Human Comedy, Volume 21

Author: (French) Balzac/H. / Multiple Authors
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1997-08-01
Features: Honoré Balzac (1799–1850) was one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century, a master of creating typical characters, and a universally recognized master of realism. Through 20 years of diligent work, he created the miracle of "La Comédie Humaine" in the history of the novel. He united over 90 novels of varying lengths into a complete and all-encompassing social portrait, "providing an outstanding realistic history of French 'society,' especially the 'upper class' of Paris,"① transforming novels, once seen as 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 "story" to become a highly expressive and entirely new form of art. Balzac lived during the historical turning point in France's transition from a feudal society to a capitalist one, personally experiencing major historical stages such as the Napoleonic Empire, the Bourbon Restoration, and the July Monarchy, as well as significant events like the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. The complex contradictions and rapid, sustained social upheavals of this period brought unprecedented vitality to social thought, fostering the prosperity and development of 19th-century French literature, while also exerting a decisive influence on Balzac's creative work. All great writers reflect their time in their works, but Balzac's ambition was to fully recreate his era. He was not satisfied with depicting only certain aspects of society or creating a few typical characters but sought to complete "a series of works 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 and vividly recreating the history of France from the French Revolution to 1848, when the bourgeoisie fully gained control. According to his own account, 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 bankruptcies, and store inventory settlements were all poetically depicted in his works; characters from all trades and social strata could find their representatives in "La Comédie Humaine." Thus, it was said, without exaggeration: "The more complex society is, the more complex the content of 'La Comédie Humaine'; the richer life is, the richer its scenes." Moreover, Balzac attempted to further explore the causes of these social phenomena, analyzing their essence and significance. Balzac had from an early age a strong desire to grasp everything, understand everything, and explain everything. Before deciding to become a novelist, he aspired to be a philosopher; when he chose to reflect contemporary history through his novels, he first thought of studying human society as comprehensively as Buffon studied the animal world. 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 works collectively "La Comédie Humaine," metaphorically equating all the struggles and joys of human existence with individual plays performed on a stage. In the "La Comédie Humaine" published starting in 1842, Balzac divided the works into three parts: "Customs Studies," "Philosophical Studies," and "Analytical Studies." According to his own explanation, "Customs Studies" depicted the contemporary social customs of France; "Philosophical Studies" explored the causes of these social phenomena, seeking the hidden meanings within the numerous characters, passions, 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 "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 all masterpieces, but as a whole, they formed a magnificent and grand structure. In the history of French and European literature, no second such structure exists. The protagonist of "Le Père Goriot," Rapha?l, once said, "I felt I had a certain idea to express, a certain system to establish, and a certain doctrine to explain." This was precisely Balzac's state of mind when writing "La Comédie Humaine." To achieve the height he aspired to, he voraciously read countless philosophical, social, and natural science works from ancient and modern times, constantly comparing, analyzing, and summarizing 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, as a philosopher and scientist would, with meticulous attention to people's emotions, desires, the motivations behind their actions, and the intrinsic connections between various social phenomena. In this turbulent and restless society, he discovered an uncontrolled law of nature: the rising power of the bourgeoisie and the decline and demise of the aristocracy. Such a historical trend was the essential force dominating all social life. All conflicts, struggles, upheavals, and crimes in society, as well as the tragedies and comedies in family and personal life, were closely tied to this specific historical process. Due to this comprehensive understanding of society, Balzac was able to grasp the essential historical content from the scattered, individual, and phenomena, successfully depicting the profound changes in social life and the profound impact on people's destinies and souls that occurred during France's transition from a feudal to a capitalist society. Thus, Balzac's works surpassed those of 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 that he was both a philosopher and a historian in the eyes of the literary world. His works transcended personal feelings and emotions, instead incorporating a comprehensive analysis of society. In the novel "La Dernière Chasse," Balzac wrote, "The highest art is to incorporate ideas into images," and "a single word should contain countless thoughts, and a single scene should summarize a whole philosophy." In this way, he elevated the novel to the level of historical philosophy, achieving a depth that general literary works could not attain. As a customs historian, Balzac was more powerful than true historians because he did not rely on concepts but appealed to images. Everything that historians explained with concepts, he guided readers to feel through numerous typical characters and typical examples. Therefore, the history he depicted with images often left a more profound and compelling impression than the history written by historians, making it more persuasive. Engels once said 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." Creating images and typical characters in typical environments were Balzac's primary means of summarizing and refining life, and also his main contribution to realist art. He combined character development with profound historical content, establishing the most magnificent gallery of characters in the history of French literature. Balzac allowed his characters to reveal their personalities through action, making the plot and setting skillfully serve the portrayal of character. The characters in Balzac's works, even minor ones, were all vividly individualized and lifelike, though somewhat exaggerated, yet firmly grounded in reality, making them feel utterly convincing and lifelike. Belyayev once marveled at the fact that none of the numerous characters in Balzac's novels were entirely identical. Zola admiringly remarked that in the face of Balzac's vivid and realistic characters, "the figures of ancient Greece and Rome seemed pale and trembling, and the figures of the Middle Ages lay prostrate like toy lead soldiers." Balzac possessed the keen insight of an artistic master, able to quickly delve into people's inner lives and capture their essential characteristics through brief encounters. This extraordinary artistic talent was fully developed due to his rich life experiences. He was born into a family that had risen from farming to the bourgeoisie, with relatives who were mostly middle- and lower-class old-style merchants, making him familiar with this class from a young age. After becoming a writer, he was accepted by the "upper class," giving him more opportunities to study the customs and traditions of the nobility. During his time studying law at university, 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 decade before he gained fame, he engaged in various trades, experiencing countless struggles and failures, and endured the hardships of business, bankruptcy, closures, liquidations, and debts. He also faced the relentless pursuit of promissory notes and the exploitation of usurers. Among his contemporaries, no one had a more direct and profound experience of the torment of money and the dominance of materialism. In terms of accumulated life experiences, none were as rich as he. He was, as he himself had described some of the geniuses he portrayed, "someone who had lived, struggled, and felt in the inferno of Paris." He was not only the author of "La Comédie Humaine" but also an actor on this grand stage. Baudelaire once called him one of the "most peculiar, interesting, and romantic, as well as the most poetic" characters in "La Comédie Humaine."① What he depicted in "La Comédie Humaine" was not only his observations but also his experiences and feelings, and it was these personal experiences and feelings that the most chapters of the work. Imagination is an indispensable quality for an artist, and it was precisely one of Balzac's strongest talents. 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 the writer's subjective control. Balzac often lived in a world of hallucinations, constantly interacting with the characters he had created, to the point where he was tormented by them day and night. He and his characters fantasized, suffered, and struggled, sometimes confusing the fictional world with real life. He would eagerly report news about these fictional characters to his friends, as if they really lived among them. It was said that when he was critically ill, he called the name of the famous 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 overdeveloped ability to think in images. The reason why the characters in Balzac's works often appeared more vivid, realistic, and convincing than real people was largely due to his exceptionally strong imagination. Balzac lived in the bizarre society of 19th-century Paris, exposed to a variety of and doctrines, making his own thoughts extremely complex. His mind was filled with conflicting claims and doctrines, and in his works, profound insights coexisted with absurdities, sharp analyses with ridiculous conclusions. He believed in the materiality of the world but was deeply attracted to mysticism; he was essentially an atheist but fervently promoted religion; his blueprint for social development did not transcend the framework of capitalist free competition, yet politically, he inclined toward the legitimist party. But 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 a 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 when Romanticism swept France, and although he himself was a person with a strong romantic temperament, often living in a world of fantasy, and although his works contained many romantic chapters, no matter how romantic or even absurd his expressive methods were, he always remained rooted in the soil of real life, focusing on reflecting the essence of life. Therefore, 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 him to conclusions that contradicted his own beliefs and wishes. Thus, as Engels pointed out, although his great works were an "endless elegy for the inevitable collapse of the upper class,"② when he made the aristocracy act in his works, "his satire was unprecedentedly sharp, his irony unprecedentedly biting, and the characters he often openly admired were precisely his political enemies."③ All of this was summed up by Engels as "one of the greatest victories of realism"④. And precisely because of this, Balzac, the legitimist who claimed to write under the "eternal truths" of "royalty" and "religion," unexpectedly found that his works often provided verification for some scientific arguments of Marxism. Balzac has become for Chinese readers a book_contents=Philosophical Studies〔Ⅱ〕Gombauld's Search for the AbsoluteThe Cursed ChildThe MotherHow She LivedThe SonHow He DiedFarewellMariana and Her DaughterThe Enlisted ManThe ExecutionerThe Tragedy by the SeaThe Boss of ConstanceThe Hotel of the Red HouseIdeas and FactsTwo JudgmentsExplanation