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La Vieille Fille: Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac, né Honoré Balzacn 1 le 20 mai 1799 (1er prairial an VII du calendrier républicain) à Tours et mort le 18 août 1850 (à 51 ans) à Paris, est un écrivain français. Romancier, dramaturge, critique littéraire, critique d'art, essayiste, journaliste et imprimeur, il a laissé l'une des plus imposantes œuvres romanesques de la littérature française, avec plus de quatre-vingt-dix romans et nouvelles parus de 1829 à 1855, réunis sous le titre de La Comédie humaine. À cela s'ajoutent Les Cent Contes drolatiques, ainsi que des romans de jeunesse publiés sous des pseudonymes et quelque vingt-cinq œuvres ébauchées.
Il est un maître du roman français, dont il a abordé plusieurs genres, du roman philosophique avec Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu au roman fantastique avec La Peau de chagrin ou encore au roman poétique avec Le Lys dans la vallée. Il a surtout excellé dans la veine du réalisme, avec notamment Le Père Goriot et Eugénie Grandet.
Comme il l'explique dans son avant-propos à La Comédie humaine, il a pour projet d'identifier les « espèces sociales » de son époque, tout comme Buffon avait identifié les espèces zoologiques. Ayant découvert par ses lectures de Walter Scott que le roman pouvait aspirer à une « valeur philosophique », il veut explorer les différentes classes sociales et les individus qui les composent afin d'« écrire l'histoire oubliée par tant d'historiens, celle des mœurs » et de « faire concurrence à l'état civil ».
L'auteur décrit la montée du capitalisme, l'essor de la bourgeoisie face à la noblesse, dans une relation complexe faite de mépris et d'intérêts communs. Intéressé par les êtres qui ont un destin, il crée des personnages plus grands que nature : « Chacun, chez Balzac, même les portières, a du génie » (Baudelaire).
Il est un maître du roman français, dont il a abordé plusieurs genres, du roman philosophique avec Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu au roman fantastique avec La Peau de chagrin ou encore au roman poétique avec Le Lys dans la vallée. Il a surtout excellé dans la veine du réalisme, avec notamment Le Père Goriot et Eugénie Grandet.
Comme il l'explique dans son avant-propos à La Comédie humaine, il a pour projet d'identifier les « espèces sociales » de son époque, tout comme Buffon avait identifié les espèces zoologiques. Ayant découvert par ses lectures de Walter Scott que le roman pouvait aspirer à une « valeur philosophique », il veut explorer les différentes classes sociales et les individus qui les composent afin d'« écrire l'histoire oubliée par tant d'historiens, celle des mœurs » et de « faire concurrence à l'état civil ».
L'auteur décrit la montée du capitalisme, l'essor de la bourgeoisie face à la noblesse, dans une relation complexe faite de mépris et d'intérêts communs. Intéressé par les êtres qui ont un destin, il crée des personnages plus grands que nature : « Chacun, chez Balzac, même les portières, a du génie » (Baudelaire).
87 pages, Paperback
Published September 2, 2022
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About the author
Honoré de Balzac
9,676 books4,432 followersFrench 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 14, 2024
Every now and then I go back to Balzac to keep my French from rusting away and with the vague project of reading his entire vast oeuvre before I join him in the world to come.
This novel, set in Alencon, a small city in Normandy, starts off in a satirical vein, making fun of the grotesque mediocrities of provincial life. The old maid of the title is a particularly ridiculous person, fat and stupid, but very rich, and, therefore, desired by three men, two of whom are unsavory, each in his own way, the third, a young man whose infatuation with the old maid is entirely unconvincing.
About 3/4 through the book, the tone suddenly changes, and there's no humor left. Balzac is pitiless in his treatment of his characters. The only really happy one is a vulgar, hypocritical opportunist who makes a lot of money and modernizes Alencon in ways that Balzac doesn't approve of.
As much as it is a novel, this book is al diatribe against the ways that Balzac thinks France has gone wrong under the Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy after the defeat of Napoleon and, even more, after the revolution of 1830.
I could have used an annotated edition to provide information about the political and historical events and characters that he refers to, but one gets the gist.
This novel is actually the first of a two-part book entitled "The Rivalries." I expect to be as surprised by it as I was by "The Old Maid."
This novel, set in Alencon, a small city in Normandy, starts off in a satirical vein, making fun of the grotesque mediocrities of provincial life. The old maid of the title is a particularly ridiculous person, fat and stupid, but very rich, and, therefore, desired by three men, two of whom are unsavory, each in his own way, the third, a young man whose infatuation with the old maid is entirely unconvincing.
About 3/4 through the book, the tone suddenly changes, and there's no humor left. Balzac is pitiless in his treatment of his characters. The only really happy one is a vulgar, hypocritical opportunist who makes a lot of money and modernizes Alencon in ways that Balzac doesn't approve of.
As much as it is a novel, this book is al diatribe against the ways that Balzac thinks France has gone wrong under the Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy after the defeat of Napoleon and, even more, after the revolution of 1830.
I could have used an annotated edition to provide information about the political and historical events and characters that he refers to, but one gets the gist.
This novel is actually the first of a two-part book entitled "The Rivalries." I expect to be as surprised by it as I was by "The Old Maid."
April 22, 2025
Una novela que recuerda los “marriage plot” de Jane Austen, pero en un pueblo en las afueras de Paris, donde los pretendientes de una “solterona” de 42 por culpa de la revolución francesa son el escenario para describir la situacion política en Francia con la restauracion de la monarquía coexisitiendo con los republicanos y los nostálgicos del imperio de Napoleon
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews