Catherine De' Medici

La Comédie Humaine #83

by Honoré de Balzac, Katherine Prescott Wormeley (Translator)

Philosophical Studies from The Human Comedy (La Comedie Humaine). Contains The Calvinist Martyr, The Ruggieri's Secret and The Two Dreams. By the French author, who, along with Flaubert, is generally regarded as a founding-father of realism in European fiction. His large output of works, collectively entitled The Human Comedy (La Comedie Humaine), consists of 95 finished works (stories, novels and essays) and 48 unfinished works. His stories are an attempt to comprehend and depict the realities of life in contemporary bourgeois France. They are placed in a variety of settings, with characters reappearing in multiple stories.

Genres: History, Classics, Biography, France, French Literature, Nonfiction, 19th Century

311 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1841

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

[Andra Nicoara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate sounding like a uncultured swine, but my god this was boring. I've never really liked Balzac much (bored me out of my mind back in school, and he still does apparently) but I really wanted to read about Catherine de Medici to find out more about her. Unfortunately, this book didn't really satisfy my curiosity. I'm not saying it doesn't have its charm, all those pages filled with descriptions of nature and France in general were great, but it lacked any sort of spirit. I know it isn't a proper novel, more like a historic account, but I still felt a bit deceived.

[Dana-Adriana B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

O carte istorica plina de intrigi, aliante, iubiri ascunse, o groaza de nume si titluri (regi, duci, printi, conti...), detalii arhitecturale (pe care nu le-am pus la suflet :)). Povestea familiei de Medicis este fascinanta si fara Google nu poti intelege actiunea cartii. Este o lectura destul de greoaie si dureaza datorita cautarilor facute pentru a intelege cine este cine si de ce.

[Armin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nichts für Freund von Gift-und-Dolch-Abenteuern, aber ein anstrengendes Lesevergnügen, das den Aufwand lohnt.

Balzacs Grenzgänger zwischen den Gattungen hat eine ziemlich hohe Abbrecherquote, bis heute gehörte ich dazu, beim Erstversuch in den Achtzigern fand ich die seltsame Mischung aus Apologie einer verkannten Frau, leidenschaftlichen Plädoyers für Denkmalschutz der Königsschlösser in Verbindung mit Kritik an den Krämerseelen der Bourgeois, Geschichtsphilosophischen Betrachtungen und historischen Novellen schwer erträglich. Zumal sich Balzac immer wieder auf die Seite der amtlich anerkannten Schurken schlug, sprich seiner Katharina fehlten gleichermaßen Balance wie Tendenz der Novellen eines Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, erst recht die Erzähleffizienz des Schweizers.
Tatsächlich geht es quälend langsam voran in den Haupterzählungen um den Kürschnerssohn, der auf seiner Mission impossible am Hof erleben muss, wie er von allen Beteiligten verleugnet wird, nachdem die elende Petze Maria Stuart im denkbar falschen Moment bei der verhassten Schwiegermutter herein schneit.
Die legendäre Bartholmäusnacht wird nicht als große Oper abgefeiert, sondern eher entmystifiziert, etwa mit dem Hinweis darauf, dass Karl IX. gar nicht vom Louvre mit dem Gewehr auf flüchtende Hugenotten schießen konnte, da es besagten Flügel Anno 1572 noch gar nicht gab und seine Räume in anderer Richtung lagen. Mit dem Blick auf die Etikette, die nur der königlichen Familie und einem alten General das Reiten im Schlosshof von Blois gestattete, alle Zuwiderhandlungen mit Bußen bis zur Todesstrafe ahndete wird auch die gesamte Historienmalerei von Balzac ad absurdum geführt.
Der dritte Teil zeigt Frankreich in den letzten Tagen von Karl dem Neunten, der durch seinen Lebenswandel früh gealterte König versucht seine Übermutter endlich aufs politische Abstellgleis zu schieben, indem er ihre Astrologen einkerkert und verhört. Katharina wird dabei von jedem Giftanschlag frei gesprochen, krasser Gegensatz zu Patrice Chereaus Verfilmung der Dumas-Version. Das Verhör gerät zum astrologisch-alchimistischen Leckerbissen mit einem Ritt durch die Philosophiegeschichte und einem Schlenker zum Grafen von St. Germain als Alchimisten-Attraktion kurz vor der französischen Revolution. Die letzte Erzählung bringt dann die historischen Lehren, die Marat und Robespierre aus der viel zu unkonsequent durchgeführten Bartholomäusnacht gezogen haben, genauer gesagt Katharina in Marats Traum. Zweitausend Hugenotten mehr 1572 hätte einen zehn mal höhere Blutzoll in späteren Jahren erspart. Gewissermaßen die Motivation für die Politik der Guillotine. Aber den Schluss muss der Leser selbst ziehen.

Fazit: Freunde von Gift-und-Dolch-Abenteuern mit klarer Rollenverteilung und makellosen Heroen der Reformation werden mit diesem Buch nicht glücklich, weil Balzac ein ziemlich breites Themenspektrum abschreitet, während er den Spannungsbogen geradezu unerträglich anspannt.
Auf seiner architektonisch-archäologischen Spurensuche betätigt sich der Erzähler gleichermaßen als Mythbuster, der in den Werken seiner Kollegen immer wieder aufgebackene populäre Irrtümer ab absurdum führt, während er die ehrbaren wie die schändlichen Motive der sonst eher schwarzweiß gezeichneten Gestalten aus unterschiedlicher Perspektive ins rechte Licht rückt.

[Bonnie Luckey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been fascinated with Catherine De Medici for years and have read many books that referenced her many "supposed" crimes and misdemeanors. I was hoping for a fresh look at her life and an unbiased view of her motives as a power-broker, politician, wife and mother. I suppose I got a hint of that with this book but it was a struggle! I could barely get through the introduction. It was like reading a very poor translation of a convoluted history lesson. There were lots of very long names (which changed that person was given a new title) and it was difficult to stay focused. Once I got past the introduction, it improved a bit but began with a story about a young man who was caught up in a Calvinist conspiracy. It wasn't until well into the young man's tale that the connection to Catherine de Medici became more clear. Much of the book was about other people who lived at that period of history and how they percieved Catherine's motives. I learned some new things but it was a struggle and not what I would classify as an enjoyable read!

[Alexandra Patica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prezentând aspecte din viața ambițioasă a Cahterinei de Medici, textul este încărcat cu multe relatari istorice despre Franța secolului XVI si nu numai, care pot deveni obositoare pentru cititorul nepasionat de asemena aspecte. Pot spune că mi-am îmbogățit puțin cultura generala citind această carte.

[Sladjana Kovacevic · Rating 5 out of 5]

SUR CATHERINE DE MÉDICIS-BALZAC
✒️"– Vous vous êtes résignée à perdre un enfant pour sauver vos trois fils et la couronne, il faut avoir le courage d’occuper celui-ci pour sauver le royaume, peut-être pour vous sauver vous-même"
✒️"Deux mots expliquent cette femme si curieuse à étudier, et dont l’influence laissa de si fortes impressions en France. Ces deux mots sont Domination et Astrologie."
✒️"L’imposant Grand-maître jeta sur Charles IX un regard qui le foudroya.
– Vous êtes le roi des hommes, et je suis le roi des idées, répondit le Grand-maître."
👑Još jedan nastavak Balzakove Ljudske komedije rešen,posle dosta vremena 🙂
👑Nekoliko godina ranije čitala sam Kraljicu Margo Aleksandra Dime oca i neizbežno je poređenje,jer ovde Balzak govori o njenoj majci,čiji je nadzor Margarita u Diminom romanu uspešno eskivirala 😁
👑Dakle,majka nemajka Katarina Mediči je sa 14 godina došla iz Italije u francusku. Udali su je za budućeg kralja Anrija II,i tako spojili pare i plavu krv. 👌
👑Onda je Katarina postala ne baš vesela udovica,ali ne pre nego što je rodila gomilu dece.
👑Po principu "ako ti nećeš da slušaš ima ko hoće" ona je naizmenično pomagala da stignu na presto i da sa njega siđu tri kralja porodice Valoa-Fransoa II,Šarl IX,Anri III. Neki od tih silazaka su bili fatalni po bivšeg kralja.
👑Spletke,manipulacije,otrovi,alhemičari i katolicizam su sve sredstva da se zadrži moć.
👑Katarina je inače najpoznatija po tome što je priredila jedno veče iz pakla, Vartolomejsku noć.
👑Balzak majstorski crta njen portret ne mešajući se previše,puštajući istorijske činjenice da govore i ubacujući nam samo mrvicu sumnje da li je ili nije bio korišćen otrov.
👑Ko voli istoriju-preporuka. Ko ne voli istoriju a voli Balzaka-isto preporuka.
#7sensesofabook #bookstagram #literature #readingaddict #knjige #balzac

[Andu Ogodai · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should have been called the wall or the alleyway or the desk. Because it has literally more words about those objects than about Catherine de medici. But then again. I kinda enjoyed it in a weird way. Left me asking for more. And ended up studying the whole medici family history... So guess I'm thankful for that. I hate u Balzac. With all my burning passion I hope someone will first describe u the hell they re gonna send u and after a whole eternity has passed u realised that that was your hell to begin with.
Feel so much better now

[Dylan Lockhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Balzac nous présente trois histoires indépendantes et inégales sur le personnage de Catherine de Médecis : j’ai nettement préféré la première, Le Martyr Calviniste, très historique et émouvant avec des intrigues de cour. Les deux suivantes sont plus mystiques, pas vraiment immersives… mais toutes ont le même but : défendre Catherine de Médicis et la rendre plus humaine. Et ça, Balzac y est parvenu.

[chronique complète à venir]

[Katherine Liddy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. It reads as if someone fed it through Google Translate.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, first of all, some info about Catherine de' Medici because Balzac begins by taking issue with her reputation, and I don't know much about her (even though I've visited the Château de Chenonceau from which she ruled, and admired her bedroom.)
So, to Wikipedia:
Catherine de' Medici (13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was born in Florence, Italy. Her parents, Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, died soon afterwards. She was placed in convents while The Powers That Be decided how best to use her, and in 1533, when she was only 14, she was married off to Henry, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France. She was Queen consort of France as his wife from 1547 to 1559 but Henry excluded Catherine from state affairs and instead was influenced by his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. (Who usurped Catherine's wish to have the chateau and Catherine didn't get it back until after Henry's death). When he died, as Catherine's frail young sons died one-by-one, she exercised great power as regent. So in an age when most women were powerless and dependent, Catherine de' Medici
This period was one of constant civil and religious war in France. At first, Catherine compromised and made concessions to the rebelling Protestants, (Huguenots) but later she resorted to repressive measures including the notorious St Bartholomew's Day massacre when 1000s of Hugenots were killed. Historians now think that her ruthlessness was motivated by the need to keep the Valois throne intact when it was at serious risk of decline. She spent a fortune on the arts to enhance the prestige of the throne, but to no avail. Her death meant the end of the Valois dynasty.
Ok, now I'm ready to read what Balzac has to say about her...
Well, the first section is pretty much facts and figures about Catherine, and Balzac seems to be at pains to rescue her historical reputation. He seems rather liverish about the current post revolutionary state of affairs, describing France as 'a country occupied exclusively with material interests, without patriotism, without conscience' where 'brute force' is used to suppress popular violence and individualism will kill the family.
I ended up confused. Balzac says he's out to rescue her reputation, and then he makes a point of showing how she put power ahead of her family, how she was ruthless and cruel. This may have been my fault for not paying proper attention, because I lost interest in it completely and only finished it out of sheer stubborness.

[Inkling · Rating 1 out of 5]

it was ok but, for a book on Catherine, she only appears once or twice in the book. And that is a bit disappointing because the author describes her as this fascinating character, but doesn't bring her into the story almost at all. Most of the book is about what other secondary characters do and EXTENSIVE (i cannot stress this word enough) descriptions of valleys and castles.

Word of advice: please read on the Medicis family before you read the book. You might get lost in all the details about politics and relationship between the characters.

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a more enjoyable read than that of the Borgias but still a very disfunctional family.

[Evelina Bejan-Fala · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love the way the author presents Catherine, a really controversial and misunderstood queen, as a strong, cold and calculated leader.

A fragment of french history protrayed in a very descriptive way that allows us to imagine the way that the royals live and understand the certain politics of the time and the relationships between other historic figures.

Catherine is truely is an inspiration. She knew how to manipulate a poor situation in her favor, listened to her instinct and was always 3-steps ahead. Loosing her parents at a young age and being the subject of negotiations in the italian politics, in which her family was involved, really created a powerfull young lady, who was promised to marry the young king of France, Henry II. Many cruel rumors circulated about her, especially when she didn't have children (due to her husband's malfunctions may I add, fixed surgically), but later, giving France the future rullers, gained the respect of some people. She had to endure through her husband having an affair, the despise from powerfull royal families, the shaming for being a Medici, that were seen by royals as peasants, losing her husband for which she wore black for the rest of her life, and, of course, the primary plot of the book, the rise of calvinism.

Rulling as the mother of the kings, Francis II and Carol IX, she was patient, intelingent and believed above all else in the power of the ocult, always looking for the answers in the stars and taking for truth the profecies predicted by the florentian brothers Ruggieri, close friends of the Medici family.

I truely recommend this book. It's not perfect, but it is interesting enough to make turn to the next page.

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let's just say he was better writing about nineteenth century france.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balzac's "Catherine de Medici" consists of three parts "The Calvinist Martyr", "The Secrets of the Ruggieri" and "The Two Dreams". Each are totally different but the first two are historical novels whereas the third is a total fancy if Balzac's. I reviewed them separately but one the whole I enjoyed reading them and I learned a lot about Catherine from the stories and what I looked up on my own. In his introduction Balzac gives the reading an introduction to Catherine and Mich more, plus his opinions.

Story in short- Catherine's life during her husband's reign and her two oldest sons' reign spiced with her need for the sorcerers' predictions.

I didn't read this edition but from a Delphi Collection of his works which included the synopsis below.


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WRITTEN FROM 1828, this historical novel in three parts was published between 1830 and 1842, before being released in book format
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in 1846. The work was directly inspired by Sir Walter Scott, and shifts between several genres, including documentary, novel, fantasy and essay format. The grand work charts the life of Catherine de’ Medici (1519-1589), daughter of Lorenzo II de’ Medici and of Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne. She was a Franco/ Italian noblewoman, who was Queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France.


Balzac's introduction below.

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Monsieur le marquis, to see modern history so bemuddled that many important points are still obscure, and the most odious calumnies still rest on names that ought to be respected?
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You and I hold, I think, the same opinion, after having made, each in his own way, close researches as to the grand and splendid figure of Catherine de’ Medici. Consequently, I have thought that my historical studies upon that queen might properly be dedicated to an author who has written so much on the history of the Reformation; while at the same time I offer to the character and fidelity of a monarchical writer a public homage which may, perhaps, be valuable on account of its rarity.

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THERE IS A general cry of paradox when scholars, struck by some historical error, attempt to correct it; but, for whoever studies modern history to its depths, it is plain that historians are privileged liars, who lend their pen to popular beliefs precisely as the newspapers of the day, or most of them, express the opinions of their readers.
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Hemmed in between the Guises who claimed to be the heirs of Charlemagne and the factious younger branch who sought to screen the treachery of the Connetable de Bourbon behind the throne, Catherine, forced to combat heresy which was seeking to annihilate the monarchy, without friends, aware of treachery
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among the leaders of the Catholic party, foreseeing a republic in the Calvinist party, Catherine employed the most dangerous but the surest weapon of public policy, — craft. She resolved to trick and so defeat, successively, the Guises who were seeking the ruin of the house of Valois, the Bourbons who sought the crown, and the Reformers (the Radicals of those days) who dreamed of an impossible republic — like those of our time; who have, however, nothing to reform.
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All power, legitimate or illegitimate, must defend itself when attacked; but the strange thing is that where the people are held heroic in their victory over the nobility, power is called murderous in its duel with the people.
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Catherine, like Philip the Second and the Duke of Alba, like the Guises and Cardinal Granvelle, saw plainly the future that the Reformation was bringing upon Europe. She and they saw monarchies, religion, authority shaken. Catherine wrote, from the cabinet of the kings of France, a sentence of death to that spirit of inquiry which then began to threaten modern society; a sentence which Louis XIV. ended by executing.
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We don’t cling to many things even now; but fifty years hence we shall cling to nothing. Thus, according to Catherine de’ Medici and according to all those who believe in a well-ordered society, in social man, the subject cannot have liberty of will, ought not to teach the dogma of liberty of conscience, or demand political liberty.
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Therefore we ought to recognize the grandeur of the woman who had the eyes to see this future and fought it bravely. That the house of Bourbon was able to succeed to the house of Valois, that it found a crown preserved to it, was due solely to Catherine de’ Medici.

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The means employed by Catherine, who certainly had to reproach herself with the deaths of Francois II. and Charles IX., whose lives might have been saved in time, were never, it is observable, made the subject of accusations by either the Calvinists or modern historians. Though there was no poisoning, as some grave writers have said, there was other conduct almost as criminal; there is no doubt she hindered
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Pare from saving one, and allowed the other to accomplish his own doom by moral assassination. But the sudden death of Francois II., and that of Charles IX., were no injury to the Calvinists, and therefore the causes of these two events remained in their secret sphere, and were never suspected either by the writers of the people of that day; they were not divined except by de Thou, l’Hopital, and minds of that calibre, or by the leaders of the two parties who were coveting or
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defending the throne, and believed such means necessary to their end.
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History, in the days when Catherine was born, if judged from the point of view of honesty, would seem an impossible tale. Charles V., obliged to sustain Catholicism against the attacks of Luther, who threatened the Throne in threatening the Tiara, allowed the siege of Rome and held Pope Clement VII. in prison! This same Clement, who had no bitterer enemy than Charles V., courted him in order to make Alessandro de’ Medici ruler of Florence, and obtained his favorite daughter for that bastard. No sooner was Alessandro
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established than he, conjointly with Clement VII., endeavored to injure Charles V. by allying himself with Francois I., king of France, by means of Catherine de’ Medici; and both of them promised to assist Francois in reconquering Italy. Lorenzino de’ Medici made himself the companion of Alessandro’s debaucheries for the express purpose of finding an opportunity to kill him. Filippo Strozzi, one of the great minds of that day, held this murder in such respect that he swore that his sons should each marry a daughter of the
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murderer; and each son religiously fulfilled his father’s oath when they might all have made, under Catherine’s protection, brilliant marriages; for one was the rival of Doria, the other a marshal of France. Cosmo de’ Medici, successor of Alessandro, with whom he had no relationship, avenged the death of that tyrant in the cruellest manner, with a persistency lasting twelve years; during which time his hatred continued keen against the persons who had, as a matter of fact, given him the power. He was eighteen years old

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when called to the sovereignty; his first act was to declare the rights of Alessandro’s legitimate sons null and void, — all the while avenging their father’s death! Charles V. confirmed the disinheriting of his grandsons, and recognized Cosmo instead of the son of Alessandro and his daughter Margaret.
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It was early in the month of October, 1533, that the Duca della citta di Penna started from Florence for Livorno, accompanied by the sole heiress of Lorenzo II., namely, Catherine de’ Medici. The duke and the Princess of Florence, for that was the title by which the young girl, then fourteen years of age, was known, left the city surrounded by a large retinue of servants, officers, and secretaries, preceded by armed men, and followed by an escort of cavalry. The young princess knew nothing as yet of what her fate was
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to be, except that the Pope was to have an interview at Livorno with the Duke Alessandro; but her uncle, Filippo Strozzi, very soon informed her of the future before her.
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There were many such men in the republic of Florence, all as great as Strozzi, and as able as their adversaries the Medici, though vanquished by the superior craft and wiliness of the latter. What could be more worthy of admiration than the conduct of the chief of the Pazzi at the time of the conspiracy of his house, when, his commerce being at that time enormous, he settled all his accounts with Asia, the Levant, and Europe before beginning that great attempt; so that, if it failed, his correspondents should lose nothing. The history of the establishment of the house of the Medici in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
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is a magnificent tale which still remains to be written, though men of genius have already put their hands to it. It is not the history of a republic, nor of a society, nor of any special civilization; it is the history of statesmen, the eternal history of Politics, — that of usurpers, that of conquerors. As soon as Filippo Strozzi returned to Florence he re-established the preceding form of government and ousted Ippolito de’ Medici, another bastard, and the very Alessandro with whom, at the later period
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of which we are now writing, he was travelling to Livorno.
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he went to Lyon to superintend a vast house of business he owned there, which corresponded with other banking- houses of his own in Venice, Rome, France, and Spain. Here we find a strange thing. These men who bore the weight of public affairs and of such a struggle as that with the

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Medici (not to speak of contentions with their own party) found time and strength to bear the burden of a vast business and all its speculations, also of banks and their complications, which the multiplicity of coinages and their falsification rendered even more difficult than it is in our day.

[Maura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this one night after not finding any unread books in the house and became captivated by the story. Good bad and ugly all of us can judge but to live in a time like that...wow you had to be resourceful or you lost your head... Literally.

[Erin-kate Sousa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not an unenjoyable read but the personage it is suppose to be written about is not much present in the story the way one would expect of a bio. Plus I'm pretty sure the ending casts the book into questionable historical-fiction territory.

[Steve Schoenbeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is essentially four stories, with the preface rather heavy on the history, and the last one rather a stretch to call it "about" Catherine De Medici. The principal story, though, "The Calvinist Martyr" is a riveting story.

[Ciobanu Petru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty hard book to read, but still i like the philosophical load it has and the approach the author took to combine history by demonstrating his point by narrating a situation at individual level and also on the grand scale.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was neat. Not Balzac at his best, but an interesting take on what Catherine might have been like and the kind of intrigues she (and all rulers at that time) were up against.

[Mbuye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 1841 short (for Balzac!) biography, and the two novellas that go together with it, are part of the ‘Comedie Humaine’ series. I was very gratified to learn this, since I have been following the series for about two and a half years now, but always had the impression that ‘Catherine’ was a standalone biography. Also, I couldn't help comparing Balzac’s version of Catherine with Dumas’s. Catherine appears in the full might of her powers in ‘Queen Margot’ and the ‘Crimes of Catherine de Medici,’ both by Dumas, in which the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre plays a prominent part, as does her dependence on astrology, poisons and witchcraft. Later accounts, depending on whether the writer is Catholic of Protestant, differ enormously, but all agree that Catherine de Medici wielded extraordinary power as Queen Mother, and not always for the good of either her family or the country, but only herself. .

He defends the seemingly indefensible by detailing the circumstances of her early life and the marriage arranged for Catherine by Pope Clement VII, her uncle. She was fourteen as she set forth on her bridal trip from Italy to France. In France, she was slighted and ignored by almost everyone, from her husband and his mistress, the great Diane de Poitiers. The important Guise family, who claimed Charlemagne as a direct ancestor, looked down on her as the jumped-up daughter of an Italian mercantile family, however noble they might deem themselves, and however wealthy they might be.

He is sympathetic to Catherine in her struggle to navigate the dangerous politics of great families, religious factions, the pettinesses and jealousies of famous mistresses, and the insults of her own daughter-in-law, Mary, Queen of Scots, who was briefly Queen when Catherine was relegated to the position of Queen Mother.

Catherine's character develops as a political survivor at first, and later as a shrewd and able administrator during her regency. She was a mother of ten children. (About this, Balzac adds sardonically: “We may see in this recurring fecundity the influence of a rival, who was able thus to rid herself of the legitimate wife,--a barbarity of feminine policy which must have been one of Catherine's grievances against Diane (de Poitiers).” Of the ten children, three became Kings of France. Two of her daughters became Queens, one of Spain and the other of France.)

In Balzac's eyes, Catherine seems to be able to do no wrong, as her rule brought stability to France at a time of great political and religious turmoil, not just in France, but all of Europe. He colours his narrative with the kind of psychological examination that had rarely been attempted before.

Balzac the realist has a completely different take from the usual one of an Italian poisoner, murderess and the Attila of the St Bartholomew Day Massacre. As to the events of that day, neither Catherine nor her biographer seem to make much of it. At one point, Balzac indeed “quotes" Catherine as saying it was “an unfortunate incident," and at another as regretting that not enough Huguenots had been killed. “Every last one of them should have been wiped out completely,” she says in one of the two dream sequences of the novel. In the other, she tells Robespierre to be “ruthless." Only her son Charles IX bitterly regrets the killings.

As a historian, Balzac undertakes detailed research into the politics of the Italian states in the early sixteenth century. The Introduction introduces the most important subjects in the biography, as well the themes contained in the entire ‘Human Comedy’ - that of power, motivations, and the means of obtaining that power; the means that Catherine herself is thought to use - poisons, hidden weapons, or paid assassins. The stories of John Calvin, the great Protestant, as rigid and uncompromising in his views as any Pope in his Catholicism, and of the Ruggerieris, Catherine's astrologers and alchemists (and pet poisoners) are also developed at some length in the sections devoted to their stories, all of which go to support Balzac's ideas of a heroic Catherine. Finally, the monarchist in Balzac presents a revisionist view of the French revolution as a kind of bizarre Revenge of the Zombie Protestant Sans-Culottes for the fateful night of August 23–24, 1572.

[Tim Nason · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars - In Catherine De' Medici, Balzac attempts to 1. tell a story, 2. convey an account of the political life of a dominant figure in French regal history, c. 1560, and 3. correct misleading and slanderous historical accounts written by her idealogical enemies, i.e., by Reformers, aka Huguenots, Calvinists, Protestants.

The story sections of the book (with characters, settings and dialogs) are deeply engaging and tension-filled, using all of Balzac's skills of characterization and plotting – very important in this tale of innumerable actual plots :-), similar in quality to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, for example. Because the book is based on historic facts, Balzac can't let his imagination range too far and wide, but his plots generally have a sturdy quality about them that stands up to the many false starts and the equally numerous crushing defeats that tend to occur.

As a history, the book is scattershot, episodic and hard to follow; one needs much supplementary reading in Wikipedia and other sources to understand the broader context of everything and keep track of all the characters.

As a corrective to Protestant histories, the book doesn't really address the issue; instead, Balzac emphasizes how Catherine ingeniously played the many factions of her opposition against one another, a very effective (if deadly) strategy that allowed three of her sons to become kings of France, and herself to be declared regent at least once (and maybe twice). All the while advancing the cause of Catholicism and the throne of France against rival families, against the rising military forces of Calvinism, and against the administrative state as upheld by the commercial class called burghers.

The first section of the book, called "About Catherine de Medici," is intended to promote Balzac's idea of a historical corrective, but is a very long and dry roster of facts, perhaps informative but didactic and sleep-inducing. I would advise skimming it after one has read the other sections.

A final section of the main novel, called The Alchemists, adds a tale of how the Ruggieri brothers, Lorenzo and Cosmo, guide and take advantage of Catherine de Medici's fervent belief in astrology (and perhaps in the Ruggieries' expertise in poisons) to further her purposes, and their own.

A Part III, Two Dreams, takes place in 1786 (a clue: just prior to the French revolution), and tells about a person's dreams about Catherine and Protestantism. Is it an after-the-fact apologia or explanation? Does it have relevance to the revolution? How so? The section feels tacked on.

It is to Balzac's credit that the reader may repeatedly cheer for the victories of this manipulative, murderous, brilliant and persevering queen-mother of France, Catherine de Medici, someone you might never have previously heard about.

The central novel in the book surely deserves 4 or 5 stars, but the scattershot history and the "About" (along with the "Two Dreams") deserve only 2 or 3 in my estimation.

[Lloyd Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book consists of a long introduction and three distinct stories of varying lengths. A suggested reading-order list of the 98 Balzac stories that I’m following gives each of these its own place. Therefore, I’m commenting on them separately.

INTRODUCTION
An approximate 30 page summary of Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) beginning, her marriage, her politics, and her time as Queen that gives us a contextual understanding of this tale, which is told in three parts. Each will be commented on herein. 3 stars for the Introduction.

THE CALVINIST MARTYR
John Calvin (1509-1564) real name Calvin.
Francis II: 1544-1560, reign Apr 1558 - Dec 1560, married to Mary Stuart Queen of the Scots (1558-1560. This part is about the intrigue, duplicitous behavior, calumny, perfidy. It is a time when one said ‘A’ it meant something else entirely. Groups/families/factions that intrigued for the power of France were Valois, Bourbon, Conde, Guise, Montmorency. The intrigue is as impossible to unravel in this story as it was then. Balzac is a big fan of Catherine. 3 stars for this part.


THE SECRETS OF THE RUGGERI
It October 2573, King Francis II is dead and his brother Charles IX is king. He’s 24, married to a Hapsburg—Elizabeth of Austria. They have a daughter but no son, no heir. Charles has a mistress, he’s infatuated with her, they have a son with whom CIX is also infatuated. Charles, as well as everybody else know his days are numbered — he thinks he is being or going to be poisoned, but tuberculosis will be the instrument of death. the king of Navarre, the Condes, and his brother Henry are all intriguing to succeed Charles. It’s a sad, sad, sad state of affairs.

TWO DREAMS
Fast forward to 1786, the fete is grand, the guests are The Who’s who. Two dreams are recounted and the discussions contained therein are philosophical, erudite. The wine was poured freely, Robespierre is present, the evening runs late, and Marat becomes very drunk.

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

În general, protestăm în faţa paradoxului atunci când savanţii, loviţi de o eroare istorică, încearcă să o corecteze; dar pentru cei care studiază istoria modernă în profunzime, este clar că istoricii sunt nişte mincinoşi privilegiaţi care-şi lasă peniţele în voia credinţelor populare şi, ca majoritatea ziarelor de azi, nu exprimă decât opiniile cititorilor lor. Independenţa istorică a strălucit mai puţin la laici decât la religioşi. De la benedictini, una dintre gloriile Franţei, ne vin cele mai pure lămuriri în ceea ce priveşte istoria, atât timp cât interesele religiei nu erau puse în joc. Astfel că, de la mijlocul secolului al XVIII-lea, au apărut numeroşi savanţi controversaţi care, preocupaţi de necesitatea corectării erorilor populare acreditate de istorici, au publicat opere remarcabile. Aşadar, M. De Launoy, supranumit Descoperitorul de sfinţi, a dus un război crud împotriva sfinţilor acceptaţi ilegal în Biserică. Iar emulii benedictinilor, membri mai puţin cunoscuţi ai Academiei Franceze, au început din puncte obscure ale istoriei să-şi scrie memoriile, admirabile prin răbdare, erudiţie şi logică.

  Astfel, Voltaire, dintr-o greşeală nefericită şi o tristă pasiune, a purtat adesea lumina spiritului său asupra prejudecăţilor istorice. Diderot a scris, în acest sens, o carte prea lungă pentru o perioadă a istoriei Imperiului Roman. Dacă nu ar fi fost Revoluţia Franceză, critica aplicată istoriei ar fi pregătit, probabil, elementele unei bune şi adevărate istorii a Franţei, ale cărei dovezi erau adunate de multă vreme de marii noştri benedictini. Ludovic al XVI-lea, o minte înţeleaptă, a tradus el însuşi lucrarea engleză prin care Walpole a încercat să-l explice pe Richard al III-lea, lucrare care a preocupat atât de mult ultimul secol.

[Edmund Bloxam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess that we can be grateful for Honore de Balzac for the invention of the historical novel. As anything more than an oddity, this book does not, however, hold up to modern scrutiny. The author seems confused about exactly what he is writing. Sometimes, he spends an awfully long time describing architecture. This breaks up the narrative. Is this book worthwhile for historical insights. Not even remotely. 'War and Peace' balanced its historical speculation well with the story.

This book is an incoherent mess. As a novel, it does not work at all. There is no coherent plot, and characters come and go at a whim. This is made all the more pointless, because the author spends so long describing the characters. He then rushes certain link points. Quite a lot of the book does not even mention Catherine de Medici, so it is not really a book about her. The author is fond of spooling of into long monologues from random characters about random things at random times. If this was truly a historical book, then its 'plotting problems' would be less problematic, but the moments are mostly completely random, or rambling about architecture. So it is not a useful historical document either. It is barely a novel, which it needs to be, because almost all of it is made up (even the architecture bits are overly poetic).

I've never encountered a book so nonsensical and pointless before.

[CityCalmDown · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I originally wrote this as a comment beneath Lisa's review below. I have reproduced my remarks here though they are not review of the book but instead an attempt to provide some background to readers of the novel).

Balzac's politics were those of the counter-revolutionary, monarchist Legitimists. Those aspects of Catherine de Medici’s life which may be repulsive to modern readers were precisely those aspects which Balzac approved of! He admires Catherine for preserving the French Throne for the Catholics during the French Wars of Religion. When Balzac states that his intent is to rescue Catherine’s historical reputation, this is from those 19th century French historians who considered her to be an ineffective ruler. Judged in accordance with 19th century French Legitimist terms, Catherine’s cruelty, bloodshed and ruthless politicking are all justified in Balzac’s eyes due to her attaining her political goals. In a parallel fashion, Balzac's own political goals were to suppress and defeat any resurgence of the post-French Revolution republicanism.

[Taisia Crudu · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Așadar, dorința Catherinei de a cuceri puterea fu atât de mare, încât pentru a pune mâna pe ea, s-a aliat cu prinții de Guise, dușmanii tronului; în sfârșit, pentru ca să păstreze în mâinile ei frâiele statului, ea s-a folosit de toate mijloacele, sacrificându-și prietenii și chiar propriii copii. Această femeie, despre care unul dintre dușmanii ei a zis la moartea ei: Nu a murit o regină, ci însăși regalitatea, nu a putut să trăiască decât prin intrigile guvernării, așa cum un jucător nu trăiește decât prin emoțiile jocului.”

“Două cuvinte explică această femeie atât de dificil de studiat și a cărei influență a lăsat urme atât de puternice în Franța. Aceste două cuvinte sunt Dominație și Astrologie. Ambițioasă în mod exclusiv, Catherine de Médicis și n-a avut altă patimă decât pe cea a puterii. Superstițioasă și fatalistă, cum au fost atâția oameni superiori, ea n-a crezut cu sinceritate decât în științele oculte. Fără această dublă obsesie, ea va rămâne întotdeauna o neînțeleasă.”

“Catherine de Médicis” de Honoré de Balzac

[Le Maistre Chat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a work of historical fiction that's part of Balzac's enormous La Comédie humaine despite being set in the 1500s, rather than a novel depicting then-current life. It's "a philosophical study" which Balzac claims in the preface is to defend Queen Catherine. The Calvinists she had massacred deserved it because Calvinism contained the seed of the French Revolution's dogma.

It's structurally odd, plus inherently suspect, to make truth claims about history in the form of a novel, even if Balzac was hardly the only French novelist of the 1800s to interrupt fictional narrative for long digressions about architecture, the Battle of Waterloo, or in this case the political implications of theology.
Since Balzac openly tells you that he's against Calvinism, it's not a complete shock when he brings John Calvin on-page and he talks like a cartoon villain. But it's surprisingly hilarious, especially when in Katharine Prescott Wormeley's English translation he calls a follower a "boob", just like Skeletor.

[Valentina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Catherine De’ Medici is part of my Italian culture, She was powerful and fascinated me for all her behind the scenes of the court’s intrigues. I was interested in knowing her more as a person, what she had to endure married at age 14, living in a French court away from her florentine court and family, but she doesn’t appear as the main character here. Balzac is heavy and all too often his writing is not fluid. In this book Balzac writes a lot about power and historical French events; fiction, and non fiction; he writes a lot about the architecture of castles and religious movements, which was all fine with me, I an into these subjects. In the end, I found this book intriguing, and highly informative, although I wanted to read a real biography of Catherine de’ Medici. Perhaps, I do have to search so more to find a book that is all about her.

[Natia Morbedadze · Rating 3 out of 5]

წიგნის სათაურიდან გამომდინარე ეკატერინე მედიჩის ბიოგრაფიას ველით, თუმცა ის უბრალოდ ერთ-ერთი პერსონაჟია. ონორე დე ბალზაკის როიალიზმი თითოეული ფურცლიდან ჩანს, მაგრამ მთავარი გმირი დედოფალი არ არის. არც არავინაა. თავიდან თავამდე თხრობა სხვადასხვა ადამიანს ეხება - ხან საფრანგეთის მეფეების სამყოფელში ვიხედებით, ხან კალვინსა და მის მიმდევრებს გავიცნობთ, მაგრამ ერთიანობა არ ჩანს. არც ეკატერინეს პოლიტიკური ხრიკებია სათანადოდ გაანალიზებული და არც რელიგიური ომის რეალური (პოლიტიკური) მიზეზები და შედეგები. თითქოს ისტორია მხოლოდ ასტროლოგების წინასწარმეტყველების ასრულებაა და სხვა არაფერი. ისე კი ურიგო საკითხავი არ არის - როგორც რიგითი სათავგადასავლო რომანი.