Balzac by Stefan Zweig: With thirteen half-tone illustrations and thirty-one vignettes

by W and Rose Rose

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have complete novels of Balzac, and he is obviously one of my favorite French writers. His life somehow reminded me of a sublimated version of Van Gogh,always struggling during his lifetime, may be not to such a high extent.

Lots of women played a key role in Balzac's life. His overbearing mom, Laure de Berny (a version of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Madame De Warren), Zulma Carraud, and finally, Madame de Hanska(Mrs Balzac).

The book deals with his personal life more than his work, which is fine. Zweig probably resembled Balzac in temperament and outcome. Burned out through overexhaustion. It is a classic case of aiming too high.

Is it note fate, much like Balzac's La Comédie humaine, his magnum opus, Zweig's Biography of Balzac also remained unfinished; a work he has been planning for years.La Comédie humaine

[Jeffrey Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biographies figure prominently in the long list of Stefan Zweig's works. This one was still in manuscript when Zweig died. His friend, Richard Friedenthal, finished the book, which was almost ready for publication. The excellent English translation was published in 1946, and appears to be out of print, reflecting the decline in Zweig's reputation, perhaps, as well as changes in taste with respect to biographies.
Zweig follows Balzac's life closely from birth to death, making use mainly of his letters and novels (which he tends to interpret as autobiographical, to a degree). He expresses vast admiration for Balzac as a novelist, though he is critical of many important flaws in his work. He is quite severe with Balzac's financial irresponsibility, his impulsiveness, his snobbishness, and his other personal weaknesses.
I read it with interest both because it does contain a lot of factual information about Balzac and because Zweig, an author of considerable prowess, relates to Balzac as a fellow professional who had to manage a career as a writer. A professor with tenure and a guaranteed annual salary, in writing a literary biography, does not have to be concerned with royalties and advances, popularity with readers, and the rest of the business of making a living by writing and thus is likely not to take this aspect of his subject's life as seriously as it deserves, unlike Zweig.
Many of his accounts of Balzac's states of mind are pure speculation, though entertaining and insightful, though impossible to substantiate. This book is less a biography than a historical novel about Balzac. Why not?