Human Comedy, Volume 18

Author: Balzac (France) / Zhi Zhongyun, et al.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1997-08-01
Features: This book is the eighteenth volume of the world-renowned work Le Comédie Humaine, titled Research on Customs·Scenes of Rural Life. The Peasants is one of the most profound works in Scenes of Rural Life in Le Comédie Humaine, and it is also the one that Balzac claimed to be the most challenging he had ever decided to write. Although unfinished, it provides a deeply insightful portrayal of the intricate class contradictions in the French countryside after the French Revolution, accurately depicting the fierce struggle between different classes, particularly between the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. The author, with a sense of regret, writes that this brutal struggle inevitably ends with the collapse of the aristocratic manorial economy, as the land of Aigeville is finally divided and sold in small plots. On the other hand, he keenly observes that while the peasants appear to have won, the true victors are the bourgeoisie, for in gaining the land, they also fall into the web of usury and other forms of exploitation. Small-scale farming ultimately cannot free the peasants from the fate of poverty. The Country Doctor, a novel set in the theme of developing backward regions, lacks dramatic twists or surprising plots. Through only a few oral narratives, it nearly comprehensively expresses the author's social utopia and his views on religion, politics, economics, and ethics. This novel is both a spiritual reflection of the author's failed love and a reflection of his thoughts on governance as he aspired to enter the political arena.