Balzac on Art

Author: [French] Balzac / Ai Min / Huang Jin Kai selected and edited / Yuan Shuren et al
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: Balzac's novel writing reached the peak of 19th-century literature. This peak, like the Himalayas, still stands majestically on the horizon of 20th-century world literature. La Comédie Humaine constitutes the core of Balzac's creative works, with his long novels being particularly outstanding. He was a great critical realist writer of 19th-century France, the founder and outstanding representative of European critical realism literature. In his lifetime, he wrote 96 long, medium, and short stories and essays, collectively titled La Comédie Humaine. His most famous works include Eugénie Grandet and Père Goriot. For over a century, his works have spread worldwide, exerting a profound influence on the development of world literature and human progress. Marx and Engels praised him as "a superior novelist" and "a master of realism." Balzac was born into a bourgeois family that became wealthy after the French Revolution. After graduating from law school, he rejected the respected legal career chosen for him by his family and aspired to become a writer. To secure financial independence and material support for his creative work, he tried his hand at business and became involved in publishing and printing, but both ventures ended in bankruptcy. All of this provided him with extremely valuable raw material for understanding and depicting society. He continuously pursued and explored, delving deeply into fields such as philosophy, economics, history, natural sciences, and theology, accumulating vast knowledge.