Human Comedy, Volume One

Author: (French) Balzac/H. / Multiple Authors
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1994-12-01
Features: Honoré Balzac (1799–1850) was one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century, a master of creating archetypes, and a universally recognized master of realism. Through 20 years of diligent work, he created the miracle of literary history, La Comédie Humaine. He united over ninety novels of varying lengths into a complete and all-encompassing social portrait, providing an "excellent realism of French society, especially of its upper class,"① transforming what was once considered mere entertainment into works of documentary value. Balzac's entire oeuvre demonstrates his original and innovative practice and development of realist literary theory, greatly enriching and perfecting the art of the novel, ultimately elevating it beyond the realm of mere storytelling to become a highly expressive and entirely new art form.
Balzac lived during the historical turning point in France's transition from a feudal to a capitalist society, personally experiencing key historical phases such as the Napoleonic Empire, the Bourbon Restoration, and the July Monarchy, as well as major events like the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. The complex contradictions and rapid, sustained social upheavals of this period brought unprecedented intellectual ferment, fostering the prosperity and development of 19th-century French literature and exerting a decisive influence on Balzac's creative work. All great writers reflect their time in their works, but Balzac's aspiration was to fully recreate his era. He was not satisfied with depicting a mere social facet oring a few typical characters but sought to complete "a work on 19th-century France," where "each chapter is a novel, and each novel represents an era." He brought thousands of characters to life on the page, forming a complete society that vividly recreated the history of France from the Revolution of 1789 to the full consolidation of bourgeois rule in 1848. In his own words, this was "a customs history that many historians had overlooked."
Balzac boldly broke through traditional artistic boundaries and methods, almost infinitely expanding the subject matter of literature, allowing everything in social life that seemed alien to its poetic sensibility to intrude into the novel: financial and monetary affairs, debt litigation, bank insolvencies, and retail inventory settlements—all were poetically depicted in his works. Characters from all trades and social strata could be found in La Comédie Humaine. Thus, it was said, "The more complex society, the more complex the content of La Comédie Humaine; the richer life, the more abundant its scenes." Moreover, Balzac sought to further explore the causes of these social phenomena, analyzing their essence and significance. From an early age, Balzac possessed a strong desire to understand, comprehend, and explain everything. Before becoming a novelist, he aspired to be a philosopher; when deciding to use fiction to reflect contemporary history, he first thought of studying human society as Buffon studied the animal kingdom. For Balzac, writing was a means of researching and explaining the world. Therefore, beginning in 1830, he published his novels under titles such as "Private Life Scenes," "Philosophical Studies," and "Customs Studies." In 1841, inspired by Dante's La Divina Commedia (literally The Comedy of God), he decided to title his entire work La Comédie Humaine, metaphorically likening the struggles and joys of human existence to theatrical performances.
In the La Comédie Humaine published starting in 1842, Balzac divided the work into three parts: "Customs Studies," "Philosophical Studies," and "Analytical Studies." According to his own explanation, "Customs Studies" depicted contemporary French society; "Philosophical Studies" explored the causes of these social phenomena, seeking meaning hidden within the multitude of characters, emotions, and events; and "Analytical Studies" analyzed the essence and roots of these causal relationships from the perspective of "the natural laws of humanity." Among these three parts, "Customs Studies" was the most extensive and significant. Based on the categories of subject matter, Balzac further divided it into six scenes: "Private Life," "Provincial Life," "Parisian Life," "Political Life," "Military Life," and "Rural Life." Balzac originally planned to write over 140 novels under the overarching title of La Comédie Humaine, but he completed only 96, most of which belonged to "Customs Studies" and were primarily concentrated in the first three scenes. None of these 96 novels were entirely masterpieces, but as a whole, they formed a magnificent and grand structure. In the history of French and European literature, no such monumental structure existed. The protagonist of Le Père Goriot, Rapha?l, once said, "I feel a certain idea I must express, a certain system I must establish, a certain doctrine I must elucidate." This was precisely Balzac's state of mind as he wrote La Comédie Humaine. To achieve the height he aspired to, he voraciously read countless philosophical, social, and scientific works from antiquity to the present, constantly comparing, analyzing, and synthesizing them; he delved into every corner of social life, uncovering people's inner secrets, observing the political and economic structures, the distribution of power and wealth, the mysteries of law, and the efficacy of religion with the meticulousness of a philosopher and scientist. He carefully dissected people's emotions, desires, and the motivations behind their actions, patiently exploring the underlying connections between various social phenomena. In this turbulent and restless society, he discovered an uncontrolled law of nature: the rising dominance of the bourgeoisie and the decline and demise of the aristocracy. Such a historical trend was the essential force governing all social life. All conflicts, struggles, upheavals, and crimes, as well as the tragedies and comedies of family and personal life, were closely tied to this specific historical process.
Thanks to his comprehensive understanding of society, Balzac was able to grasp the essential historical content from scattered, individual, and phenomena, successfully depicting the profound changes in social life and the impact on people's destinies and souls during France's transition from a feudal to a capitalist society. Thus, Balzac's works surpassed his contemporaries not only in breadth but also in depth, earning him high praise from Marx and Engels. What set Balzac apart from ordinary writers was his dual role as a philosopher and a historian of literature. His works transcended personal experiences and emotions, instead embodying a comprehensive analysis of society. In his novel La Défaite de l'Extrême-Orient, Balzac wrote, "The highest art is to incorporate ideas into images," and "a single word should contain countless thoughts, a single scene should encompass the entire philosophy." In this way, he elevated the novel to the level of historical philosophy, achieving a depth that ordinary literary works could not match. As a customs historian, Balzac was more powerful than genuine historians because he did not rely on abstract concepts but appealed to images. Everything that historians explained in concepts, he guided readers to feel through numerous typical characters and events. Therefore, the history he depicted through images often left a more profound and compelling impression, making it more persuasive than the histories written by historians. Engels once remarked that from La Comédie Humaine, he learned "even more about economic details (such as the redistribution of movable and immovable property after the Revolution) than from all the professional historians, economists, and statisticians of the time combined."
Creating anding typical characters in typical environments was Balzac's primary means of summarizing and refining life, and also his main contribution to realist art. By combining character development with profound historical content, he established the most magnificent gallery of characters in the history of French literature. Balzac allowed his characters to reveal their personalities through action, making plot and setting descriptions serve the shaping of character. Even minor characters in his works were vividly individualized and lifelike, though exaggerated, they were firmly rooted in reality, making them seem utterly authentic. Belyayev once marveled at the fact that none of the numerous characters in Balzac's novels were completely identical. Zola admiringly noted that in the face of Balzac's lifelike characters, "the figures of ancient Greece and Rome seemed pale and trembled, while medieval figures lay prostrate like toy lead soldiers." Balzac possessed the keen insight of an artistic master, able to quickly penetrate people's inner lives and capture their essential characteristics through brief encounters. This extraordinary artistic talent flourished fully due to his rich life experiences. Born into a family that had risen from peasantry to the bourgeoisie, with relatives who were middle- and lower-class merchants, he became familiar with this class from a young age. After becoming a writer, he was accepted into the "upper class," giving him more opportunities to study the customs and traditions of the aristocracy. During his law studies, he worked as a trainee in a law firm and notary office, gaining insight into the darker side of Parisian society. More importantly, during the ten years before gaining fame, he engaged in various trades, experiencing countless struggles and failures, and endured the hardships of business, bankruptcy, liquidation, and debt. He also faced the relentless pursuit of promissory notes and the exploitation of usurers. Among his contemporaries, no writer had a more direct and profound experience of the torment of money and the dominance of materialism. In terms of accumulated life experience, none could match him. Like some of the geniuses he portrayed, he had "lived, struggled, and felt" in the of Paris. He was not only the author of La Comédie Humaine but also an actor on this grand stage. Baudelaire called him one of the "most peculiar, interesting, romantic, and poetic" characters in La Comédie Humaine①. What he depicted in La Comédie Humaine was not only his observations but also his experiences and feelings—these personal experiences and feelings formed the most compelling chapters of the work.
Imagination is an indispensable quality for an artist, and it was one of Balzac's strongest gifts. He was not only an exceptionally clear-eyed observer but also possessed a passionate and rich imagination. The ideas he formed through observation and reflection were quickly transformed into a variety of characters. These characters acted according to the logic of life in the writer's mind, seemingly not under his subjective control. Balzac often lived in a world of hallucinations, constantly interacting with the characters he had created, to the point where theymed his sleep and appetite. He and his characters fantasized, suffered, and struggled, sometimes confusing the fictional world with reality. He would eagerly report news about these fictional characters to his friends, as if they truly lived among them. It was said that when he was ill, he called the name of the physician Bienvenu in La Comédie Humaine, claiming that only this doctor could relieve his suffering. This extraordinary mental state was a manifestation of the artist's heightened capacity for imaginative thinking. The reason his characters often appeared more vivid, realistic, and convincing than real people was largely due to his extraordinary imagination.
Balzac lived in the bizarre society of 19th-century Paris, exposed to a multitude of ideologies and doctrines, making his own thoughts highly complex. His mind was filled with conflicting doctrines and theories, and in his works, profound insights coexisted with absurdities, sharp analyses with conclusions. He believed in the materiality of the world yet was deeply attracted to mysticism; he was essentially an atheist yet fervently promoted religion; his blueprint for social development did not transcend the bounds of capitalist free competition, yet politically, he inclined toward legitimism. What mattered most was that as a writer, Balzac always considered it his duty to deeply understand and faithfully represent the objective world. The statement, "French society is the historian, and I should only be its secretary,"① both humble and proud, accurately reflects Balzac's realist creative attitude. Although Balzac lived in an era swept by Romanticism in France, and although he himself was a highly Romantic figure who often lived in a world of fantasy, and although his works contained many Romantic chapters, no matter how romantic or even absurd his expressive methods, he remained rooted in the soil of real life, focusing on reflecting its essence. Thus, Plekhanov said that Balzac was a "realist in the deepest sense of the word."
Starting from his rich life experiences, Balzac achieved a clear understanding of the essence of contemporary society and the trends of historical development. He respected history and life, even when the logic of life led to conclusions contrary to his own beliefs and desires. Therefore, as Engels pointed out, although his great works were an "endless elegy for the inevitable collapse of the upper class,"② when he allowed his aristocratic characters to act, "his satire was unprecedentedly sharp, his irony unprecedentedly biting, and the characters he openly admired were precisely his political adversaries."③ Engels summarized this as "one of the greatest victories of realism"④. It was precisely for this reason that Balzac, a legitimist who claimed to write under the "eternal truths" of "royalty" and "religion," unexpectedly found his works providing evidence for certain scientific arguments of Marxism.
For Chinese readers, Balzac has become a?book_contents=Preface to La Comédie Humaine · Customs Studies · Private Life Scenes (I) Cat Ball · Shop · Dance at Su Town · Money Bag · Mademoiselle de Minon · Preface