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diff --git a/old/53398-0.txt b/old/53398-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 420c6cf..0000000 --- a/old/53398-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3500 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Honoré de Balzac, by Théophile Gautier - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Honoré de Balzac - -Author: Théophile Gautier - -Translator: David Desmond - -Release Date: October 29, 2016 [EBook #53398] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HONORÉ DE BALZAC *** - - - - -Translated and produced by David Desmond (balzac@dlrd.net) - - - - -HONORÉ DE BALZAC -BY -THÉOPHILE GAUTIER - -REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION - -PARIS -POULET-MALASSIS ET DE BROISE -BOOKSELLERS-PUBLISHERS -9, rue des Beaux-Arts -1859 - -Translated by David Desmond - -I - -Around 1835, I lived in two small rooms in the Impasse -du Doyenné, not far from the current location of the -Pavillon Mollien. Although it was located in the center of -Paris facing the Tuilleries and just a few steps from the -Louvre, the location was deserted and wild, and it -required a certain persistence for me to be found. -However, one morning a young man with a distinguished -look and a cordial and spiritual air approached my front -door and excused himself while making his introduction; -he was Jules Sandeau: he had come to recruit me on -behalf of Balzac for La Chronique de Paris, a weekly journal -that one will certainly remember, but which had not been -as financially successful as it deserved. Balzac, Sandeau -told me, had read Mademoiselle de Maupin, then very -recently published, and he had very much admired its -style; thus he wished to request my collaboration on the -journal that he sponsored and directed. A date was set for -us to get together, and from that date forward there was -between us a friendship that only death could break. - -If I have told this story, it is not because it is flattering for -me, but because it honors Balzac, who, already famous, -sought out a young, obscure writer to collaborate in a -spirit of of camaraderie and complete equality. At that -time, it's true, Balzac was not yet the author of La Comédie -Humaine, but he had completed, besides several novellas, -La Physiologie du Mariage, La Peau de Chagrin, Louis Lambert, -Seraphita, Eugénie Grandet, l'Histoire des Treize, Le Médecin de -Campagne, Père Goriot, that is to say, in ordinary times, -enough to solidify five or six reputations. His nascent -glory, strengthened each month with new rays, shined -with all of the splendors of the aurora; certainly he shined -brightly like his contemporaries Lamartine, Victor Hugo, -de Vigny, de Musset, Sainte-Beuve, Alexandre Dumas, -Mérimée, George Sand, and many others; but at no time -in his life did Balzac carry himself as the Grand Lama of -literature, and he was always good company; he had -pride, but he was entirely free of vanity. - -He lived at that time at the end of the Jardin du -Luxembourg, near the Observatoire, on a little -frequented road given the name of Cassini, without -doubt because of its astronomical neighbor. On the -garden wall which occupied almost the entire side, and at -the end of which was found the house in which Balzac -lived, one read: Labsolu, brick merchant. That strange sign, -which is still there, if I am not wrong, is very striking; La -Recherche de l'Absolu can have no other inspiration. This -fateful name probably suggested to the author the idea of -Balthasar Claës in the pursuit of his impossible dream. - -When I saw him for the first time, Balzac, one year older -than the century, was around thirty-six, and his face was -one of those that one would never forget. In his -presence, one is reminded of Shakespeare's lines about -Julius Caesar: "Before him, nature stands up boldly and -says to the world, 'This is a man!'" - -My heart beat strongly because never had I approached -without trembling a master of thought, and all the -speeches I had prepared on the way stayed in my throat, -allowing nothing to pass other than a stupid phrase like -this: "The temperature is nice today." Heinrich Heine, -when he went to visit Goethe, could find nothing to say -except that the plums that have fallen from the trees on -the route from Iéna to Weimar are excellent for thirst, -which made the Jupiter of German poetry laugh gently. -Balzac, seeing my embarrassment, soon put me at my -ease, and during breakfast I became calm enough to -examine him in detail. - -He wore, in the form of a dressing gown, a robe of white -cashmere or flannel held at the waist by a cord, in which, -some time later, he was painted by Louis Boulanger. -What whim had pushed him to choose, ahead of any -other, this costume that he never took off? Could it be -that it symbolized in his eyes the cloistered life to which -his labors condemned him, and, Benedictine of the novel, -he had thus taken the robe? This robe always suited him -marvelously. He boasted, showing me the intact sleeves, -to have never sullied its purity with the least stain of ink, -"because," he said, "the true writer should always be neat -while at his work." - -His robe, thrown back, revealed the neck of an athlete or -a bull, round as a section of a column, without apparent -muscles, and of a satiny whiteness which contrasted with -the deeper hue of his face. At this time, Balzac, in the -prime of his life, gave the impression of a robust health, -little in harmony with the romantic pallors then in -fashion. The pure Tourainian blood left his cheeks a -bright purple and warmly colored his lips, thick and -sinuous, easy to laugh; a light mustache and a small beard -just below his lower lip accentuated the contours of his -mouth, without concealing them; the nose, square at the -end, divided into two lobes, pierced by very open -nostrils, of a character entirely original and unique; -Balzac, in posing for his bust, told the sculptor, David -d'Angers, "Be careful about my nose, my nose is a -world!" The forehead was beautiful, vast, noble, much -whiter than the face, with no creases other than a -perpendicular furrow along the ridge of the nose; there -was a very pronounced ridge above the eyebrows; the -hair, abundant, long, strong and black, stood up in back -like a lion's mane. As for the eyes, there have never -existed anything comparable. They had a life, a light, an -inconceivable magnetism. Despite the nightly vigils, their -whites were pure, limpid, bluish, like that of a child or a -virgin, and encased two black diamonds that shined at -times with rich reflections of gold: they were eyes to -make eagles avert their gaze, to penetrate walls and -hearts, to strike down a furious wild beast, the eyes of the -sovereign, the seer, the conqueror. - -Mme. Emile de Girardin, in her novel entitled La Canne -de M. de Balzac, speaks of these shining eyes: - -"Tancred then perceived at the front of the club, -turquoise, gold, marvelous carvings; and behind all of -that two large black eyes more brilliant than the stones." - -Those extraordinary eyes, once one had met their gaze, -made it difficult to notice other features that might have -been trivial or irregular. - -The habitual expression of the face was a sort of -powerful hilarity, a Rabelaisian and monkish joy — the -robe no doubt contributing to the birth of this idea — -which made you think of Brother Jean des -Entommeures, but it was enlarged and elevated by a -mind of the first order. - -According to his habit, Balzac had risen at midnight, and -had written until my arrival. His features betrayed no -fatigue, aside from a slight darkening beneath the eyelids, -and during the entire breakfast he demonstrated a wild -gaiety. Little by little the conversation drifted toward -literature, and he complained of the enormous difficulties -of the French language. Style preoccupied him a great -deal, and he sincerely believed that he had none at all. It -is true that he was then generally thought to be lacking -this quality. The school of Victor Hugo, in love with the -sixteenth century and the Middle Ages, specialized in -patterns, in rhythms, in structure, rich in words, breaking -prose with the gymnastics of verse, and modeling itself -on a master confident in his methods, would do nothing -other than that which was well written, that is to say -worked and toned beyond measure, and found the -portrayal of modern manners to be useless, conventional, -and lacking in lyricism. Balzac, despite the popularity that -he had begun to enjoy among the public, was not -admitted among the gods of Romanticism, and he knew -it. While devouring his books, people did not pause to -regard their serious side, and even for his admirers, he -remained for a long time the most productive of our -novelists and nothing else; this surprises today, but I can -vouch for the truth of my assertion. He tortured himself -in trying to achieve a style, and, in his anxiety to make -corrections, he consulted people who were a hundred -times his inferiors. Before signing his name to anything, -he had written under different pseudonyms (Horace de -Saint-Aubin, L. de Viellerglé, etc.) one hundred volumes -just "to free his hand." However he already possessed a -style of his own without being conscious of it. - -But let me return to our breakfast. While talking, Balzac -played with his knife or his fork, and I noted that his -hands were of a rare beauty, the true hands of a prelate, -white, with fingers both slender and plump, and nails that -were pink and shiny; he was proud of them and smiled -with pleasure as I looked at them. He considered his -hands to be evidence of breeding and aristocratic birth. -Lord Byron, in a note, says with evident satisfaction, that -Ali Pacha complimented him on the smallness of his ears, -and inferred from them that he was a true gentleman. A -similar remark upon his hands would have equally -flattered Balzac, even more than the praise of one his -books. He had a sort of prejudice against those whose -extremities lacked finesse. The meal was rather fine, a -paté de foie gras was part of it, but this was a deviation -from his habitual frugality, as he remarked while -laughing, and that for "this solemn occasion" he had -borrowed his silver plates from his library! - -I retired after having promised some articles for La -Chronique de Paris, where Le Tour en Belgique, La Morte -Amoureuse, La Chaine d'Or, and other literary works had -appeared. Charles de Bernard, who had also been called -by Balzac, contributed La Femme de Quarante Ans, La Rose -Jaune, and some new work since collected into volumes. -Balzac, as one knows, had invented the woman of thirty -years; his imitator added ten years to that already -venerable age and his heroine obtained no less success. - -Before going further, let's pause for a moment and give -some details of Balzac's life prior to my acquaintance -with him. My authorities will be Madame de Surville, his -sister, and himself. - -Balzac was born in Tours, May 16, 1799, on the day of -the celebration of Saint Honoré who gave him his name, -which sounded good and augured well. Little Honoré was -not a child prodigy; he did not announce prematurely that -he would write La Comédie Humaine. He was a fresh, rosy, -healthy boy, fond of play, with gentle, sparkling eyes, but -in no way distinguished from other boys of his age, at -least upon casual observation. At seven, upon leaving a -day school in Tours, he attended a secondary school in -Vendôme run by the Oratoriens, where he was thought -to be a very mediocre student. - -The first part of Louis Lambert contains curious -information regarding this period of Balzac's life. -Dividing his own personality, he describes himself as an -old classmate of Louis Lambert, sometimes speaking in -his name, and sometimes lending his own sentiments to -this person who is imaginary, yet very real, since he is a -sort of lens into the writer's very soul. - -"Situated in the middle of the town, upon the little river -Loire that bathes its walls, the college forms a vast -enclosure containing the establishments necessary for an -institution of this kind: a chapel, a theater, an infirmary, a -bakery, some streams of water. This college, the most -celebrated seat of instruction of the central provinces, is -populated by those provinces and by our colonies. The -distance does not allow parents to come here often to see -their children; the rules forbid vacations away from the -institution. Once they have entered, the pupils do not -leave the college until the end of their studies. With the -exception of walks taken outside under the supervision of -the Fathers, everything had been planned to give to this -house all of the advantages of monastic discipline. In my -time, the corrector was still a living memory, and the -leather strap played with honor its terrible role." - -It is in this way that Balzac described this formidable -college, which left in his imagination such persistent -memories. - -It would be intriguing to compare the novella titled -William Wilson, in which Edgar Allen Poe describes, with -the strange exaggerations of childhood, the old building -from the time of Queen Elizabeth where his hero was -raised with a companion who was no less strange than -Louis Lambert; but this is not the place to make this -comparison, thus I must content myself only to point it -out. - -Balzac suffered prodigiously in this college, where his -tendency to daydream was assaulted every instant by -some inflexible rule. He neglected his studies; but, -benefitting from the tacit complicity of a tutor of -mathematics, who was at the same time a librarian and -occupied in studies that were outside of the realm of -ordinary experience, he did not take his lessons and -borrowed all of the books he wished. He passed all of his -time in secret reading. Soon he became the most -punished student in the class. Extra work and detentions -occupied his recreation time. - -For certain schoolchildren, punishments inspire a sort of -stoic rebellion, and they oppose the exasperated -professors with the same disdainful impassivity that -captive savage warriors display toward the enemy who -tortures them. Isolation, starvation, and the leather strap -will not elicit the least complaint; there are thus between -the master and the student some horrible conflicts, -unknown to the parents, in which the steadfastness of the -martyrs and the skills of the executioner are found -equally. Some nervous teachers cannot bear the -expressions full of hate, scorn, and threat with which a -child of eight or ten years defies them. - -Let us consider here some characteristic details that, -under the name of Louis Lambert, also describe Balzac. -"Accustomed to the open air, the independence of an -education left to chance, the tender care of an old man -who cherished him, and thinking while being warmed by -the rays of the sun, it was very difficult for him to -conform to the rules of the college, to march in line, to -live within the four walls of a room in which twenty-four -young boys were silent, seated on a wooden bench, each -before his desk. His senses possessed a perfection which -gave them an exquisite fragility, and they all suffered -from this communal life; the exhalations that left the air -corrupted, mixed with the odor of a class that was always -dirty and encumbered by the remains of our lunches and -our snacks, affected his sense of smell, that sense which, -connected more directly than the others to the cerebral -system, should cause by its derangements some -unavoidable shocks to the organ of thought; apart from -these atmospheric corruptions, he found in our study -halls some spots where each would put his booty, -pigeons killed for the feast days or plates stolen from the -refectory. Finally our rooms contained an immense stone -on which two buckets of water rested where on a rotating -basis we went each morning to wash our face and hands, -in the presence of the master. Washed only once each day -before our awakening, our premises were always dirty. -Then, despite the number of windows and the height of -the door, the air was always fouled by the emanations of -the wash house, the garbage dump, by the thousand -activities of every schoolboy, without counting our eighty -bodies when assembled. This kind of a collective -humidity, when combined with the dirt that we would -carry back from our travels, resulted in an unbearable -stench. The deprivation of air that was pure and scented -with the countryside in which he had until then lived, the -change in his routines, and the discipline all saddened -Lambert. His head always leaning on his left hand and his -arm supported by his desk, he passed his study time by -looking at the foliage of the trees or the clouds in the sky. -He seemed to be studying his lessons; but seeing his pen -immovably fixed and his page remaining blank, the -professor would cry out to him: 'You are doing nothing, -Lambert.'" - -To this vivid and truthful description of the miseries of -life at school, let me add an extract in which Balzac -characterizes himself as a duality under the double -sobriquet Pythagoras and the Poet, one carried by the -half of himself personified in Louis Lambert and the other -by the half of himself that was his true identity, and -which explains admirably why he was seen by his teachers -as being an incapable child: - -"Our independence, our illicit occupations, our apparent -indolence, the torpor in which we remained, our constant -punishments, our repugnance toward homework and -chores, won us the reputation of being useless and -incorrigible boys: our masters despised us, and we -similarly fell into the most terrible discredit among our -classmates, from whom we concealed our contraband -studies for fear of their mockeries. This double low -regard, unjust on the part of the Fathers, was a natural -sentiment on the part of our classmates; we didn't know -how to play ball, run, or walk on stilts on those days of -amnesty when by chance we obtained a moment of -freedom; we didn't take part in any of the amusements -then in style at the school; strangers to the pleasures of -our comrades, we remained alone, seated sadly under a -tree in the courtyard. The Poet and Pythagoras were an -exception, living a life separate from that of the -community. The penetrating instinct, the fragile self-regard -of schoolboys, gave them a greater sensitivity with -regard to minds that were higher or lower than their own; -from there, for some, was hatred of our mute aristocracy; -for others, scorn for our uselessness. We held these -sentiments between us without our full knowledge, and -it's possible that I didn't understand them until today. We -lived therefore exactly like two rats skulking in the corner -of the room that held our desks, bound there equally -during the hours of study and during those of -recreation." - -The result of these hidden labors, of these meditations -which used up study time, was the famous Traité de la -Volonté about which he spoke many times in La Comédie -Humaine. Balzac always regretted the loss of this first -work that he describes in Louis Lambert, and he speaks -with an emotion that time has not diminished of the -confiscation of the box that held the precious -manuscript; some jealous schoolmates tried to snatch the -box that two friends fiercely defended: "Suddenly, -attracted by the noise of the battle, Father Haugoult -roughly intervened and quieted the dispute. This terrible -Haugoult ordered us to give the box to him; Lambert -handed him the key, the teacher took the papers and -flipped through them; then he said while confiscating -them: 'So this is the foolishness for which you neglect -your work!' Large tears fell from Lambert's eyes, caused -as much by the consciousness of his offended sense of -moral superiority as by the gratuitous insult and the -betrayal that overwhelmed him. Father Haugoult -probably sold the Traité de la Volonté to a grocer of -Vendôme without knowing the importance of the -scientific treasures whose seeds were left to die in -ignorant hands." - -After this passage he adds, "It was in memory of the -catastrophe that had happened to Louis's book that in the -work with which these studies begin I used for a piece of -fiction the title truly invented by Lambert, and that I -ave the name (Pauline) of a woman who was dear to him to -a young girl who was full of devotion." - -In effect, if I open La Peau de Chagrin, I find in the -confession of Raphael the following words: "You alone -admired my Théorie de la Volonté, that long work for which -I learned the Oriental languages, anatomy, physiology, -and to which I dedicated the greatest part of my time, -work which, if I am not mistaken, will complete the -studies of Mesmer, of Lavater, of Gall, of Bichat, by -opening a new path to the human science; there stops my -beautiful life, this sacrifice of all of those days, this -silkworm's work, unknown to the world, and whose only -compensation could be in the work itself; since the end -of childhood until the day that I finished my Theorié, I -have observed, learned, written, read without rest, and -my life has seemed like a long chore; a gentle lover of -Oriental idleness, enthralled with my dreams, sensual, I -have always worked, denying myself the delights of -Parisian life; a gourmand, I have been temperate; fond of -hikes and journeys on the water, hoping to visit foreign -countries, still finding a child's pleasure in skipping stones -on the water, I stayed constantly seated with pen in hand; -talkative, I went to listen in silence to the public courses -at the library and the museum; I slept in my solitary bunk -like a devotee of the order of Saint Benedict, and women -were however my only fantasy, a fantasy that I caressed -but which always escaped me!" - -If Balzac regretted the Traité de la Volonté, he was less -sensitive to the loss of his epic poem on the Incas, which -began thusly: - - Oh Inca, oh ill-fated and unhappy king! - -This unfortunate inspiration earned him, for all of the -remaining time that he stayed at the school, the derisory -nickname of poet. Balzac, it must be confessed, never had -a gift for poetry, at least for meter; his complex thoughts -rebelled against rhythm. - -From these intense meditations, from these truly -prodigious intellectual efforts of a child of twelve or -fourteen years, there resulted a bizarre malady, a nervous -fever, a sort of coma entirely inexplicable for the -professors, who were not in on the secret of the readings -and the works of young Honoré, who appeared to be so -lazy and stupid. No one at the school suspected this -precocious excess of intelligence, no one knew that in the -cell in which he caused himself to be put daily so as to be -at liberty, this student who was thought to be lazy had -absorbed an entire library of serious books that were -beyond the typical understanding of his age. - -Let me here tie together several curious lines related to -the reading ability attributed to Louis Lambert, that is to -say, Balzac: - -"In three years, Louis had assimilated the substance of -the books in his uncle's library that deserved to be read. -His absorption of ideas by reading had become a curious -phenomenon: his eye took in seven or eight lines at a -time, and his mind appreciated their meaning at an equal -speed. Often a single word in a phrase sufficed for him to -appreciate its substance. His memory was prodigious. He -remembered with the same fidelity the thoughts acquired -by reading as those which reflection or conversation had -suggested to him. Ultimately he retained all of those -memories: those of places, of names, of words, of things, -of figures; not only did he recall objects at will, but he -remembered them again lit and colored as they were at -the moment that he first perceived them. This power -applied equally to the most imperceptible elements of -understanding. He remembered not only the placement -of thoughts in the book from which he had derived -them, but even the disposition of his soul at those distant -times." - -Balzac retained this marvelous gift of his youth -throughout his life, even in larger measure as the years -passed, and it is through this that his immense work can -be explained, truly the work of Hercules. - -The anxious teachers wrote to Balzac's parents to come -for him as soon as possible. His mother hurried to him -and picked him up to take him back to Tours. The -astonishment of the family was great when they saw the -thin and sickly child that the school had returned to them -in place of the cherub it had received, and it was -distressing for Honoré's grandmother. Not only had he -lost his beautiful colors and his youthful sturdiness, but, -struck by a congestion of ideas, he appeared to be an -imbecile. His manner was that of an ecstatic, of a -somnambulist who sleeps with his eyes open: lost in a -profound reverie, he did not hear that which was said to -him, or his mind, returning from afar, arrived too late to -respond. But the open air, rest, the nurturing -environment of the family, the recreations they forced -him to take and the vigorous juices of adolescence soon -triumphed over this sickly state. The tumult caused in -that young brain by the whirring of ideas diminished. -Little by little, the muddled readings became organized; -abstractions came to be blended into real images, -observations made silently on life; while walking and -playing, he studied the pretty landscapes of the Loire, the -provincial types, the cathedral of Saint-Gatien and the -characteristic physiognomies of the priests and canons; -many of the images which later served in the grand fresco -of the Comédie were sketched during this period of fruitful -inaction. However, the intelligence of Balzac was not -perceived or understood any more in his family than at -school. Even if something clever escaped his lips, his -mother, despite being a superior woman, would say to -him: "Without a doubt, Honoré, you don't understand -what you are saying." And Balzac would laugh, without -further explanation, that wonderful laugh that he had. -Balzac's father, who shared qualities at that time with -Montaigne, Rabelais, and Uncle Toby, by his philosophy, -his originality, and his goodness (it's Madame de Surville -who is speaking), had a little better opinion of his son, -believing due to certain genetic theories that he held that -a child created by himself could not be stupid: -nevertheless, he had no suspicion of the great man that -he would become in the future. - -Balzac's family having returned to Paris, he was entered -into the boarding school of Monsieur Lepitre, Rue Saint-Louis, -and Messieurs Sganzer and Beuzelin, Rue -Thoringy in the Marais. There as at the school in -Vendôme, his genius did not reveal itself, and he -remained in the midst of the troop of ordinary students. -No prefect exclaimed to him: "You will be Marcellus!" or -"Thus you shall go to the stars!" - -His classes finished, Balzac gave himself that second -education which is the true one; he studied, perfected -himself, attended the courses of the Sorbonne, and -studied law while working with an attorney and a notary. -This time, apparently lost, since Balzac became neither an -attorney, nor a notary, nor a lawyer, nor a judge, gave him -a personal acquaintance with the personnel of the -Bazoche and led him to later write what I might call the -litigations of La Comédie Humaine in the style of a man -marvelously versed in that profession. - -The examinations passed, the great question of which -career to select presented itself. His family wanted to -make a notary of Balzac; but the future great writer, who, -even though no one believed in his genius, had a -consciousness of it himself, refused in a most respectful -manner, although they had organized a position on the -most favorable terms. His father gave him two years to -prove himself, and as the family had returned to the -provinces, Madame Balzac installed Honoré in a garret, -allowing him a stipend sufficient for only his most -pressing needs, hoping that a little hardship would make -him wiser. - -This garret was perched on the Rue de Lesdiguières, -number nine, near the Arsenal, whose library offered its -resources to the young laborer. Without a doubt, to pass -from an abundant and luxurious house to a miserable -hovel would be difficult at any age other than 21, which -was the age of Balzac; but if the dream of every child is -to have boots, that of every young man is to have a -room, a room all to himself, whose key he carries in his -pocket, although he can stand upright only at its center: a -room, it's the trappings of virility, it's independence, -personality, love! - -Behold then master Honoré perched near the sky, seated -before his table, and trying to create a work that would -justify the indulgence of his father and disprove the -unfavorable predictions of his friends. It is a remarkable -thing that Balzac debuted with a tragedy, with a Cromwell! -Around that same time, Victor Hugo also put the last -touches on his Cromwell, whose preface became the -manifesto of all young dramatists. - -II - -In attentively rereading La Comédie Humaine when one has -known Balzac personally, one finds there scattered -curious details with regard to his character and his life, -particularly in his first works, where he has not yet -separated out his own personality, and, due to a lack of -subjects, observes and dissects himself. I have said that -he began his rude apprenticeship for the literary life in a -garret on the Rue Lesdiguières, near the Arsenal. The -novel Facino Cane, published in Paris in March, 1836, and -dedicated to Louise, contains some precious information -regarding the life that this young aspirant for glory led in -his aerial nest. - -"I lived then in a street which without doubt you do not -know, the Rue Lesdiguières: it begins at the Rue Saint-Antoine, -opposite a fountain, near the Place de la Bastille, -and leads into the Rue de la Cerisaie. The love of science -had thrown me into an attic where I wrote all night, and I -passed the day in a neighboring library, that of Monsieur; -I lived frugally, I had accepted all of the conditions of the -monastic life, so necessary for laborers. When the -weather was fine, I allowed myself a walk on the -Boulevard Bourbon. One sole passion enticed me from -my studious habits; but wasn't this also studying? I went -to observe the manners of the neighborhood, its -inhabitants and their characters. As ill clad as the -workers, indifferent to decorum, I did not put them on -their guard against me: I could mingle in their groups, see -them conclude their deals, and hear them argue about the -time that they would stop working. For me, observation -had already become intuitive, it penetrated the soul -without neglecting the body; in other words it so -thoroughly grasped exterior that it transcended it -immediately; it gave me the ability to live the life of the -individual on which I was focused and permitted me to -substitute myself for him, like the dervish of the Thousand -and One Nights seized the body and the soul of persons -over whom he pronounced certain words. - -"When, between eleven o'clock and midnight, I met a -workman and his wife returning from the Ambigu-Comique, -I amused myself by following them from the -Boulevard Pont-aux-Choux to the Boulevard -Beaumarchais. These good people would at first speak of -the play that they had just seen; next they would address -their personal affairs; the mother would pull the child by -the hand without listening to either his complaints or his -questions. The married couple would count up the -money that would be paid to them the next day. They -would spend it in twenty different ways. They would then -move on to household matters, complaints over the -excessive price of potatoes or the length of the winter -and the rise in the cost of butter, energetic discussions on -how much was owed to the baker, and finally onto -discussions where each of them became irritated and -demonstrated his character with picturesque words. In -listening to these people, I could connect with their life, I -felt their rags upon my back, I walked with my feet in -their tattered shoes; their desires, their needs, all -passed into my soul, and my soul passed into theirs; it -was the dream of an awakened man. I became -exasperated with them against the workshop foremen -who tyrannized them or against the unfair practice that -made them return many times without providing them -with their pay. To abandon habits, to become another -through this intoxication of the moral faculties and to -play this game at will, such was my entertainment. To -what do I owe this gift? Is it an extrasensory perception? -Is it one of those qualities whose abuse would lead to -madness? I have never sought the sources of this power; -I possess it and I use it, that is all." - -I have transcribed these lines, which are doubly -interesting because they illuminate a little-known side of -Balzac's life, and because they show that he was -conscious of this powerful faculty of intuition that he -already possessed at such a high level and without which -the realization of his work would have been impossible. -Balzac, like Vishnu, the Indian god, possessed the gift of -metamorphosis, that is to say the ability to incarnate -himself into different bodies and live in them as long as -he wished; however, the number of the metamorphoses -of Vishnu is fixed at ten: those of Balzac are countless, -and furthermore he could produce them at will. Although -it may seem extravagant to say this in the heart of the -nineteenth century, Balzac was a seer. His merits as an -observer, his acuteness as a physiologist, his genius as a -writer, do not suffice to explain the infinite variety of the -two or three thousand types which play a more or less -important role in La Comédie Humaine. He did not copy -them, he lived them in an ideal manner, he wore their -clothes, he took on their habits, he immersed himself in -their surroundings, he was them for as long as necessary. -From there come these authentic, logical characters, -never contradicting themselves and never forgetting -themselves, endowed with an intimate and profound -existence, who, to use one of his expressions, took on the -challenge of life in civil society. Truly red blood circulated -in their veins in place of the ink that infused the creations -of ordinary writers. - -Balzac did not possess this ability for any time except the -present. He could transport his thought into a marquis, -into a financier, into a middle-class person, into a man of -the people, into a woman of the world, into a courtesan, -but the shadows of the past did not obey his call: he -never knew, like Goethe, how to evoke from the depths -of antiquity the beautiful Hélène and make her dwell in -the Gothic manor of Faust. With two or three -exceptions, all of his work is modern; he has assimilated -the living, he has not resurrected the dead. Even history -seduced him little, as one can see from the preface to La -Comédie Humaine: "In reading the dry and off-putting -catalogues of facts called histories, who has not recognized -that the writers have forgotten in every era, in Egypt, in -Persia, in Greece, in Rome, to give us the history of -manners? The piece by Petronius on the private life of -the Romans irritates rather than satisfies our curiosity." - -This void left by the historians of vanished societies, -Balzac proposed to fill for our own, and God knows that -he carefully followed the program that he had planned. - -"Society was going to be the historian, I should not be -but the secretary; in constructing the inventory of vices -and of virtues, in assembling the principal features of the -passions, in depicting the characters, in choosing the -principal events of the society, in composing types by the -blending of traits of several homogeneous characters, -perhaps I could succeed in writing the history forgotten -by so many historians, that of manners. With a great deal -of patience and courage, I might be able to complete, on -nineteenth century France, the book that we all regret -that Rome, Athens, Tyre, Memphis, Persia, India, have -unfortunately not left us on their civilization, and that like -the abbot Bartholomew, the courageous and patient -Monteil had attempted regarding the Middle Ages, -although in a form that was not appealing." - -But let us return to the garret on the Rue Lesdiguières. -Balzac had not conceived the plan of the work that -would immortalize him; he was still seeking it with -anxiety, bated breath, and hard labor, trying everything -and succeeding in nothing; however he already possessed -that obstinacy in his work to which Minerva, as surly as -she might be, must one day or another yield; he outlined -comic operas, made plans for comedies, dramas and -romances whose titles Madame de Surville has preserved: -Stella, Coqsigrue, Les Deux Philosophes, without counting the -terrible Cromwell, whose verses had caused him so much -pain and yet were not worth much more than that which -began his epic poem, Incas. - -Imagine to yourself young Honoré, his legs wrapped in a -patched coat, his upper body protected by an old shawl -of his mother, his headdress a sort of Dantesque cap and -his hair of a cut that only Madame de Balzac knew, his -coffee pot to his left, his inkwell to his right, working -with a heaving chest and bowed forehead, like an ox at -the plow, the field still stony and not cleared by those -thoughts which would later trace for him such productive -furrows. The lamp shines like a star in the front of the -dark house, the snow falls in silence on the loosened tiles, -the wind blows through the door and window "like -Tulou on his Flute, but less agreeably." - -If some dawdling passerby had raised his eyes toward -that little, obstinately flickering glow, he certainly would -not have suspected that it was the dawning of one of the -greatest glories of our age. - -Would you like to see a sketch of the place, transposed, -it's true, but very exact, drawn by the author in La Peau de -Chagrin, that work which contains so much of himself? - -"… A room which looks down upon the yards of the -neighboring houses, from the windows of which extend -long poles hung with washing; nothing was more horrible -than that garret with those yellow, grimy walls, which -soaked in the misery and called out to its scholar. The -roof slanted in a uniform fashion, and the loosened tiles -permitted a view of the sky; there was room for a bed, a -table, a few chairs, and under the sharp angle of the roof -I could position my piano … I lived in this aerial -sepulcher for almost three years, working night and day, -without rest, with so much pleasure that my studies -seemed to be the most beautiful focus, the happiest -solution to human life. The calm and silence necessary to -the scholar have some elements of the sweetness and -intoxication of love … Study lends a sort of magic to -everything that surrounds us. The meager desk upon -which I wrote and the brown leather that covered it, my -piano, my bed, my armchair, the peculiar wallpaper, my -furniture, all of these things came to life and became for -me humble friends, silent partners in my future. How -many times have I not shared my soul while gazing upon -them? Often, while letting my eyes wander on a crooked -molding, I would encounter new developments, a striking -proof of my system that I believed was able to convey -nearly untranslatable thoughts." - -In this same passage, he makes an allusion to his work: "I -had undertaken two great works; a comedy that was in -only a few days to give me fame, a fortune and entry into -that world in which I wanted to reappear while exercising -the kingly rights of a man of genius. You have all seen in -this masterpiece the first error of a young man just out of -college, the nonsense of a child. Your jibes destroyed the -nascent illusions, which since then have not been -awakened …" - -One recognizes here the ill-fated Cromwell, which, read in -front of the family and the assembled friends, was a -complete fiasco. - -Honoré appealed this sentence before an arbiter whom -he accepted as competent, an honorable old man, a -former professor at the École Polytechnique. The -judgment was that the author should do "anything at all, -except literature." - -What a loss for letters, what a void in the human spirit if -the young man had bowed before the experience of the -old man and listened to his counsel, which, certainly, was -most wise, because there was not the least spark of -genius nor even of talent in this rhetorical tragedy! -Happily Balzac, under the pseudonym of Louis Lambert, -had not composed for nothing at the college of Vendôme -the Traité de la Volonté. - -He submitted to the sentence, but only for tragedy; -he understood that he should give up trying to walk in -the footsteps of Corneille and Racine, whom he so -admired without being in their debt, for never were -geniuses more contrary to that of himself. The novel -offered him a more suitable model, and he wrote at this -time a great number of volumes which he did not sign -and which he always disavowed. The Balzac that we -know and that we admire was still in limbo and struggled -in vain to extricate himself. Those who had judged him -capable of being nothing but a copyist appeared to be -right; perhaps even this option had failed him, because -his beautiful handwriting had already deteriorated with -the crumpled, crossed out, overwritten, near hieroglyphic -drafts of the writer fighting for the idea and no longer -concerned about the beauty of the character. - -Thus, nothing resulted from this rigorous confinement, -this hermetic life in the Thébaïde in which Raphaël -outlines the budget: "Three sous of bread, two sous of -milk, three sous of meat that prevented me from dying of -hunger and kept my mind in a state of singular lucidity. -My lodgings cost me three sous a day; I burned three -sous of oil every night, I took care of my own room, I -wore flannel shirts so that I would spend only two sous a -day for laundry. I warmed myself with coal, whose price -divided by the days in the year never gave more than two -sous for each. I had suits of clothes, linens, and shoes for -three years: I didn't want to get dressed except to go to -certain public lectures and to the libraries; these expenses -combined were only eighteen sous: there remained two -sous for unforeseen things. I do not recall having, during -this long period of work, having passed the Pont des Arts -or ever buying water." - -Without doubt, Raphaël exaggerated these economies a -little, but Balzac's correspondence with his sister shows -that the novel does not differ much from the reality. The -old woman referred to in his letters by the name of Iris la -Messagère, who was 70 years-old, could not have been a -very active housekeeper, as Balzac writes: "The news of -my household is disastrous, the work does harm to its -cleanliness. This rascal of Myself neglects himself more -and more, he only descends every three or four days to -make some purchases, he goes to the closest and worst -provisioned merchants in the quarter: the others are too -far, and the fellow economizes even his steps; so that -your brother (destined for so much celebrity) is already -nourished absolutely like a great man, that is to say that -he is dying of hunger." - -"Another problem: The coffee is made terribly bitter by -dirt. Lots of water is needed to correct the damage; but -the water does not rise to my celestial garret (it descends -there only on stormy days), it will require, after the -purchase of the piano, the installation of a hydraulic -machine, if the coffee continues to disappear while the -master and the servant daydream." - -Elsewhere, continuing the joking, he reprimands the lazy -Myself, the only footman that he has in his service, who -does not fill the basin, leaves dust balls scattered freely -under the bed, the dirt obscuring the windows, -and the spiders spinning their webs in the corners. - -In another letter, he writes: "I have eaten two melons … -it will be necessary to pay for them with nuts and dry -bread!" - -One of the rare recreations that he permitted himself was -to go to the Jardin des Plantes or Père-Lachaise. At the -summit of the funereal hill, he towered over Paris like -Rastignac at the burial of Père Goriot. His gaze glided -over this ocean of slate and tile that cover up so much -luxury, misery, intrigue and passion. Like a young eagle, -he took in his prey at a glance; but he still had no wings, -no beak, no talons, although his eye could already fix -itself on the sun. He said, contemplating the tombs: -"There are no more beautiful epitaphs than these: La -Fontaine, Masséna, Molière: one single name that says -everything and makes us dream!" - -This sentence contains an ill-defined but prophetic -understanding that the future realized, alas!, too soon. On -the slope of the hill, upon a sepulchral stone, beneath a -bust cast in bronze, after the marble of David, the word -BALZAC says everything and makes the solitary -wanderer dream. - -The dietary regimen recommended by Raphaël could be -favorable to the lucidity of the brain; but certainly it was -worthless for a young man used to the comfort of family -life. The fifteen months that passed under these intellectual -burdens, sadder, without fail, than those of Venice, had -made the youthful Tourangeau with the soft, glowing -cheeks a Parisian skeleton, haggard and yellow, nearly -unrecognizable. Balzac reentered the paternal home, -where the fatted calf was killed for the return of this only -slightly prodigal child. - -I glide lightly over the period of his life when he tried to -ensure independence by speculations in the book trade -and during which only a lack of capital prevented him -from finding success. These ventures put him in debt, -mortgaged his future, and despite the devoted assistance -offered perhaps too late by the family, burdened him -with the rock of Sisyphus that he so many times pushed -just to the edge of the hill, and which always fell back -with more crushing weight upon the shoulders of this -Atlas, overloaded besides by an entire world. - -This debt that he made it a sacred duty to discharge, -because it represented the fortune of those who were -dear to him, was Necessity armed with a spiked whip, her -hand bearing bronze nails that harassed him night and -day, with neither truce nor pity, making him regard every -hour of repose or recreation as a theft. She dominated his -entire life painfully, often rendering it inexplicable to he -who did not possess its secret. - -Having provided these indispensable biographical details, -I come to my direct and personal impressions of Balzac. - -Balzac, that immense brain, that physiologist so -penetrating, that observer so profound, that mind so -intuitive, did not possess the literary gift: within him there -opened an abyss between the thought and the form. That -abyss, particularly in the early years, he despaired of -crossing. He threw himself without fulfillment into -volume upon volume, observation upon observation, -essay upon essay; an entire library of disavowed books -passed through there. A will less robust would have been -discouraged a thousand times; but happily Balzac had an -unshakeable confidence in his genius, unknown to all the -world. He wanted to be a great man, and he was that by -his unrelenting projections of that force that was more -powerful than electricity, and with which he made such -subtle analyses in Louis Lambert. - -Unlike the writers of the romantic school, who -distinguished themselves by a boldness and astonishing -facility of execution, and produced their fruits at nearly -the same time as their flowers, in a blossoming that was in -a sense involuntary, Balzac, the equal in genius of them -all, did not find his means of expression, or did not find -it until after infinite suffering. Hugo said in one of his -prefaces, with his Castilian pride: "I do not know the art -of soldering a beauty in the place of a defect, and I -correct myself in another work." But Balzac would cover -a tenth proof with his crossings out, and when he saw me -return to the La Chronique de Paris the proof of an article -written in a hurry, on the corner of a table, with only -typographical corrections, he could not believe, as -content as he was otherwise, that I had applied all of my -talent there. "By reworking it two or three times, it would -have been better," he said to me. - -Citing himself as an example, he preached to me a -strange literary lifestyle. I must cloister myself for two or -three years, drink water, eat soggy lupins like Protogène, -go to bed at six o'clock in the evening, get up at -midnight, and work until morning, using the day to -revise, expand, shorten, perfect, polish the nocturnal -work, correct the proofs, take notes, do the necessary -studies, and live most importantly with absolute chastity. -He insisted a great deal upon this last recommendation, -which was very challenging for a young man of twenty-four -or twenty-five years. According to him, true chastity -develops to the highest degree the powers of the mind, -and gives to those who practice it unidentified abilities. I -timidly objected that the greatest geniuses did not forbid -themselves love, passion, or even pleasure, and I cited -some illustrious names. Balzac shook his head and -responded, "They would have done better, without the -women!" - -The only concession that he would grant me, and even -then he regretted it, was to see my beloved one half hour -each year. He permitted letters: "These guide the -development of style." - -By means of this regimen, he promised to make of me, -with the natural abilities that he was pleased to recognize -in me, a writer of the first order. It is clear from my work -that I have not followed this plan. - -It must not be believed that Balzac was joking when he -laid down these conditions that the Trappists or the -Carthusians would have found harsh. He was perfectly -convinced, and spoke with such eloquence that many -times I consciously tried to use this method to develop -genius; I awoke numerous times at midnight, and after -having partaken of the inspirational coffee, acted -according to the formula, seating myself in front of a -table on which sleep caused me to quickly lay my head. -La Morte Amoureuse, published in the La Chronique de Paris, -was my only nocturnal work. - -Around this time, Balzac had written for a review Facino -Cane, the story of a noble Venetian who, imprisoned in -the vaults of the ducal palace, had fallen, while digging an -escape tunnel, upon the secret treasure of the Republic, a -good part of which he carried away with the help of a -bribed jailer. Facino Cane, who became blind and played -the clarinet under the common name of Father Canet, -had kept an extrasensory perception for gold; he -recognized it through walls and in vaults, and he offered -to the writer, at a wedding in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, -to guide him, if he was willing to pay him the -cost of the journey, toward this immense mass of riches -whose location had been lost due to the fall of the -Venetian Republic. Balzac, as I have said, lived his -characters, and at this moment, he was Facino Cane -himself, although without the blindness, for never have -there been eyes more sparkling or scintillating on a -human face. He dreamed of nothing but tons of gold, -heaps of diamonds and garnets, and, by means of -magnetism, with whose practices he had been long -familiar, he sought from these explorations the -location of the buried and lost treasure. He pretended to -have learned in this way, in the most precise manner, the -place where, near the hill of Pointe-à-Pître, Toussaint -Louverture had caused his booty to be buried by negroes -who were immediately shot. The Gold-Bug, of Edgar Poe, -does not equal, in subtlety of reasoning, in clarity of plan, -in divination of details, the fevered rendition that he has -given us of the expedition to attempt to become master -of this treasure, which was far richer than that which was -buried by Tom Kidd at the skull at the foot of the -Talipot. - -I implore the reader to not make too much fun of me, if -I confess to him in all humility that I soon shared the -conviction of Balzac. What brain could have resisted his -breathtaking speech? Jules Sandeau was also soon -seduced, and as he needed two dependable friends, two -devoted and robust companions to perform the -nocturnal excavations under the direction of the seer, -Balzac was pleased to grant us one-fourth each of this -prodigious fortune. One-half was to revert to him by -right, as he had made the discovery and directed the -enterprise. - -We were to buy pikes, pickaxes and shovels, get them -secretly on board the vessel, and get ourselves to a -designated point by different routes so as not to excite -suspicions, and, the blow being struck, we were to -transport our riches on a brigantine chartered in advance; -in short, it was quite a tale, which would have been -admirable if Balzac had written it instead of speaking it. - -There is no need to say that we did not unearth the -treasure of Toussaint Louverture. Money was not -available to pay our passage; the three of us had at most -enough to buy the pickaxes. - -The dream of a sudden fortune won by some strange and -marvelous means often haunted the brain of Balzac; -some years before (in 1833), he had made a voyage to -Sardinia to examine the slag of the silver mines -abandoned by the Romans, which, treated by imperfect -processes, must according to him still have contained a -great deal of metal. The idea was reasonable and, -imprudently confided, made the fortune of another. - -III - -I have related the anecdote of the treasure buried by -Toussaint Louverture, not for the pleasure of telling a -strange story, but because it is connected with a -dominant idea of Balzac – money. Certainly, nobody was -less avaricious than the author of La Comédie Humaine, but -his genius made him foresee the immense role that this -metallic hero would play in art, more interesting for -modern society than the Grandissons, the Desgrieux, the -Oswalds, the Werthers, the Malek-Adhels, the Renés, the -Laras, the Waverleys, the Quentin Durwards, etc. - -Until then the story had been confined to the portrayal of -a unique passion, love, but love in an ideal sphere and -outside of the necessities and miseries of life. The -personages of these entirely psychological recitals neither -ate, nor drank, nor lodged, nor had an account with their -tailor. They moved in an abstract environment like those -of a tragedy. If they wished to travel, they put, without -obtaining a passport, some handfuls of diamonds into the -bottom of their pocket, and paid with this currency the -postilions, who did not fail at each way station to have -exhausted their horses; some chateaus of indistinct -architecture received them at the end of their journeys, -and with their blood they wrote to their beloveds -interminable epistles dated from the tour of the North. -The heroines, no less immaterial, resembled an aquatint -of Angelica Kauffmann: a large straw hat, hair somewhat -straightened in the English style, a long robe of white -chiffon, held at the waist by an azure sash. - -With his profound instinct for reality, Balzac understood -that the modern life he wanted to portray was dominated -by one grand fact, money, and, in La Peau de Chagrin, he -had the courage to present a lover not only anxious to -know if he had touched the heart of the one he loves, but -also if he will have enough money to pay for the carriage -in which he was bringing her home. This audacity is -perhaps one of the greatest that one might permit oneself -in literature, and it alone sufficed to immortalize Balzac. -The consternation was profound, and the purists were -indignant at this infraction of the laws of the genre; but -all the young people who, going out in the evening to the -home of some beautiful woman wearing white gloves ironed -with gum elastic, had traversed Paris as dancers, on the -tips of their shoes, fearing a spot of mud more than the -crack of a pistol, commiserated, having shared these fears, -like the anguishes of Valentin, who cared deeply about a -hat that he could not renew and preserve despite his minute -care. In moments of supreme misery, the discovery of a one -hundred sou piece slid under the papers of the drawer, due -to the discreet pity of Pauline, produced the effect of the -most romantic theatrical strokes or of the intervention of -a Peri in the Arabian tales. Who has not discovered during -days of distress, forgotten in pants or in a vest, a few -glorious coins appearing at just the right time and saving -you from the calamity that youth fears the most: to fail to -provide a beloved woman with a carriage, a bouquet, a small -bench, a show program, a tip to the usherette or some trifles -of this type? - -Balzac excels in the portrayal of youth who are poor, as -they almost always are, entering into their first struggles -with life, prey to the temptation of pleasures and luxury, -and experiencing profound miseries due to their high -hopes. Valentin, Rastignac, Bianchon, d'Arthez, Lucien -de Rubempré, Lousteau, have all sunk their beautiful -teeth into the tough meat of the angry cow, fortifying -food for robust stomachs, indigestible for weak -stomachs; he does not lodge them, these beautiful young -ones without a sou, in conventional garrets decorated -with Persian rugs, with windows festooned with sweet -peas and looking out on gardens; he does not have them -eat "some simple dishes, prepared by the hand of nature," -and does not dress them in luxurious garments, but in -those that are proper and practical; he puts them in the -boarding house of Mother Vauquer, or forces them to -crouch under the sharp angle of a roof, he presses them -into greasy tables at mean little restaurants, dressing them -in black clothing with gray seams, and he is not afraid to -send them to the pawn shop, if they still have, a rare -occurrence, their father's watch. - -Oh Corinne, you who allows, upon Cape Misèna, your -snowy arm to dangle across your ivory lyre, while the son -of Albion, draped in a superb new coat, and shod in his -beloved perfectly polished boots, reflects on you and -listens to you in an elegant pose, Corinne, what would -you have said to such heroes? They have however one -small quality that was lacking in Oswald, they live, and of -a life so robust that it seems like one has encountered -them one thousand times; also Pauline, Delphine de -Nucingen, the princess of Cadignan, Madame de -Bargeton, Coralie, Esther, are madly infatuated with -them. - -At the time that the first novels signed by Balzac -appeared, one did not have, to the same degree as today, -the preoccupation, or, better said, the fever for gold. -California had not been discovered; there existed perhaps -several leagues of railway whose future one hardly -suspected, and that one saw as a kind of conduit that led up -to the Russian mountains, but that had fallen into disuse; -the public ignored, so to speak, "business," and only -bankers gambled at the Bourse. This movement of -capital, this flow of gold, these calculations, these figures, -this importance given to money in works that one still -took as simple romantic fictions and not as serious -portraits of life, singularly shocked the subscribers to the -reading rooms, and critics added up the total sums spent -or staked by the author. The millions of father Grandet -led to arithmetic discussions, and serious people, -troubled by the enormity of the totals, doubted the -financial abilities of Balzac, very great abilities -nevertheless, and recognized later. Stendhal said with a -sort of disdainful smugness, "Before writing, I always -read three or four pages of the Civil Code to give me the -tone." Balzac, who understood money so well, also -discovered poems and dramas in the Code: Le Contrat de -Mariage, where he places in opposition, in the persons of -Matthias and of Solonnet, the ancient and the modern -notary, has all of the interest of the most eventful -comedy of the cloak and sword. The bankruptcy in -Grandeur et Décadence de César Birotteau makes you quiver -like the story of an empire's fall; the conflict of the -château and the cottage in Les Paysans offers just as much -adventure as the siege of Troy. Balzac knows how to give -life to the soil, to a house, to a heritage, to a capital, and -in fact to heroes and heroines whose adventures are -devoured with anxious avidity. - -These new elements introduced into the novel were not -appreciated at first; the philosophical analyses, the -detailed character portraits, the minute descriptions that -seemed to have the future in view, were regarded as -unpleasantly lengthy, and quite often one skipped them -to move on to the story. Later, one recognized that the -goal of the author was not to weave intrigues that were -more or less well-plotted, but to portray society in its -entirety, from the summit to the base, with its characters -and its components, and that one will admire in it the -immense variety of these types. Is it not Alexandre -Dumas who said of Shakespeare: "Shakespeare, the man -who has created the most after God?"; the words might -be even more justly applied to Balzac; never, indeed, did -so many living creatures issue from one human brain. - -At this time (1836), Balzac had conceived the plan for his -Comédie Humaine and possessed the full awareness of his -genius. He adroitly connected the works that had already -been published to his general concept and found them a -place in the categories that had been philosophically -outlined. Some novels of pure fantasy did not fit in very -well, despite the connections that were added afterwards; -but these are details that are lost in the immensity of the -ensemble, like ornaments in a differing style on a grand -edifice. - -I have said that Balzac worked laboriously, and, being an -obstinate smelter, rejected ten or twelve times from the -crucible the metal that had not perfectly filled the mold; -like Bernard Palissy, he would have burned the furniture, -the flooring and up through the beams of his house -without regret to maintain the fire in his furnace; the -most challenging necessities would never make him -deliver a work on which he had not put the utmost -effort, and he gave admirable examples of literary -conscientiousness. His corrections, so numerous that -they were almost equivalent to different editions on the -same idea, were charged to his account by the editors -who were responsible for earnings, and his -compensation, often modest for the value of the work -and the pain it had cost him, were diminished in -proportion. The promised sums did not always arrive on -time, and to sustain what he laughingly called his floating debt, -Balzac displayed prodigious resources of mind and a -level of activity that would have completely absorbed the -life of an ordinary man. But, when seated before his table -in his friar's frock, in the midst of the nocturnal silence, -he found himself confronted with blank sheets -illuminated by the glow of seven candles, concentrated by -a green shade, in taking pen in hand he forgot -everything, and thus commenced a struggle more terrible -than the conflict of Jacob with the angel, that of form -and idea. In these nightly battles, from which in the -morning he would issue broken but victorious, when the -extinguished hearth chilled the atmosphere of his room -once again, his head steamed and his body exhaled a -visible fog like the body of a horse in wintertime. -Sometimes only a single phrase occupied an entire -evening; it was considered, reconsidered, twisted, -kneaded, pounded, stretched, shortened, written in one -hundred different ways, and, bizarrely, the necessary, -complete, form, would not present itself until after the -exhaustion of the approximate forms; without doubt the -metal often flowed from a fuller and thicker hose, but -there are very few pages in Balzac that stayed identical to -the first draft. His manner of proceeding was this: when -he had for a long time borne and lived a subject, with -writing that was rapid, jumbled, blotted, nearly -hieroglyphic, he would outline a sort of scenario in a few -pages, which he would send to the printer and which was -returned on placards, that is to say as isolated columns in -the middle of large sheets. He read these placards -carefully, which already gave to his embryo of work that -impersonal character that the manuscript does not have, -and he applied to this rough sketch the high critical -faculty that he possessed, acting as if he were another -person. He worked on something; approving or -disapproving, he kept or corrected, but mostly added. -Lines issuing from the beginning, the middle or the end -of phrases, were directed toward the margins, to the -right, to the left, to the top, to the bottom, leading to -some developments, to insertions, to interpolations, to -epithets, to adverbs. At the end of some hours of work, -one would have called his sheet a bouquet of fireworks -drawn by a child. From the primitive text shot forth -rockets of style which exploded on all sides. Then there -were simple crosses, crosses recrossed like a coat of arms, -stars, suns, Arab or Roman numerals, Greek or French -letters, every imaginable sign of reference to mix with the -scratchings. Some strips of paper, fastened with sealing -wafers, stuck on with pins, added to the insufficient -margins, striped with lines of fine characters to conserve -space, themselves full of crossings out, because the -correction that had barely been made had itself already -been corrected. The printed placard nearly disappeared in -what appeared to be a cabalistic book of spells, which the -typographers passed from hand to hand, each not -wanting to work for more than an hour on Balzac. - -The following day, they sent back the placards with the -corrections made, and already expanded by half. - -Balzac resumed work, always amplifying, adding a trait, a -detail, a description, an observation on manners, a -characteristic word, a phrase for effect, bringing the form -closer to the idea, always moving closer to his internal -outline, choosing like a painter among three or four -contours the definitive line. Often this terrible work -ended with that intensity of attention of which he alone -was capable, as he recognized that a thought had been -poorly expressed, that one incident predominated, that a -figure that he wished to be secondary for general effect -deviated from his plan, and with one stroke of the pen he -would courageously destroy the result of four or five -nights of labor. He was heroic in these circumstances. - -Six, seven, and sometimes ten proofs were returned with -crossings out, rewritten, without satisfying the author's -desire for perfection. I have seen at Les Jardies, on the -shelves of a library composed of only his works, each -different proof of the same work bound in a separate -volume from the first sketch to the definitive book; the -comparison of Balzac's thought at these diverse stages -offers a very curious study and contains profitable literary -lessons. Near these volumes a sinister looking book, -bound in black morocco leather, with neither clasps nor -gilding, drew my attention: "Take it," Balzac said to me, -"it is an unpublished work which may have some value." -Its title was Comptes Mélancoliques; it contained lists of -debts, due dates of bills to be paid, notices of purveyors -and all that menacing paperwork that is legalized by a -stamp. This volume, with a kind of mocking contrast, -was placed beside the Contes Drolatiques, "of which it is -not a continuation," added the author of La Comédie -Humaine with a laugh. - -Despite this laborious method of execution, Balzac -produced a great deal, thanks to his superhuman will -supplemented by the temperament of an athlete and the -seclusion of a monk. For two or three months in -succession, when he had some important work in -progress, he labored sixteen or eighteen hours out of -twenty-four; he granted to his animal being only six hours -of a heavy, feverish, convulsive sleep, encouraged by the -torpor of digestion after a hastily taken meal. He would -disappear so completely, his best friends would lose all -trace; but he would soon return from underground, -waving a major work above his head, laughing his hearty -laugh, applauding himself with a perfect innocence and -according himself the praise that he demanded from no -one else. No author was more unconcerned than him -regarding reviews and advertising upon the release of his -books; he allowed his reputation to grow by itself, -without putting his hand to it, and he never courted -journalists. Indeed other things consumed his time: he -delivered his copy, took his money and fled to distribute -it to his creditors who often waited in the journal's -courtyard, like, for example, the masons of Les Jardies. - -Sometimes, in the morning, he would meet me -breathless, exhausted, giddy from the fresh air, like -Vulcan escaping from his forge, and he would fall upon a -couch; his long vigil had left him starving and he would -blend sardines with butter and make a sort of paste which -reminded him of the rillettes of Tours, and which he -would spread on bread. This was his favorite dish; he had -no sooner eaten than he fell asleep, begging me to -awaken him after one hour. Without regard for his -admonition, I would respect this well-earned sleep, and I -silenced all of the whispers in the house. When Balzac -awoke of his own accord, and he saw that the evening's -twilight was diffusing its gray tints across the sky, he -would leap up from his couch and heap me with abuse, -calling me traitor, thief, assassin: I made him lose ten -thousand francs, because awake he could have had the -idea for a novel that would have earned this sum (without -the reprints). I was the cause of the gravest catastrophes -and unimaginable disorders. I had made him miss -meetings with bankers, editors, duchesses; he would not -be able to repay his debts on time; this fatal sleep would -cost millions. But I was already used to these prodigious -betting systems that Balzac, starting from the lowest -figure, would push excessively to the most monstrous -sums, and I easily consoled myself by seeing the beautiful -colors characteristic in Tours reappear on his rested -cheeks. - -Balzac lived then at Chaillot, rue des Batailles, a house -from which one found an admirable view of the course -of the Seine, the Champ de Mars, the École Militaire, the -dome of the Invalides, a large proportion of Paris and -further away the hills of Meudon. He had arranged there -an interior that was luxurious enough, because he knew -that in Paris nobody believed in an impoverished talent, -and that perception often leads to reality. It was during this -period that one hears of his tendencies toward elegance -and dandyism, the famous blue coat with solid gold -buttons, the walking stick with a turquoise head, the -appearances at the Bouffes and at the Opera, and the -more frequent visits into society where his sparkling flair -made him much sought after, visits that were useful for -more than one reason, for he met there more than one -model. It was not easy to penetrate into his home, which -was better guarded than the garden of the Hespérides. -Two or three passwords were required. Balzac, for fear -they might be divulged, changed them often. I remember -these ones: to the porter one said: "Prune season has -arrived," and he would let you cross the threshold; to the -servant who ran to the stairs at the sound of the bell, it -was necessary to whisper: "I bring lace from Belgium," -and if you could assure the bedroom valet that "Madame -Bertrand was in good health," you were finally -introduced. - -This childish behavior very much amused Balzac; it was -necessary to ward off unwanted people and those who -were even more disagreeable. - -In La Fille aux Yeux d'Or is found a description of the -salon in the rue des Batailles. It is of the most scrupulous -fidelity, and one will not be displeased to see the lion's -den painted by himself. There is not a detail to add or to -subtract. - -"Half of the sitting room described a delicately graceful -circular line, opposite of which the other half was -perfectly square, in the middle of which shined a fireplace -of white marble and gold. One entered through a side -door concealed by a rich tapestry and which faced a -window. The horseshoe-shaped section of the room was -decorated with a real Turkish divan, that is to say with a -mattress placed on the ground, but a mattress as large as -a bed, a divan fifty feet in circumference covered in white -cashmere, embellished with tufts of black and poppy-colored -silk, arranged in a diamond pattern; the back of -this immense bed was elevated several inches higher by -the numerous cushions that enriched it further by their -stylish compatibility. This sitting room was hung with a -red fabric on which was mounted a muslin from the -Indies that was fluted like a Corinthian column by piping -that alternated between hollow and round and stopped at -the top and bottom with a band of poppy-colored fabric, -on which were drawn some black arabesques. Under the -muslin, the poppy color became rose, an amorous color -that repeated in the window curtains, which were of -muslin from the Indies lined with rose-colored taffeta -and ornamented with poppy and black fringes. Six silver -arms each supporting two candles were attached to these -wall coverings at equal distances, to illuminate the divan. -The ceiling, from the center of which hung a lantern of -matte silver, sparkled with whiteness, and the molding -was gilded. The carpet resembled an Oriental shawl, it -presented the designs and recalled the poetry of Persia, -where the hands of slaves had created it. The furniture -was covered in white cashmere, set off by black and -poppy-colored accents. The clock, the candelabras, all -were of white marble and gold. The only table in the -room had a cashmere covering; elegant jardinières -contained roses of every type, and white or red flowers." - -I can add that upon the table was placed a magnificent -writing desk in gold and malachite, the gift, without a -doubt, of some admiring stranger. - -It was with a childlike satisfaction that Balzac showed me -this sitting room set in a square salon, and by necessity -leaving empty spaces at the angles of the circular half. -When I had admired the stylish splendors of this room -sufficiently, splendors whose luxury would seem less -today, Balzac opened a secret door and made me enter a -shadowy passage that led around the semicircle; at one of -the corners was placed a narrow iron bed, a kind of -working camp bed; in the other, there was a table "with -everything that is necessary to write," as M. Scribe said in -his stage directions: it was there that Balzac took refuge -to be free of all intrusions and all investigations. - -Many thicknesses of fabric and paper padded the wall to -block all noise from both sides. To be sure that no -sounds could pass into the salon from outside, Balzac -asked me to return to the room and shout as loudly as I -could; one could still hear a little; it was necessary to add -a few sheets of gray paper to entirely block the sound. -These mysterious actions intrigued me immensely and I -demanded to know their motivation. Balzac gave me a -reason that Stendhal would have approved, but modern -prudery prevents my repeating. The fact is that he was -already developing in his mind the scene of Henry de -Marsay and Paquita, and he was anxious to know if the -cries of the victim in the salon could reach the ears of the -other inhabitants of the house. - -He gave me a splendid dinner in the same sitting room, -for which he lit with his own hand all of the candles on -the silver arms, as well as the lantern and the candelabras. -The guests were the Marquis de B. and the painter L. B.: -although very sober and abstemious by habit, Balzac -from time to time did not fear to "indulge in a little good -cheer"; he ate with a jovial gourmandism that inspired the -appetite, and he drank in the manner of Pantagruel. Four -bottles of the white wine of Vouvray, one of the headiest -known, did not affect his powerful brain and gave only a -greater sparkle to his gaiety. What good stories he told us -at dessert! Rabelais, Beroalde de Verville, Eutrapel, le -Pogge, Straparole, the Queen of Navarre and all of the -doctors of the happy science would have recognized in -him a disciple and a master! - -Characteristic feature! At this splendid feast provided by -Chevet there was no bread! But when one has excess -then what is the point of necessities? - -After dinner, our Amphytrion led us to the Italians in a -superb presentation. The evening was already getting late, -but Balzac did not want to miss "the descent of the -staircase" spectacle, which, according to him, was -eminently instructive. - -Weighed down by the good food and fine wines, -enveloped in the warm atmosphere of the room, I should -say that the three of us slept the sleep of the just and only -awakened to offer our final compliments. - -Balzac was quite amused by this somnolent trio. - -In the same apartment on the rue des Batailles, whose -salon I described using Balzac's own words, I recall -having seen a magnificent sketch of Louis Boulanger -after a bas-relief of Léda and the Swan attributed to -Michelangelo. It was the only picture that it contained, -because the author of La Comédie Humaine did not yet -have the taste for paintings and curiosities that he would -later develop, and his luxury then, as we have seen, -consisted more of sumptuousness than of art. His painter -was Girodet. Some of his first stories show the influence -of this admiration which led me to tease him with jibes -that he accepted with good grace. - -IV - -One of the dreams of Balzac was of a heroic and devoted -friendship, two souls, two courages, two intelligences -blended into the same will. Pierre and Jaffier of Otway's -Venice Preserv'd had impressed him greatly and he spoke of -them many times. L'Histoire des Treize is nothing but this -idea enlarged and complicated: one powerful unit -composed of multiple beings acting unquestioningly -toward an accepted and suitable goal. We know what -gripping, mysterious and terrible effects he has drawn -from this starting point in Ferragus, La Duchesse de Langeais, -and La Fille aux Yeux d'Or; but real life and the -intellectual life were not as clearly separated for Balzac as -they were for certain authors, and his creations followed -him outside of his study. He wanted to form an -association after the fashion of that which united -Ferragus, Montriveau, Ronquerolles, and their -companions. Only it was not done in such bold strokes; a -certain number of friends were to lend each other aid and -relief at all times, and to work according to their -strengths for the success or the fortune of the individual -who would be selected, with the understanding that that -person should in turn work for the others. Very much -infatuated with his project, Balzac recruited some -associates whom he put in contact with each other but -took precautions as if it were a political society or a -meeting of Carbonari. This needless mystery amused him -considerably, and he pursued his activities with the -utmost seriousness. When their numbers were complete, -he assembled the adepts and made known the goal of the -society. It need not be said that everyone was in -agreement, and that the statutes were approved with -enthusiasm. No one more than Balzac possessed the -ability to agitate, to overexcite, to intoxicate the coolest -heads, the most considered intellects. He had an -eloquence that was overflowing, tumultuous, rousing, -that carried you off: no objection was possible with him; -he would immediately drown you in such a deluge of -words that you were compelled to be silent. Besides he -had an answer for everything; then he would cast upon -you glances that were so sharp, so brilliant, so full of a -mysterious power that he would infuse you with his own -desire. - -The association which counted among its members G. de -C., L. G., L. D., J. S., Merle, who was called Handsome -Merle, myself, and a few others who it is not necessary to -name, was called Le Cheval Rouge. Why Le Cheval Rouge, -you are going to say, rather than Le Lion d'Or or La Croix -de Malte? The first meeting of the members took place at -a restaurant on the Quai de l'Entrepôt, at the end of the -Pont de la Tournelle, whose sign was a carrier’s horse, -and this had given Balzac the idea of that -somewhat bizarre, unintelligible, and cabalistic -designation. - -When it was necessary to organize a project, to agree on -certain steps, Balzac, elected by acclamation grandmaster -of the order, sent by one of the members to each horse -(that was the slang name used by the members among -themselves) a letter on which was drawn a small red -horse with the words: "Stable, at such and such a day, at -such and such a location”; the place changed each time, out -of fear of awakening curiosity or suspicion. In the society, -although we all knew each other and for a long time for -the most part, we were to avoid speaking to each other or -approaching each other except in the most distant -manner to avoid any idea of complicity. Often, in the -middle of a salon, Balzac would pretend to meet me for -the first time, and by blinks of the eye and facial -expressions such as actors make in their asides, he would -call my attention to his finesse and seem to say to me: -"See how well I play my game!" - -What was the goal of Le Cheval Rouge? Did it wish to -change the government, set forth a new religion, found a -philosophical school, master men, seduce women? Far -less than that. It sought to take control of the -newspapers, take control of the theatres, sit in the seats -of the Academy, receive an array of decorations, and end -modestly as a peer of France, minister and millionaire. All -this was easy, according to Balzac; we had only to work -in harmony with each other, and by such modest -ambition we should prove well the moderation of our -characters. This devil of a man had such a powerful -vision that he described to each of us, in the most minute -details, the splendid and glorious life that the association -would procure for us. As we listened to him, we believed -ourselves already leaning, at the heart of a beautiful -mansion, against the white marble of the fireplace, red -ribbons around our necks, a shining badge over our hearts, -receiving with an affable air the greatest politicians, -artists and writers, who were shocked by our rapid and -mysterious fortune. For Balzac, the future did not exist, -everything was in the present; he drew it out of the mists -and made it palpable; an idea was so vivid that it became -real in a certain way: in speaking of a dinner, he ate it as -he told its story; of a carriage, he felt the soft cushions -under him and the steady ride; a perfect well-being, a -profound jubilation were then shown on his face, -although often he was hungry and walking over a rough -pavement with worn-out shoes. - -The whole association would push, praise, and extol, by -articles, advertisements and conversations, any one of its -members who had just published a book or staged a -drama. Whoever showed himself to be hostile to one of -the horses would provoke the kicks of the entire stable; Le -Cheval Rouge would not forgive: the culpable became the -target of insults, cutting remarks, pin pricks, taunts and -other means of driving a man to despair, which are well -known by the smaller newspapers. - -I smile while betraying after so many years the innocent -secret of this literary freemasonry, which had no other -result than some persuasive words for a book whose -success did not require them. But, at that time, we -took the thing seriously, we imagined ourselves to be the -Treize themselves in person, and I was surprised to find -that obstacles still existed; but the world is so badly -designed! What an important and mysterious air we had -in challenging other men, poor conventional men who in -no way doubted our power. - -After four or five meetings, Le Cheval Rouge ceased to -exist; most of the chevaux could not afford to pay for their -oats in this symbolic manger, and the association which -was going to seize total control was dissolved, because its -members often lacked the fifteen francs to pay their -share. Each one now dove back alone into the chaos of -life, fighting his own fight, and it is this that explains why -Balzac was not a member of the Academy and died a -simple knight of the Legion of Honor. - -The idea however was good, for Balzac, as he himself -says of Nucingen, could not have a bad idea. Others who -have succeeded have set to work without surrounding -themselves with the same romantic fantasies. - -Thrown off of one chimera, Balzac very quickly mounted -a new one, and he set out for another voyage in the blue -with that childlike innocence which in him was combined -with the profoundest sagacity and the shrewdest intellect. - -So many bizarre projects he has described to me, so -many strange paradoxes he has defended to me, always -with the same good faith! Sometimes he would maintain -that one should live on nine sous a day, sometimes he -would require one hundred thousand francs in order to -be most comfortable. Once, when I asked him to -reconcile the accounting, he responded to the objection -that thirty thousand francs still remained unallocated. -"Ah well! That is for the butter and the radishes. In what -even slightly proper house does one not eat thirty -thousand francs of radishes and butter?" I wish I could -portray the look of sovereign disdain he cast on me as he -gave that triumphal reason; that look said: "Decidedly -Theo is nothing but a contemptible person, a skinned rat, -a pitiful spirit; he understands nothing of a grand -existence and he has all his life eaten only the salted -butter of Brittany." - -Les Jardies attracted a great deal of attention from the -public when Balzac bought it with the honorable -intention of making an investment for his mother. While -riding on the railway that passes Ville-d'Avray, every -passenger would look with curiosity at that little house, -half cottage, half chalet, which rose in the middle of a -clay slope. - -This plot of land, in Balzac's opinion, was the best in the -world; formerly, he asserted, a certain celebrated wine -was grown there, and the grapes, thanks to an -unparalleled exposure, baked like the grapes of Tokaj on -the Bohemian hills. The sun, it is true, had the freedom -to ripen the crop in this place, where there existed only a -single tree. Balzac tried to enclose this property with -walls, which became famous for obstinately collapsing or -sliding all in one piece down the steep escarpment, and -he dreamed of the most fabulous and the most exotic -crops for this heavenly place. Here comes naturally the -anecdote of the pineapples, which has been so often -repeated that I would not tell it again except to add one -truly characteristic trait. Here is the project: one hundred -thousand feet of pineapples were planted within the -boundaries of Les Jardies, transformed into greenhouses -that required only limited heat due to the sunniness of -the site. The pineapples were going to be sold for five -francs instead of the one louis that they ordinarily cost, -for a total of five hundred thousand francs; from this -sum it was necessary to deduct one hundred thousand -francs for the costs of cultivation, equipment, and coal; -there remained therefore a net profit of four hundred -thousand francs which would constitute a splendid profit -for the happy proprietor, "without the least bit of -writing," he added. That was nothing, Balzac had a -thousand projects like this; but the beauty of this was that -we sought together, on the Boulevard Montmartre, a -shop for the sale of the pineapples that were still in the -form of seeds. The shop was to be painted black with -thin gold stripes, and carry on its sign, in enormous -letters: "PINEAPPLES FROM LES JARDIES." - -For Balzac, the one hundred thousand pineapples were -already raising their plumes of serrated leaves above their -great lozenged cones under immense glass roofs: he saw -them; he swelled in the high temperature of the -greenhouse, he breathed in the tropical scent through his -passionately open nostrils; and when, having returned to -his home, he watched, while leaning on the window, the -snow descend silently onto the bare slopes, he still only -gave up his illusion with difficulty. - -Yet he followed my advice to hold off on renting the -shop until the following year in order to avoid an -unnecessary expense. - -I write my reminiscences as they return to me, without -trying to place in order things which are better left apart. -Besides, as Boileau said, transitions are the great difficulty -of poetry, and of newspaper articles too, I will add; but -modern journalists have neither as much conscience nor -even more importantly as much leisure as the legislator of -Parnasse. - -Madame de Girardin professed for Balzac a lively -admiration that he appreciated and that he acknowledged -with his frequent visits, he who was so justifiably stingy -with his time and his working hours. Never did a woman -possess to such a high degree as Delphine, as I permitted -myself to call her familiarly when we were together, the -ability to stir the minds of her guests. With her, we always -found ourselves to be particularly eloquent and each left -her salon enthralled with himself. There was no stone so -hard that she could not make a spark fly from it, and with -Balzac, as you would expect, it was not necessary to strike -the stone for very long: he sparkled and then lit up right -away. Balzac was not precisely what one would call a -talker, but he was quick with a reply, throwing a fine and -decisive word into a discussion, changing the thread of -the discourse, touching everything with lightness, and -never going past a half smile: he had a verve, an -eloquence, and an irresistible brio; and, as each person -became silent to listen to him, with him, to the general -satisfaction, the conversation would quickly descend into -a soliloquy. The starting point was soon forgotten and he -passed from an anecdote into a philosophical reflection, -from an observation on manners to a local description; as -he spoke his complexion would redden, his eyes would -develop a distinctive luminosity, his voice would take on -different inflections, and sometimes he would roar with -laughter, amused by comic images that he saw before he -described them. He announced in this way, like a sort of -fanfare, the entry of his characters and his humorous -comments, and his hilarity was soon shared by his -assistants. Although this was the age of dreamers with -hair hanging loosely like a willow, of weepers in their -garrets and of disillusioned Byronians, Balzac had that -robust joy and power that one would attribute to -Rabelais, and that Molière did not show except in his -plays. His loud laugh coming from his sensual lips was -that of a kindly god amused by the spectacle of the -human marionettes, and who is distressed by nothing -because he understands everything and grasps at once -both sides of things. Neither the worries of an often -precarious situation, nor the tedium of money, nor the -fatigue of excessive work, nor the confinement of the -study, nor the renunciation of all of the pleasures of life, -nor even sickness could strike down this Herculean -joviality, in my opinion one of the most striking -characteristics of Balzac. He knocked out the hydras -while laughing, happily tore the lions in two, and carried -as if it were a hare the boar of Erymanthe on the -mountainous muscles of his shoulders. At the least -provocation this gaiety would burst forth and cause his -strong chest to heave, which might surprise a person with -a delicate constitution, but it had to be shared, no matter -how much effort one made to remain serious. Do not -believe however that Balzac was seeking to entertain his -audience: he obeyed, affected by a kind of internal -euphoria and painting with rapid strokes, with a comic -intensity and an incomparable talent for satire, the bizarre -phantasmagoria that danced in the dark chamber of his -brain. I do not know how to better compare the -impression produced by certain of his conversations than -with that which one experiences while leafing through the -strange drawings of Songes Drolatiques, by the master -Alcofribas Nasier. These are of monstrous personages, -composed of the most hybrid elements. Some have for a -head a bellows in which the hole represents the eye, while -others have an alembic flute for a nose; these ones walk -with wheels in place of feet; those ones have the rounded -belly of a cooking pot and wear a lid in place of a hat, but -an intense life animates these fanciful beings, and one -recognizes in their grimacing faces the vices, the follies -and the passions of man. Some, although absurdly -outside the realm of possibility, stop you like a portrait. -One could give them a name. - -When one listened to Balzac, a whole carnival of -extravagant and real puppets frolicked before your eyes, -wearing on their shoulders a colorful phrase, waving long -sleeves of epithets, blowing their noses noisily with an -adverb, smacking themselves with a bat of antitheses, -pulling you by the tail of your coat, and whispering into -your ear your secrets in a disguised and nasal voice, -pirouetting, whirling in the midst of a sparkle of lights -and of glitter. Nothing was more vertiginous, and at the -end of one half hour, one felt, like the student after the -speech of Méphistophélès, a millstone turning in the -brain. - -He was not always so spirited, and on those occasions -one of his favorite jokes was to imitate the German -jargon of Nucingen or Schmucke, or otherwise to speak -in rama, like the clients of the middle class boarding -house of Madame Vauquer (née de Conflans). At the time -that he wrote Un Début dans la Vie based on an outline of -Madame de Surville, he was seeking proverbs that were -slightly off for the art student Mistigris, to whom later, -having found him to be full of spirit, he gave a fine place -in La Comédie Humaine, under the name of the great -landscape painter Léon de Lora. Here are some of his -nonsensical proverbs: "He is like an ass on a plain." "I am -like the hare, I die or I flee." "Good Counts make good -sieves." "Extremes become blocked." "The slap always -smells the herring"; and so on like this. A discovery of -this type put him in a good humor, and he would -pleasantly frolic like an elephant through the furniture -and around the salon. For her part, Madame de Girardin -was in quest of sayings for the the famous lady of the -seven little chairs of Le Courrier de Paris. She sometimes -required my assistance, and if a stranger had entered, -seeing this beautiful Delphine painting spirals through -her golden hair with her white fingers, with a profoundly -dreamlike air; Balzac, seated on one of the arms of the -great upholstered chair on which Monsieur Girardin -usually slept, his hands clenched in the bottoms of his -pockets, his waistcoat turned back from his stomach, -swinging his leg with a uniform rhythm, expressing with -the tense muscles of his face an extraordinary mental -focus; me planted between two cushions of the divan, -like an opium eater seen in a hallucination; that stranger, -certainly, could never have suspected what we were doing -there, in so great a meditation; he would have supposed -that Balzac was thinking of a new Madame Firmiani, -Madame de Girardin of a role for Mademoiselle Rachel, -and me of some sonnet. But it was nothing of the kind. -As for the puns, Balzac, although his secret ambition was -to create them, had, after painstaking efforts, to recognize -his notorious incapacity in this area, and to keep to the -slightly off proverbs, which preceded the rough puns -brought into fashion by the school of good sense. What -beautiful evenings that will never return! We were then -far from foreseeing that this great and superb woman, -carved fully out of marble from antiquity, that this stocky, -robust, lively man, who combined in himself the vigor of -the boar and the bull, half Hercules, half satyr, built to -last longer than one hundred years, would soon sleep, -one at Montmartre, the other at Père-Lachaise, and that, -of the three, I alone would remain to preserve those -memories that were already so distant and close to being -lost. - -Like his father, who died accidentally at more than eighty -years of age, and who had flattered himself that he would -become wealthy from the annuity scheme of Lafarge, -Balzac believed in his longevity. Often he planned with -me projects for the future. He was going to finish La -Comédie Humaine, write the Théorie de la Démarche, compose -the Monographie de la Vertu, fifty dramas, attain a great -fortune, marry and have two children, "but not more; -two children look good," he said, "on the front of a -carriage." All of this could not fail to take a long time, -and I pointed out that, once these tasks were -accomplished, he would be around eighty years of age. -"Eighty years!" he cried, "Bah! It's the flower of age." -Monsieur Flourens, with his comforting theories, did not -say it better. - -One day that we dined together at the home of M. E. -de Girardin, he told us a story about his father to show -us the strength of the stock to which he belonged. -Balzac's father, who had been hired to work in a -prosecutor's office, ate following the custom of the time -at the table of the master with the other clerks. Partridges -were served. The prosecutor's wife, who had her eye on -the new arrival, said to him: "Monsieur Balzac, do you -know how to carve?" "Yes, Madame," responded the -young man, blushing up to his ears; and he bravely took -hold of the knife and fork. Entirely ignorant of culinary -anatomy, he divided the partridge into four pieces, but -with so much strength that he split the plate, sliced the -tablecloth, and cut into the wood of the table. He was -not nimble, but he was strong: the prosecutor's wife -smiled, and from that day, Balzac, the young clerk, was -treated with great kindness in that house. - -This story that I have told seems lukewarm, but it is -necessary to see the pantomime of Balzac as he imitated -on his own plate his father's actions, with an air that was -both frightened and resolute, mimicking the manner in -which he seized his knife after having rolled up his -sleeves and in which he sunk his fork into an imaginary -partridge; Neptune hunting the monsters of the sea did -not wield his trident with a more vigorous fist, and with -what an immense weight he bore down with it! His -cheeks became purple, his eyes left his head, but the -operation ended with him casting upon the guests a look -of innocent satisfaction trying to conceal itself in the -guise of modesty. - -Moreover, Balzac had in him the makings of a great -actor: he possessed a full, sonorous, resonant voice, with -a rich and powerful timbre, that he knew how to -moderate and soften as needed, and he read in an -admirable manner, a talent that most actors lack. -Whatever he related, he performed it with intonations, -grimaces and gestures that no comedian has surpassed in -my opinion. - -I find in Marguerite, by Madame de Girardin, this -remembrance of Balzac. It is a character from the book -who speaks. - -"He related that Balzac had dined at his house on the -preceding day, and that he had been more brilliant, more -scintillating than ever. He very much amused us with the -story of his trip to Austria. What fire! What verve! What -power of imitation! It was marvelous. His manner of -paying the postilions is an invention that only a novelist -of genius could have discovered. ‘I was very embarrassed -at each stopping point,' he said, ‘how was I going to pay? -I did not know a word of German, I did not know the -currency of the country. It was very difficult. Here is -what I invented. I had a bag full of small silver coins, -some kreuzers … When I arrived at the stopping point, I -would take up my bag; the postilion would come to the -window of the carriage; I would watch his eyes -attentively, and I would put in his hand one kreuzer, … -two kreuzer, … then three, then four, etc., until I saw -him smile … when he smiled, I understood that I had -given him one kreuzer too much … quickly I would take -back my coin and my man was paid.'" - -At Les Jardies, he read Mercadet to me, the original -Mercadet, by far more sweeping, complicated and dense -than the piece arranged for the Gymnase by d'Ennery, -with so much delicacy and skill. Balzac, who read like -Tieck, without indicating acts, scenes, or names, utilized a -voice that was particular to and perfectly recognizable for -each character; the voices that he gave to the different -kinds of creditors were hilariously funny: there were the -hoarse, the honeyed, the hasty, the slow, the menacing, -the pleading. They shrieked, wailed, scolded, muttered, -screamed in every possible and impossible tone. Debt -first sang a solo that soon an immense choir took up. He -brought out creditors from everywhere, from behind the -stove, from below the bed, from the drawers of the -commode; they came from the chimney; they passed -through the keyhole; others entered through the window -like lovers; these sprung from the bottom of a trunk like -those devilish toys that take you by surprise, those moved -across the walls as if they were passing by an English -ambush, it was a mob, an uproar, an invasion, truly a -rising tide. Mercadet might well have shaken them off, -when others always returned to start an assault, and as far -as the horizon one could make out a somber swarm of -creditors on the march, arriving like legions of termites to -devour their prey. I do not know if this piece was better -when performed this way, but no other performance -produced such an effect. - -Balzac, during this reading of Mercadet, occupied, partially -reclining, a long divan in the salon of Les Jardies because -he had sprained his ankle when he slipped, like his walls, -on the clay of his property. A stray hair, sticking through -the fabric, poked the skin of his leg and bothered him. -"The fabric is too thin, the hay passes through it; you will -need to put a thick canvas beneath it," he said while -pulling at the hair that annoyed him. - -François, the Caleb of this Ravenswood, would not listen -to this mocking of the splendors of the manor. He -corrected his master and said: horsehair. "The upholsterer -has cheated me?" responded Balzac. "They are all the -same. I had insisted that he use hay! Cursed thief!" - -The splendors of Les Jardies were mostly imaginary. All -of the friends of Balzac remember having seen written in -charcoal upon the bare walls or veneer of gray paper: -"Rosewood paneling, tapestry of the Gobelins, Venetian -mirrors, paintings by Raphaël." Gerard de Nerval had -already decorated an apartment in this manner, so this -did not shock me. As for Balzac, he believed literally in -the gold, the marble and the silk; but, he did not -complete Les Jardies and if he led others to laugh at his -pipe dreams, he knew at least that he had built himself an -eternal home, a monument "more durable than iron," an -immense city, populated with his creations and gilded by -the rays of his glory. - -V - -Due to an oddity of nature that he shared with several of -the most poetic writers of this age, such as -Chateaubriand, Madame de Staël, George Sand, Mérimée, -Janin, Balzac possessed neither the gift nor the love of -verse, despite the effort that he otherwise made to attain -them. On this point, his judgment that was so fine, so -profound, so sagacious was at fault; he admired work -somewhat aimlessly and in a way in line with public -notoriety. I did not believe, even though he professed a -great respect for Victor Hugo, that he had ever truly -appreciated the lyrical qualities of the poet, while at the -same time the sculpted and colored prose amazed him. -He, who was so laborious and who rewrote a sentence as -many times as a versifier could rework an Alexandrine on -an anvil, found working on meter to be puerile, tedious, -and without utility. He would have voluntarily awarded a -bushel of peas to those who could manage to pass an -idea through the narrow ring of rhythm, as Alexander did -for the Greek who was trained to throw a ball through a -ring from a long distance; verse, with its fixed and pure -form, its elliptical speech little suited to a multiplicity of -details, seemed to him to be an obstacle invented on a -whim, an unnecessary difficulty or a mnemonic device -taken from primitive times. His doctrine was in that way -nearly the same as that of Stendhal: "Does the idea that a -work has been made while hopping on one leg add to the -pleasure that it produces?" The Romantic school holds in -its heart some followers, partisans of the absolute truth, -who rejected verse as trivial or unnatural. If Talma said: -"I do not want fine verses!" Beyle said: "I do not want -verses at all." This was the basis of the sentiments of -Balzac, however in order to appear open-minded, -comprehensive, universal, he sometimes in society -pretended to admire poetry, just as the middle class -simulate great enthusiasm for music that bores them -profoundly. He was always shocked to see me write verse -and take pleasure from it. "That is not copy," he would -say, and if he held me in any esteem, I owed it to my -prose. All of the writers, young then, who associated -themselves with the literary movement represented by -Hugo, used, like the master, the lyre or the pen: Alfred de -Vigny, Sainte-Beuve, Alfred de Musset, spoke -interchangeably the language of the gods and the -language of men. I too, if I am permitted to mention -myself after such glorious names, have had since the -beginning this double aptitude. It is always easy for poets -to descend to prose. The bird may walk as needed, but -the lion cannot fly. Those who are born to write prose -never rise to poetry however poetic they may be -elsewhere. Rhythmic speech is a particular gift, and one -can possess it without being a great genius, while it is -often refused to superior minds. Among the proudest -who appear to disdain it, more than one keeps to himself -a secret resentment to not possess it. - -Among the two thousand characters in La Comédie -Humaine, one finds two poets: Canalis, of Modeste Mignon, -and Lucien de Rubempré, of Splendeurs et Misères des -Courtisanes. Balzac portrayed both of them as having traits -that were not particularly favorable. Canalis is dry, cold, -sterile, petty, an adroit arranger of words, a maker of -imitation jewelry, who sets rhinestones in gilded silver, -and makes necklaces of artificial pearls. His volumes, -with many blank spaces, wide margins, and large gaps, -contain only a melodious nothingness, monotonous -music, suitable only to cause young boarders to fall asleep -or dream. Balzac, who ordinarily shapes with warmth the -interests of his characters, seems to take a secret pleasure -in ridiculing this one and putting him in embarrassing -positions: he challenges his vanity with a thousand ironies -and a thousand sarcasms, and finishes by taking from -him Modeste Mignon with her great fortune, to give her -to Ernest de la Brière. This conclusion, in contrast to the -beginning of the story, sparkles with concealed malice -and fine mockery. One would say that Balzac is -personally happy at the good trick that he has played on -Canalis. He avenges, in his own way, the angels, the -sylphs, the lakes, the swans, the willows, the skiffs, the -stars and the lyres that had been used so abundantly by -the poet. - -If in Canalis we have the false poet, reserving his meager -inspiration and putting it behind a dam so that it can -flow, foam and sound for a few minutes in order to seem -like a cascade, the man used to taking advantage of his -laboriously wrought literary successes to serve his -political ambitions, the man with material interests who is -in love with money, medals, pensions and honors, despite -his elegiac attitudes and pose as an angel who misses -being in heaven, Lucien de Rubempré shows us the poet -who is lazy, frivolous, oblivious, capricious, and as -nervous as a woman, incapable of prolonged effort, -without moral force, living in the hooks of actresses and -courtesans, a puppet whose strings the terrible Vautrin, -under the pseudonym Carlos Herrera, pulls as he -pleases. Despite all of his vices, Lucien is seductive; -Balzac has equipped him with spirit, beauty, youth, and -elegance; women adore him; but he ends by hanging -himself at the Conciergerie. Balzac did everything he -could to successfully complete the marriage of Clotilde -de Grandlieu with the author of Marguerite; unfortunately -the demands of morality intervened, and what would the -Faubourg Saint-Germain have said of La Comédie Humaine -if the student of Jacques Collin the convict had married -the daughter of a duke? - -Regarding the author of Marguerite, I will note here a bit -of information that could amuse those who are interested -in literature. The few sonnets that Lucien de Rubempré -shows as a sample of his volume of verse to the -bookseller Dauriat are not the work of Balzac, who did -not write verse, and asked his friends for those that he -happened to need. The sonnet on the daisy is by -Madame de Girardin, the sonnet on the camellia is by de -Lassailly, and the one on the tulip is by myself. - -Modeste Mignon also contained a piece of verse, but I do -not know the author. - -As I have said regarding Mercadet, Balzac was an -admirable reader, and he very much wanted, one day, to -read some of my own verses. He read to me, among -others, La Fontaine du Cimitière. Like all prose writers, he -read only for the meaning, and tried to conceal the -rhythm that poets, when they deliver their verses out -loud, in contrast accentuate in a manner intolerable to -everyone, but which delights them alone, and we had -together, on this point, a long discussion, which, like -always, served only to cause each of us to persist in our -particular opinion. - -The great literary man of La Comédie Humaine is Daniel -d'Arthez, a writer who was serious, a hard worker, and -for a long time buried, before achieving his success, in -immense studies of philosophy, history and linguistics. -Balzac feared facility, and he did not believe that a rapidly -produced work could be good. In this context, journalism -held a singular repugnance for him, and he regarded the -time and talent consecrated to it to be wasted; he didn't -hold journalists in any higher regard, and he, who was -however such a great critic, despised criticism. The -unflattering portraits that he has drawn of Etienne -Loustau, of Nathan, of Vernisset, of Andoche Finot, -represent fairly well his true opinion of the place of the -press. Emile Blondet, introduced into that bad company -to represent the good writer, is compensated for his articles -in the imaginary Débats of La Comédie Humaine with a rich -marriage to the widow of a general, which permits him to -leave journalism. - -Moreover, Balzac never worked toward the point of view -of a newspaper. He brought his novels to the magazines -and daily newspapers as they had come to him, without -preparing any breaks or interesting twists at the end of -each installment, to increase the desire for the -continuation. His work was broken up into sections that -were roughly the same length, and sometimes the -description of an armchair would start on one day and -finish the next. With justification, he did not want to -divide his work into little dramatic or vaudevillian -tableaus; he thought of nothing but the book. This -working method was often to the detriment of the -immediate success that journalism requires of the authors -it employs. Eugène Sue, Alexandre Dumas were more -frequently victorious in the battles each morning that -then captivated the public. He did not obtain -immense popularity, like that of Les Mystères de Paris and -Le Juif-Errant, of Les Mousquetaires and of Monte-Cristo. Les -Paysans, a masterpiece, even caused a great number of -readers to cancel their subscriptions to the Presse, where -the first installment appeared. Its publication had to be -suspended. Every day letters arrived that demanded that -it be ended. Balzac was found to be boring! - -There was still not a good understanding of the great idea -of La Comédie Humaine, to take on modern society and -write about Paris and our times the book that sadly no -ancient civilization has left for us. The collected edition -of La Comédie Humaine, by assembling all of the scattered -works, put into relief the philosophical intention of the -writer. From that date forward, Balzac grew considerably -in public opinion, he finally ceased being considered "the -most productive of our novelists," a stereotyped phrase -that irritated him as much as "the author of Eugénie -Grandet." - -There have been a number of critiques on Balzac and he -has been discussed in many ways, but in my opinion one -very characteristic feature has not been emphasized: this -point is the absolute modernity of his genius. Balzac -owes nothing to antiquity; for him there are neither -Greeks nor Romans, and he has no need to cry for -deliverance from them. One does not find in the -composition of his talent any trace of Homer, of Virgil, -of Horace, not even of De Viris Illustribus; nobody was -ever less classical. - -Balzac, like Gavarni, observed his contemporaries; and, -in art, the supreme difficulty is to portray that which one -sees before one's eyes; one can pass through one's time -without appreciating it, and that is what many eminent -minds have done. - -To be of his time, nothing would appear to be simpler -but nothing is more difficult! To wear no glasses, neither -blue nor green, to think with his own brain, to use the -speech of the present day, not stitch together a colorful -fabric from the phrases of his predecessors! Balzac -possessed this rare merit. The ages have their perspective -and their distance; at that distance the great masses move -away, the lines end, the flickering details disappear; with -the help of classical memories, of melodious names from -antiquity, the least rhetorician could create a tragedy, a -poem, an historical study. But, to find yourself in the -crowd, to be elbowed by it, and to appreciate its features, -understand its flow, sort out its personalities, outline the -features of so many diverse beings, to show the motives -for their actions, that demands an entirely special genius, -and this genius, the author of La Comédie Humaine had to -a degree that no one has equaled and probably no one -will equal. - -This profound understanding of modern things rendered -Balzac, it must be said, insensitive to sculptural beauty. -He read with a careless eye the stanzas of white marble -with which Greek art sung the perfection of the human -form. In the museum of antiquities, he looked at the -Venus de Milo without great ecstasy, but the Parisian -woman who has stopped in front of the immortal statue, -draped in her long cashmere shawl running without a -crease from the neck to the heel, wearing her hat with a -veil from Chantilly, gloved with her tight Jouvin gloves, -showing from under the hem of her flounced dress the -polished tip of her worn boots, made his eyes sparkle -with pleasure. He analyzed her coquettish allure, he -savored at length her skillful graces, only to find as she -did that the goddess was too heavyset and would not be -an attractive addition to the homes of Mesdames de -Beauséant, de Listomère, or d'Espard. Ideal beauty, with -its serene and pure lines, was too simple, too cold, too -harmonious for this complicated, exuberant and diverse -genius. He also says somewhere: "It is necessary to be -Raphaël to portray many virgins." Character pleased him -more than style, and he preferred looks to beauty. In his -portraits of women, he never fails to put a mark, a crease, -a wrinkle, a red blemish, a softened and tired corner, a -vein that is too apparent, some detail indicating the -bruises of life that a poet, in tracing the same image, -would surely have suppressed, mistakenly without a -doubt. - -I do not intend to criticize Balzac in this. This fault is his -principal strength. He accepted nothing of the mythologies -and traditions of the past, and he did not know, happily -for us, that ideal that was achieved with the verses of the -poets, the marbles of Greece and Rome, the paintings of -the Renaissance, which stands between the eyes of artists -and reality. He loved the woman of our day just as she is, -and not as a pale statue; he loved her for her virtues, for -her vices, for her fantasies, for her shawls, for her -dresses, for her hats, and followed her across her life, far -beyond the point in the journey where love abandons -her. He prolonged her youth by many seasons, gave her -springs with the summers of Saint-Martin, and gilded her -twilight years with the most splendid rays. We are so -classical, in France, that we have not perceived, after two -thousand years, that roses, in our climate, do not bloom -in April as in the descriptions of poets of antiquity, but in -June, and that our women begin to be beautiful at the age -at which those of Greece, who are more precocious, -cease to be. How many charming types he has imagined -or reproduced! Madame Firmiani, the Duchesse de -Maufrigneuse, the Princess de Cadignan, Madame de -Morsauf, Lady Dudley, the Duchess de Langeais, -Madame Jules, Modeste Mignon, Diane de Chaulieu, -without counting the middle class women, the -seamstresses and the ladies of ill repute. - -And how he loved and knew that modern Paris, whose -beauty the amateurs of local color and the picturesque of -that time appreciated so little! He roamed across it in -every direction night and day; there is not a forgotten -alley, a foul passage, a narrow, muddy and black street -which did not become under his pen an etching of -Rembrandt, full of teeming and mysterious darkness or -sparkling with a trembling star of light. Wealth and -poverty, pleasure and suffering, shame and glory, grace -and ugliness, he knew all of his beloved town; it was for -him an enormous, hybrid, formidable monster, an -octopus with one hundred thousand arms that he heard -and saw as a living thing, and which constituted in his -eyes an immense individual. See with regard to this the -marvelous pages placed at the beginning of La Fille aux -Yeux d'Or, in which Balzac, impinging on the art of the -musician, had wanted, as in a grand orchestral symphony, -to make all of the voices sing together, all of the sobbing, -all of the cries, all of the rumors, all of the grinding of -Paris at work! - -From this modernity on which I purposefully dwell arose, -without his suspecting it, a difficulty in labor that Balzac -experienced in his efforts to complete his work: the -French language as refined by the classics of the -seventeenth century is not suitable, when one conforms -to it, other than to express general ideas, and to portray -conventional figures in a vague setting. To describe this -multiplicity of details, of characters, of types, of -architectures, of furnishings, Balzac was obliged to create -for himself a special language, composed of all of the -technical terms, all of the argots of science, of the -workshop, of the theater, even of the lecture hall. Every -word that said something was welcomed, and the -sentence, in order to receive it, opened a space, a -parenthetic expression, and lengthened itself obligingly. It -is this that made superficial critics say that Balzac did not -know how to write. He possessed, even though he did -not know it, a style and a very beautiful style, the -necessary, inevitable, and mathematical style of his ideas! - -VI
-No one could have the ambition to write a complete -biography of Balzac; any relationship with him was -necessarily limited by gaps, absences, disappearances. -Work absolutely ruled the life of Balzac, and if, as he -himself says with touching sensitivity in a letter to his -sister, he has painlessly sacrificed the joys and distractions -of existence to this jealous god, it cost him to renounce -all company that might have led to friendship. To reply with a few -words to a long letter became for him who was -overburdened with labor a prodigality that he could rarely -permit himself; he was the slave of his work and a -voluntary slave. He had, with a very good and very tender -heart, the selfishness of the great worker. And who could -have dreamed of being mad at his pressured negligences -and his apparent forgetfulness, when one saw the results -of his escapes or his seclusions? When, the work -completed, he would reappear, one would have said that -he had left you the day before, and he would take up the -interrupted conversation once again, as if sometimes six -months and more had not passed. He made trips within -France to study localities that he included in Scènes de -Province, and he withdrew to the houses of friends, in -Touraine, or in the Charente, finding there a calm that -the creditors did not always allow him in Paris. After -some great work, he permitted himself, occasionally, a -longer excursion to Germany, northern Italy, or -Switzerland; but these rapid excursions, made with the -preoccupations of bills that were due to be paid, -contracts to fulfill, and limited funds for travel, may have -fatigued him more than they gave him rest. His vast gaze -took in the skies, the horizons, the mountains, the -countryside, the monuments, the houses, the interiors to -commit them to that universal and meticulous memory -that never failed him. Superior in this to descriptive -poets, Balzac saw man at the same time as nature; he -studied the physiognomies, the manners, the passions, -the characters in the same glance as locations, clothing -and furnishings. One detail sufficed for him, as the least -fragment of bone did for Cuvier, to accurately imagine -and reconstitute a personality glimpsed while passing. -Balzac has often been praised, and rightly so, for his -power of observation; but, however great he was, it is not -necessary to imagine that the author of La Comédie -Humaine always drew from nature his portraits whose -truth was so clearly from elsewhere. His process did not -resemble in any way that of Henri Monnier, who -followed in real life an individual in order to make a -sketch with a pencil and a pen, drawing his least gestures, -writing down his most insignificant phrases in order to -obtain at the same time a photographic plate and a page -of shorthand notes. Buried most of the time in the -excavations of his work, Balzac could not materially -observe the two thousand characters who play their role -in his comedy of one hundred acts; but every man, when -he looks inward, contains humanity: it is a microcosm in -which nothing is missing. - -He has, not always, but often observed within himself the -numerous types that live in his work. That is why they are -so complete. No one could absolutely comprehend the -life of another; in such a case, there are motives that -remain obscure, unknown details, actions of which one -loses track. In even the most faithful portrait, some -creativity is necessary. Balzac has thus created much -more than he saw. His rare faculties of the analyst, of the -physiologist, of the anatomist, have merely served the -poet in him, just as the assistant serves the professor at -his lectern when he passes him the substances that he -needs for his demonstrations. - -Perhaps this could be the place to define the truth as -understood by Balzac; in this time of realism, it is good to -be understood on this point. The truth of art is not that -of nature; everything that is represented through the -means of art necessarily contains some element of the -conventional; make it as small as possible, it still exists, be -it perspective in painting, language in literature. Balzac -accentuates, magnifies, enlarges, prunes, adds, shadows, -illuminates, avoids or approaches men or things -according to the effect that he wants to produce. He is -truthful, without doubt, but with augmentations and -sacrifices for art. He prepares backgrounds that are -somber and darkened with charcoal for his luminous -figures, he puts white backgrounds behind his dark -figures. Like Rembrandt, he sets the light of day on the -brow or nose of the character; sometimes, in his -description, he obtains fantastic and bizarre results, by -placing, without saying anything, a microscope under the -eye of the reader; the details then appear with a -supernatural clarity, an amplified minutia, some -unbelievable and formidable magnifications; the tissues, -the scaliness, the pores, the veins, the blemishes, the -fibers, the capillaries take on an enormous importance, -and turn a visage that is insignificant to the naked eye -into a sort of fanciful mask as amusing as those that were -sculpted under the cornice of the Pont-Neuf and -vermiculated by time. The characters are also pushed to -excess, as it is suited to each type: if Baron Hulot is a -libertine, he additionally personifies lust: he is a man and -a vice, an individual and an abstraction; he unites in -himself all of the scattered traits of the character. Where -a writer of lesser genius would have drawn a portrait, -Balzac has created a figure. Men do not have as many -muscles as Michelangelo gives them to suggest the idea -of strength. Balzac is full of such useful exaggerations, of -those dark strokes that enhance and support the outline; -he dreams while writing, like the masters, and leaves his -mark on everything. As this is not a literary critique, but a -biographical study that I am writing, I will not take these -remarks farther than necessary. Balzac, whom the Realist -school seems to wish to claim as its leader, has no -connection to its features. - -Unlike certain literary persons who feed on nothing but -their own genius, Balzac read a great deal and with a -prodigious rapidity. He loved books, and he created a -beautiful library that he intended to leave to the town of -his birth, an idea that the indifference of the townspeople -made him later abandon. He absorbed in a few days the -voluminous works of Swedenborg, which were owned by -his mother, who was rather preoccupied with mysticism -at that time, and that reading was responsible for -Séraphita-Séraphitus, one of the most astonishing products -of modern literature. Never did Balzac approach, or -move closer to ideal beauty than in that book: the -ascension of the mountain has a quality that is ethereal, -supernatural, and luminous that lifts you from the earth. -The only two colors that are employed are celestial blue -and snow white with a few pearlescent tones for shadow. -I know nothing more intoxicating than this beginning. -The panorama of Norway, with its sharply cut coastline -seen from this height, dazzles and gives one vertigo. - -Louis Lambert was also influenced by the reading of -Swedenborg; but soon Balzac, who had taken on the -eagle wings of the mystics to soar into the infinite, -descended to the earth that we inhabit, even though his -robust lungs could have breathed indefinitely the thin air -that is deadly for the weak: he abandoned the world -beyond after that flight and returned to real life. Perhaps -his remarkable genius would have gone out of view too -quickly if he had continued to soar toward the -unfathomable immensities of metaphysics, and we should -be happy that he limited himself to Louis Lambert and -Séraphita-Séraphitus, which represent sufficiently, in La -Comédie Humaine, the supernatural side, and open a -door that is sufficiently large into the invisible world. - -I now move on to a few more intimate details. The great -Goethe had a horror of three things: one of the things -was tobacco smoke, I am not permitted to say the two -others. Balzac, like the Jupiter of the German poetic -Olympus, could not stand tobacco in any form at all; he -denounced the pipe and forbid the cigar. He did not -tolerate even a light Spanish cigarette; the Asian hookah -alone found favor with him, and yet he only tolerated -that as a curiosity and because of its local color. In his -diatribes against the herb of Nicot, he did not imitate the -doctor who, during a dissertation on the dangers of -tobacco, does not hesitate to take ample doses from a -large box of tobacco near him: he never smoked. His -Théorie des Excitants contains an indictment against -tobacco, and there is no doubt that if he had been Sultan, -like Amurath, he would have beheaded relapsed and -obstinate smokers. He reserved all of his predilections for -coffee, which did him so much harm and might have -killed him, although he was built to become a -centenarian. - -Was Balzac wrong or right? Is tobacco, as he maintained, -a deadly poison and does it intoxicate those that it does -not turn stupid? Is it the opium of the Occident that dulls -the will and the intelligence? These are questions that I -cannot answer; but I am going to list here the names of -some celebrated personages of our age, some of whom -smoked while the others did not smoke: Goethe, Heinrich -Heine, uniquely for Germans, did not smoke; Byron -smoked; Victor Hugo does not smoke, neither does -Alexandre Dumas père; on the other hand Alfred de -Musset, Eugène Sue, Georges Sand, Mérimée, Paul de -Saint-Victor, Emile Augier, Ponsard, smoked and still -smoke; however they are not exactly imbeciles. - -This aversion, moreover, was shared by nearly all men -who were born in our century or a little before. Only -sailors and soldiers smoked then; at the odor of the pipe -or the cigar, women fainted: they have become much -tougher since then, and more than one pair of rosy lips -has pressed with love the golden tip of a cigar, in a sitting -room turned into a smoking room. Dowagers and -turbaned mothers alone have preserved their old -antipathy, and stoically watch their unfashionable salons -be deserted by the youth. - -Every time that Balzac is obliged, for the credibility of -the story, to allow one of his characters to indulge in this -horrible habit, his brief and disdainful sentence betrays a -secret disapproval: "As for de Marsay," he said, "he was -busy smoking cigars." And he must have really loved this -captain of dandyism to permit him to smoke in his work. - -A fragile and elegant young woman had without doubt -inspired this aversion in Balzac, although that is a -question that I cannot answer definitively. Still it's true -that the tax collector never earned a sou from him. Regarding -women, Balzac, who described them so well, must have -known them, and one understands the sense that the -Bible attaches to this word. In one of the letters that he -writes to Madame de Surville, his sister, Balzac, quite -young and completely unknown, sets down an ideal for -his life in two words: "To be celebrated and to be loved." -The first part of this program, which all artists map out -for themselves, had been realized in every way. Was the -second also accomplished? The opinion of the most -intimate friends of Balzac is that he practiced the chastity -that he recommended to others, and shared at most -platonic love; but Madame de Surville laughs at this idea, -with a smile of feminine delicacy and full of discreet -reserve. She maintains that her brother was unfailingly -discreet, and that if he had wanted to speak, he would -have had many things to say. This must be true, and -without doubt the safe of Balzac contained more of the -notes with delicate, sloping handwriting than the -lacquered box of Canalis. There is, in his work, the scent -of a woman: odor di femina; when one enters there, one -hears behind the doors that close on the hidden staircase -the rustling of silk and the creaking of shoes. The -semicircular and padded salon on the Rue de Batailles, of -which I have quoted the description inserted by the -author in La Fille aux Yeux d'Or, did not remain -completely virginal, as many of us had assumed. In the -course of our close friendship, which lasted from 1836 -until his death, only once did Balzac make allusion, with -the most respectful and the most tender terms, to an -attachment of his early youth, and even then he gave me -only the first name of the person whose memory, after so -many years, still made his eyes moisten. Had he said any -more to me, I certainly would not have abused his -confidences; the genius of a great writer belongs to all of the -world, but his heart is his own. I touch only briefly on -this tender and delicate side of Balzac's life, because I -have nothing to say that does not honor him. This -reserve and this mystery are those of a gentleman. If he -was loved as he wished in the dreams of his youth, the -world knows nothing of it. - -Do not imagine after these reflections that Balzac was -austere and prudish in his speech: the author of Les Contes -Drolatiques had been nourished with too much Rabelais -and was too pantagruelistic to be unable to laugh; he -knew good stories and invented them: his broad jokes -interspersed with Gallic crudities would have made the -sanctimonious and horrified members of society cry out -shocking; but his laughing and talkative lips were sealed -like a tomb when there was a question of a serious -sentiment. He scarcely allowed his closest friends to -surmise his love for a foreign woman of distinction, a -love of which one can speak, since it was crowned by -marriage. It was that passion that had been felt for a long -time that necessitated his distant excursions, although -their object remained until the last day a mystery for his -friends. - -Absorbed by his work, Balzac did not think until rather -late of the theater, for which the general opinion judged -him, wrongly to my mind, after a few more or less risky -efforts, to be hardly suited. He who created so many -types, analyzed so many characters, gave life to so many -people, should succeed on the stage; but, as I have said, -Balzac was not spontaneous, and one cannot correct the -proofs of a drama. If he had lived, after a dozen works, -he would assuredly have found his form and attained -success; La Marâtre that played at the Théâtre-Historique -was close to a masterpiece. Mercadet, lightly edited by an -intelligent arranger, enjoyed a long posthumous success -at the Gymnase. - -Nevertheless, the factor that motivated his efforts was -mostly, I must say, the idea of a windfall that would -liberate him all at once from his financial predicament -rather than a real vocation. Theater, as we know, is much -more profitable than books; the continuing nature of the -performances, on which a rather large royalty is drawn, -produces quickly by accumulation some considerable -sums. If the strategic work is greater, the material labor is -less. Several dramas are necessary to fill a volume, and -while you promenade or rest idly with slippers on your -feet, the footlights are illuminated, the scenery descends -from the ceiling, the actors recite and gesticulate, and you -find yourself having made more money than you would -have by scribbling for an entire week bent painfully over -your desk. Such melodrama has more value to its author -than Notre-Dame de Paris to Victor Hugo and Les Parents -Pauvres to Balzac. - -It's curious that Balzac who contemplated, elaborated, -and corrected his novels with such unrelenting -meticulousness, seemed, when it concerned the theater, -to become dizzy from the rapidity of his work. Not only -did he not rewrite his theater pieces eight or ten times -like his books, he really did not write them at all. Having -just come upon his first idea, he chose a day for the -reading and called his friends to request their assistance -in the project; Ourliac, Lassailly, Laurent-Jan, myself and -others, have often been summoned in the middle of the -night or at fabulously early times of the morning. It was -necessary to drop everything; every minute of delay -caused the loss of millions. - -A pressing note from Balzac summoned me one day to -come right away to 104 Rue de Richelieu, where he had a -lodging in the house of Buisson the tailor. I found Balzac -wrapped in his monastic frock, and hopping up and -down with impatience on the blue and white rug of a tidy -attic room that had walls upholstered in light brown -percale embellished with blue, because, despite his -apparent neglectfulness, he had an understanding of -interior design, and always prepared a comfortable den -for his laborious vigils; in none of his lodgings was there -the picturesque disorder dear to artists. - -"Finally, here is Theo!" he cried when he saw me. "You -are lazy, slow, slothlike, an obstacle, hurry up then; you -should have been here an hour ago. Tomorrow I am -reading Harel a great drama in five acts." - -"And you would like to have my advice," I responded -while settling myself into an armchair like a man who is -preparing himself to endure a long lecture. - -From my attitude Balzac understood my thought, and he -said to me in the most straightforward way, "The drama -is not written." - -"The devil," I said. "Oh well, you will need to delay the -reading for six weeks." - -"No. We are going to rush the dramorama to get paid. At -this time I have a heavy debt that is due." - -"From now until tomorrow, it's impossible; there would -not be time to copy it." - -"Here is how I have arranged things. You will do an act, -Ourliac another, Laurent-Jan the third, de Belloy the -fourth, me the fifth, and I will read at noon as agreed. -One act of a drama has no more than four or five -hundred lines; one can write five hundred lines of -dialogue in a day and in a night." - -"Tell me the subject, outline the plan, describe to me in a -few words the characters, and I will get to work," I -responded to him, somewhat alarmed. - -"Ah!" he cried with an air of superb weariness and -magnificent disdain, "if I need to tell you the subject, we -will never be finished." - -I did not think I was being inappropriate in posing that -question, which seemed quite pointless to Balzac. - -After a brief instruction that I obtained with difficulty, I -set to work to put together a scene from which only a -few words remained in the final work, which was not -read the next day, as one might well believe. I do not -know what the other collaborators did; but the only one -who seriously joined in, this was Laurent-Jan, to whom -the play is dedicated. - -That play, it was Vautrin. Everyone knows that the -dynastic and pyramidal tuft of hair that Frédérick -Lemaître fantasized wearing in his disguise as a Mexican -general brought down on the work the criticism of the -authorities; Vautrin, forbidden, had only a single -performance, and poor Balzac remained like Perrette in -front of his overturned milk jug. The prodigious -proceeds that he had anticipated as the probable product -of his drama vanished into ciphers, which did not stop -him from refusing very nobly the compensation offered -by the ministry. - -At the beginning of this study, I told you about the -tendencies toward dandyism that were demonstrated by -Balzac, I spoke of his blue coat with solid gold buttons, -his monstrous cane topped with a group of turquoise -stones, his appearances in society and in the extravagant -salon; this splendor lasted only for a period of time, and -Balzac recognized that he was not suited to play the role -of Alcibiades or Brummel. Everyone could encounter -him, particularly in the morning, when he rushed to the -printers carrying copy or seeking proofs, in an infinitely -less splendid outfit. I recall the green hunting jacket, with -brass buttons representing the head of a fox, the black -and gray checked pants that extended to his feet, which -were encased in large laced shoes, the red scarf wrapped -around the neck like a rope, and the hat that was at the -same time both bristly and smooth, its blue bleached by -sweat, which covered rather than clothed "the most -fertile of our novelists." Despite the disorder and poverty -of his dress, nobody would have been tempted to take -for an unknown commoner this large man with the -blazing eyes, flaring nostrils, and cheeks struck with -violent tones, all illuminated by genius, who passed while -carried away by his dream like a whirlwind! At the sight -of him, the mocking stopped on the urchin's lips, and the -serious man did not begin to smile. Everyone recognized -one of the kings of thought. - -Sometimes, to the contrary, he would be seen walking -with slow steps, his nose in the air, his eyes searching, -following one side of the street then examining the other, -not daydreaming, but looking at the signs. He was -looking for names to christen his characters. He -maintained with some justification that a name could not -be invented any more than a word. According to him, -names arose on their own like languages; besides real -names possessed a life, a meaning, a destiny, a mystical -significance, and it was impossible to place too much -importance on their choice. Léon Gozlan has told in a -charming way, in his Balzac en Pantoufles, how the famous -Z. Marcas of the Revue Parisienne was found. - -A sign of a chimney man provided the name of Gubetta -that had long been sought by Victor Hugo, who was no -less careful than Balzac in the names of his characters. - -This demanding life of nocturnal work had, despite his -strong constitution, left its traces on the features of -Balzac, and we find in Albert Savarus a portrait of him, -written by himself, that represents him such as he was at -that time (1842), with some minor differences: - -"… A superb head, black hair already streaked with some -white, hair like that of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in our -paintings, with thick shining curls, stiff like horsehair, a -round white neck like that of a woman, a magnificent -forehead, divided by the powerful furrows that great -projects, great thoughts, strong reflections inscribe on the -the foreheads of great men; an olive complexion marbled -with red marks, a square nose, eyes of fire, then the -hollow cheeks, with two long lines full of suffering, a -mouth with a sardonic smile and a small chin that was -narrow and too short; crow's feet at his temples, sunken -eyes, rolling under the eyebrow arches like two burning -globes; but despite all of these signs of violent passion, a -calm manner, profoundly accepting, the voice of a -penetrating sweetness which surprised me with its facility, -the true voice of an orator, sometimes pure and astute, -sometimes insinuating, and thunderous when necessary, -then pliant with sarcasm, and then becoming incisive. -Monsieur Albert Savaron is of middle height, neither fat -nor thin; finally, he has the hands of a prelate." - -In this portrait, which is incidentally very faithful, Balzac -idealizes himself a little for the needs of the novel, and -subtracts from himself a few kilograms of portliness, -license which is certainly permitted to a beloved hero of -the Duchess d'Argaiolo and Mademoiselle Philomène de -Watteville. This novel of Albert Savarus, one of the least -known and least quoted of Balzac, contains many -transposed details on his habits of life and of work; one -could even see there, if it was permissible to lift those -veils, secrets of another kind. - -Balzac had left the Rue des Batailles for Les Jardies; he -then went to live at Passy. The house in which he lived, -situated on a steep slope, offered a unique architectural -layout. One entered there - - A little like wine enters bottles - -It was necessary to descend three floors to reach the first. -The entry door, which was on the side of the house that -faced the road, opened nearly into the roof, like a -mansard. I dined there once with L. G. It was a strange -dinner, with its dishes based on economical recipes -invented by Balzac. At my express request, the famous -onion purée, endowed with so many healthy and -symbolic qualities and which almost killed Lassailly, did -not appear. But the wines were marvelous! Each bottle -had a story, and Balzac told it with an eloquence, a verve, -a conviction without equal. The wine of Bordeaux had -gone around the world three times; the Châteauneuf-du-Pape -traced back to legendary times; the rum came from -a barrel rolled for more than a century by the sea, which -had to be opened with blows from an axe, because the -crust that had been formed around it by shellfish, coral -and seaweed was thick. My palate, surprised, irritated by -the acidic flavors, protested in vain against these -illustrious origins. Balzac maintained the solemnity of a -soothsayer, and despite the proverb, I kept my eyes fixed -on him, but I did not make him laugh! - -For dessert, we had pears of a ripeness, a size, a -tenderness and a quality that would do honor to a royal -table. Balzac devoured five or six of them with the juice -running down his chin; he believed that this fruit was -good for him, and he ate them in such a quantity as much -for health as for sweetness. Already he felt the first -effects of the illness that would take him. Death, with its -skeletal fingers, was touching this robust body to know -where to attack it, and finding no weakness there, killed it -through excess and hypertrophy. The cheeks of Balzac -were already lined and marked with those red spots that -simulate health to inattentive eyes; but for the observer, -the yellow tones of hepatitis surrounded the tired eyelids -with their golden halo; the expression, brightened by this -warm sepia hue, appeared even more vivacious and -shining and lessened anxieties. - -At that time, Balzac was very preoccupied with the occult -sciences, palmistry, and card reading; he had been told of -an oracle even more astonishing than Mademoiselle -Lenormand, and he persuaded me, as well as Madame E. -de Girardin and Méry, to go and consult her with him. -The prophetess lived in Auteuil, I no longer know in -which street; that matters little to my story, because the -address that was given was false. We came upon an -honorable middle class family on holiday: the husband, -the wife, and an old mother in whom Balzac, sure of his -facts, persisted in finding a mystical air. The good -woman, not flattered to have been taken for a sorceress, -became angry; the husband took us for tricksters or -crooks; the young woman laughed loudly, and the servant -hastened prudently to lock up the silver. We had no -choice but to withdraw after our blunder; but Balzac -maintained that we were in the right place, and having -climbed back into the carriage, muttered insults at the old -lady: "Demon, harpy, magician, vampire, worm, monster, -lemur, ghoul, snake charmer, creature," and all of the -bizarre terms that a familiarity with the litanies of -Rabelais could suggest to him. I said: "If she is a -sorceress, she hides her game well." "Of cards," added -Madame de Girardin with a quickness of mind that never -failed her. We tried some further explorations, always -fruitlessly, and Delphine asserted that Balzac had -imagined this resource of Quinola in order to be driven by -carriage to Auteuil, where he had business, and to -procure some pleasant traveling companions. It is -necessary to believe, however, that Balzac alone found -that Madame Fontaine that we were all seeking together, -because, in Les Comédiens Sans le Savoir, he depicted her -between her hen Bilouche and her toad Astaroth with a -fantastic and frightening truthfulness, if those two words -can go together. Did he consult her seriously? Did he go -to see her as a simple observer? Many passages in La -Comédie Humaine seem to suggest that Balzac had a kind -of faith in the occult sciences, about which the official -sciences have still not said their last word. - -Around this time, Balzac began to show a taste for old -furniture, chests, vases; the least piece of worm-eaten -wood that he bought on the Rue de Lappe always had an -illustrious provenance, and he created detailed -genealogies for his lesser knickknacks. He hid them here -and there, always because of those fantastical creditors -that I was starting to doubt. I even amused myself by -spreading the rumor that Balzac was a millionaire, that he -was buying old stockings from dealers in caterpillars to -hide onces, quadruples, génovines, crusades, colonnates, -double louis, in the manner of Père Grandet; I said -everywhere that he had three cisterns, like Aboul-Casem, -filled to the brim with garnets, dinars and rials. "Théo will -get my throat cut with his jokes!" said Balzac, annoyed -and charmed. - -That which gave some veracity to my jokes was the new -house in which Balzac lived, on the Rue Fortunée, in the -Beaujon quarter, less populated then than it is today. He -occupied a mysterious little house there that would have -suited the fantasies of an ostentatious financier. From -outside, one saw over the wall a sort of cupola formed by -the arched ceiling of a sitting room and fresh paint on the -closed shutters. - -When one entered this small house, which was not easy, -because the master of this dwelling hid himself with -extreme care, one discovered a thousand details of luxury -and comfort that contradicted the poverty that he -affected. He received me however one day, and I could -see a dining room adorned with old oak, with a table, a -fireplace, some buffets, some sideboards and some chairs -of sculpted wood, that would have made Berruguète, -Cornejo Duque and Verbruggen envious; a salon of -golden yellow damask, with doors, cornices, plinths and -window frames of ebony; a library arranged in armoires -inlayed with shell and brass in the style of Boule, and -whose door, hidden by the shelves, once closed, could -not be found; a bathroom in yellow Breccia, with bas-reliefs -of stucco; a domed sitting room, whose old -paintings had been restored by Edmond Hédouin; a -gallery lit from above, that I recognized later in the -collection of Le Cousin Pons. There were on the shelves all -sorts of curiosities, porcelain from Dresden and Sèvres, -horns of crackled celadon, and on the stairway, which -was covered with a rug, some great vases from China and -a magnificent lantern suspended by a cable of red silk. - -"So have you emptied one of the caches of Aboul-Casem?" -I said to Balzac, laughing, confronted with these -splendors. "You can see well that I was right to suggest -that you are a millionaire." - -"I am poorer than ever," he responded while taking on a -humble and pious air. "None of this is mine. I have -furnished the house for a friend that I await. I am only -the caretaker and porter of the building." - -I quote here his exact words. This response, he made it in -passing to many people who were as shocked as me. The -mystery was soon explained by the marriage of Balzac to -the woman whom he had loved for a long time. - -There is a Turkish proverb that says: "When the house is -finished, death enters." It is for this reason that the -sultans always have a palace in the course of construction -that they are very careful not to complete. Life seems to -want nothing to be complete – except misfortune. -Nothing is as dreaded as a wish fulfilled. - -The notorious debts were finally paid, the dream union -completed, the nest made for happiness padded and -covered with down; as if they had foreseen his -approaching end, those who envied Balzac started to -praise him: Les Parents Pauvres, Le Cousin Pons, where the -genius of the author shines in all its radiance, united all -opinions. It was too beautiful; nothing more remained -for him but to die.
-His illness made rapid progress, but nobody believed that -there would be a fatal outcome, so much we all trusted in -the athletic constitution of Balzac. I thought firmly that -he would bury us all.
-I was going to take a trip to Italy. And before leaving I -wanted to say goodbye to my illustrious friend. He had -left in a carriage to collect from customs some exotic -curiosity. I drew away reassured, and at the moment that -I returned to my carriage, I was given a note from -Madame de Balzac, which explained to me obligingly and -with polite regrets why I had not found her husband at -home. At the bottom of the letter, Balzac had scrawled -these words. - - "I can neither read, nor write. - "De Balzac." - -I have preserved like a relic that ominous line, probably -the last that was written by the author of La Comédie -Humaine; it was, and I did not understand it right away, -the final cry, "My God, why have you forsaken me!" of -the thinker and of the worker. The idea that Balzac could -die did not even occur to me. - -A few days after that, I was eating ice cream at the Café -Florian, on the Piazza Saint Marco; in my hand I found -the Journal des Débats, one of the few French papers that -was available in Venice, and I saw in it the announcement -of the death of Balzac. I almost fell from my chair onto -the stones of the Piazza at this sudden news, and my pain -was quickly mixed with an impulse of indignation and -outrage that was not very Christian, because all souls -have an equal value before God. I had just visited the -insane asylum on the island of San-Servolo, and I saw -there decrepit idiots, doddering octogenarians, human -worms who are not even guided by animal instinct, and I -asked myself why this luminous brain was extinguished -like a flame on which one blows, while tenacious life -persisted in these murky heads that were dimly traversed -by fickle rays. - -Nine years have already passed since that fatal date. -Posterity has commenced for Balzac; every day he seems -greater. When he was in the company of his -contemporaries, he was poorly appreciated, he was seen -only in fragments under sometimes unfavorable -circumstances: now the edifice that he built rises as one -draws further away, like the cathedral of a city that -conceals the neighboring houses, and which on the -horizon appears immense above the flattened roofs. The -monument is not completed, but, such as it is, it terrifies -by its enormity, and surprised generations will ask -themselves who is the giant who alone has raised these -formidable blocks and built so high this Babel that made -all of society sing. - -Although he is dead, Balzac still has detractors; on his -memory are thrown the banal reproach of immorality, -the last insult of powerless and jealous mediocrity, or -even of total stupidity. The author of La Comédie Humaine -not only is not immoral, but he is actually a strict -moralist. Monarchical and catholic, he defends authority, -exalts religion, preaches duty, reprimands passion, and -does not accept happiness except in marriage and the -family. - -"Man," he says, "is neither good, nor bad; he is born with -instincts and aptitudes; society, far from corrupting him, -as Rousseau maintained, improves him, makes him -better; but self-interest develops also his evil tendencies. -Christianity, and particularly Catholicism, being, as I said -in Le Médecin de Campagne, a complete system for the -repression of the depraved tendencies of man, is the -most important component of social order." - -And with the ingenuity that suits a great man, anticipating -the reproach of immorality that will be addressed to him -by shoddy spirits, he numbers the irreproachably virtuous -characters who are found in La Comédie Humaine: Pierrette -Lorrain, Ursule Mirouët, Constance Birotteau, la -Fosseuse, Eugénie Grandet, Marguerite Claës, Pauline de -Villenoix, Madame Jules, Madame de la Chanterie, Eve -Chardon, Mademoiselle d'Esgrignon, Madame Firmiani, -Agathe Rouget, Renée de Maucombe, without counting -among the men, Joseph Le Bas, Genestas, Benassis, the -cleric Bonnet, Dr. Minoret, Pillerault, David Séchard, the -two Birotteaus, the cleric Chaperon, the judge Popinot, -Bourgeat, the Sauviats, the Tascherons, etc. - -Rogues are not missing, it is true, in La Comédie Humaine. -But is Paris populated only with angels? - -END - -[Copyright notice: David Desmond is the sole copyright -holder for this English translation of the book "Honoré -de Balzac" by Théophile Gautier. 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