Where was Honore de Balzac born? "Scenes from Parisian Life"

It is difficult to find a person as versatile as this writer was. He combined talent, uncontrollable temperament and love of life. In his life, great ideas and achievements were combined with petty ambition. His excellent knowledge of highly specialized areas allowed him to speak boldly and reasonably about many problems in psychology, medicine and anthropology.

The life of any person is the sum of many patterns. The life of Honore de Balzac will be no exception.

Brief biography of Honore de Balzac

The writer's father was Bernard Francois Balssa, born in poor family peasants He was born on June 22, 1746 in the village of Nogueire in the Tarn department. There were 11 children in his family, of whom he was the eldest. Bernard Balsse's family predicted a spiritual career for him. However, the young man, possessing an extraordinary mind, love of life and activity, did not want to part with the temptations of life, and wearing a cassock was not at all part of his plans. Life credo this person's health. Bernard Balssa had no doubt that he would live to be a hundred years old, he enjoyed the country air and amused himself until his old age love affairs. This man was characterized by eccentricity. He became rich thanks to the Great french revolution, selling and buying confiscated lands of nobles. He later became assistant to the mayor of the French city of Tours. Bernard Balssa changed his surname, thinking it was plebeian. In the 1830s, his son Honore would also change his surname by adding the noble particle “de” to it; he would justify this action with the version of his noble origin from the Balzac d'Entregues family.

At the age of fifty, Balzac's father married a girl from the Salambier family, receiving with her a decent dowry. She was 32 years younger than her fiancé and had a penchant for romance and hysteria. Even after marriage, the writer's father led a very free image life. Honore's mother was a sensitive and intelligent woman. Despite his penchant for mysticism and resentment at all white light, she, like her husband, did not disdain having affairs on the side. She loved her illegitimate children more than her firstborn Honore. She constantly demanded obedience, complained about non-existent illnesses and grumbled. This poisoned Honore's childhood and affected his behavior, affections and creativity. But a big blow for him was also the execution of his uncle, his father’s brother, for killing a pregnant peasant woman. It was after this shock that the writer changed his last name in the hope of escaping such a relationship. But his belonging to the family of nobles has not yet been proven.

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The writer's childhood. Education

The writer's childhood years were spent outside his parents' home. Until the age of three he was looked after by a nurse, and after that he lived in a boarding school. Afterwards he ended up at the Vendôme College of the Oratorian Fathers (he stayed there from 1807 to 1813). The time he spent within the walls of the college is colored with bitterness in the writer’s memory. The writer's severe mental trauma arose in Honore due to the total absence of any freedom, drill and corporal punishment.

The only consolation for Honoré at this time is books. The librarian at the École Polytechnique Supérieure, who taught him mathematics, allowed him to use them unlimitedly. For Balzac, reading replaced real life. Due to his immersion in dreams, he often did not hear what was happening in class, for which he was punished.

Honore was once subjected to such punishment as “wooden trousers.” They put him in stocks, which caused him to have a nervous breakdown. After this, the parents returned their son home. He began to wander around like a somnambulist, slowly answering some questions, and it was difficult for him to return to real life.

It is still not clear whether Balzac was treated at this time, but Jean-Baptiste Naccard observed his entire family, including Honoré. Later he became not just a family friend, but especially a friend of the writer.

From 1816 to 1819 Honore studied at the Paris School of Law. His father predicted a future for him as a lawyer, but the young man studied without enthusiasm. After graduating from school without obvious success, Balzac began working as a clerk in the office of a Parisian solicitor, but this did not interest him.

Balzac's later life

Honore decided to become a writer. He asked his parents for financial help for his dream. The family council decided to help their son for 2 years. Honore's mother initially opposed this, but soon she was the first to realize the hopelessness of trying to contradict her son. As a result, Honore began his work. He wrote the drama Cromwell. The work read at the family council was declared worthless. Honoré was denied further financial support.

After this failure, Balzac began difficult period. He did “day labor” and wrote novels for others. It is still unknown how many such works he created and under whose name he created.

Balzac's writing career began in 1820. Then he publishes action-packed novels under a pseudonym and writes “codes” of secular behavior. One of his pseudonyms is Horace de Saint-Aubin.

The writer's anonymity ended in 1829. It was then that he published the novel “The Chouans, or Brittany in 1799.” Works began to be published under his own name.

Balzac had his own rather strict and very peculiar daily routine. The writer went to bed no later than 6-7 pm and got up to work at 1 am. The work lasted until 8 am. After this, Honore went back to bed for an hour and a half, followed by breakfast and coffee. Afterwards, he remained at his desk until four o'clock in the afternoon. Then the writer took a bath and sat down to work again.

The difference between the writer and his father was that he did not think to live long. Honore treated his own health with great frivolity. He had problems with his teeth, but he did not go to the doctors.

The year 1832 became critical for Balzac. He was already famous. Novels were created that brought him popularity. Publishers are generous and pay advances for works not yet completed. All the more unexpected was the illness that arose in the writer, the origins of which may come from childhood. Honore developed verbal impairments and began to experience auditory and even visual hallucinations. The writer is diagnosed with a symptom of paraphasia (incorrect pronunciation of sounds or replacement of words with words that are similar in sound and meaning).

Paris began to be filled with rumors about the strange behavior of the writer, about the incoherence of his speech and incomprehensible thoughtfulness. In an attempt to stop this, Balzac goes to Sasha, where he lives with old acquaintances.

Despite his illness, Balzac retained his intellect, thought and consciousness. His illness did not affect the personality itself.

Soon the writer began to feel better, his confidence returned. Balzac returned to Paris. The writer again began to drink huge amounts of coffee, using it as a dope. For four years Balzac was in good physical and mental health.

During a walk on June 26, 1836, the writer felt dizzy, unsteady and unsteady in his gait, and blood rushed to his head. Balzac fell unconscious. The fainting did not last long; the very next day the writer felt only some weakness. After this incident, Balzac often complained of pain in his head.

This fainting was confirmation of hypertension. Throughout the next year, Balza worked with his feet dipped in a bowl of mustard water. Dr. Nakkar gave the writer recommendations that he did not follow.

Having finished his next work, the writer returned to society. He tried to regain lost acquaintances and connections. Biographers say that he made a strange impression, being dressed out of fashion and with unwashed hair. But as soon as he joined the conversation, those around him turned all their gazes to him, ceasing to notice the oddities appearance. No one was indifferent to his knowledge, intelligence and talent.

The following years the writer complained of shortness of breath and anxiety. Balzac could hear wheezing in his lungs. In the 40s, the writer suffered from jaundice. After this, he began to experience eyelid twitching and stomach cramps. In 1846 there was a relapse of this disease. Balzac suffered from memory impairment and complications in communication. Forgetting nouns and names of objects has become frequent. Since the late 40s, Balzac suffered from illnesses internal organs. The writer suffered from Moldavian fever. He was ill for about 2 months, and after recovering, he returned to Paris.

In 1849, cardiac weakness began to increase, and shortness of breath appeared. He began to suffer from bronchitis. Due to hypertension, retinal detachment began. There was a short-term improvement, which again gave way to a worsening of the condition. Cardiac hypertrophy and edema began to develop, and fluid appeared in the abdominal cavity. Soon gangrene and periodic delirium joined everything. He was visited by friends, including Victor Hugo, who left very tragic notes.

The writer died in agony in the arms of his mother. Balzac's death occurred on the night of August 18-19, 1850.

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Writer's personal life

Balzac was very timid and clumsy by nature. And he felt timid even when a pretty young lady approached him. Next door to him lived the de Bernis family, who occupied a higher position. The writer had a passion for Laura de Berni. She was 42 years old and had 9 children, while Balzac had just turned 20. the lady did not immediately surrender to Honore, but was one of his first women. She revealed to him the secrets of a woman’s heart and all the delights of love.

His other Laura was the Duchess d'Abrantes. She appeared in the writer’s life a year after Madame de Bernis. This was an aristocrat unattainable for Balzac, but she too fell before him after 8 months.

Few ladies were able to resist Honore. But such a highly moral woman was found. Her name was Zulma Karro. This was the Versailles friend of his sister Laura de Surville. Honoré felt passion for her, but she felt only maternal tenderness for him. The woman firmly said that they could only be friends.

In 1831, he received an anonymous letter, which turned out to be from the Marquise de Castries, 35 years old. the writer was fascinated by her title. She refused to become the writer's mistress, but was a charming flirt.

On February 28, 1832, he will receive a letter mysteriously signed “Outlander.” It turned out to be sent by Evelina Ganskaya, née Rzhevusskaya. She was young, beautiful, rich and married to an old man. Honore confessed his love to her in the third letter. Their first meeting was in October 1833. After that they separated for 7 years. After meeting Evelina's husband, Balzac began to think about marrying her.

But their marriage took place only in 1850, when the writer was already terminally ill. There were no invitees. Afterwards, the newlyweds arrived in Paris, and on August 19, Honore passed away. The death of the writer was accompanied by the obscenity of his wife. There is a version that in his last hours she was in the arms of Jean Gigou, the artist. But not all biographers believe this. Later Evelina became the wife of this artist.

The work of Honore de Balzac and the most famous works (list)

The first independent novel was "Chouans", published in 1829. He also became famous for his subsequent release, “The Physiology of Marriage.” Next were created:

· 1830 – “Gobsek”;

· 1833 – “Eugenia Grande”;

· 1834 – “Godis-sar”;

· 1835 – “Forgiven Melmoth”;

· 1836 – “Mass of the Atheist”;

· 1837 – “Museum of Antiquities”;

· 1839 – “Pierre Grassou” and many others.

This also includes “Naughty Stories”. “Shagreen Skin” brought real fame to the writer.

Throughout his life, Balzac wrote his main work, “a picture of morals,” called “The Human Comedy.” Its composition:

· “Etudes on Morals” (dedicated to social phenomena);

· “Philosophical Etudes” (play of feelings, their movement and life);

· “Analytical studies” (about morals).

Writer's innovation

Balzac moved away from the personality novel of the historical novel. His desire is to designate the “individualized type.” The central figure of his works is bourgeois society, not the individual. He describes the life of classes, social phenomena, society. The line of works is in the victory of the bourgeoisie over the aristocracy and the weakening of morality.

Quotes by Honoré de Balzac

· “Shagreen Skin”: “He realized what a secret and unforgivable crime he had committed against them: he was escaping the power of mediocrity.”

· “Eugenia Grande”: “True love is gifted with foresight and knows that love causes love.”

· “Chouans”: “To forgive offenses, you need to remember them.”

· “Lily of the Valley”: “People are more likely to forgive a blow received in secret than an insult inflicted publicly.”

Balzac's life was not ordinary, and neither was his mind. The works of this writer have conquered the whole world. And his biography is as interesting as his novels.

Biography, life story of Honore de Balzac

Origin

Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in Tours, located near the Loire River. The daughter of a merchant from Paris gave birth to a boy. His father, Bernard Francois, was a simple peasant, but was able to become a fairly rich man thanks to his ability in trading.

Bernard was so successful in buying and then reselling those confiscated from the nobles during the revolution land plots that he was able to get out into the people. For some reason, Honore's father did not like the real name Balsa, and he changed it to Balzac. In addition, by paying officials a certain amount of money, he became the owner of the “de” particle. Since then, he began to be called more nobly, and by the sound of his first and last name he could well pass for a representative of the privileged class. However, in those days in France, many ambitious commoners who had at least some francs in their souls did this.

Bernard believed that without studying law, his son would forever remain the son of a peasant. Only advocacy, in his opinion, could somehow bring the young man closer to the circle of the elite.

Studies

In the period from 1807 to 1813, fulfilling the will of his father, Honore completed a course of study at the College of Vendôme, and in 1816-1819 he learned the basics of science at the Paris School of Law. The young Balzac did not forget about practice, performing the duties of a scribe for a notary.

At that time he firmly decided to devote himself literary creativity. Who knows, his dream could have come true if the father had paid more attention to his son. But the parents did not pay due attention to what young Honore lived and breathed. The father was busy with his own affairs, and the mother, who was 30 years younger than him, had a frivolous character and often found pleasure in the chambers of strange men.

It should be noted that the future famous writer did not want to become a lawyer at all, so he studied at these institutions, overcoming himself. Moreover, he amused himself by mocking the teachers. Therefore, it is not surprising that the careless student was repeatedly locked in a punishment cell. At the College of Vendôme, he was generally left to his own devices, because there parents could visit their children only once a year.

CONTINUED BELOW

In 1816, the family moved to the capital, and here the disease suddenly subsided.

The beginning of a creative journey

Beginning in 1823, young Balzac began to assert himself in literary circles. He published his first novels under fictitious names, and tried to write in the spirit of extreme romanticism. Such conditions were dictated by the fashion that prevailed in France at that time. Over time, Honore was skeptical about his attempts at writing. So much so that in the future I tried not to think about them at all.

In 1825, he tried not to write books, but to print them. Attempts with varying success lasted for three years, after which Balzac was completely disillusioned with the publishing business.

Writing craft

Honore returned to creativity again, finishing work on the historical novel “The Chouans” in 1829. By that time, the aspiring writer had such confidence in his abilities that he signed the work with his real name. Then everything went very smoothly, “Scenes” appeared privacy", "Elixir of Longevity", "Gobsek", "Shagreen Skin". The last of these works is a philosophical novel.

Balzac worked with all his strength, spending 15 hours a day at his desk. The writer was forced to write to the limit of his capabilities, since he owed creditors a large sum of money.

Honore needed considerable finances for various dubious enterprises. At first, cherishing the hope of buying a silver mine at a reasonable price, he rushed to Sardinia. Then he acquired a spacious estate in rural areas, the contents of which took a toll on the owner’s pockets. Finally, he founded a couple of periodicals, the release of which was not commercially successful.

However, such hard work brought him good dividends in the form of fame. Balzac published several books every year. Not every colleague could boast of such a result.

At the time when Balzac loudly declared himself in French literature(late 1820s), the direction of romanticism blossomed wildly. Many writers created the image of an adventurous or lonely hero. However, Balzac sought to move away from describing heroic individuals and focus on bourgeois society as a whole, which was the France of the July Monarchy. The writer depicted the life of representatives of almost all strata, from village workers and merchants to priests and aristocrats.

Marriage

Balzac visited Russia several times, in particular St. Petersburg. During one of his visits, fate brought him together with Evelina Ganskaya. The Countess belonged to a noble Polish family. A romance began, which ended in a wedding. The solemn event took place in the Church of St. Barbara in the city of Berdichev early in the morning, without outsiders.

Balzac's beloved had an estate in Verkhovna, a village located in Ukraine in the Zhitomir region. The couple settled there. Their love lasted almost 20 years, at the same time Balzac and Ganskaya often managed to live separately and not see each other for several years.

Balzac's hobbies

Previously, Balzac, despite his shy nature, awkward behavior and rather short stature, had many women. All of them could not resist Honore's energetic pressure. Partners young man It was mostly ladies who were much older than him.

As an example, we can recall the history of his relationship with 42-year-old Laura de Berni, who raised nine children. Balzac was 22 years younger, however, this did not stop him from achieving a mature woman. And this can be understood, because in this way he tried, albeit with very late, receive the portion of maternal caresses due to each child. Those that he was deprived of as a child.

Death of a Writer

In the last years of his life, the writer was often ill. Apparently, a disdainful attitude towards one’s own body made itself felt. Balzac never sought to lead healthy image life.

Your last earthly refuge famous writer found at the famous Parisian cemetery Père Lachaise. Death occurred on August 18, 1850.

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Honore de Balzac

"Honoré de Balzac"

Classic of French literature. According to the writer’s plan, his main work, “The Human Comedy,” was to consist of 143 books. He completed 90 books. This is a picture of French society that is grandiose in scope. He wrote the novels "Shagreen Skin" (1831), "Eugenie Grande" (1833), "Père Goriot" (1835), "Lily of the Valley" (1836), "Lost Illusions" (1835-1843), "Splendor and Poverty" courtesans" (1838-1847), etc.

Honore Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours. His father, Bernard Francois Balzac, an official of the military department, was engaged in the supply of provisions for the division stationed in this town. He was 53 years old when Honore was born. The mother of the future writer, Anne-Charlotte Salambier, a well-bred daughter of a Parisian bourgeois, was 32 years younger than her husband. Bernard Francois jokingly boasted of his distant relationship with the ancient Gallic knightly family of Balzac d'Entragues. However, the son will later turn this fantasy into an indisputable fact. "De Balzac" So he began to sign his letters and books, and decorated his carriage with the coat of arms of d'Antregov, preparing to go to Vienna. Meanwhile, all the documents that have reached us do not confirm noble origin Honore.

The future writer spent his early childhood outside his parents' home. At first he lived with a nurse, a simple Turaine peasant woman. When the boy was four years old, he was sent to the Lege boarding school. Balzac spent eleven years, with short breaks, behind the dull walls of various boarding schools and boarding schools. His darkest years were his seven years at the Collège Vendôme, a closed educational institution run by Oratorian monks. Two hundred college students had to unquestioningly submit to the harsh monastic regime. The slightest offense was punishable by flogging or a dark, damp punishment cell. Balzac had few friends. He was known as a gloomy, careless student.

During these years, Honore joined the world of books. He became a regular at the college library. He himself tried to write, but this only caused ridicule from his comrades, who gave him the ironic nickname Poet.

Balzac was fifteen years old when his father was transferred to Paris. The year was 1814. Napoleon's empire had just collapsed. France once again became the kingdom of the Bourbons.

At the insistence of his father, the young man studied at the School of Law and at the same time worked as a scribe in the office of lawyer Guillon de Merville. And in secret from his parents, he attended lectures on literature at the Sorbonne, spent long hours in the Arsenal library, studying the works of philosophers and historians.

The year 1819 began for him final exams. Honore successfully graduated from the School of Law, but unexpectedly for his parents he decided to devote himself to literature. At this time, the father retired, and the whole family moved to the town of Villeparisis, not far from the capital.

Honoré settled in a working-class area of ​​Paris and lived in a small attic. He wrote to his sister with humor: “Your brother, who is destined for such fame, eats exactly like great man, in other words, he is dying of hunger."

The first literary attempt in the genre of tragedy was subjected to derogatory criticism from the family council. Then Honore drew attention to “Gothic” novels, where heartless villains act, terrible crimes are committed, sinister secrets are revealed and virtuous beauties are rewarded. First, in collaboration with the experienced literary businessman Le Poitevin de l'Aigreville, and then on his own, Balzac published about a dozen novels over the course of five years, which did not bring him the long-awaited financial independence.

Until he was thirty, he avoided women. Balzac, stormy and unrestrained in his mature years, was timid to the point of morbidity in his youth. However, he avoided women not out of fear of falling in love, no, he was afraid of his own passion. In addition, Balzac knew that he was short-legged and clumsy by nature, that he would be ridiculous if, like the dandies of that time, he flirted with beauties. But this feeling of inferiority forced him again and again to run away from women into the solitude of his desk.

Sometimes Balzac lived with his parents in little Villeparisis. Here in 1821 he met Laura de Berni - a 45-year-old woman, a mother of many children, very unhappy in her family life. Her husband, Monsieur Gabriel de Bernis, son of the governor, was a councilor of the imperial court, the scion of an ancient noble family. Every day he saw worse and worse. Balzac's mother forced Honore to study with Laura's son, Alexander. They were almost the same age. Soon Madame Balzac began to notice something. She believed that her son was in love with the lovely Emmanuelle, who was only a few years younger than Honore. But the heart young writer was given to Laura, who bore her husband nine children!

Laura de Bernis - Balzac's first love - played a big role in his life. “She was my mother, friend, family, companion and adviser,” he later admitted. “She made me a writer, she consoled me in my youth, she awakened my taste, she cried and laughed with me, like a sister, she always came to me with a beneficial sleep that soothes the pain... Without it, I would simply die.” She did for him everything that a woman can do for a man. These relationships remained sensually intimate for a whole decade, from 1822 to 1833. Balzac expressed the importance of this connection for him in immortal words: “Nothing can compare with last love a woman who gives a man the happiness of first love."

Laura did not immediately respond to his feelings, but young Honore bombarded her with letters of confession: “How good you were yesterday! Many times you appeared to me in my dreams, brilliant and enchanting, but I confess, yesterday you bypassed your rival - the only mistress of my dreams." Madame de Bernis yielded to him on a warm May night. Honore was blissful: “Oh Laura! I am writing to you, and I am surrounded by the silence of the night, a night full of you, and in my soul lives the memory of your passionate kisses! What else can I think about?.. I see our bench all the time; I feel your sweet arms tremblingly hug me, and the flowers in front of me, although they have already faded, retain an intoxicating aroma.”

Madame de Bernis was full of passion and fire. But soon their connection became known in the world. Society condemned lovers. Meanwhile, all of Honore's publishing projects failed. Laura helped her lover not only with words of consolation, but also financially. They remained friends until her death in 1836 and corresponded. Laura de Berny served as the prototype for the heroine of the novel “Lily of the Valley,” although, as the writer himself noted, “the image of Madame de Mortsauf in “Lily of the Valley” is only a pale reflection of the smallest merits of this woman.”

From then on, Balzac was satisfied only by those women who were superior to him in experience and, oddly enough, in age. He was not seduced by young beauties who demanded too much and rewarded too little. “A forty-year-old woman will do everything for you, a twenty-year-old woman will do nothing!”

The Duchess d'Abrantes, the widow of General Junot, was hopelessly in debt and disrespected in society when Balzac met her around 1829 at Versailles. She was selling her memoirs. Duchess without special labor took me away young writer from the arms of the aging Laura de Berni. Balzac's titles and aristocratic surnames up to last day his life made an irresistible impression. Sometimes they simply fascinated him.

Balzac triumphed, becoming the duchess's lover. However, this relationship did not last long; over time, their relationship became purely friendly. The Duchess introduced Balzac to Madame de Recamier's salon and to the houses of some of her high-society acquaintances. He helped her sell her memoirs and may have participated in their writing.

Around that time, another woman, Zulma Carro, entered Balzac's life. Ugly, lame, she did not love her husband, the manager of a gunpowder factory, whose military career failed. But she had respect for his noble character and deeply sympathized with him as a man broken by failures. Zulma's meeting with Honore at his sister's house was happiness for both - for her and for Balzac.

Balzac began to comprehend the spiritual greatness of this woman, capable of amazing self-sacrifice. He wrote to her: “The quarter of an hour that I can spend with you in the evening means more to me than all the bliss of the night spent in the arms of a young beauty...”

But Zulma Karro understood that she did not have feminine attractiveness, capable of forever binding the person whom she places above all. And besides, she could not deceive or leave her unhappy husband.

"Honoré de Balzac"

Zulma offered the writer friendship, “holy and good friendship". In her letters, she spoke frankly about Balzac's works. He thanked her for her criticism. "You are my audience. I am proud to know you, who gives me the courage to strive for improvement." Before her death, Honore, looking around the whole past life, admitted that Zulma was the most significant, the best of his friends. And he took a pen, and after a long silence wrote her a farewell letter...

Balzac showed the right psychological instinct when, of all the great women around him, he became especially close to the noble Marcelina Debordes-Valmore, to whom he dedicated one of his beautiful creations and to whom, breathless, he climbed the steep stairs to the attic in the Palais Royal. With George Sand, whom he called “brother Georges,” he was connected only by cordial friendship, without the slightest hint of intimacy. Balzac's pride did not allow him to be included in the extensive list of her lovers.

Balzac did not have time to look for a woman, to look for his beloved. He worked at his desk for fourteen, fifteen hours. He spent the rest on sleep and urgent matters. But the women themselves sought to meet the famous writer, bombarding him with letters. Women's letters occupied him, delighted and excited him. On October 5, 1831, he received a letter signed by an English pseudonym. Oh miracle! She turned out to be a marquise. The father of the future Duchess Henriette-Marie de Castries was the Duke de Maillet, a former marshal of France whose ancestry dates back to the eleventh century. Her mother was the Duchess of Fitz-James, in other words, of the Stuarts and, therefore, royal blood. The Marquise was thirty-five years old, which fully corresponded to Balzac's ideal. She survived an affair that made a splash in society. Madame de Castries fell in love with the son of the all-powerful Chancellor Metternich. The feeling turned out to be mutual. The romance ended tragically: the marquise fell from her horse while hunting and broke her spine, and since then she was forced to spend most of her time in a deck chair or bed. Young Metternich soon died of consumption. Balzac decided to woo this unfortunate woman. They met in the salon of the Palais de Castellane. Three hours of conversation flew by unnoticed. “You received me so kindly,” he wrote to her, “you gave me such sweet hours, and I am firmly convinced: you alone are my happiness!”

The relationship became more and more cordial. Balzac's crew stopped every evening at the Castellan Palace, and conversations lasted long after midnight. He accompanied her to the theater, wrote letters to her, read his new works to her, he asked her for advice, gave her the most precious thing he could give: the manuscripts of “The Thirty-Year-Old Woman,” “Colonel Chabert” and “Errands.” For a lonely woman who had been grieving for the deceased for many weeks and months, this spiritual friendship meant a kind of happiness; for Balzac it meant passion.

However, as soon as his advances approached a dangerous point, the Duchess began to defend herself resolutely and adamantly. For several months she allowed the writer “only to slowly move forward, making small conquests with which a shy lover should be satisfied,” stubbornly refusing to “confirm the devotion of his heart by adding his own person to it.” Perhaps she decided to remain faithful to her husband, the father of her child, or perhaps she was ashamed of her injury or was afraid that Balzac would let slip about his relationship with the aristocrat. Alas, for the first time the writer realized that his will was not omnipotent. However, the story with Madame de Castries was not a disaster for Balzac, but only an insignificant episode.

The Duchess de Castries is not the only acquaintance that Balzac owes to the postman. There was a whole string of tender friends, in most cases only their names are known - Louise, Claire, Marie. These women usually came to Balzac’s home, and one of them took away an illegitimate child from there. Balzac once remarked: “It is much easier to be a lover than a husband, for the simple reason that it is much more difficult to demonstrate intelligence and wit all day long than to say something intelligent only from time to time.” But can’t true love someday break out instead of adultery?

In 1832, an event that seemed insignificant at first glance occurred. On February 28, Balzac's publisher Gosselin gave him a letter with the postmark "Odessa". The letter was from an unknown reader who signed herself “Foreigner”. After some time, a second letter arrived from her asking her to confirm receipt of the letters through the newspaper Cotidienne, distributed in Russia, which the intrigued Balzac did. He soon learned the name of his correspondent. This was a wealthy Polish landowner, Russian subject Evelina Ganskaya, née Countess Rzhevusskaya. She spoke French, English, and German. Her husband Wenceslav Gansky, who was approaching fifty, was often ill. Both were bored in their castle in Volyn, in Verkhovna. Eva gave birth to her husband seven (according to other sources - five) children. But only one daughter survived. Evelina, a stately, sensual woman, was thirty years old.

From the beginning of 1833, a lively correspondence began between Ganska and the French novelist, which lasted fifteen years. Each time his messages became more and more exalted. “You alone can make me happy, Eva. I am on my knees before you, my heart belongs to you. Kill me with one blow, but do not make me suffer! I love you with all the strength of my soul - do not force me to part with these wonderful hopes!”

In the autumn of 1833, in the small Swiss town of Neuchâtel, Balzac's first meeting with Hanska took place. Unfortunately, this important scene in the novel of Balzac's life has not reached us. There are different versions. According to one, he allegedly saw Ganskaya when he stood at the window of “Villa Andre”, and was shocked by how much her appearance coincided with the appearance that he saw in his prophetic dreams, according to another, she immediately recognized him from the portraits and approached him. According to the third, she couldn’t hide how disappointed she was by her troubadour’s appearance. Balzac met the Gansky family. Its head was delighted to meet the famous writer. Honore and Evelina hardly had time alone. Nevertheless, Balzac returned to Paris inspired. The stranger was perfection! He loved everything about her: her sharp foreign accent, her mouth that testified to kindness and voluptuousness. He was in awe, he himself was frightened when he saw that his whole life belonged to her: “There is no other woman in the whole world, only you!”

In 1833, Honoré was working on several novels at once. Balzac increasingly returns to the idea that arose in him back in 1831, while working on Shagreen Skin, to combine the novels into one huge cycle. In the early thirties, the feverish, intense pace of work that became characteristic of Balzac for many years developed. He usually wrote at night, with the curtains tightly closed and candlelight. In a quick, impetuous handwriting he covered page after page, barely keeping up with the rapid rush of his imagination and thoughts, and so on for ten, twelve, fourteen, and sometimes sixteen, eighteen hours a day. So day after day, month after month, maintaining strength with a huge amount of black coffee. Then he allowed himself to relax with friends and lovers. He admitted to Ganskaya: “For three years now I have been living chastely, like young girl", although the day before he proudly told his sister that he had become the father of an illegitimate child.

Balzac continued to bombard the Stranger from Verkhovna with letters. “How you want me not to love you: you are the first to come from afar to warm a heart yearning for love! I did everything to attract attention to myself heavenly angel; fame was my beacon - nothing more. And then you figured out everything: the soul, the heart, the person. Just last night, while re-reading your letter, I became convinced that only you alone are capable of understanding my whole life. You ask me how I find time to write to you! Well, dear Eva (let me shorten your name, it will better prove to you that you personify everything for me feminine- the only woman in the world; you fill the whole world for me, like Eve for the first man). Well, you are the only one who asked the poor artist, who always lacks time, whether he sacrifices something great by thinking and turning to his beloved? No one around me thinks about it; anyone would have no hesitation in taking up all my time.

And now I would like to devote my whole life to you, think only about you, write only to you. With what joy, if I were free from all worries, would I throw all my laurels, all my glory, all my best works, like grains of incense, onto the altar of love! Loving, Eva, is my whole life!”

They agreed to meet again. On December 25, 1833, Balzac arrives at the Hotel Del Arc in Geneva and finds there his first greeting - a precious ring in which a lock of amazing black hair was sealed. The ring that promised so much, the talisman that Balzac wore without taking it off until the end of his days.

Ganskaya did not immediately give in to her lover. But Honoré was persistent: “You will see: intimacy will only make our love more tender and stronger... How can I express everything to you: your delicate aroma intoxicates me, and no matter how much I possess you, I will only become more and more intoxicated.” Four weeks passed before happiness smiled on Balzac: “Yesterday I kept repeating to myself all evening: she is mine! Ah, the blessed in paradise are not as happy as I was yesterday.” The lovers swore to each other that they would unite forever when Evelina, after the death of her husband, became the owner of Verkhovna and the heiress of millions.

That same year, when Balzac vowed to be faithful to Evelina, he fell in love with another woman, more deeply in love than ever before. In 1835, at one of the high society receptions, he noticed a lady of about thirty, a tall, plump blonde of dazzling beauty, relaxed and clearly sensual. Countess Guidoboni-Visconti willingly allowed her bare shoulders to be admired, admired and taken care of. Balzac, forgetting about the oath of allegiance to Ganskaya, tried to capture the heart (and not only the heart) of the charming Englishwoman. He celebrated his victory - he became the lover of Countess Visconti and, in all likelihood, the father of Lionel Richard Guidoboni-Visconti - one of three illegitimate babies who did not inherit either the name or the genius of their father.

The Countess was the novelist's mistress for five years. In difficult times, she helped the writer and was ready to make any sacrifice for him. She gave herself to him completely and passionately, she didn’t care what Paris would say. Countess Visconti appeared with Balzac in her box. She hid him in her house when he did not know how to escape from creditors. Fortunately, her husband was not jealous...

Naturally, Evelina Ganskaya learned from the newspapers about her lover’s scandalous affair. She showered him with reproaches. Balzac defended himself, claiming that he had exclusively friendly feelings with the countess.

Meanwhile, Countess Visconti arranged for Balzac to travel to Italy, which did not cost him a penny. The novelist went on a trip not with the kind countess, but with a certain young man Marcel. Balzac loved love affairs. He was accompanied to Italy by Mrs. Carolina Marbuti, the wife of a prominent judicial official, dressed in a man's dress. Her black hair was cut short. Balzac met her with the help of the postman. The very first date lasted for three days, and he liked the young blooming lady so much that he invited her to go with him on a trip to Touraine, and then to Italy. Last offer She was greeted with delight.

Not without adventures they arrived in Italy. The very next day, newspapers reported about the arrival of a celebrity in the city. Balzac, who could never resist the admiration of princesses, countesses and marquises, favorably accepted invitations from the Piedmontese aristocracy. Of course, in the salons they learned that young Marcel was a lady in disguise. And... they mistaken Caroline Marbouti for the famous novelist George Sand, who cut her hair short, smoked cigars and wore pants. Balzac's companion suddenly found herself in the spotlight. Gentlemen and ladies surrounded her, chatting with her about belles lettres, were ready in advance to admire her wit and tried to get her Georges Sandov autograph. The writer had difficulty getting out of this difficult situation. Three weeks later they left for Paris, and the journey took them ten whole days, for they stopped in all the cities along the way. Honore was delighted with his young brunette...

Balzac was thirty-seven when he became the lover of a young brunette noblewoman, Hélène de Valette. He tried to attract a certain Louise to him in the usual way - by correspondence. He became a regular at dinners, where the most famous Parisian cocottes did not skimp on bait and caresses.

“Extraordinary women can be captivated only by the charms of their minds and nobility of character,” the writer believed. The wife of a certain general, with whom the writer was visiting, immediately noted a poorly made dress, a very bad hat, and the guest’s overly large head... But as soon as the hat was taken off, the general’s wife stopped noticing her surroundings: “I looked only at his face. To you, who have never seen him, it is difficult to imagine his forehead and eyes. His forehead was large, as if reflecting the light of a lamp, and his brown eyes with a golden shine were more expressive than any words.”

Balzac was a keen connoisseur and connoisseur of antiques. He also collected canes with handles decorated with gold, silver and turquoise. In one of them, he once told friends, a portrait of his mistress was kept.

“A woman is a well-laid table,” Balzac once remarked, “which a man looks at differently before and after eating.” Apparently, Balzac simply devoured his mistresses as greedily as he would a good dinner.

At the end of 1841, Ganskaya's husband died. The woman to whom Balzac had vowed fidelity suddenly became free. She is a rich widow - here she is, the ideal wife: aristocratic, young, smart, majestic. She will free him from debt, give him the opportunity to create, she will inspire him to great deeds, raise him in his own eyes, satisfy his desires. Honoré proposed to Evelina, despite the fact that in recent years the relationship with Madame Ganskaya had become more and more formal. But Evelina resolutely refused her lover. However, even if she agreed, it was by no means in her will to fulfill this desire. According to the laws Russian Empire Only the sovereign himself could give permission to marry a foreign citizen and to export the family fortune abroad. In addition, we must not forget about the resistance of his relatives, who saw in Balzac only a hunter of inheritance.

In June 1843, Balzac left Paris to visit Ganskaya in St. Petersburg, where he settled on Bolshaya Millionnaya in Titov’s house. Ganskaya lived in the house opposite. The novelist returned to France only in the fall and again plunged into work. His health deteriorated.

In 1845, Balzac met with Hanska in Dresden. Then he accompanied her to Italy and Germany, showing her Paris. And although he financial situation things improved significantly, he even bought a house in Paris and began collecting paintings, but life was becoming a real tragedy for him. His physical and creative powers were broken.

Marriage to Ganskaya, whom he idealized in his rich imagination, now seemed to him to be his only salvation. In September 1847, despite his illness, Balzac decided to go to the Ganskaya estate in Verkhovnya, sixty kilometers from Berdichev. Ganskaya still hesitated. She was afraid of losing her estates in Ukraine by marrying a foreigner. In addition, she was frightened by the violent, irrepressible nature of the writer. Balzac left Verkhovnya without hearing the long-awaited “yes.”

Ganskaya's second stay in Paris is shrouded in mystery. They probably made plans for a new home together. They had a child. Obviously, he was born prematurely, maybe he died immediately. It was a girl, and Balzac wrote that the latter circumstance moderated his grief.

Even now Ganskaya hesitated to take the decisive step. She found new excuses. However, in September 1848, the novelist came to Verkhovnya again. He was a completely sick man. He was tormented by pain in his heart and attacks of suffocation. At night he still tried to overcome himself and sat down to write. Alas, his pen was powerless. And then Ganskaya decided to get married. On March 14, 1850, the wedding of Balzac and Hanska took place in the Church of St. Barbarians in the city of Berdichev. He was full of bright hopes for the future and wrote to Zulma Carro: “I knew neither a happy youth nor a blooming spring, but now I will have the most sunny summer and warm autumn."

However, his dreams were not destined to come true. The journey of the sick Balzac and his wife from Berdichev to Paris lasted about a month. Since the end of June he no longer left the room. On August 18, the great novelist passed away.

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Honoré de Balzac (French Honoré de Balzac, May 20, 1799, Tours - August 18, 1850, Paris) - French writer. His real name was Honore Balzac, the particle “de” meaning belonging to a noble family, he began to use it around 1830.

Biography

Honore de Balzac was born in Tours, into a family of peasants from Languedoc. In 1807-1813 he studied at the College of Vendôme, in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, and at the same time worked as a scribe for a notary; abandoned his legal career and devoted himself to literature.

Since 1823, he published a number of novels under various pseudonyms in the spirit of “frantic romanticism.” In 1825-28 B. was engaged in publishing activities, but failed.

In 1829, the first book signed with the name "Balzac" was published - the historical novel "The Chouans" (Les Chouans). Balzac's subsequent works: “Scenes of Private Life” (Scènes de la vie privée, 1830), the novel “The Elixir of Longevity” (L"Élixir de longue vie, 1830-31, a variation on the theme of the legend of Don Juan); the story Gobseck (Gobseck, 1830) attracted widespread attention from readers and critics. In 1831 Balzac published his. philosophical novel“Shagreen Skin” and begins the novel “The Thirty-Year-Old Woman” (La femme de trente ans). In the cycle “Mischievous Stories” (Contes drolatiques, 1832-1837), Balzac ironically stylized Renaissance short stories. The partially autobiographical novel “Louis Lambert” (Louis Lambert, 1832) and especially the later “Seraphîta” (Séraphîta, 1835) reflected B.’s fascination with the mystical concepts of E. Swedenborg and Cl. de Saint Martin. If his hope of becoming rich has not yet been realized (since he is burdened by a huge debt - the result of his unsuccessful business ventures), then his hope of becoming famous, his dream of conquering Paris and the world with his talent, has been realized. Success did not turn Balzac's head, as it did with many of his young contemporaries. He continued to lead a hard working life, sitting at his desk for 15-16 hours a day; working until dawn, publishing three, four and even five, six books annually.

The works created in the first five or six years of his writing activity depict the most diverse areas of his contemporary life. French life: village, province, Paris; various social groups: merchants, aristocracy, clergy; various social institutions: family, state, army. Huge number the artistic facts contained in these books required their systematization.

Balzac's innovation

The late 1820s and early 1830s, when Balzac entered literature, were the period of greatest flowering of Romanticism in French literature. The great novel in European literature at the time of Balzac had two main genres: the novel of the individual - an adventurous hero (for example, Robinson Crusoe) or a self-absorbed, lonely hero (The Sorrows of Young Werther by W. Goethe) and a historical novel (Walter Scott).

Balzac departs from both the novel of personality and the historical novel of Walter Scott. He strives to show the “individualized type”, to give a picture of the whole society, the whole people, the whole of France. Not a legend about the past, but a picture of the present, artistic portrait bourgeois society is at the center of his creative attention.

The standard-bearer of the bourgeoisie is now a banker, not a commander; its shrine is the stock exchange, not the battlefield.

Not a heroic personality and not a demonic nature, not a historical act, but modern bourgeois society, France of the July Monarchy - this is the main literary theme of the era. In place of the novel, the task of which is to give in-depth experiences of the individual, Balzac puts a novel about social mores, in place historical novels — artistic history post-revolutionary France.

“Studies on Morals” unfolds the picture of France, depicts the life of all classes, all social conditions, all social institutions. The key to this story is money. Its main content is the victory of the financial bourgeoisie over the landed and clan aristocracy, the desire of the entire nation to become in the service of the bourgeoisie, to become related to it. Thirst for money - main passion, the ultimate dream. The power of money is the only indestructible force: love, talent, family honor are submissive to it, family hearth, parental feeling.

Honore de Balzac - French novelist, one of the founders realistic and naturalistic trends in prose. Born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours, he was at one time a notary's clerk, but did not want to continue this service, feeling a calling to literature. Throughout his life, Balzac struggled with the constraint financial situation, worked with tenacity and perseverance, came up with a lot of unrealistic projects in order to get rich, but never got out of debt and was forced to write novel after novel, studying for 12 - 18 hours a day. The result of this work was 91 novels, which make up one general cycle “The Human Comedy”, where more than 2000 individuals are described with their characteristic individual and everyday traits.

Honore de Balzac. Daguerreotype 1842

Balzac did not know family life; he married only a few months before his death to Countess Ganskaya, with whom he corresponded for 17 years and came to Russia more than once to meet with her (Ganskaya’s husband owned extensive estates in Ukraine). The heart disease from which Balzac suffered intensified during his last trip, and, having arrived in Paris with his wife, whom he married in Berdichev, the writer died three months later, on August 18, 1850.

In his novels, Honoré de Balzac is an apt and thoughtful depicter of human nature and public relations. bourgeois class, folk customs and the characters are described by him with a truthfulness and strength almost unknown before him. For the most part, each of the persons he deduces has one predominant passion, which serves as the motivating reason for his actions and very often also the cause of his death. This passion, despite its all-consuming dimensions, does not give to this person exceptional or fantastic character: the novelist so clearly makes these features dependent on the living conditions and moral physiognomy of the subject that the reality of the latter remains beyond doubt.

Geniuses and villains. Honore de Balzac

One of the most active and frequent springs that drive Balzac's heroes is money. The author, who spent his whole life inventing ways to get rich faster and more surely, had the opportunity to study the world of businessmen, swindlers, entrepreneurs with their grandiose plans, exaggerated, fantastic hopes, disappearing like soap bubbles, and carrying with them both the initiators themselves and those who I believed them. This world was transferred by Balzac to his “Human Comedy”, along with all the differences that the passion for money creates in people with different mental makeup and different habits created by one or another environment. Balzac's description of the latter is often sufficient to characterize his characters; The author depicts the smallest details of the situation with great accuracy, giving his overall picture an idea of ​​the moral side of the characters. This desire alone to reproduce the life situation of the characters in all its details can explain why Emile Zola saw Balzac as the head of naturalism.

Balzac studied the terrain, environment, and people in detail before starting to describe it. He traveled almost all of France, studying the areas in which his novels take place; he made a wide variety of acquaintances, tried to talk with people different professions and different social environments. Therefore, all his characters are vital, although most of them burn out from one dominant passion, which can be vanity, envy, stinginess, passion for profit, or, as in “Père Goriot,” paternal love for daughters that has turned into mania.

But how strong is Balzac in describing human characters and social relations, he is just as weak when describing nature: his landscapes are pale, dull and banal. He is interested only in man, and among people mainly those whose vices allow him to see more clearly the true lining of human nature. Balzac's shortcomings as a writer include the poverty of his style and lack of sense of proportion. Even in the famous image of the hotel in “Père Goriot,” the excessiveness of descriptions and the artist’s passion are noticeable. The plot of his novels often does not correspond to the realism of characters and settings; Romanticism in this regard influenced him mainly through its bad side. But the general picture of the life of the bourgeois class in Paris and in the provinces, with all its shortcomings, vices, passions, with all the diversity of characters and types, is presented to perfection by him.