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La Comédie Humaine #66
The Village Rector
The Country Parson opens with a picturesque portrait of the house in Limoges which became the Sauviat shop and home. Jerome-Baptiste Sauviat is an Auvergnat peddlar specializing in metal. In 1797, at around age fifty and tired of travelling, he married the daughter of a coppersmith named Champagnac. Madame Sauviat, also from Auvergne, was around thirty at the time of their marriage. Both were rough and strong. Though neither could read, when it came to business, both were excellent in arithmetic. Both were religious and freely gave to the parish though they were extremely frugal in their daily living. They have a daughter, Veronique, who is beautiful and charming, a favorite in the entire quarter.
The Country Parson/The Village Rector (Le Cure du Village) is not only about the title character, Abbe Bonnet, but focuses more on Veronique de Graslin. (from a Balzac blog
The Country Parson/The Village Rector (Le Cure du Village) is not only about the title character, Abbe Bonnet, but focuses more on Veronique de Graslin. (from a Balzac blog
264 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1839
About the author
Honoré de Balzac
9,907 books4,505 followersFrench writer Honoré de Balzac (born Honoré Balzac), a founder of the realist school of fiction, portrayed the panorama of society in a body of works, known collectively as
La comédie humaine
.
Honoré de Balzac authored 19th-century novels and plays. After the fall of Napoléon in 1815, his magnum opus, a sequence of almost a hundred novels and plays, entitled, presents life in the years.
Due to keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation, European literature regards Balzac. He features renowned multifaceted, even complex, morally ambiguous, full lesser characters. Character well imbues inanimate objects; the city of Paris, a backdrop, takes on many qualities. He influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles John Huffam Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac as well as important philosophers, such as Friedrich Engels. Many works of Balzac, made into films, continue to inspire.
An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac adapted with trouble to the teaching style of his grammar. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. Balzac finished, and people then apprenticed him as a legal clerk, but after wearying of banal routine, he turned his back on law. He attempted a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician before and during his career. He failed in these efforts From his own experience, he reflects life difficulties and includes scenes.
Possibly due to his intense schedule and from health problems, Balzac suffered throughout his life. Financial and personal drama often strained his relationship with his family, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; five months later, he passed away.
Honoré de Balzac authored 19th-century novels and plays. After the fall of Napoléon in 1815, his magnum opus, a sequence of almost a hundred novels and plays, entitled, presents life in the years.
Due to keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation, European literature regards Balzac. He features renowned multifaceted, even complex, morally ambiguous, full lesser characters. Character well imbues inanimate objects; the city of Paris, a backdrop, takes on many qualities. He influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles John Huffam Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac as well as important philosophers, such as Friedrich Engels. Many works of Balzac, made into films, continue to inspire.
An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac adapted with trouble to the teaching style of his grammar. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. Balzac finished, and people then apprenticed him as a legal clerk, but after wearying of banal routine, he turned his back on law. He attempted a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician before and during his career. He failed in these efforts From his own experience, he reflects life difficulties and includes scenes.
Possibly due to his intense schedule and from health problems, Balzac suffered throughout his life. Financial and personal drama often strained his relationship with his family, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; five months later, he passed away.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 25, 2011
The Village Rector is by no means Balzac's best novel, but it has some beauties of its own -- but only if you can tolerate a life of Christian piety stretched over the period of a lifetime. Its main character, Veronique de Graslin has committed some terrible sin of which we do not learn until the very last chapter (though we suspect it).
The novel is something of a misnomer, as the Abbé Bonnet, who is the eponymous Village Rector, only symbolizes by his old-style rectitude the Christian ideal toward which Veronique is drawn -- just as she is drawn away from Limoges, the scene of her "sin."
What I liked most about The Village Rector was the notion of taking a desolate part of France, and with the use of money, planning, and intelligence, turning it into a paradise on earth -- all as part of a self-imposed penance. The book reminds me of the same author's The Country Doctor, which I also loved for much the same reason. Also it brings to mind the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile, which, although so wrong-headed in so many ways, leaves behind in my memory a golden glow by its very goodness.
The novel is something of a misnomer, as the Abbé Bonnet, who is the eponymous Village Rector, only symbolizes by his old-style rectitude the Christian ideal toward which Veronique is drawn -- just as she is drawn away from Limoges, the scene of her "sin."
What I liked most about The Village Rector was the notion of taking a desolate part of France, and with the use of money, planning, and intelligence, turning it into a paradise on earth -- all as part of a self-imposed penance. The book reminds me of the same author's The Country Doctor, which I also loved for much the same reason. Also it brings to mind the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile, which, although so wrong-headed in so many ways, leaves behind in my memory a golden glow by its very goodness.
September 24, 2016
Oh dear me, I'm glad this wasn't the first Balzac I ever read or I might never have read another one.
It's the rather odd and not very credible story of Veronique of Limoges, the only daughter of a parsimonious couple who made a fortune in the scrap metal business. Her father married her off (along with a substantial dowry) to another parsimonious old skinflint called Graslin, and she has a miserable life except for one brief flurry of excitement when she reads a novel about love and it sets her poor heart a-flutter.
Having established Veronique in dreary married life, Balzac abruptly switches to the story of a murder. An old miser is set upon, his servant goes to help and both of them are killed, leaving only shards of pottery where his treasure used to be buried in the garden. Evidence is flimsy, but a young man called Tascheron is convicted. In gaol, he is very badly behaved, blasphemes against the church and has to be restrained in a strait jacket. The church is not best pleased because they like their villains to repent before they're executed.
Meanwhile, Veronique is about to have her first baby after reluctantly resuming relations with her loathsome husband, and then Balzac changes tack again, this time in a long, discursive rant about how the government ought to be developing unproductive lands so that they are not prey to highwaymen and thieves who can't make a living any other way. He then introduces Monsieur Bonnet, a saintly priest who has managed to tame this ungodly region where the gendarmerie has failed, and so the Abbé is sent off to Montegnac to bring him to Limoges to effect reconciliation with the Lord in time for the date with the guillotine. Well, we just know, don't we, that he will tame Tascheron too, eh?
The Abbé is a sophisticated soul and inclined to patronise the country vicar but he is chastened by the beautiful simplicity of the rustic church and its parishioners. He arrives as they are all weeping at the mass for the repose of Tascheron’s soul but he declines to tell the grieving parents that their son has had a reprieve to make his peace with God until later that day. Here Balzac takes the opportunity for another rant, this time about the decline of family responsibility since the revolution. It’s clear that he thinks it right that the young man’s conservative family who cling to the old virtues should have to leave the village because their son has shamed them. Off they go, except for Denise, Tascheron’s sister. She heads back to Limoges with the rector where, as predicted, they are able to extract a confession from the young man and he is executed the next day.
48 hours later, Denise and another brother return to Limoges with money to pay the lawyer and it’s not long before they are caught digging the rest of the dosh up out of the ground. They are fulfilling Tascheron’s last wish, that the money be repaid to the miser’s relations, the des Vanneaux, who are eventually so suitably grateful that they wish to do something for the Tascheron family – but they seem to have disappeared.
Back then to Veronique, who’s gone into a decline after the birth of her child. This is because Graslin’s investments went belly-up due to the ruckus in Parisian politics, and he’s died of shock. Veronique, however, doesn’t rejoice in being a free woman but goes off instead to Montegnac to be Mournful, to do Good Works and to reclaim and renovate the Estates to make them productive for the locals. Bonnet challenges her to pull herself together so she goes out riding to inspect her Estate, and in the woods meets a reformed ex-convict called Farrabesche. Here lies the opportunity for Balzac to have his third rant, this time about the dreadful conditions under which convicts suffer in the galleys (which only served to remind me that Victor Hugo told the same story much better in Les Misérables). Veronique decides to feel sorry for Farrabesche, to find his missing wife and to give him a job. Naturally he, like all the other villagers, is thenceforth devoted to her.
Before long she gets a letter from Limoges about a suitable engineer to build the dams and irrigation systems that are needed, and so we get a fourth rant, this one about how Paris doesn’t allow its young professionals career opportunities and so France is getting left behind when it comes to the infrastructure it needs. *Yawn*.
In spite of all this silliness by now I was totally sucked in and had to keep reading to find out if my conjectures were right. Was Veronique the lover of Tascheron, and is the child his?
Well, eventually Gerard the Engineer turns up and although he’s not good looking, he ends up getting the girl. No, not Veronique. She has Sins to Pay For, and clearly a poised death is the only way to tidy things up. Let’s just conclude by saying that some justice is done and some expiation is made.
Read it at your peril!
It's the rather odd and not very credible story of Veronique of Limoges, the only daughter of a parsimonious couple who made a fortune in the scrap metal business. Her father married her off (along with a substantial dowry) to another parsimonious old skinflint called Graslin, and she has a miserable life except for one brief flurry of excitement when she reads a novel about love and it sets her poor heart a-flutter.
Having established Veronique in dreary married life, Balzac abruptly switches to the story of a murder. An old miser is set upon, his servant goes to help and both of them are killed, leaving only shards of pottery where his treasure used to be buried in the garden. Evidence is flimsy, but a young man called Tascheron is convicted. In gaol, he is very badly behaved, blasphemes against the church and has to be restrained in a strait jacket. The church is not best pleased because they like their villains to repent before they're executed.
Meanwhile, Veronique is about to have her first baby after reluctantly resuming relations with her loathsome husband, and then Balzac changes tack again, this time in a long, discursive rant about how the government ought to be developing unproductive lands so that they are not prey to highwaymen and thieves who can't make a living any other way. He then introduces Monsieur Bonnet, a saintly priest who has managed to tame this ungodly region where the gendarmerie has failed, and so the Abbé is sent off to Montegnac to bring him to Limoges to effect reconciliation with the Lord in time for the date with the guillotine. Well, we just know, don't we, that he will tame Tascheron too, eh?
The Abbé is a sophisticated soul and inclined to patronise the country vicar but he is chastened by the beautiful simplicity of the rustic church and its parishioners. He arrives as they are all weeping at the mass for the repose of Tascheron’s soul but he declines to tell the grieving parents that their son has had a reprieve to make his peace with God until later that day. Here Balzac takes the opportunity for another rant, this time about the decline of family responsibility since the revolution. It’s clear that he thinks it right that the young man’s conservative family who cling to the old virtues should have to leave the village because their son has shamed them. Off they go, except for Denise, Tascheron’s sister. She heads back to Limoges with the rector where, as predicted, they are able to extract a confession from the young man and he is executed the next day.
48 hours later, Denise and another brother return to Limoges with money to pay the lawyer and it’s not long before they are caught digging the rest of the dosh up out of the ground. They are fulfilling Tascheron’s last wish, that the money be repaid to the miser’s relations, the des Vanneaux, who are eventually so suitably grateful that they wish to do something for the Tascheron family – but they seem to have disappeared.
Back then to Veronique, who’s gone into a decline after the birth of her child. This is because Graslin’s investments went belly-up due to the ruckus in Parisian politics, and he’s died of shock. Veronique, however, doesn’t rejoice in being a free woman but goes off instead to Montegnac to be Mournful, to do Good Works and to reclaim and renovate the Estates to make them productive for the locals. Bonnet challenges her to pull herself together so she goes out riding to inspect her Estate, and in the woods meets a reformed ex-convict called Farrabesche. Here lies the opportunity for Balzac to have his third rant, this time about the dreadful conditions under which convicts suffer in the galleys (which only served to remind me that Victor Hugo told the same story much better in Les Misérables). Veronique decides to feel sorry for Farrabesche, to find his missing wife and to give him a job. Naturally he, like all the other villagers, is thenceforth devoted to her.
Before long she gets a letter from Limoges about a suitable engineer to build the dams and irrigation systems that are needed, and so we get a fourth rant, this one about how Paris doesn’t allow its young professionals career opportunities and so France is getting left behind when it comes to the infrastructure it needs. *Yawn*.
In spite of all this silliness by now I was totally sucked in and had to keep reading to find out if my conjectures were right. Was Veronique the lover of Tascheron, and is the child his?
Well, eventually Gerard the Engineer turns up and although he’s not good looking, he ends up getting the girl. No, not Veronique. She has Sins to Pay For, and clearly a poised death is the only way to tidy things up. Let’s just conclude by saying that some justice is done and some expiation is made.
Read it at your peril!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 9, 2022
!!!!ACHTUNG ABGELENKTER AUTOR AM WERK!!!!
Frömmelnd und geschwätzig
Die Konfliktlage:
Armes reiches und absolut ahnungsloses Mädchen vom Lande wird an einen alten Geizkragen verheiratet, der durch die Mitgift sein Vermögen auf anderthalb Millionen verdoppeln kann. Die Werbungskosten nach der Trauung aber wieder massiv senkt und seine Frau in jeder Hinsicht verkümmern lässt. Der Anfang klingt nach einer Variation über das Thema von Eugenie Grandet, tatsächlich bestünde das Potenzial zu einem kriminellen Gegenstück.
Denn es folgt ein zweiter Handlungsstrang mit einem Doppelraubmord an einem alten Geizkragen, der auch im Salon von Véronique besprochen wird, zumal der Staatsanwalt da gerne ein und aus geht, weil er ein Auge auf die Hausherrin geworfen hat. Alle Indizien deuten auf einen jungen Mann hin, der vorher als absolut vorbildlicher Arbeiter galt, obwohl er aus einem ziemlich üblen Viertel stammt. Man vermutet es sei eine Frau im Spiel, eine verheiratete Frau aus guten Verhältnissen. Doch ein Geständnis fehlt, jeglicher Hinweis auf die Mitwisserin oder Auslöserin, auch jegliche Reue des Täters, ohne den finalen Triumph will die Kirche den Sünder aber nicht vom Haken lassen, also wird der Pfarrer aus dem Heimatdorf in Marsch gesetzt, da alle anderen geistlichen Instanzen nur Schübe von Gotteslästerung hervor rufen.
Früher Einbruch und abschließendes Urteil:
Die Anfänge dieses Romans sind durchaus verheißungsvoll, obwohl von Anfang an ein seltsam frömmelnder Unterton mitschwingt, bzw. die religiösen Anwandlungen des Schrotthändler-Elternpaars der anfänglich wunderschönen, dann durch Blattern entstellten Véronique nur schlecht motiviert sind, die Hintergründe für die Tat ergeben aber durchaus Sinn, doch leider hat Balzac keinen frühen Krimi geschrieben, , sondern einen ziemlich geschwätzigen Architekturporno für Freunde herunter gekommener Häuser und ärmlicher Kirchen, in dem auch allerlei andere soziale Essays zu Problemthemen eingearbeitet sind. Der ganze Roman wirkt je länger, desto abgelenkter, kann wirklich nur davon abraten. Im Gegensatz zu so mancher kurzer Erzählung in der CH, die bei der Erstlektüre nicht viel her macht, aber bei mehr Vertrautheit mit dem Zyklus und seinem Personal enorm an Bedeutung gewinnt, weil Vorgeschichten enthüllt oder die Nachwehen eines großen Dramas thematisiert werden, gibt es im Dorfpfarrer, der eigentlich nur Geständniskatalysator eine Nebenrolle spielt, keine relevanten Querverbindungen.
Sogar für einen Komplettisten wie mich eine absolute Zumutung, die Kurzbio am Anfang ist aber großartig. Die ersten beiden Kapitel sind gute drei Sterne, der Rest frommes Gefasel und Alltagspolitik, ich würde auf jeden Fall von der Lektüre abraten und sollte den Stern als Signal stehen lassen, objektiv sind es aber zwei Sterne, so groß der Ärger über das verplemperte Potenzial auch ist.
Frömmelnd und geschwätzig
Die Konfliktlage:
Armes reiches und absolut ahnungsloses Mädchen vom Lande wird an einen alten Geizkragen verheiratet, der durch die Mitgift sein Vermögen auf anderthalb Millionen verdoppeln kann. Die Werbungskosten nach der Trauung aber wieder massiv senkt und seine Frau in jeder Hinsicht verkümmern lässt. Der Anfang klingt nach einer Variation über das Thema von Eugenie Grandet, tatsächlich bestünde das Potenzial zu einem kriminellen Gegenstück.
Denn es folgt ein zweiter Handlungsstrang mit einem Doppelraubmord an einem alten Geizkragen, der auch im Salon von Véronique besprochen wird, zumal der Staatsanwalt da gerne ein und aus geht, weil er ein Auge auf die Hausherrin geworfen hat. Alle Indizien deuten auf einen jungen Mann hin, der vorher als absolut vorbildlicher Arbeiter galt, obwohl er aus einem ziemlich üblen Viertel stammt. Man vermutet es sei eine Frau im Spiel, eine verheiratete Frau aus guten Verhältnissen. Doch ein Geständnis fehlt, jeglicher Hinweis auf die Mitwisserin oder Auslöserin, auch jegliche Reue des Täters, ohne den finalen Triumph will die Kirche den Sünder aber nicht vom Haken lassen, also wird der Pfarrer aus dem Heimatdorf in Marsch gesetzt, da alle anderen geistlichen Instanzen nur Schübe von Gotteslästerung hervor rufen.
Früher Einbruch und abschließendes Urteil:
Die Anfänge dieses Romans sind durchaus verheißungsvoll, obwohl von Anfang an ein seltsam frömmelnder Unterton mitschwingt, bzw. die religiösen Anwandlungen des Schrotthändler-Elternpaars der anfänglich wunderschönen, dann durch Blattern entstellten Véronique nur schlecht motiviert sind, die Hintergründe für die Tat ergeben aber durchaus Sinn, doch leider hat Balzac keinen frühen Krimi geschrieben, , sondern einen ziemlich geschwätzigen Architekturporno für Freunde herunter gekommener Häuser und ärmlicher Kirchen, in dem auch allerlei andere soziale Essays zu Problemthemen eingearbeitet sind. Der ganze Roman wirkt je länger, desto abgelenkter, kann wirklich nur davon abraten. Im Gegensatz zu so mancher kurzer Erzählung in der CH, die bei der Erstlektüre nicht viel her macht, aber bei mehr Vertrautheit mit dem Zyklus und seinem Personal enorm an Bedeutung gewinnt, weil Vorgeschichten enthüllt oder die Nachwehen eines großen Dramas thematisiert werden, gibt es im Dorfpfarrer, der eigentlich nur Geständniskatalysator eine Nebenrolle spielt, keine relevanten Querverbindungen.
Sogar für einen Komplettisten wie mich eine absolute Zumutung, die Kurzbio am Anfang ist aber großartig. Die ersten beiden Kapitel sind gute drei Sterne, der Rest frommes Gefasel und Alltagspolitik, ich würde auf jeden Fall von der Lektüre abraten und sollte den Stern als Signal stehen lassen, objektiv sind es aber zwei Sterne, so groß der Ärger über das verplemperte Potenzial auch ist.
August 6, 2017
La Comédie humaine at its loftiest.
Forget the erroneous title, the central figure of this particular slice of Balzac's lifelong gift to literature is not a man of the cloth at all. Instead it's a woman of character, Madame Graslin.
Born the beautiful daughter of two provincial misers, she loses her looks to the smallpox, is married off to a wealthy financier, becomes a refined and respected hostess, suffers in secret the torments of a guilty conscience, and ultimately endeavours to accomplish a great work in the country.
That represents as full a character arc as I have so far discovered in the many stories of Balzac. Monsieur Bonnet the rector is certainly instrumental in her journey of resolution and repentance, but his role is very much a supporting one.
As stated at the outset, the themes of this novel are of the weightiest kind. Through the life of Madame Graslin, interactions with two largely unconnected criminals who influence her profoundly, and the beneficial effects her money and devotion have on the estate of Montegnac she regenerates, Balzac sets out to explain why our understanding of equality, crime, and justice are all meaningless in the eyes of God
The end result is highly satisfying, though far from being his most accessible book from a narrative standpoint. There is still plenty of opportunity to enjoy the microscopic attention he lavishes on describing the interior of a miser's shop or a poor country church etc., even if the plot grinds to a virtual halt in the second half.
But the themes are the thing. I was not even in sympathy with the deeply conservative feudal views of the title character and his more prominent penitent. However, I did agree with his spiritual call to arms:
'To weep, Madame, to grown like Magdalen in the desert, is only the beginning; to act is the end ... If you believe that God is your judge, the Church says to you by my voice that everything may be redeemed by the good works of repentance.'
Madame Graslin comes to learn how "our souls must be ploughed, as well as the earth", and takes on her great work.
Forget the erroneous title, the central figure of this particular slice of Balzac's lifelong gift to literature is not a man of the cloth at all. Instead it's a woman of character, Madame Graslin.
Born the beautiful daughter of two provincial misers, she loses her looks to the smallpox, is married off to a wealthy financier, becomes a refined and respected hostess, suffers in secret the torments of a guilty conscience, and ultimately endeavours to accomplish a great work in the country.
That represents as full a character arc as I have so far discovered in the many stories of Balzac. Monsieur Bonnet the rector is certainly instrumental in her journey of resolution and repentance, but his role is very much a supporting one.
As stated at the outset, the themes of this novel are of the weightiest kind. Through the life of Madame Graslin, interactions with two largely unconnected criminals who influence her profoundly, and the beneficial effects her money and devotion have on the estate of Montegnac she regenerates, Balzac sets out to explain why our understanding of equality, crime, and justice are all meaningless in the eyes of God
The end result is highly satisfying, though far from being his most accessible book from a narrative standpoint. There is still plenty of opportunity to enjoy the microscopic attention he lavishes on describing the interior of a miser's shop or a poor country church etc., even if the plot grinds to a virtual halt in the second half.
But the themes are the thing. I was not even in sympathy with the deeply conservative feudal views of the title character and his more prominent penitent. However, I did agree with his spiritual call to arms:
'To weep, Madame, to grown like Magdalen in the desert, is only the beginning; to act is the end ... If you believe that God is your judge, the Church says to you by my voice that everything may be redeemed by the good works of repentance.'
Madame Graslin comes to learn how "our souls must be ploughed, as well as the earth", and takes on her great work.
March 13, 2025
Como en la mayoría de las historias de Balzac, el protagonista no es necesariamente quien parecería o debería ser. La historia de Veronique esta contada de modo que no es hasta el final que nos enteramos realmente (aunque podemos visualizar algo, antes) los hechos que determinan un cambio en su vida.
November 27, 2021
Balzac's "The Village Rector" is from his "scenes from country life" & is the female companion piece to "The Country Doctor" but this story have a more religious element which I totally enjoyed. I still have not found a story of his I didn't truly appreciate and enjoy. There is a mystery that is easily figured out fairly early on but despite that, this story had my attention. Balzac sometimes tends to bring his views on politics and religion, this being heavier on the faith angle. It is interesting seeing what problems he forsees France having and what he suggests. It truly makes me sad to see how faith/ religion has taken such a hit and how morality has changed so much since this was written. I always come away with a new perspective thinking about the ideas espoused and thinking differently about life. This story is about a woman's life with the direction of the village rector helping her and his community in their spirituality. The scenery passages can be a little much at times but worth it to understand the country better.
Story in short- Veronique Sauviat has a secret which is something terrible to bare without the help of Abbe Bonnet's help and her other friends.
Rastignac's younger brother, who is an Abbe plays a part as well as Granville's eldest son who like is father his a lawyer, and not very lucky in love either.
I didn't read this edition but from.a Delphi collection of his works.
"Le Curé de Village is an 1839 novel, which opens with a picturesque portrait of a house in Limoges, the Sauviat shop and home. Jerome-Baptiste Sauviat is an Auvergnat peddlar specialising in metal. In 1797, aged fifty and tired of travelling, he married the daughter of a coppersmith named Champagnac."
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
I was glad the Veronique was able to confess, it seems like her son might be told about his father but it is uncertain if he was there when she confessed. Many of those close to her heard but the rectors from the surrounding communities, will they tell their parishioners or with hold her whole story?
"This house, hired in the first instance, was subsequently bought by a man named Sauviat, a hawker or peddler who, from 1786 to 1793, travelled the country over a radius of a hundred and fifty miles around Auvergne, exchanging crockery of a common kind, plates, dishes, glasses, — in short, the necessary articles of the poorest households, — for old iron, brass, and lead, or any metal under any shape it might lurk in. At the close of his third year Sauviat added the hawking of tin"
"In 1793 he was able to buy a chateau sold as part of the National domain, which he at once pulled to pieces. The profits were such that he repeated the process at several points of the sphere in which he operated; later, these first successful essays gave him the idea of proposing something of a like nature on a larger scale to one of his compatriots who lived in Paris. Thus it happened that the “Bande Noire,” so celebrated for its devastations, had its birth in the brain of old Sauviat, the peddler, whom all Limoges afterward saw and knew for twenty-seven years in the rickety old shop among his cracked bells and rusty bars, chains and scales, his twisted leaden gutters, and metal rubbish of all kinds."
"Tired of frequenting fairs and roaming the country, the Auvergnat settled at Limoges, where he married, in 1797, the daughter of a coppersmith, a widower, named Champagnac. When his father-in-law died he bought the house in which he had been carrying on his trade of old-iron dealer, after ceasing to roam the country as a peddler. Sauviat was fifty years of age when he married old Champagnac’s daughter, who was herself not less than thirty."
"Neither husband nor wife knew how to read, — a slight defect of education which did not prevent them from ciphering admirably and doing a most flourishing business."
"Never were the former peddler and his wife known to speak of their fortune; they concealed its amount as carefully as a criminal hides a crime; and for years they were suspected of shaving both gold and silver coins. When Champagnac died the Sauviats made no inventory of his property; but they rummaged, with the intelligence of rats, into every nook and corner of the old man’s house, left it as naked as a corpse, and sold the wares it contained in their own shop."
"The living of galley-slaves would be thought sumptuous in comparison with that of the Sauviats, who never ate meat except on the great festivals of the Church."
"The sober, toilsome life of these persons was brightened by one joy, but that was a natural joy, and for it they made their only known outlays. In May, 1802, Madame Sauviat gave birth to a daughter. She was confined all alone, and went about her household work five days later. She nursed her child in the open air, seated as usual in her chair by the corner pillar, continuing to sell old iron while the infant sucked. Her milk cost nothing, and she let her little daughter feed on it for two years, neither of them being the worse for the long nursing. Veronique (that was the infant’s name) became the handsomest child in the Lower town,"
"It is not unimportant to say here that the Sauviats were eminently religious. At the very height of the Revolution they observed both Sunday and fete-days. Twice Sauviat came near having his head cut off for hearing mass from an unsworn priest. He was put in prison, being justly accused of helping a bishop, whose life he saved, to fly the country."
"At nine years of age Veronique surprised the whole neighborhood with her beauty. Every one admired her face, which promised much to the pencil of artists who are always seeking a noble ideal. She was called “the Little Virgin” and showed signs already of a fine figure and great delicacy of complexion."
"During the days when the child’s danger reached a crisis, the neighbors and passers saw, for the first and only time in Sauviat’s life, tears in his eyes and rolling down his hollow cheeks; he did not wipe them, but stood for hours as if stupefied, not daring to go upstairs to his daughter’s room, gazing before him and seeing nothing, so oblivious of all things that any one might have robbed him. Veronique was saved, but her beauty perished."
"After her convalescence and after she had made her first communion, her parents gave her the two chambers on the second floor for her own particular dwelling. Sauviat, so course in his way of living for himself and his wife, now had certain perceptions of what comfort might be; a vague idea came to him of consoling his child for her great loss, which, as yet, she did not comprehend. The deprivation of that beauty which was once the pride and joy of those two beings made Veronique the more dear and precious to them."
“Veronique must cost you a pretty penny,” said a hatmaker who lived opposite to the Sauviats and had designs on their daughter for his son, estimating the fortune of the old-iron dealer at a hundred thousand francs. “Yes, neighbor, yes,” Pere Sauviat would say; “if she asked me for ten crowns I’d let her have them. She has all she wants; but she never asks for anything; she is as gentle as a lamb.”
"Veronique was, as a matter of fact, absolutely ignorant of the value of things. She had never wanted for anything; she never saw a piece of gold till the day of her marriage; she had no money of her own; her mother bought and gave her everything she needed and wished for; so that even when she wanted to give alms to a beggar, the girl felt in her mother’s pocket for the coin."
"From the day when Veronique lost the soft beauty which made her girlish face the admiration of all who saw it, Pere Sauviat redoubled in activity. His business became so prosperous that he now went to Paris several times a year. Every one felt that he wanted to compensate his daughter by force of money for what he called her “loss of profit.”
"In 1820 an incident occurred in the simple uneventful life the girl was leading, which might have had no importance in the life of any other young woman, but which, in point of fact, did no doubt exercise over Veronique’s future a terrible influence. On one of the suppressed church fete-days, when many persons went about their daily labor, though the Sauviats scrupulously closed their shop, attended mass, and took a walk, Veronique passed, on their way to the fields, a bookseller’s stall on which lay a copy of “Paul and Virginia.” She had a fancy to buy it for the sake of the engraving, and her father paid a hundred sous for the fatal volume, which he put into the pocket of his coat."
"She was led by the sweet and noble achievement of its author to the worship of the Ideal, that fatal human religion! She dreamed of a lover like Paul."
"After the return of old Sauviat (then seventy years of age) from a trip to Paris in December, 1822, the vicar came to see him one evening, and after a few insignificant remarks he said suddenly: — “You had better think of marrying your daughter, Sauviat. At your age you ought not to put off the accomplishment of so important a duty.” “But is Veronique willing to be married?” asked the old man, startled. “As you please, father,” she said, lowering her eyes."
"A fortune and a position like those of Pierre Graslin naturally excited the greed of not a few in a small provincial city. During the last ten years more than one proposition of marriage had been intimated to Monsieur Graslin. But the bachelor state was so well suited to a man who was busy from morning till night, overrun with work, eager in the pursuit of money as a hunter for game, and always tired out with his day’s labor, that Graslin fell into none of the traps laid for him by ambitious mothers who coveted so brilliant a position for their daughters."
"Sauviat had watched the ascending career of his compatriot more attentively and seriously than any one else. He had known him from the time he first came to Limoges; but their respective positions had changed so much, at least apparently, that their friendship, now become merely superficial, was seldom freshened. Still, in his relation as compatriot, Graslin never disdained to talk with Sauviat when they chanced to meet."
"Yes, it is settled,” said old Sauviat solemnly. “Graslin will furnish his house magnificently; he is to give our daughter a fine Parisian carriage and the best horses to be found in the Limousin; he will buy an estate worth five hundred thousand francs, and settle that and his town-house upon her. Veronique will be the first lady in Limoges, the richest in the department, and she can do what she pleases with Graslin.”
“Monsieur Graslin is going to be married!” These words were said by every pair of lips in Limoges in the course of a single evening, — in the salons of the upper classes, in the kitchens, in the shops, in the streets, in the suburbs, and before long throughout the whole surrounding country. But to whom? No one could answer. Limoges had a mystery."
Sauviat was a peddler of many things and after the revolution he start buying chateaus of the rich and tearing them down for the rich scraps that he could sell. "Bande Noire" was his idea. He married the daughter of Champagnac and she helped her husband with hard work. They were miserly until their daughter was born, May 1802, Veronique who was an angelic beauty until she was 8 when the small pox had done its job to ruin her beautiful face. Veronique was protected by her parents who were pious and helped develop her piety. Savient looked to make more money for his daughter for the best match. Veronique was very sweet and had a kindly character. She read pious books that the priest would recommend, but seeing a beautiful book "Paul and Virginia" her father bought for her which filled her head with ideas of love. When talk of marriage were started Sauviat wanted a rich man and thought of 47 year old much sought out man and being old friends decided on the match, Veronique had never seen the man chosen nor felt she could deny and speak up.
Story in short- Veronique Sauviat has a secret which is something terrible to bare without the help of Abbe Bonnet's help and her other friends.
Rastignac's younger brother, who is an Abbe plays a part as well as Granville's eldest son who like is father his a lawyer, and not very lucky in love either.
I didn't read this edition but from.a Delphi collection of his works.
"Le Curé de Village is an 1839 novel, which opens with a picturesque portrait of a house in Limoges, the Sauviat shop and home. Jerome-Baptiste Sauviat is an Auvergnat peddlar specialising in metal. In 1797, aged fifty and tired of travelling, he married the daughter of a coppersmith named Champagnac."
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
I was glad the Veronique was able to confess, it seems like her son might be told about his father but it is uncertain if he was there when she confessed. Many of those close to her heard but the rectors from the surrounding communities, will they tell their parishioners or with hold her whole story?
"This house, hired in the first instance, was subsequently bought by a man named Sauviat, a hawker or peddler who, from 1786 to 1793, travelled the country over a radius of a hundred and fifty miles around Auvergne, exchanging crockery of a common kind, plates, dishes, glasses, — in short, the necessary articles of the poorest households, — for old iron, brass, and lead, or any metal under any shape it might lurk in. At the close of his third year Sauviat added the hawking of tin"
"In 1793 he was able to buy a chateau sold as part of the National domain, which he at once pulled to pieces. The profits were such that he repeated the process at several points of the sphere in which he operated; later, these first successful essays gave him the idea of proposing something of a like nature on a larger scale to one of his compatriots who lived in Paris. Thus it happened that the “Bande Noire,” so celebrated for its devastations, had its birth in the brain of old Sauviat, the peddler, whom all Limoges afterward saw and knew for twenty-seven years in the rickety old shop among his cracked bells and rusty bars, chains and scales, his twisted leaden gutters, and metal rubbish of all kinds."
"Tired of frequenting fairs and roaming the country, the Auvergnat settled at Limoges, where he married, in 1797, the daughter of a coppersmith, a widower, named Champagnac. When his father-in-law died he bought the house in which he had been carrying on his trade of old-iron dealer, after ceasing to roam the country as a peddler. Sauviat was fifty years of age when he married old Champagnac’s daughter, who was herself not less than thirty."
"Neither husband nor wife knew how to read, — a slight defect of education which did not prevent them from ciphering admirably and doing a most flourishing business."
"Never were the former peddler and his wife known to speak of their fortune; they concealed its amount as carefully as a criminal hides a crime; and for years they were suspected of shaving both gold and silver coins. When Champagnac died the Sauviats made no inventory of his property; but they rummaged, with the intelligence of rats, into every nook and corner of the old man’s house, left it as naked as a corpse, and sold the wares it contained in their own shop."
"The living of galley-slaves would be thought sumptuous in comparison with that of the Sauviats, who never ate meat except on the great festivals of the Church."
"The sober, toilsome life of these persons was brightened by one joy, but that was a natural joy, and for it they made their only known outlays. In May, 1802, Madame Sauviat gave birth to a daughter. She was confined all alone, and went about her household work five days later. She nursed her child in the open air, seated as usual in her chair by the corner pillar, continuing to sell old iron while the infant sucked. Her milk cost nothing, and she let her little daughter feed on it for two years, neither of them being the worse for the long nursing. Veronique (that was the infant’s name) became the handsomest child in the Lower town,"
"It is not unimportant to say here that the Sauviats were eminently religious. At the very height of the Revolution they observed both Sunday and fete-days. Twice Sauviat came near having his head cut off for hearing mass from an unsworn priest. He was put in prison, being justly accused of helping a bishop, whose life he saved, to fly the country."
"At nine years of age Veronique surprised the whole neighborhood with her beauty. Every one admired her face, which promised much to the pencil of artists who are always seeking a noble ideal. She was called “the Little Virgin” and showed signs already of a fine figure and great delicacy of complexion."
"During the days when the child’s danger reached a crisis, the neighbors and passers saw, for the first and only time in Sauviat’s life, tears in his eyes and rolling down his hollow cheeks; he did not wipe them, but stood for hours as if stupefied, not daring to go upstairs to his daughter’s room, gazing before him and seeing nothing, so oblivious of all things that any one might have robbed him. Veronique was saved, but her beauty perished."
"After her convalescence and after she had made her first communion, her parents gave her the two chambers on the second floor for her own particular dwelling. Sauviat, so course in his way of living for himself and his wife, now had certain perceptions of what comfort might be; a vague idea came to him of consoling his child for her great loss, which, as yet, she did not comprehend. The deprivation of that beauty which was once the pride and joy of those two beings made Veronique the more dear and precious to them."
“Veronique must cost you a pretty penny,” said a hatmaker who lived opposite to the Sauviats and had designs on their daughter for his son, estimating the fortune of the old-iron dealer at a hundred thousand francs. “Yes, neighbor, yes,” Pere Sauviat would say; “if she asked me for ten crowns I’d let her have them. She has all she wants; but she never asks for anything; she is as gentle as a lamb.”
"Veronique was, as a matter of fact, absolutely ignorant of the value of things. She had never wanted for anything; she never saw a piece of gold till the day of her marriage; she had no money of her own; her mother bought and gave her everything she needed and wished for; so that even when she wanted to give alms to a beggar, the girl felt in her mother’s pocket for the coin."
"From the day when Veronique lost the soft beauty which made her girlish face the admiration of all who saw it, Pere Sauviat redoubled in activity. His business became so prosperous that he now went to Paris several times a year. Every one felt that he wanted to compensate his daughter by force of money for what he called her “loss of profit.”
"In 1820 an incident occurred in the simple uneventful life the girl was leading, which might have had no importance in the life of any other young woman, but which, in point of fact, did no doubt exercise over Veronique’s future a terrible influence. On one of the suppressed church fete-days, when many persons went about their daily labor, though the Sauviats scrupulously closed their shop, attended mass, and took a walk, Veronique passed, on their way to the fields, a bookseller’s stall on which lay a copy of “Paul and Virginia.” She had a fancy to buy it for the sake of the engraving, and her father paid a hundred sous for the fatal volume, which he put into the pocket of his coat."
"She was led by the sweet and noble achievement of its author to the worship of the Ideal, that fatal human religion! She dreamed of a lover like Paul."
"After the return of old Sauviat (then seventy years of age) from a trip to Paris in December, 1822, the vicar came to see him one evening, and after a few insignificant remarks he said suddenly: — “You had better think of marrying your daughter, Sauviat. At your age you ought not to put off the accomplishment of so important a duty.” “But is Veronique willing to be married?” asked the old man, startled. “As you please, father,” she said, lowering her eyes."
"A fortune and a position like those of Pierre Graslin naturally excited the greed of not a few in a small provincial city. During the last ten years more than one proposition of marriage had been intimated to Monsieur Graslin. But the bachelor state was so well suited to a man who was busy from morning till night, overrun with work, eager in the pursuit of money as a hunter for game, and always tired out with his day’s labor, that Graslin fell into none of the traps laid for him by ambitious mothers who coveted so brilliant a position for their daughters."
"Sauviat had watched the ascending career of his compatriot more attentively and seriously than any one else. He had known him from the time he first came to Limoges; but their respective positions had changed so much, at least apparently, that their friendship, now become merely superficial, was seldom freshened. Still, in his relation as compatriot, Graslin never disdained to talk with Sauviat when they chanced to meet."
"Yes, it is settled,” said old Sauviat solemnly. “Graslin will furnish his house magnificently; he is to give our daughter a fine Parisian carriage and the best horses to be found in the Limousin; he will buy an estate worth five hundred thousand francs, and settle that and his town-house upon her. Veronique will be the first lady in Limoges, the richest in the department, and she can do what she pleases with Graslin.”
“Monsieur Graslin is going to be married!” These words were said by every pair of lips in Limoges in the course of a single evening, — in the salons of the upper classes, in the kitchens, in the shops, in the streets, in the suburbs, and before long throughout the whole surrounding country. But to whom? No one could answer. Limoges had a mystery."
Sauviat was a peddler of many things and after the revolution he start buying chateaus of the rich and tearing them down for the rich scraps that he could sell. "Bande Noire" was his idea. He married the daughter of Champagnac and she helped her husband with hard work. They were miserly until their daughter was born, May 1802, Veronique who was an angelic beauty until she was 8 when the small pox had done its job to ruin her beautiful face. Veronique was protected by her parents who were pious and helped develop her piety. Savient looked to make more money for his daughter for the best match. Veronique was very sweet and had a kindly character. She read pious books that the priest would recommend, but seeing a beautiful book "Paul and Virginia" her father bought for her which filled her head with ideas of love. When talk of marriage were started Sauviat wanted a rich man and thought of 47 year old much sought out man and being old friends decided on the match, Veronique had never seen the man chosen nor felt she could deny and speak up.
November 7, 2021
Il n’est pas sans exemple qu’un roman de Balzac vire de bord à quatre-vingt-dix-degrés, y compris dans sa dernière partie : on peut penser à « Béatrix » ou à « La Femme de trente ans ». « Le Curé de village » comprend plusieurs virages semblables, tous heureux sauf un, et semble tourner autour du pot. C’est une œuvre manifestement fort imparfaite mais que j’ai lue avec un immense intérêt.
Le premier chapitre présente la jeunesse de Véronique Sauviat, fille d’un brocanteur enrichi de Limoges, à qui son mariage avec le banquier Graslin apporte une ascension sociale quasi définitive, selon le vœu de ses parents plus que le sien à elle, petite âme pure qui ayant lu « Paul et Virginie » rêve vaguement du grand amour. Le deuxième chapitre interrompt brutalement cette douce chronique de la vie de province par un double meurtre ; la justice fait assez rapidement arrêter un ouvrier porcelainier, Jean-François Tascheron, sans parvenir à expliquer tout à fait ce double passage à l'acte apparemment contraire à son caractère et motivé, semble-t-il, par le vol d’une forte somme d’argent qui demeure introuvable.
Vous aurez remarqué que dans tout cela il n’est guère encore question de village ni de curé. Ce dernier, M. Bonnet, intervient pourtant bel et bien dans l’intrigue et en est un des protagonistes : c’est qu’il y a encore des virages à venir. Mais en refermant le livre on peut pourtant se dire que Balzac n’a tout simplement pas traité le sujet annoncé par le titre. Lui-même, dans la préface de la première édition, relève le fait et l’explique par des coupes imposées par l’éditeur, qui n’aurait pas voulu d’un ouvrage plus édifiant que romanesque. Nous sommes en 1841, Balzac s’est franchement rangé du côté des monarchistes légitimistes et nous sort — déjà — le grand air du « On-ne-peut-plus-rien-dire. » Comme il n’a pas ressorti les parties coupées dans la version définitive du roman et qu’elles sont demeurées introuvables, il n’est pas interdit de penser qu’elles n’ont jamais existé, que Balzac n’a jamais écrit les pages montrant M. Bonnet dans son apostolat quotidien, et qu’il s’est laissé entraîner précisément par son plan romanesque.
Dans un fameux article Gérard Genette a écrit que la théorie (psychologique, économique, etc.) chez Balzac n’est là que pour fournir ses motivations au récit. « Le Curé de village » semble au premier abord lui donner tort, mais il se pourrait bien en définitive que Genette ait raison et que cette absence de la description de la vie du curé dans un village en soit l’indice. L’intention générale de Balzac est de montrer que la véritable bienfaisance ne consiste pas en aumônes et en secours, mais dans la mise en route du développement économique ; c’est le projet qu’il prête à son curé de village. Il s’agit concrètement de transformer un canton quasi inculte des marges du Limousin en pays d’abondance. Romancier à thèse et homme de conviction, Balzac cependant ne fait pas du « Curé de village » une œuvre de parti ; il est trop conscient pour cela des singularités de la société de son époque, et met notamment en évidence les tensions qui existent au sein même de l’Église catholique. Et puis il a lui-même une personnalité intellectuelle trop originale pour se transformer en perroquet.
Le seul passage réellement pesant du « Curé de village », outre une lettre qui s’en prend au système des grandes écoles sous prétexte de présenter un personnage, est un long dîner à la table de Véronique Praslin, où la conversation entre les convives, d’ailleurs assez unanimes, sert à Balzac à exposer ses vues assez idiosyncrasiques sur l’économie politique. Il s’agit d’une tentative d’enter le libéralisme économique sur le conservatisme social, assez typiquement française puisque dans notre pays les esprits totalement libéraux sont une denrée rare. L’Histoire ayant donné tort aux analyses de Balzac, il est heureux qu’il les ait fait tenir par des personnages qui pouvaient vraisemblablement les faire, sans trop engager son narrateur. Il est d’ailleurs curieux que dans un roman revendiquant le catholicisme, la marque de la grâce ne soit autre que la réussite économique, comme dans l’analyse weberienne du protestantisme (et d’ailleurs Balzac, par une intuition remarquable, fait du personnage de l’ingénieur un protestant) — certes l’auteur des « Illusions perdues » conçoit cette réussite économique comme collective là où le protestantisme, selon Weber, y voit la marque d’une élection individuelle.
Mais au bout du compte cette théorie économique s’incarne bien mieux dans la chair même de l’univers romanesque que dans ces propos de table. Au début du roman, tous les personnages ayant la possibilité de manier de l’argent sont avares, et laissent leurs maisons démeublées voire, pour les cas les plus graves, en voie d’insalubrité. Les meurtres ont lieu pour délester un vieil homme du trésor qu’il enterre dans son jardin, improductivité double du capital qui dort et de la terre ainsi métallisée ; au contraire, Véronique, inspirée par M. Bonnet, et secondée d’un brillant ingénieur, utilise son argent pour investir et crée de la croissance économique ; l’univers romanesque se transforme peu à peu et matérialise la générosité, la fécondité, la production. Une image obsédante revient dans les descriptions de bâtiment que Balzac prodigue : celle des fleurs poussant sur la pierre, ou sur les matériaux que leur emploi dans la construction assimilent à la pierre, symbole de la reprise, de la renaissance de la vie sur un terrain qui semblait infertile du fait même de l’action humaine.
Les hésitations narratives même du « Curé de village », qui nous réservent bien des surprises, et l’art extraordinaire de Balzac pour faire exister les lieux et les personnages, en font une lecture passionnante. Aussi romantique que réaliste, le romancier ménage des rebondissements admirables et crayonne des figures profondément émouvantes. Mais le plus étonnant de tout est la deuxième grande lacune du roman (avec celle déjà évoquée de la vie du curé). Une bonne partie de l’action s’explique par l’histoire d’amour entre deux personnages. Cette histoire, le lecteur en devine l’existence bien plus facilement que la justice ; et certains ecclésiastiques l’ont également pénétrée. À la fin la confession d’un personnage à l’article de la mort en confirme l’existence. Mais jamais cette histoire pourtant improbable et curieuse n’est véritablement racontée, jamais les actes des personnages ne sont véritablement expliqués ; le narrateur balzacien, d’habitude prodigue en explications de toutes sortes, reste sur une curieuse et allusive réserve qui anticipe sur la manière tardive de Giono. Ce cœur battant et dissimulé de l’histoire, ce « tell-tale heart » à la Poe, n’est pas le moindre charme du « Curé de village ».
Le premier chapitre présente la jeunesse de Véronique Sauviat, fille d’un brocanteur enrichi de Limoges, à qui son mariage avec le banquier Graslin apporte une ascension sociale quasi définitive, selon le vœu de ses parents plus que le sien à elle, petite âme pure qui ayant lu « Paul et Virginie » rêve vaguement du grand amour. Le deuxième chapitre interrompt brutalement cette douce chronique de la vie de province par un double meurtre ; la justice fait assez rapidement arrêter un ouvrier porcelainier, Jean-François Tascheron, sans parvenir à expliquer tout à fait ce double passage à l'acte apparemment contraire à son caractère et motivé, semble-t-il, par le vol d’une forte somme d’argent qui demeure introuvable.
Vous aurez remarqué que dans tout cela il n’est guère encore question de village ni de curé. Ce dernier, M. Bonnet, intervient pourtant bel et bien dans l’intrigue et en est un des protagonistes : c’est qu’il y a encore des virages à venir. Mais en refermant le livre on peut pourtant se dire que Balzac n’a tout simplement pas traité le sujet annoncé par le titre. Lui-même, dans la préface de la première édition, relève le fait et l’explique par des coupes imposées par l’éditeur, qui n’aurait pas voulu d’un ouvrage plus édifiant que romanesque. Nous sommes en 1841, Balzac s’est franchement rangé du côté des monarchistes légitimistes et nous sort — déjà — le grand air du « On-ne-peut-plus-rien-dire. » Comme il n’a pas ressorti les parties coupées dans la version définitive du roman et qu’elles sont demeurées introuvables, il n’est pas interdit de penser qu’elles n’ont jamais existé, que Balzac n’a jamais écrit les pages montrant M. Bonnet dans son apostolat quotidien, et qu’il s’est laissé entraîner précisément par son plan romanesque.
Dans un fameux article Gérard Genette a écrit que la théorie (psychologique, économique, etc.) chez Balzac n’est là que pour fournir ses motivations au récit. « Le Curé de village » semble au premier abord lui donner tort, mais il se pourrait bien en définitive que Genette ait raison et que cette absence de la description de la vie du curé dans un village en soit l’indice. L’intention générale de Balzac est de montrer que la véritable bienfaisance ne consiste pas en aumônes et en secours, mais dans la mise en route du développement économique ; c’est le projet qu’il prête à son curé de village. Il s’agit concrètement de transformer un canton quasi inculte des marges du Limousin en pays d’abondance. Romancier à thèse et homme de conviction, Balzac cependant ne fait pas du « Curé de village » une œuvre de parti ; il est trop conscient pour cela des singularités de la société de son époque, et met notamment en évidence les tensions qui existent au sein même de l’Église catholique. Et puis il a lui-même une personnalité intellectuelle trop originale pour se transformer en perroquet.
Le seul passage réellement pesant du « Curé de village », outre une lettre qui s’en prend au système des grandes écoles sous prétexte de présenter un personnage, est un long dîner à la table de Véronique Praslin, où la conversation entre les convives, d’ailleurs assez unanimes, sert à Balzac à exposer ses vues assez idiosyncrasiques sur l’économie politique. Il s’agit d’une tentative d’enter le libéralisme économique sur le conservatisme social, assez typiquement française puisque dans notre pays les esprits totalement libéraux sont une denrée rare. L’Histoire ayant donné tort aux analyses de Balzac, il est heureux qu’il les ait fait tenir par des personnages qui pouvaient vraisemblablement les faire, sans trop engager son narrateur. Il est d’ailleurs curieux que dans un roman revendiquant le catholicisme, la marque de la grâce ne soit autre que la réussite économique, comme dans l’analyse weberienne du protestantisme (et d’ailleurs Balzac, par une intuition remarquable, fait du personnage de l’ingénieur un protestant) — certes l’auteur des « Illusions perdues » conçoit cette réussite économique comme collective là où le protestantisme, selon Weber, y voit la marque d’une élection individuelle.
Mais au bout du compte cette théorie économique s’incarne bien mieux dans la chair même de l’univers romanesque que dans ces propos de table. Au début du roman, tous les personnages ayant la possibilité de manier de l’argent sont avares, et laissent leurs maisons démeublées voire, pour les cas les plus graves, en voie d’insalubrité. Les meurtres ont lieu pour délester un vieil homme du trésor qu’il enterre dans son jardin, improductivité double du capital qui dort et de la terre ainsi métallisée ; au contraire, Véronique, inspirée par M. Bonnet, et secondée d’un brillant ingénieur, utilise son argent pour investir et crée de la croissance économique ; l’univers romanesque se transforme peu à peu et matérialise la générosité, la fécondité, la production. Une image obsédante revient dans les descriptions de bâtiment que Balzac prodigue : celle des fleurs poussant sur la pierre, ou sur les matériaux que leur emploi dans la construction assimilent à la pierre, symbole de la reprise, de la renaissance de la vie sur un terrain qui semblait infertile du fait même de l’action humaine.
Les hésitations narratives même du « Curé de village », qui nous réservent bien des surprises, et l’art extraordinaire de Balzac pour faire exister les lieux et les personnages, en font une lecture passionnante. Aussi romantique que réaliste, le romancier ménage des rebondissements admirables et crayonne des figures profondément émouvantes. Mais le plus étonnant de tout est la deuxième grande lacune du roman (avec celle déjà évoquée de la vie du curé). Une bonne partie de l’action s’explique par l’histoire d’amour entre deux personnages. Cette histoire, le lecteur en devine l’existence bien plus facilement que la justice ; et certains ecclésiastiques l’ont également pénétrée. À la fin la confession d’un personnage à l’article de la mort en confirme l’existence. Mais jamais cette histoire pourtant improbable et curieuse n’est véritablement racontée, jamais les actes des personnages ne sont véritablement expliqués ; le narrateur balzacien, d’habitude prodigue en explications de toutes sortes, reste sur une curieuse et allusive réserve qui anticipe sur la manière tardive de Giono. Ce cœur battant et dissimulé de l’histoire, ce « tell-tale heart » à la Poe, n’est pas le moindre charme du « Curé de village ».
January 25, 2021
It's not about the parson at all, really, it's about the effects of a bad conscience. The plot was predictable Balzac tosh, but what I really loved was the backgrounds. Was there anything Balzac was not interested in? Politics and finance come into most of his work, but this was full of agriculture, geology, arboriculture, soil mechanics....it's no wonder he died young, the work and learning he crammed into his life.
June 12, 2026
If Balzac had written only books like this, he would have been as obscure as most of his contemporary novelists. It is full of overly detailed descriptions of the countryside, tedious tributes to Catholicism, an unbelievably pious heroine, a silly background plot, and reactionary politics.
Balzac's virtues as a novelist is that he admired many of the characters he thought of as reprehensible. But there isn't an ounce of his usual cynicism in this book.
Balzac's virtues as a novelist is that he admired many of the characters he thought of as reprehensible. But there isn't an ounce of his usual cynicism in this book.
April 2, 2025
Toujours du très beau Balzac mais j’ai eu plus de mal à accrocher. La trame était transparente et l’issue prévisible.
September 14, 2016
Balzac's book is misnamed. It should be titled The Life of Veronique or something similar. There's a complex history to the book: published in one part in 1837, and then in another part shortly after that seemed totally unconnected, and then those two were published together with a third one which explains the connection and moves the story forward, but during Balzac's final year of life. Obviously there was something about this otherwise bland, not even particularly intelligent, witty, or attractive --she suffered from facial smallpox scars --woman that Balzac couldn't let go of. The first story is about how this ho-hum iron monger's daughter in a small town outside of Limoges came to be the wealthiest woman and then widow in town. The second is about a theft of silver by the youngest male member of a solid peasant family, the Tascherons, and how his arrest, conviction, and execution forced them to completely relocate. In the third tale Veronique, now a solidly wealthy woman, comes to a neighborhood that her late husband purchased almost thoughtlessly. She discovers it is need of being geographically exploited to be useful, and when that happens it and its inhabitants become enriched too. While it thrives, she withers, and only in the end do we discover what it all means and why all this has happened. Balzac allowed himself to go all out with his particular obsessions in this book, and a good editor would be needed to trim back some of the long, and quite boring pages about land reclamation and why the end of primogeniture has financially ruined the nation. Otherwise its moderate quality Balzac.
July 24, 2013
Nature passionn��e d��s sa plus tendre jeunesse, V��ronique Graslin expie dans le village limousin de Mont��gnac son pass�� de femme adult��re et coupable : elle a laiss�� condamner �� mort son amant, le jeune Tascheron, sans r��v��ler �� la Justice sa participation au crime qu'il avait commis. Sous la direction de l'abb�� Bonnet, elle d��dide de racheter sa faute par une pri��re active, en faisant entreprendre, notamment, des travaux d'irrigation pour f��conder les terrains arides de la commune. Roman policier et roman religieux, histoire de la r��volte de la chair, qui se rappelle l'��tre aim��, contre l'esprit qui voudrait la frustrer de ce souvenir, aventure qui int��resse aussi bien la nature environnante que les couches profondes de l'��me, Le Cur�� de village est une des sc��nes les plus riches et les plus complexes de La Com��die Humaine.
August 4, 2009
Monseigneur, dit l'abbé de Grancour, tout est inutile, et nous aurons la douleur de voir mourir ce malheureux Tascheron en impie, il crachera sur le crucifix, il reniera tout, même l'enfer...
Quand Tascheron doit-il être exécuté ? demanda l'Evêque.
Demain, jour de marché, répondit monsieur de Grancour. Messieurs, la religion ne saurait avoir le dessous, s'écria l'Evêque.
L'Eglise se trouve en des conjonctures difficiles.
Nous sommes obligés à faire des miracles dans une ville industrielle où l'esprit de sédition contre les doctrines religieuses et monarchiques a poussé des racines profondes... J'irai voir ce malheureux
Quand Tascheron doit-il être exécuté ? demanda l'Evêque.
Demain, jour de marché, répondit monsieur de Grancour. Messieurs, la religion ne saurait avoir le dessous, s'écria l'Evêque.
L'Eglise se trouve en des conjonctures difficiles.
Nous sommes obligés à faire des miracles dans une ville industrielle où l'esprit de sédition contre les doctrines religieuses et monarchiques a poussé des racines profondes... J'irai voir ce malheureux
December 8, 2014
Balzac a écrit ce livre avec un professionnalisme consommé: Sa progression est menée de main de maître et les derniers chapitres sont émouvants. L'ensemble illustre ses conceptions sociales et humanitaires.
July 3, 2010
Didn't forget the hair shirt... a classic that stays in my mental memory files.
Read
January 11, 2019This great tragic novel tells the story of a married woman, Veronique Graslin, who fell in love with a young man who murdered two people in order to steal the money he needed to escape with her to America. He was found out and hanged. Veronique spends the rest of her life creating a pastoral paradise in a bleak region in France, but her overwhelming quilt and peninential needs destroy her health and led to her early death. It is one of De Balzac's greatest novels.
March 6, 2019
Publicado em 1848, faz parte de Estudos de Costumes - Cenas da Vida Rural.
Apesar do título, a protagonista da história é Verônica Graslin, mulher que esconde um segredo e por remorso se redime na fé católica através da figura do cura Bonner. Ela faz e acontece, e sofre, e se silicia e muda tudo e a todos ao seu redor... tudo pela igreja.
Nossa, esse lado carola de Balzac é insuportável pelo exagero.
Histórico de leitura
31/12/2018
"- Ela não tem quarenta e oito horas de vida. (os médicos daquela época eram muito bom em predizer o tempo restante de vida. E olha que essa aqui estava deambulando e fez um discurso de 2 páginas cheias...)"
"Sauviat não se assustou por ela não ter dote. Afinal a esposa ia poupar-lhe a despesa de uma criada."
"No Baixo Limoges, na esquina da rue Vieille Poste com a rue de la Cité, havia faz trinta anos uma dessas lojas nas quais parece nada ter sido mudado desde a Idade Média."
Apesar do título, a protagonista da história é Verônica Graslin, mulher que esconde um segredo e por remorso se redime na fé católica através da figura do cura Bonner. Ela faz e acontece, e sofre, e se silicia e muda tudo e a todos ao seu redor... tudo pela igreja.
Nossa, esse lado carola de Balzac é insuportável pelo exagero.
Histórico de leitura
31/12/2018
"- Ela não tem quarenta e oito horas de vida. (os médicos daquela época eram muito bom em predizer o tempo restante de vida. E olha que essa aqui estava deambulando e fez um discurso de 2 páginas cheias...)"
"Sauviat não se assustou por ela não ter dote. Afinal a esposa ia poupar-lhe a despesa de uma criada."
"No Baixo Limoges, na esquina da rue Vieille Poste com a rue de la Cité, havia faz trinta anos uma dessas lojas nas quais parece nada ter sido mudado desde a Idade Média."
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