Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac is one of the most emblematic writers of the French novel. Born May 20, 1799 in Tours and died prematurely August 18, 1850 in Paris, he is the author of The Human Comedy. The Balzac novels, whether adored or criticized, remains unavoidable today; certain characters from La The Human Comedy such as Père Goriot, Rastignac or César Birotteau have become veritable literary legends.

Son of a man of peasant origin who managed to climb the social ladder, Honoré de Balzac was born in Tours in 1799. At the age of 8, he was sent to the college of Vendôme, where he fed on books and was passionate about for philosophy.

Six years later, his desire to become a philosopher was confirmed when he became a resident at the Ganser institution in Paris. His family predestined him for a career as a notary and the young man began studying law. If he passed his baccalaureate, however, he decided to change paths and try his luck in writing. Living in a small Parisian attic, he devoured the works of Descartes then tried his hand at tragedy by writing a play in Alexandrines, Cromwell (1819). Proud of his work, he is quickly discouraged by the opinions of those around him. He then turned to various genres and published several novels under pseudonyms.

To survive, he writes various food books, other plays, historical novels or even poems in verse, without success. In 1826, he sought to make a fortune by opening a printing press, a project which unfortunately went bankrupt and put him in debt.

Three years later, he published for the first time a novel in his name, Les Chouans. Having finally found his style, he really launched his career with La Peau de chagrin (1831) then Eugénie Grandet (1833).

He begins to earn his living and frequent fashionable salons. He then had several love affairs, notably with George Sand, Olympe Pélissier and the Duchess of Castries. Although he had many female admirers, he only had eyes for one of them, Countess Ewelina Hanska, with whom he had a long correspondence from 1832.

Three years later, Father Goriot consecrated him as a great writer and gave him the idea for his colossal work, The Human Comedy.

Leading a life of luxury, Honoré de Balzac however had the fault of throwing money away, which pushed him to write more and more to try to pay his debts. Towards the end of the 1840s, he was exhausted and thought of only one thing: to marry the Countess Hanska, whom he had been courting for fifteen years. Having stopped writing, he leaves to join her and marries her before dying a few months later of fatigue.

On August 21, 1850, he was buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in the presence of his many admirers, including Victor Hugo, who pronounced his funeral oration.

The Balzac novel

Although he sought his own style for a long time, Honoré de Balzac profoundly transformed the French novel in his time. By releasing Le Père Goriot, he invented the principle of bringing characters back from one novel to another. It is by going further in this reflection that Honoré de Balzac imagines the plan of The Human Comedy.

Through this gigantic work containing nearly 90 novels and short stories, the writer wanted to present the different social classes of his time and thus draw up " the history of morals " of 19th century France.

To create a coherent whole, Balzac profoundly modified some of his earlier novels, including Les Chouans and La Peau de chagrin, in order to include them in his The Human Comedy. Considered a precursor of realism, he is also characterized by meticulous descriptions of landscapes and philosophical explanations to make his story as complete as possible. Unfortunately, Honoré de Balzac will not live long enough to finish his work, which was, according to his plans, to have 145 titles. After his death, his wife Ewelina Hanska published the many sketches of tales and novels written by her husband, thus forming an incredible documentation allowing a better understanding of this gigantic project.

Apart from La The Human Comedy, the extremely prolific author wrote a profusion of books and articles during his lifetime. He has also worked as a journalist for various magazines, participated in the birth of the serial novel and has written numerous art and literary reviews.

An author admired during his lifetime

The titanic work of Honoré de Balzac inspired the writers of his time and of the following centuries. Its influence is particularly visible in Gustave Flaubert, who draws his inspiration from The Woman of Thirty Years (1842) to write Madame Bovary (1857), and takes Le Lys dans la vallée as a model for Sentimental Education (1869).

After his death, Balzac will continue to arouse the admiration of young revolutionary authors, such as Émile Zola and Marcel Proust.

But one of his greatest admirers is undoubtedly his contemporary Victor Hugo. The two authors had a high regard for each other.

However, Honoré de Balzac's influence is not limited to literature. His gift for dialogue and his precision in the description of the sets meant that a good number of his works were adapted for the screen from the beginning of the 20th century. A great defender of copyright, Honoré de Balzac also left a legacy to the Société des gens de lettres, founded under his initiative in 1838. In addition to his immeasurable influence on generations of authors, he was rewarded during his lifetime by becoming Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1845.