discuss a conspiracy against the Bourbons, a rather serious plot then on the point of execution. There was no one to be seen in the cafe but Pere Canquoelle, who seemed to be asleep, two waiters who were dozing, and the accountant at the desk. Within four-and-twenty hours Gaudissart was arrested, the plot was discovered. Two men perished on the scaffold. Neither Gaudissart nor any one else ever suspected that worthy old Canquoelle of having peached. "

A travelling salesman goes to Vouyray and for a joke he is conned into dealing with a luntic. A duel ends on friendly terms.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another of Balzac's short stories that are more of an extended anecdote than a tightly focused event a la Hemingway or Henry James. In this case, a French salesman gets the best of a supercilious Englishwoman by appealing to her innate snobbery. It's good for a broad smile, but it's more of a piece of after-dinner conversation told by an expert raconteur.

[Miles Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Balzac's more humorous pieces in La Comédie humaine. The story of Gaudissart being outwitted by country villagers is thoroughly enjoyable. In the author's final plan for the series, it is one the two Parisians in the Country novellas that form part of the larger Studies of Manners.

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simpático, satírico y picaresco cuento corto en el que el destacado y exitoso viajante de comercio, el ilustre Gaudissart es víctima de una broma de pueblo que lo lleva a enfrentarse con el loco del pueblo, quien es el que logra salir victorioso ante el intento de Gaudissart de hacerlo comprar un seguro de vida y suscripciones a periódicos.

La introducción al cuento de 1833, aún tomando en cuenta la posible intención hiperbólica del autor, muestra el perceptivo genio crítico psicológico y socioeconómico de Balzac, que encuentra en la labia y el genio persuasivo y seductor del vendodor viajero el signo de nuevos tiempos. En este sentido vale la pena citarlo in extenso:

¿No es el viajante de comercio, personaje desconocido en la antigüedad, una de las figuras más curiosas que han creado las costumbres de la época actual? ¿No está destinado, en un cierto orden de cosas, a marcar la gran transición que, a los ojos de observadores, une la época de las explotaciones materiales co la época de las explotaciones intelectuales? Nuestro siglo ha de ser un eslabón [...con] el reinado de la fuerza uniforme, aunque niveladora, que da igualdad a sus productos, los lanza por masas y se rige por un pensamiento unitario, última expresión de las sociedades. ¿No es el viajante de comercio a las ideas lo que nuestras diligencias son a las cosas y a los hombres? El es quien las transporta, las pone en movimiento y las hace entrechocar unas con otras [...] Este piróforo humano es un sabio ignorante, un burlador burlado, un sacerdote incrédulo que por serlo expone mejor sus misterios y sus normas. ¡Curiosa figura! Este hombre lo ha visto todo, lo sabe todo y conoce todo el mundo. Saturado de los vicios de París, puede fingir la bonachona ingenuidad provinciana. ¿No es él el eslabón que une al pueblo con la capital [...] Se interesa por todo, y nada le interesa [...] Se ve forzado a ser observador so pena de renunciar a su oficio. ¿No está obligado a sondear a los hombres con una sola mirada, a adivinar sus hechos, sus costumbres y, sobre todo, su solvencia, teniendo además, que calcular en cada caso, rápidamente, las probabilidades de éxito, para no perder su tiempo? De este modo, el hábito de adoptar prontas decisiones en cualquier asunto, le hace ser esencialmente juzgador: habla y decide en árbitro [...] Dotado de la elocuencia de un grifo de agua caliente, que se abre y cierra a voluntad, le es posible igualmente detener y soltar sin equivocarse el raudal de su colección de frases preparadas, que fluyen sin cesar y producen en la víctima el efecto de una ducha moral [...] Nadie en Francia sospecha el increíble poder sin cesar desplegado por los viajantes, esos intrépitos arrostradores de ngativas que representan en la última de las aldeas el genio de la civilización y los inventos parisienses, en pugna con la prudencia, la ignorancia o la rutina de las provincias [...] ¡Hablar! ¡Hacerse escuchar! ¿No es esto ya seducir?

La elocuencia del Gaudissart nos pierde, nos confunde, nos seduce con promesas y pirotecnias verbales y sólo la monomanía del loco, la viveza provinciana del burlador y el encandilamiento del propio vendedor por hacer negocio parecen poderle hacer frente.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a review, it's a summary so that I can keep track of the stories I've read from La Comedie Humaine.

Written in 1844, this very short story of less than 4000 words is a sardonic portrait of Parisian salesmen. Where the travelling salesman in Balzac’s tale of The Illustrious Gaudissart got his comeuppance at the hands of the wily Tourangian peasants, in Paris – a citadel of commerce with shops to rival Versailles – things are different…

‘To know how to sell, to be able to sell, and to sell’ – these are the attributes that really make Paris stately. The cafés, shop windows and vast Babylonian galleries are as brilliant as the salons were before the Revolution of 1789, and the staff within them are highly skilled at parting the customer from her purse, ‘much as myriads of Seine whitebait fall upon a chance crust floating down the river’.

Balzac has coined the label Gaudissart to evoke the cunning masters of the art of salesmanship who inhabit these establishments in which architecture and the decorative arts conspire to bewitch the customer.

‘A French shopman is better educated than his fellows in other European countries; he can at need talk asphalt, Bal Mabille, polkas, literature, illustrated books, railways, politics, parliament, and revolution; transplant him, take away his stage, his yardstick, his artificial graces; he is foolish beyond belief; but on his own boards, on the tight-rope of the counter, as he displays a shawl with a speech at his tongue’s end, and his eye on his customer, he puts the great Talleyrand into the shade; he is a match for a Monrose and a Moliere to boot. Talleyrand in his own house would have outwitted Gaudissart, but in the shop the parts would have been reversed’.

Balzac provides two examples of the salesman at work, one where he is outwitted, and the other where he succeeds:

At home in his palace, the great diplomatist Talleyrand is invited to advise a couple of duchesses who can’t decide between two bracelets. The sales assistant has come from a great Parisian jeweller. The ladies dither, each anxious not to be shown to have worse taste than the other. The Prince, without so much as looking at the bracelets, asks the assistant to indicate which he would choose for his sweetheart. The Prince then suggests that the duchess take the other one – to ‘make two women happy’ - and he tells the assistant to take the other for his sweetheart. This expedites the sale without further ado, and of course since the salesman recommended the more expensive one, the duchess has bought the lesser.

However, on his own turf, the salesman is supreme.

Corresponding perhaps to female enthusiasm for handbags today, Parisian women in Balzac’s era were particularly susceptible in the matter of shawls. To assist them in their purchases, the charming young men who staff the shops are hand-picked and trained to correspond to certain types of female customers. There is the very young innocent, who cannot possibly be distrusted; there is the diffident one who evokes sympathy for one so unsuited to business; there is one with a lively good humour and another who ‘with his portentous cravat, his sternness, his dignity, and curt speech’ is attuned to the lady who doesn’t intend to be taken in by anyone. He who is charge of all this, descending ‘like a deus ex machina, whenever a tangled problem demands a swift solution’ is a person of great respectability, who occasionally wears ‘the ribbon of the Legion of Honor in recognition of the manner in which he supports the dignity of the French drapers’ wand’.

These Gaudissarts know and understand every whim and ‘every vibration of the cashmere chord in the heart of woman’. They analyse the woman, her dress and mannerisms from the moment she steps inside, and they ‘communicate their conclusions to one another with telegraphic speed, in a glance, a smile, the movement of a muscle, a twitch of the lip’.

One of Balzac’s characters brags about the cleverest trick: the one with the Selim shawl, which is totally unsaleable, and yet they sell it. They do it by keeping it in a plain but satin-lined cedar box that comes with a story that the shawl was one of those that Selim sent to the Emperor Napoleon. They bring it out when the sale seems lost. And just as this story is being told, an Englishwoman arrives…

English women are particularly difficult so they get the treatment from a dark, mysterious, portentous type of Gaudissart. If she’s from the city, the oldest salesman confuses her so much with hundreds of shawls in 15 minutes that she has to ask his advice who places before her a choice of two: the fashionable, and the one which will go with any dress. But still these Englishwomen regard shopping as mere amusement and are resistant to most of the tricks.

This one scrutinises everything but is indifferent to it all. They flatter her fastidious taste; for her part she makes it obvious that she can’t stand the idea that in post-Revolutionary France mere shopmen might stand for Parliament or dine at the Tuileries. He brings out the Selim shawl, pretending that he was going to give it to his wife because – since it once belonged to the Empress Josephine – he now can’t sell it. He exaggerates its value but says he was never paid for the one that the Empress swapped for it.

It is of course unspeakably gaudy, but the woman has no taste and its provenance has great appeal since Waterloo. The shopmen exchange amused glances. ’Sold’ they think, but no, he’s overdone the price of it, and she says she would rather have a carriage with her money.

Is he defeated? Not on your life. This Gaudissart has the very thing, a very nice carriage, nearly new, which belonged to a Russian princess. He suggests that she keep the shawl to try out its effect in the carriage (which is of course only a common brougham). The watching staff are fascinated, finding this contest extra exciting because of ‘the additional interest attached to all contests, however trifling, between England and France’.

20 minutes later the shawl is sold for 6000 francs, and the proprietor explains to his incredulous staff how it was done. He had known from the start that she didn’t know what she wanted and it turned out that in her dull, respectable life what she really wanted was to be conspicuous. Having no taste of her own, she enjoyed the way everyone stared at her in the gaudy shawl because she thought their attention represented admiration.

In other countries of the world a shopkeeper is merely a shopkeeper, concludes Balzac, but in France, especially Paris, he is all things to all people.

And the coda? Another satin-lined cedar box is ordered from the joiner, and they go through the stock to find another Selim shawl!

Cross-posted at http://balzacbooks.wordpress.com/

Lisa Hill, November 12th, 2011

[Gláucia Renata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conto publicado em 1833 que retrata a figura do caixeiro-viajante através do personagem Gaudissart. Faz parte da série Os Parisienses na Província.
O ilustre o título se dirige a Tourenne com o intuito de empurrar seus produtos a seus cidadãos. Ele se vangloria de sua capacidade de persuasão mas não conta com as características do povo tourenense: de espírito ardente, poético, criativo e voluptuoso, sofre a languidez e suavidade do clima que o torna indolente. Ocupa seu tempo em caçoar do vizinho, em divertir-se e chega ao fim da vida, feliz.
O caixeiro tentará vender seu produto ao esperto tintureiro Vernier, de quem é quae impossível conseguir um tostão. Esse então lhe pregará uma peça, indicando um cliente: o vinheteiro Margaritis, omitindo o detalhe de ser ele um lunático inofensivo.
O conto vale pelo retrato da região, Tours, terra natal do autor e pelo delicioso diálogo de surdos entre Gaudissart e o louco.



Histórico de leitura
02/11/2016

52% (72 de 138)

"Quanto à ociosidade, ela é sublime, e admiravelmente definida por esse ditado popular: "Turonense, queres sopa? - Quero. Traze a tua escudela! - Não estou mais com fome".
31/10/2016

7% (9 de 138)

"O caixeiro-viajante, personagem desconhecida na Antiguidade, não será uma das figuras mais interessantes criadas pelos costumes da época atual?"

[Jaime Fernández Garrido · Rating 4 out of 5]

La trigésima primera escena de "La comedia humana" (según Hermida Editores) es un cuento que demuestra la maestría de Balzac a la hora de escribir diálogos y de darles una vitalidad pasmosa. El libro incluye también una de esas cartas que tanto le gustan al autor, aunque fundamentalmente, en sus escasas 50 páginas, este libro es pura charla.

El ilustre Gaudissart del título es un viajante de negocios, de esos con la capacidad de vender un frigorífico a un esquimal, al que contratan múltiples empresas para que lleve sus productos por toda Francia, partiendo desde París y llegando a zonas donde abundan los pueblerinos, supuestamente más fáciles de engatusar.

Así, Gaudissart, de quien el autor dice que "llevaba una vida de soberano, o mejor aún, de periodista", se acerca a Vouvray, un pueblecillo cerca de Tours, para vender seguros de vida y suscripciones a periódicos. Allí enseguida captan la vaguedad de sus supuestos productos ventajosos y deciden tomarle el pelo haciendo que vaya a hablar con el loco del pueblo, con quien mantendrá una conversación jocosa, sobre todo para los lectores, para los vecinos y los parientes del loco que ven que Gaudissart se engolosina y se mete en su propia trampa creyéndose vencedor.

De todos modos, la moraleja del cuento (si es que hay) es que Gaudissart seguirá siendo Gaudissart a pesar de todo lo que le ocurra.

[Daniele Palma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Balzac con la sua fine ironia, non trascurando però argomenti carichi di significato, ci dona un suggerimento sussurrato all'orecchio, ci dona una fotografia del mondo francese, europeo, provinciale dei suoi anni. Il trascorrere del tempo spesso viene narrato con le imprese di Re, Imperatori, Napoleoni vari ma più spesso è concretamente la massa la vera protagonista.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta obra comprende dos relatos separados. El primero, El ilustre Gaudissart, resulta bastante entretenido. El segundo, La musa del departamento, se centra en la vida de una mujer que ve atravesada su vida por el deber ser, las apariencias y el amor; al final, podríamos decir que gana el pragmatismo.

[Tim Potier · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea is a good one: salesman goes to the regions to try and rip-off the locals. The trouble is it never really gets going and the novella is too short to develop the plot (which is flimsy) and characters. Not one of Balzac's most successful outings.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, well written, a clever story, but I'm not comfortable with mocking the afflicted.

[Bernard Convert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le portrait du voyageur de commerce, homme de la Monarchie de Juillet, est génial, l'histoire elle-même, une pochade assez médiocre.

[myriam kisfaludi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Petite conte comique d’un commis voyageur hâbleur a souhait confronté à des vignerons roublards de Vouvray.

[Mariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Não foi lá grande coisa, mas leu-se bem. Basicamente é um pequeno conto sobre um vendedor de seguros que se deixa apanhar por uma partida, not a big deal

[Francesc · Rating 3 out of 5]

en vrai c’était assez drôle même si les 3 premières pages sont incompréhensibles

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

When one undertakes to read the shorter, relatively unknown works of Honore de Balzac, one encounters aspects of the author one never imagined. The Illustrious Gaudissart is more like a facetious American work of the 1840s than what one imagines to be a typical work in the Human Comedy.

Picture to yourself a shaggy dog story of a traveling salesman named Gaudissart, who tries to make the sale under any and all circumstances. He appears to be indomitable until he runs into some peasants in Vouvray, in Balzac's native Touraine region.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short, but amusing. Balzac is often sad, but not so here. In the opening few paragraphs he was describing those men who were "commercial travelers" - what we would call traveling salesmen. The cadence in these paragraphs reminded me of a carnival barker, or perhaps what I think a "snake oil" salesman might have sounded like. Just right to put me in the mood for a spoof, and I wasn't disappointed.

[Yves · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'Illustre Gaudissard est une courte histoire de Balzac qui est très sympathique à lire. Ce court livre a réussi à me mettre le sourire aux lèvres.

[Fazackerly Toast · Rating 3 out of 5]

If anyone wants a clearer understanding and appreciation of the French, their national character and where they are coming from, they could do worse than read Balzac.