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Selected Short Stories of Honore de Balzac
Includes: El Verdugo; Domestic Peace; A Study in Feminine Psychology; An Incident in the Reign of Terror; The Atheist's Mass; Facino Cane; Pierre Grassou.
Paperback
Published January 1, 1977
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About the author
Honoré de Balzac
9,561 books4,380 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
September 23, 2024
For now (although I flip-flop on authors now and again so you never know) it’s “three strikes and you’re out” where Balzac and I are concerned.
Now that I’ve read Father Goriot, Cousin Bette, and the Selected Short Stories I find that I’m not wild about any of them.
I know he was a father of the Realist style in which the unembellished lives of ordinary people became a legitimate subject of fine art, as opposed to the bored doings of aristocrats. That’s a good thing, and I enjoy his wry and darkly humorous undertones at times, but it isn’t necessary to constantly focus on life’s dark underbelly.
Also, there is none of the subtlety of Flaubert’s “show, don’t tell” in Balzac. It’s all “He did this, so he felt that, so she reacted by saying so-and-so, etc.” Mind you, his physical descriptions are sometimes very good.
Where these short stories are concerned, Balzac relies far too heavily on surprise, ironic endings that come of the blue. It often feels like Balzac is avoiding the hard work of coming up with a more convincing finish. He does give you a strong feel for the environment of violence at the time of the French Revolution and Napoleon. At very least, though, I’m giving myself a good long rest from Balzac.
Now that I’ve read Father Goriot, Cousin Bette, and the Selected Short Stories I find that I’m not wild about any of them.
I know he was a father of the Realist style in which the unembellished lives of ordinary people became a legitimate subject of fine art, as opposed to the bored doings of aristocrats. That’s a good thing, and I enjoy his wry and darkly humorous undertones at times, but it isn’t necessary to constantly focus on life’s dark underbelly.
Also, there is none of the subtlety of Flaubert’s “show, don’t tell” in Balzac. It’s all “He did this, so he felt that, so she reacted by saying so-and-so, etc.” Mind you, his physical descriptions are sometimes very good.
Where these short stories are concerned, Balzac relies far too heavily on surprise, ironic endings that come of the blue. It often feels like Balzac is avoiding the hard work of coming up with a more convincing finish. He does give you a strong feel for the environment of violence at the time of the French Revolution and Napoleon. At very least, though, I’m giving myself a good long rest from Balzac.
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August 9, 2025I'm a big fan of Balzac and short stories. I was disappointed to only moderately enjoy the ones included in this collection .
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews