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Honore De Balzac
CONTENTS The Treatise on the Human Will The Garret His Apprenticeship In Business The First Success Dandyism The "Foreign Lady" At Les Jardies In Retirement
276 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1914
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 29, 2023
Having read almost all Balzac's works that are translated, I find reading Keim's "Honroe de Balzac" biography very interesting. After reading about Balzac's life it becomes really clear how true the saying that write what you know, Balzac basically did this. His sheltered early life which consisted of only schooling, his playing the dandy, ratcheting up debts, being in the book business and journalism works, getting close to influential women, having a club of men like the Thirteen, collecting works of art, looking to marry a widow, debtor's prison and wanting an estate. All this can be found in his brilliant "The Human Comdey". He had finally married after 17 years only to not last long after and to die before enjoying what all that marriage could give him. I found this extremely insightful and interesting. His mother though not liking his choice as a writer, stuck with him to the end. I love his works but come away feeling that man is indeed flawed and having a pity on this beloved author. He would have loved to know that his works has and will last for future generations.
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Although born in Touraine, Balzac was not of Tourainian stock, for his birthplace was due merely to chance. His father, Bernard François Balssa or Balsa, came originally from the little village of Nougaire, in the commune of Montirat and
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216641
district of Albi. He descended from a peasant family, small land-owners or often simple day labourers. It was he who first added a “c” to his patronymic and who later prefixed the particle for which the great novelist was afterwards so often reproached. Bernard Balssa, born July 22, 1746, left his native village at the age of fourteen years, never to return.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216648
he there married the daughter of one of his superior officers, Sallambier, attached to the Ministry of War and at the same time director of the Paris hospitals. At the time of the marriage, January 30, 1797, he was fifty-one years of age; his bride, Laure, was only eighteen, a young girl possessed of culture, beauty and distinction of manner.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216665
He was a disciple of Rousseau; he held certain social theories, and he was unsparing in his criticisms of existing governments. He had his
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216666
own views as to how society at large should be governed and improved. The first of these views consisted in cultivating mankind, by applying the method of eugenic selection to marriage, in such a manner that after a few years there would be no human beings left save those who were strong, robust and healthy. He could not find sufficient sarcasm to express his scorn of governments which, in civilised countries, allowed the development of weaklings, cripples and invalids. Perhaps he based his theory upon his own
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216669
example. François Balzac had the constitution of an athlete and believed himself destined to live to the age of a hundred years and upward. According to his calculations, a man did not reach his perfect development until after completing his first century; and, in order to do this, he took the most minute care of himself. He studied the Chinese people, celebrated for their longevity, and he sought for the best methods of maintaining what he called the equilibrium of vital forces.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216699
Four more children were born to this marriage, two sons and two daughters: Honoré, Laure, Laurence, and Henri, all of whom had widely different destinies. Laure became the wife of an engineer of bridges and highways, M. Midy de la Greneraye Surville, and was intimately associated with the life of her older brother, whom she survived down to 1854; Laurence died a few years after her marriage in 1821 to
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M. de Montzaigle; Henri, the youngest, went through divers ups and downs; but finding himself unable to achieve a position of independence, he finally went into exile in the Colonies. Madame de Balzac’s first son having died, as was thought, in consequence of the mother’s attempt to nurse him herself, Honoré was placed with a nurse in the country district outside of Tours. He remained there until four years of age, together with his sister Laure, and it is there, no doubt, that they formed
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216706
that tender and trusting friendship which never wavered.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216709
Honoré was impulsive, with a heart overflowing with affection, but the training he received at home was rigorous and severe. Entrusted
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216709
to the hands of servants, under the high and mighty surveillance of his governess, Mlle. Delahaye, he received from his father, who was already an old man, nothing more than an indulgent and often absent-minded affection, while, as for his mother, she carried out with great firmness her theories regarding the relation between children and parents. She received hers each evening in her large drawing room with cold dignity. Before kissing them she recapitulated all the faults they had committed during the day,
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216713
which she had learned from the governess, and her reproofs were reinforced with punishments. Honoré never approached her without fear, repressing all his feelings and his need of affection. He suffered in secret. Then he would take refuge with his sister Laure, his only friend and comforter.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216729
The college buildings, surrounded by walls, contained everything that would seem calculated to render existence laborious and gloomy for the students. The latter were divided into four sections, the Minions, the Smalls, the Mediums, and the Greats, to which they were assigned according to the grade of their studies. For diversion, they had a narrow garden which they could cultivate and a cabin; they had permission to raise pigeons and to eat them, in addition to the ordinary fare. The classrooms were dirty, being either muddy or covered with dust, according to the season, and evil-smelling as a result of crowding together within narrow spaces too many young folks who
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216734
were none too clean and to whom the laws of hygiene were unknown. The masters were either overbearing or neglectful, incapable of distinguishing the individual from the crowd and concerned only with seeing that the rules were obeyed and discipline maintained. The pupils themselves were often cruel to each other.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216757
He had a tutor, the librarian of the rich Oratorian library, who during those rare recreation hours, when he had no extra lines to copy, was supposed to give him special lessons in mathematics. But by a tacit agreement the teacher paid no attention to the pupil, and the
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216759
latter was permitted to read and carry away any books which took his fancy. In point of fact, no book seemed to him too austere or too repellent or too obscure for his youthful understanding. He absorbed pell-mell works upon religion, treatises of chemistry and physics, and historical and philosophical works. He even developed a special taste for dictionaries, dreaming over the exact sense of words, the adventures that befall them in the course of time and their final destinies.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216846
Mme de Balzac, severe mother that she was, had regulated the employment of his time in such a way that he could never be at liberty. His bed-chamber adjoined his father’s study, and he was required to go to bed at nine o’clock and rise at five, under such strict surveillance that he could later write, in The Magic
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216848
Skin, “Up to the age of twenty-one I was bent beneath the yoke of a despotism as cold as that of a monastic order.”
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216892
What he actually said lacked the precision and the form of these phrases, but he was eloquent, and his father, who had no reason to suppose that he had an imbecile for a son, was the first to yield, in a measure, to his arguments. His mother still resisted, frightened at the risks he must run, far from convinced by his words, and without confidence in the future. Nevertheless, she was forced to yield. It was decided to try an experiment, — but it was to be kept a close secret, because their friends would never
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216896
have finished laughing at such parental weakness. Two years were accorded to Honoré, within which to give some real proof of his talent. Hereupon he became joyously expansive, he was sure that he would triumph, that he would bring back a masterpiece to submit to the judgment of his assembled family and friends. But, since a failure was possible and they wished to guard themselves from such a mortification, his acquaintances were to be told that Honoré was at Albi, visiting a cousin.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216902
For the sake of economy, the Balzac family decided upon a provincial life, and removed to Villeparisis, in the department of Seine-et-Oise,
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216903
Oise, where they secured a small yet comfortable bourgeois house. This was in the early months of 1819; Honoré, at the age of twenty-one, was left alone in Paris. They had installed him in a garret, high up under a mansarde roof, in the Rue Lesdiguières, No. 9, and it was he himself who chose this lodging because of the ease with which he could reach the Arsenal library during the daytime, while at night he would stay at home and work.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216639
Although born in Touraine, Balzac was not of Tourainian stock, for his birthplace was due merely to chance. His father, Bernard François Balssa or Balsa, came originally from the little village of Nougaire, in the commune of Montirat and
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216641
district of Albi. He descended from a peasant family, small land-owners or often simple day labourers. It was he who first added a “c” to his patronymic and who later prefixed the particle for which the great novelist was afterwards so often reproached. Bernard Balssa, born July 22, 1746, left his native village at the age of fourteen years, never to return.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216648
he there married the daughter of one of his superior officers, Sallambier, attached to the Ministry of War and at the same time director of the Paris hospitals. At the time of the marriage, January 30, 1797, he was fifty-one years of age; his bride, Laure, was only eighteen, a young girl possessed of culture, beauty and distinction of manner.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216665
He was a disciple of Rousseau; he held certain social theories, and he was unsparing in his criticisms of existing governments. He had his
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216666
own views as to how society at large should be governed and improved. The first of these views consisted in cultivating mankind, by applying the method of eugenic selection to marriage, in such a manner that after a few years there would be no human beings left save those who were strong, robust and healthy. He could not find sufficient sarcasm to express his scorn of governments which, in civilised countries, allowed the development of weaklings, cripples and invalids. Perhaps he based his theory upon his own
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216669
example. François Balzac had the constitution of an athlete and believed himself destined to live to the age of a hundred years and upward. According to his calculations, a man did not reach his perfect development until after completing his first century; and, in order to do this, he took the most minute care of himself. He studied the Chinese people, celebrated for their longevity, and he sought for the best methods of maintaining what he called the equilibrium of vital forces.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216699
Four more children were born to this marriage, two sons and two daughters: Honoré, Laure, Laurence, and Henri, all of whom had widely different destinies. Laure became the wife of an engineer of bridges and highways, M. Midy de la Greneraye Surville, and was intimately associated with the life of her older brother, whom she survived down to 1854; Laurence died a few years after her marriage in 1821 to
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216702
M. de Montzaigle; Henri, the youngest, went through divers ups and downs; but finding himself unable to achieve a position of independence, he finally went into exile in the Colonies. Madame de Balzac’s first son having died, as was thought, in consequence of the mother’s attempt to nurse him herself, Honoré was placed with a nurse in the country district outside of Tours. He remained there until four years of age, together with his sister Laure, and it is there, no doubt, that they formed
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216706
that tender and trusting friendship which never wavered.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216709
Honoré was impulsive, with a heart overflowing with affection, but the training he received at home was rigorous and severe. Entrusted
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216709
to the hands of servants, under the high and mighty surveillance of his governess, Mlle. Delahaye, he received from his father, who was already an old man, nothing more than an indulgent and often absent-minded affection, while, as for his mother, she carried out with great firmness her theories regarding the relation between children and parents. She received hers each evening in her large drawing room with cold dignity. Before kissing them she recapitulated all the faults they had committed during the day,
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216713
which she had learned from the governess, and her reproofs were reinforced with punishments. Honoré never approached her without fear, repressing all his feelings and his need of affection. He suffered in secret. Then he would take refuge with his sister Laure, his only friend and comforter.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216729
The college buildings, surrounded by walls, contained everything that would seem calculated to render existence laborious and gloomy for the students. The latter were divided into four sections, the Minions, the Smalls, the Mediums, and the Greats, to which they were assigned according to the grade of their studies. For diversion, they had a narrow garden which they could cultivate and a cabin; they had permission to raise pigeons and to eat them, in addition to the ordinary fare. The classrooms were dirty, being either muddy or covered with dust, according to the season, and evil-smelling as a result of crowding together within narrow spaces too many young folks who
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216734
were none too clean and to whom the laws of hygiene were unknown. The masters were either overbearing or neglectful, incapable of distinguishing the individual from the crowd and concerned only with seeing that the rules were obeyed and discipline maintained. The pupils themselves were often cruel to each other.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216757
He had a tutor, the librarian of the rich Oratorian library, who during those rare recreation hours, when he had no extra lines to copy, was supposed to give him special lessons in mathematics. But by a tacit agreement the teacher paid no attention to the pupil, and the
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216759
latter was permitted to read and carry away any books which took his fancy. In point of fact, no book seemed to him too austere or too repellent or too obscure for his youthful understanding. He absorbed pell-mell works upon religion, treatises of chemistry and physics, and historical and philosophical works. He even developed a special taste for dictionaries, dreaming over the exact sense of words, the adventures that befall them in the course of time and their final destinies.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216846
Mme de Balzac, severe mother that she was, had regulated the employment of his time in such a way that he could never be at liberty. His bed-chamber adjoined his father’s study, and he was required to go to bed at nine o’clock and rise at five, under such strict surveillance that he could later write, in The Magic
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216848
Skin, “Up to the age of twenty-one I was bent beneath the yoke of a despotism as cold as that of a monastic order.”
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216892
What he actually said lacked the precision and the form of these phrases, but he was eloquent, and his father, who had no reason to suppose that he had an imbecile for a son, was the first to yield, in a measure, to his arguments. His mother still resisted, frightened at the risks he must run, far from convinced by his words, and without confidence in the future. Nevertheless, she was forced to yield. It was decided to try an experiment, — but it was to be kept a close secret, because their friends would never
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216896
have finished laughing at such parental weakness. Two years were accorded to Honoré, within which to give some real proof of his talent. Hereupon he became joyously expansive, he was sure that he would triumph, that he would bring back a masterpiece to submit to the judgment of his assembled family and friends. But, since a failure was possible and they wished to guard themselves from such a mortification, his acquaintances were to be told that Honoré was at Albi, visiting a cousin.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216902
For the sake of economy, the Balzac family decided upon a provincial life, and removed to Villeparisis, in the department of Seine-et-Oise,
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 216903
Oise, where they secured a small yet comfortable bourgeois house. This was in the early months of 1819; Honoré, at the age of twenty-one, was left alone in Paris. They had installed him in a garret, high up under a mansarde roof, in the Rue Lesdiguières, No. 9, and it was he himself who chose this lodging because of the ease with which he could reach the Arsenal library during the daytime, while at night he would stay at home and work.
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