La Musa Del Dipartimento

La Comédie Humaine #35

by Honoré de Balzac, Maria Grazia Porcelli (Editor), Francesco Fiorentino (Preface)

La storia di Dinah, ardente e ambiziosa musa provinciale, che trasgredisce e calcola, che non resiste né al desiderio erotico né all'ambizione, è stata disapprovata a lungo, anche nel nostro secolo, da chi privilegiava una interpretazione «idealista» dell'opera di Balzac. È solo molto recente il riconoscimento di questo romanzo come «un capolavoro misconosciuto», come il più flaubertiano (e uno dei più moderni) dei romanzi di Balzac.

Genres: French Literature, Classics, Fiction, France

430 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1843

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

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

The Muse of the Department involves a young woman who is married to a man 30 years her senior, a rather smallish and once-sickly man, miserly and wanting of an heir. After five years of marriage, there is no heir in sight, and, though in the early days of the marriage he was generous, Monsieur de la Baudraye becomes ever more miserly.

To Dinah:

"Do not confound hatred and vengeance," said the Abbe. "They are two different sentiments. One is the instinct of small minds; the other is the outcome of law which great souls obey. God is avenged, but He does not hate. Hatred is a vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their meanness, and make it a pretext for sordid tyranny. ..."

One of the characters is a writer and a journalist, and I was amused to find Balzac commenting on the state of literature.

Formerly all that was expected of a romance was that it should be interesting. As to style, no one cared for that, not even the author; as to ideas -- zero; as to local color -- non est. By degrees the reader has demanded style, interest, pathos, and complete information; he insists on the five literary senses - Invention, Style, Thought, Learning, and Feeling.

I have read most of the major Balzac titles. I guess it should be no surprise that these lesser titles are not quite as good. This is one I'll remember. It probably sits right on the border between 3 and 4 stars, but I'm feeling generous today.

[Sladjana Kovacevic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balzac-La muse de département
✍"— Lorsque les femmes nous aiment, elles nous pardonnent tout, même nos crimes ; lorsqu'elles ne nous aiment pas, elles ne nous pardonnent rien, pas même nos vertus!"
✍"Lousteau se promena, fumant des cigares et cherchant des idées ; car les idées, à Paris, sont dans l'air, elles vous sourient au coin d'une rue, elles s'élancent sous une roue de cabriolet avec un jet de boue ! Le flâneur avait déjà cherché des idées d'articles et des sujets de nouvelles pendant tout un mois ; mais il n'avait rencontré que des amis qui l'entraînaient à diner, au théâtre, et qui grisaient son chagrin, en lui disant que le vin de Champagne l'inspirerait"
🇷🇸
🤷‍♀️Moralo je i to jednom da se dogodi,da u svom projektu čitanja cele Ljudske komedije naiđem na slabije delo.
💁‍♀️To ne znači da je ova pripovetka loša,samo mi nije Balzakov nivo dobrog
👒Imamo gospoju iz provincijske zabiti koja sanja Pariz
🎩Gospodina muža koji je sitničav i,onako baš ljakse 🤣
🧢Mladog ambicioznog novinara iz Pariza.
📖Gospoja objavi svoju poeziju,dođu pariška gospoda i krene zaplet. Hoće li madame postati vesela udovica,hoće li mlađani Lusto uspeti da je izmanipuliše i čija su naša deca otkrićete ako pročitate ovo delo.
👍👎Ono što meni fali ovde je što ne znam da li je delo drama ili komedija. Imam utisak da ga je Balzak zamislio kao komediju,pa se malo posvetio mudrovanju i tako je ova novela ostala u procepu,ni ozbiljna ni smešna. Ponavljam,ne znači da nije dobra i da nema genijalnih momenata.
🇺🇸
🤷‍♀️Not my favourite part of Human comedy
💁‍♀️Even weak Balzac doesn't mean the novela is bad
👒Provincial lady draming of Paris
🎩Small town husband,I mean real small🤣
🧢Joung ambitious journalist,from Paris,of course
📖Madam's poetry is published and here come the Parisian gusets. Will she become a merry widow,will a joung Lousteau manipulate her and whose are our kids...you'll find out if you read this work.
👎👍My problem with it is I don't know is it a drama or a comedy. It's like Balzac started it as a comedy,than got all wise and spoiled the fun. It isn't bad just not that good
#7sensesofabook #classicliterature #knjige #literature #readingaddict #bookstagram

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read all of La Comedie Humaine yet but I know this is going to be one of my favourite Balzac stories. This is going to be one of my favourite Balzac stories. Is it a Roman-a-clef?
Madame Dinah de la Baudraye, of no fortune but superior mind and expectations, at the age of 17, marries Monsieur de la Baudraye, 44, the sickly son of yet another of Balzac's prudent survivors of the Revolution & Restoration. He becomes a great landowner around Sancerre, high in the Loire Valley (which I have visited, so I enjoyed my memories of the landscape in this story as well). For, frustrated in his attempts to recover debts from impecunious nobility who survived the Revolution, he accepts instead what is in their gift under the Restoration: various appointments to which he has no right, which he then sells at a profit to those who do.
His wife, who fancies herself very superior, makes sure that the townsfolk hold her in awe by furnishing the home with with the latest accoutrements, by playing the piano with confidence and by keeping herself aloof. She keeps up to speed with the latest in Paris through correspondence with her school friend Anna (who had married the Comte de la Fontaine's third son and has a small salon of intellectual companions, comprising M de Clagny the Public Prosecutor and a great admirer; M Bravier, a balladeer (who bought the Receivership of Sancerre from her husband); and the Vicomte de Chargeboeuf who found her salon to be an oasis in the provincial life of the town. These men admired her, but their wives were jealous and refused to visit rather than be judged inferior.
Dinah became an object of scorn when she failed to produce an heir after 5 years of marriage, and even her entourage tired of her intellectual demands every now and again and escaped to play cards elsewhere. (Her husband doesn't need to; he's always off tending his vineyard or doing some other kind of business.) Known as the Sappho of Saint-Satur, she aroused gossip even though her virtue was safe since she was never left alone with any of her admirers. So what did they gossip about? Her motives, of course, as we do today when a beautiful young girl marries a sickly older man!
Her ambition was to go to Paris, but the miserly ambitions of her husband are confined to expanding his vineyards. (The Loire Valley is famous for its crisp, delicious white wines). Alas, when he is in a position to buy the Estate of Anzy (from yet another aristocrat in debt) they have to economise and, dear me, even have her clothes made locally. Her humiliation as a mere provincial is brought home to her when Anne de la Fontaine visits her in Parisian finery and patronises her.
Stung, she takes up poetry, under the name Jan Diaz and Paquita la Sevillane, and so it is that a couple of Parisians come to visit her: Horace Bianchon (the famous physician) and Etienne Lousteau, the journalist. This gives her the opportunity to liven up her life with some flirting and the prospect of a liaison in Paris!
Bianchon and Lousteau, however, are two sophisticated and heartless young men, and they lead her on. They think she fancies De Clagny and so they pen some alarming verses and relate dinner party stories comparing vengeful wives with vengeful husbands (which gives Balzac the opportunity to recycle some of his other tales.) When they discover to their surprise that Dinah's virtue is still intact it arouses Lousteau's interest, and then there's a carriage ride in which her dress gets rumpled, oh dear!
Back in Paris after this little interlude, Lousteau resumes his life as a roue and a hack writer. He forgets all about Dinah despite her copious letters, including one which (ominously) he throws into the fire unread. When one day his mistress (to help him out of his debts) tells him about a prospective marriage, he's quite keen: the girl concerned has 'got into trouble' and her wealthy father needs to marry her off since her lover has inconveniently died. There follows an amusing farce in which his prospective mother-in-law makes a surprise visit to his rooms – just as Dinah turns up with news that Lousteau is to be a father!

Well, that's the end of the wedding, but all is not lost because Lousteau, always with his eye on the main chance, remembers that Dinah might well be a rich widow one day when de Baudraye, who's always in poor health, dies. So they set up house, and get into debt because she doesn't realise just how flimsy his finances are. She, a provincial at heart. also wasn't expecting to be snubbed at the opera because she has failed to be discreet (as an unfaithful Parisian would be).
But Dinah is smart, and she soon realises that Lousteau needs to be taken in hand. It's time for a more frugal lifestyle! They give up eating at restaurants, and she sews for the coming babe herself. She also realises that Lousteau is an undisciplined writer, bereft of ideas, and he's careless about his work so she writes some of his stuff for him. This bluestocking woman with a fine mind takes up housekeeping and unacknowledged authorship in order to sustain her fantasy of a loving relationship, not realising that Lousteau is acting a part all along.
Her humiliation is complete when she gets pregnant again and has to apply to M de la Baudraye for an allowance, to which he responds that she wouldn't need it if she came back to live in luxury at Chateau Anzy! Yes, surprisingly enough he wants her back, and the reason is that his ambitions have changed. Now that he is a successful landowner with the requisite fortune, he can apply to become a Count and for that he also needs a wife and family in Paris.
Having just been publicly snubbed once too often, and by her old friend Anna at that, Dinah decides that she rather likes the idea of being a Countess, so she lets de la Baudraye set her up in a salon in Paris. She breaks up with Lousteau, he pretending still to love her; she, convinced that he'll never be any good but loving him like the mother of a wayward child, pays his debts, (with de la Baudraye's money, more than once, and with his blessing at that!)
All this takes place partly through the kindly intervention of de Clagny who has always loved Dinah but from afar, as it were. He does all the negotiations with de la Baudraye, registering the children as his even though they are manifestly not, and smoothing the way so that when Dinah finally goes back to Sancerre after her adventures, both husband and wife are more-or-less content!
'These are my children' says the Comte de la Baudraye to de Clagny one day, as they stroll along the Mall at Sancerre, to which he replies with a twinkle, 'Ah ha, so these are our children'!

[Felipe Oquendo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romance com bom andamento, apesar das intervenções do romancista e da tentativa de inserir discussões contemporâneas na obra. Fazia tempo que não me divertia tanto com uma obra de Balzac!

[Gláucia Renata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publicado em 1844 faz parte de uma série chamada Os Parisienses na Provìncia, junto com O Ilustre Gaudissart.
Dinah Piédefer se casa com o avarento e ambicioso La Baudraye, ambos movidos por conveniência e se instalam em Sancerre, lugarzinho que fiquei com vontade de conhecer pelas belas descrições (veja no google imagens, que beleza!). A moça é linda, inteligente, possui dons artísticos de escrita, sendo aqui comparada a George Sand, amiga de Balzac mas se vê enterrada numa vida sem brilho e sem atrativos da província. Esse aspecto é bem interessante, segundo o autor a pessoa pode ter mil dons maravilhosos mas vivendo na província tudo isso está fadado a murchar e morrer, só há como atingir a plenitude em Paris.
Bem, isso então acontece com Dinah. Horace Bianchon, o famoso médico da CH, vendo a amiga fenecer prescreve-lhe amor, apenas possível na figura de um amante. Surge então Lousteau, um grande oportunista e dissimulado, capaz de fingir o mais puro dos amores a fim de se dar bem na vida.
O enredo e a atitude dos personagens me incomodou durante toda a leitura, especialmente Dinah que incorpora a grande trouxa que se deixa iludir e enganar o tempo todo, usando como pretexto para si mesma a mais estúpida das frases de ato ilusão: "mas ele me ama..."
E temos as situações tipicamente absurdas de Balzac, ao molde de aventuras amorosas rocambolescas, com destaque para o ridículo episódio do vestido de organdi.Só rindo.
Vale como um panorama do comportamento social da época.



Histórico de leitura
12/11/2016

67% (256 de 384)

"Magnetizada pelas maneiras do rapaz, ela não via em seus vícios mais que leves defeitos. Amava as baforadas de charuto que o vento lhe trazia do jardim para o quarto, ia aspirá-las sem fazer a menor careta, ocultava-se para gozá-las."
12/11/2016

50% (192 de 384)

"- Quando as mulheres nos amam, perdoam-nos tudo, mesmo nossos crimes; quando não nos amam, não nos perdoam nada, nem mesmo nossas virtudes."
12/11/2016

48% (185 de 384)

"- Só mesmos as mulheres da província para usar vestidos de organdi, a única fazenda que uma vez amarrotada não pode ser alisada. Se tivesse posto um vestido de seda, eu seria feliz... (Lousteau)"
12/11/2016

20% (78 de 384)

"Estranhas doutrinas divulgavam-se sobre o papel que as mulheres deviam desempenhar na sociedade. Passou-se a admitir que elas exprimissem ideias, professassem sentimentos que elas não teriam confessado alguns anos antes."
08/11/2016

14% (52 de 384)

"A França, no século XIX, está dividida em duas grandes zonas, Paris e a província. A província invejosa de Paris, Paris não pensando na província senão para pedir-lhe dinheiro."
08/11/2016

3% (11 de 384)

"Há nos confins do Berry, às margens do Loire, uma cidade que por sua posição atrai infalivelmente o olhar o viajante. Sancerre ocupa o ponto culminante duma cadeia de pequenas montanhas, última ondulação das irregularidades de terreno do Nivernais."

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published together with L'illustre Gaudissart under the collective title Les Parisiens en province, this novel is not one of Balzac's better books in my opinion. It is the story of a George-Sands-wannabee, Dinah de La Baudraye, who lives in the provincial town of Sancerre, and her affair with an unscrupulous Parisian journalist, Étienne Lousteau, who appears in others of Balzac's novels. Any importance it may have is due to its discussion of literary style. The work contains hommages, or at any rate significant references, to Sands, Stendhal, and Benjamin Constant, and a long and somewhat clever section in which the main characters attempt to reconstruct a formula romance novel from a handful of random pages used as packing material for the proofs of one of Lousteau's own works. The novel, as part of the Comédie humaine, delineates a particular type of character, the female intellectual in the provinces, and the nature of provincial intellectual life in general.

Though first published in relatively finished form in 1843, La Muse du Départment was begun early in Balzac's career, in 1832, and has many of the faults of his earlier novels; it starts slowly, nothing really happens for almost two-thirds of the book, and then the real plot is condensed into the final third. The plot itself is a fairly conventional story, apart from the characterization, and none of the characters, including Mme. de La Baudraye, is really sympathetic or even all that interesting. The problem in reading the Comédie humaine in the order Balzac arranged it, as I am doing (though from this point I will be skipping a lot) is that one reads some of these earlier efforts after his later and much better books.

[Fazackerly Toast · Rating 3 out of 5]

and now I have to read Benjamin Constant's Adolphe

[Aurora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro poco conosciuto, di Honoré de Balzac, che rispetto a classici come "Anna Karenina", "Madame Bovary" e "l'amante di lady Chatterley"  tratta il tema dell'adulterio in un modo unico e differente, da questi acclamati capolavori poc'anzi citati.  Honoré de Balzac è distaccato e retorico, potremo dire che non c'è empatia tra lui e i suoi personaggi. Un difetto o una peculiarità del suo modo di scrivere? Io direi, che la freddezza e il distacco tra narratore e i personaggi sia voluto e ricercato. Lo scrittore guarda i personaggi dal di fuori, li analizza, ma senza cogliere tutte le loro sfumature di azione e pensiero, non è un narratore onnisciente,si tiene sempre a debita distanza dai protagonisti, cogliendo solo quei particolari manieristici, calcolatori e doppiogiochisti. Balzac si prende gioco dei suoi personaggi, e i loro sentimenti romantici appaiono frivoli e superficiali, come in  una commedia teatrale da mettere in scena, fino a che convenga ad entrambi le parti. 
I sacrifici della protagonista, per il suo adorato amante, anche questi vengono trattati come qualcosa di artificioso e costruito, dato forse da un bisogno compensativo e psicologico della protagonista. Una necessità drammatica e teatrale della donna, di nutrire il suo spirito materno e da crocerossina verso il proprio amante.Se da una parte, ho trovato la lettura veramente molto povera di sentimentalismo, molto più cruda e amara, come un continuo e repentino burlarsi di Balzac dei sentimenti umani, dall' altra ho apprezzato questo distacco, questo suo modo di vedere le cose dal di fuori, sarà che ho letto tanti romanzi che fanno tutto il contrario, da considerare originale e anticonvenzionale, questo stile farsesco e retorico di Balzac. È come se fossero solo i personaggi di una commedia teatrale, che mettono in scena diverse maschere, come più si conviene o più convenga a loro, la cosiddetta "Commedia Umana" ricorrente in Balzac, che in qualche modo richiama un po' vagamente il concetto Pirandelliano dell' "Uno, nessuno e centomila", ma in maniera meno spiccata e forte.
Intrinseco il pensiero Machiavellico "il fine giustifica i mezzi".
E sulla conclusione del romanzo, ci sarebbe anche molto da discutere, dato che è un finale condito di sarcasmo e lascia anche qualche  spazio aperto, con un bel punto interrogativo, ma è voluto e ricercato questo margine di incertezza, a libera interpretazione o come nei migliori tradimenti, madre certa, be' sulla paternità non possiamo dire la stessa medesima cosa. Credo, che sia quello il messaggio, imbastito da Balzac volendo lasciare al narratore l' incertezza sull'identità del citato "procuratore generale", che recita  quelle fatidiche parole conclusive dell' intero romanzo, da cui si intuisce tutto e niente, ma una cosa è certa, un' adultera, resta sempre un' adultera.
Questo romanzo tuttavia, segna una rottura con tutte le regole sociali, sovverte l' ordine precostituito secondo cui un' adultera è condannata ad essere emarginata dalla società.
Balzac sovverte il bigottismo e le regole della società, facendo si che l' adultera torni ad essere moglie, e a riacquistare la sua rispettabilità nella società, nonostante tutto, e forse pur mantenendo il suo ruolo di adultera, purché tutto avvenga lontano dagli occhi indiscreti?! Devo dire che come libro sconosciuto, è stata una rivelazione, ma se devo essere del tutto onesta è stato difficile in alcuni punti star dietro a Balzac, dato che il suo modo di scrivere è molto prolisso e carico di figure retoriche.
Ovviamente, il suo tono retorico e da commediante, richiede anche forse una conoscenza maggiore degli usi e i costumi dell'epoca in Francia, agli inizi dell'ottocento, e non avendo tali conoscenze, si può venir assorbiti passivamente da questo genere di lettura, senza riuscire a catapultarsi del tutto dentro.Una cosa che sicuramente ho trovato interessante è stata la cura di Balzac  nella rappresentazione dei costumi sociali, il paragone sulla donna parigina e la provinciale, e ovviamente, per l' originalità del finale.  Dinah è tanto superiore come donna da sovvertire tutte le regole sociali!  Un' idea di emancipazione femminile del tutto inaspettata,  in cui Balzac fa risuonare così forte l' intelletto e le qualità di Dinah come donna moderna,reclusa  in una società ancora troppo antiquata, bigotta e maschilista, ma da cui riesce ad uscirne vincitrice, o comunque salva dall' emarginazione sociale, ma dovendo, ovviamente, giungere ad un macchinoso compromesso, ritornare al ruolo di moglie così come si conviene. Tuttavia, senza troppi pesi sul cuore e sulla coscienza, Dinah come tutti gli altri personaggi è una calcolatrice nata,tanto quanto il marito e l'amante. Il saper dosare e soppesare le proprie passioni diventa un'abilità, per non soccombere dinnanzi i giudizi e le meschinità della società di quel tempo.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balzac's The Muse of the Department shows a different spin of the husband seeking revenge then his "La Grande Breteche". Below is a quote from "La Muse Du Departement", I kept on waiting for Monsieur de la Baudraye's revenge on his wife Dinah.

"the doctor chose that which is known as La Grande Breteche, and is so famous indeed, that it was put on the stage at the Gymnase-Dramatique under the title of Valentine. So it is not necessary to repeat it here, though it was then new to the inhabitants of the Chateau d’Anzy. And it was told with the same finish of gesture and tone which had won such praise for Bianchon when at Mademoiselle des Touches’ supper-party he had told it for the first time. The final picture of the Spanish grandee, starved to death where he stood in the cupboard walled up by Madame de Merret’s husband, and that husband’s last word as he replied to his wife’s entreaty, “You swore on that crucifix that there was no one in that closet!” produced their full effect. There was a silent minute, highly flattering to Bianchon. “Do you know, gentlemen,” said Madame de la Baudraye, “love must be a mighty thing that it can tempt a woman to put herself in such a position? "

Biachon tells another interesting story of a triangle with revenge and lost arm.

I have been reading " The Human Comedy" and again I run into previous characters taking part of this story. Doctor Biachon and Etienne Lousteau famous in Paris come back to their hometown, Sancerre and leads Monseiur de la Baudraye's wife astray. Balzac tells his stories not in order, so certain things are told of person in different times. In my spoiler section, I give a little history of Lousteau and Biachon.

Dinah's life is stagnant after she marries and keeps herself out of trouble but soon falls into a pitful. I could not find sympathy for any of the main characters, they were not very likable. The Provincial compared to Parisian life brings such a contrast, which we see the difference in Dinah.


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

"This 1843 novella is set in Balzac’s beloved Loire Valley, in the wine-growing town of Sancerre. In the narrative, the feeble Monsieur de la Baudraye has married a talented young beauty, Dinah Piedefer, thirty years younger than him, from a Calvinist family that has converted to Catholicism. De la Baudraye is a devious and miserly man, though at first he allows Dinah enough money to furnish their house and in doing so attract male admirers. "



❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
The more I hear about Lousteau, the more he is despicable.

The quotes below came from the glossary of characters in the edition I am reading.

This is from the "Two Brothers " (The Black Sheep) shows Lousteau's lack of morals; which he helps bring Flore's downfall.

"For one thousand francs per month, Lousteau rid Philippe Bridau of his wife, Flore, placing her in a house of ill-fame. "

Lousteau affair with Dinah, he was not impressed when he first met her in Sancerre but he wanted to use her for his self interest pride, in winning her heart with Biachon's help. I was surprised that Biachon helped a married woman into the hands of a scoundrel. In "Pere Goriot" and other stories, it seemed he was more caring. He takes all he can from Dinah, until she sees misery everywhere and decides to go back to a changed husband.

"Sancerre; carried on a long liaison with Dinah de la Baudraye; just escaped a marriage with Madame Berthier, then Felicie Cardot; was father of Madame de la Baudraye’s children, and spoke as follows concerning the birth of the eldest: “Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a child; M. Etienne Lousteau has the honor of announcing it.” During this liaison, Lousteau, for the sum of five hundred francs, gave to Fabien du Ronceret a discourse to be read at a horticultural exhibition, for which the latter was decorated. "

Lousteau soon after leaving Sancerre forgets Dinah, then her letters are left unread. She leaves her husband to become his mistress and thinking she is loved, sacrifices her wealth to bring him to better circumstances. His writing fails and Dinah being clever writes for him, his muse but he continually abuses her with little thought and caring. Finally waking up to her misery and her husband coming to Paris to do business, informs her that her husband will take her back and she can live in Paris in luxury, questions of her sons being not his but Lousteau's sons. The vengeful husband is not seen, though he has his own revenge, which is claiming Lousteau's sons in his entails. He mentions his wanting to be a peer so that he can have entails to his estate. Baudraye is older and has never or rarely touched his wife, so children are not possible but with her having a lover. So was this planned to end up this way, otherwise would he have treated her better, but he gives her all when she comes back to him. She is not happy though because her intense love is diminished, Lousteau has fallen after she left him and his writing has dried up. She helps him again but her mother this time prevents anymore mistakes. Dinah though ruined from her step in leaving her husband, regains a lot after her return back to him, though still quite melancholy about life.

I had no pity for Dinah, her love for Loustesu was unbelievable to me, since I found him unlikable and self interested but her husband have her nothing to make her happy, and brought her to reduce her income, not being able to but dresses and other things which when married he gave her. The thing Dinah was able to have after meeting Lousteau was two boys which later her husband claimed as his own, money and a place in Paris to live, plus being unhappy because she was not loved. She had gotten her beauty back but lost something in not feeling loved. Madame de la Baudraye slowly becomes provincial and her ways become less than her Parsian friend who notices the differences. Dinah is encouraged to write her thoughts in poems which are published under a male name but all find out her identity. Her husband who is not much of one knows she talks about her life and his life which gives him hatred which Dinah says she will never write again. Dinah hopes to keep her lover here but the elections bring him away with his family. A story of a doctor being killed by the husband after he helped deliver his wife's dead baby. The doctor noticed her arm had a mole which her amputated arm was shown to him by her husband. Lousteau has won Dinah over her other admires and after her returns to Paris to work as a journalist; soon forgets about her and does not read her letters. He is to be wed to a young girl with a fortune but she is pregnant and her lover is dead. Madame Cardot the future mother in law goes to see Lousteau's apartment to learn more and she sees him enter with Dinah who tells him that she is carrying his child. The Cardots break with him and Dinah stays in Paris, giving birth to two sons. She helps him write his literary articles and after she leaves him, being treated poorly for so long and her husband offers much. She does not hear from him until he is needy. She cannot refuse him. Dinah and Lousteau live together and profess their love; while Lousteau loves now but let her go later. Monseuir de Clagny tells her to go back home and her husband has made it that Dinah needed to go to Paris because of the need of doctors for her pregnancy. The money of the lovers runs out. It seems that Comte de la Baudraye did not care if the children were not really his but the appearance was good enough for him. Loustesu if he loved his children would have more heart to them and Dinah. Loustesu told stories of husband's being cruel to their cheating wives but he did not go to that extreme but wanted Dinah back for show. Dinah helps Lousteau who has not been able to write and his wife, Fanny had to sell all her things like Dinah had to do while with him. Dinah's mother helps her daughter by help of the church to keep her away from Lousteau.

[Marco Beneventi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Sancerre, piccolo paesino sulle rive della Loira va in scena un adulterio, protagonisti della vicenda saranno Polydore de La Baudraye, un possidente terriero intento a scalare meritatamente la società, sua moglie Dina Piédefer, giovane donna estremamente istruita, curiosa e grande oratrice tanto da attirarsi le malelingue, provinciali, delle altre donne di Sancerre e il giornalista parigino Lousteau, libertino, falso e calcolatore.
Dinah, donna dalle grandi aspirazioni e dal bisogno viscerale di amare ed essere amata ma che non trova nulla di tutto ció in un marito purtroppo freddo ed avaro, vive la provincia con gran difficoltà a scapito di Parigi, la grande città, dove invece vorrebbe andare per far fruttare le sue capacità e la sua personalità e sarà proprio lì che si consumerà l’estremo atto d’amore che contrapporrà un emozione vera e sentita ad un’altra invece inventata e recitata per un puro tornaconto personale.
Ma i conti, si sà, non si fanno mai senza l’oste e nel volgere di sei anni tante cose cambieranno nella vita dei due amanti.

“La musa del dipartimento”, scritto da Balzac nel 1837 e facente parte di quel meraviglioso mosaico da lui intitolato “La commedia umana”, racconta una storia di debolezze, emozioni travolgenti e amore sincero in contrapposizione all’arrivismo, alla scalata sociale e all’opportunismo.
In questo romanzo poi oltre alle grandi emozioni poco sopra menzionate, ci confronteremo anche con le tante contraddizioni e lotte fra la provincia e la città, ben raccontate in diversi passaggi del libro.
Molto ben sviluppati sono le caratterizzazioni dei tre personaggi principali sui quali ruotano diversi personaggi secondari comunque ben messi a fuoco il che permette la lettura di un racconto corale con diverse trame e sottotrame.
Un romanzo decisamente piacevole da leggere ma un pó troppo appesantito dalla scelta della prosa e non sempre di immediata comprensione per le scelte lessicali fatte.
Una menzione speciale va poi fatta, secondo me, al finale davvero beffardo che strapperà a più di un lettore un sorriso.

[Mariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Balzac sendo Balzac.

Este livro é basicamente uma montanha russa de acontecimentos: temos uma "musa", que se casa muito nova com um velho feio e avarento, cuja ligação conjugal é inexistente. Esta musa vive na província e é rodeada de um conjunto de provincianos considerados superiores, que lhe devotam toda a sua energia e afeto. No entanto, a musa quer mais, quer os galantes de Paris
"Be careful for what you wish for, you just might get it"
É apresentado, portanto, Losteau, o típico parisiense, que nos dias de hoje seria considerado como um player, basicamente. O seu objetivo é, enquanto um mero passatempo, conquistar a senhora, que para ele se afigura como aborrecida, etc. Etc.
E consegue, de que maneira!! É desesperante ver a forma como a musa se afunda, se degrada, derrete a sua fortuna com este preguiçoso abominável mediano homem.
O leitor volta a ter esperança, páginas tantas, quando ela ganha amor próprio e se separa, indo então viver num palácio adquirido pelo marido (porque aliás nunca se chega a separar do verdadeiro marido). Mas, no entanto, termina mal quando acaba por aparar o jogo ao ex-amante.
É triste, mas é real.

[David Sterritt]

Balzac’s “The Muse of the Department” has amusing things to say about the literary and artistic scenes of its day, but I find it a minor work by the great chronicler. Recommended with major reservations.

[myriam kisfaludi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comment une jeune provinciale bien éduquée, intelligente et intellectuelle se fait prendre au jeu de la flatterie et se dévoye dans le monde à Paris jusqu’à comprendre et se reprendre en main en province.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

They're not like us, the French. I can't imagine Dickens having written a single word of this. I think I liked the wizened weak old man best.

[Martine · Rating 4 out of 5]

So?? Much?? fun??

[Kelli Bacon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't bad, but I just didn't form a connection to any of the characters.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I am reading all of Balzac's work with the Yahoo! Balzac group, I want to use this review to discuss the dream life of a Frenchman of the 1830s and 1840s. Like many males in whatever time or place, the French author saw himself -- ideally -- as rich, famous, with occult powers (witness The Thirteen and Louis Lambert), and, above all, admired by beautiful young women who flocked around him and surrendered to his every whim. Just as the Marquis de Sade in the 120 Days of Sodom imagined from his solitary cell in the Bastille an infinite number of masturbatory permutations of the sex act ... and just as Henry Miller in The Tropic of Cancer and The Tropic of Capricorn imagined far more bedmates than he ever enjoyed ... so Balzac wanted to use his work to imagine what it would be like to be King of the Mountain in his dreams.

There were times, however, when Balzac realized the tawdriness of some of his boyhood dreams; and The Muse of the Department is a good example. Journalist Etienne Lousteau visits the provincial city of Sancerre and initiates an affair with a young married woman, Dinah de la Baudraye. Lousteau returns to Paris, but Dinah leaves her husband and follows him, quite pregnant. While Lousteau's career (and relationship) loses some of its luster, Dinah helps Lousteau with his writing and tries to make the relationship work -- but to no avail.

Her husband de la Baudraye has been busy in the meantime getting filthy rich and honored with a title of nobility from the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe. He offers to accept Dinah back, acknowledge her children as his own, and give up some of his miserly ways -- especially since now he can afford it. So Dinah leaves Lousteau who sinks slowly from his dissipated ways. In the end, she lends him 6,000 francs to pay his debts, but we know that Lousteau will continue to incur new depths because he will never change his ways.

Balzac is not always so mature in his discussion of women. Dinah misses the bohemian life with the journalist, but Lousteau's nostalgie de la boue is too strong for her to stomach.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

What do you say about a book which is so very well written, has many interesting characters, bits of history in it, bits on other authors in it, and bits about other books in it. i enjoyed reading it but I do not think i liked the book. Just a love story. Will try his PERE GORIOT next.