Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/279

BALZAC 259 novels and romances. These and many more in the next seven years, including attempts in almost all varieties of prose fiction, appeared under different assumed names, as Horace de St. Aubin, Lord K'hoone (anagram of Honor6), and Veillergre (pseudonyme of his collaborator Lepoiterin Saint-Alme). Abounding in defects of plot, incident, and style, they only give here and there a rare gleam of the excellent quali- ties that shine in his later writings. Some of them were writtten under the pressure of pov- erty, and merely to sell. Of their inferiority Balzac was always as conscious as his critics; nor would he consent that they should bear his name. The larger part of them have been reprinted since his death under the title of (Euvres de jeunesse. In 1826 he associated with himself a printer of the name of Barbier, for the purpose of carrying on an enterprise in which printing, publishing, and writing were combined, and paper-making was to have been added. It soon proved a lamentable failure, after having been long enough in operation to involve Balzac in debts that harassed him for years afterward, and from which in the end he relieved himself by the products of his pen. The first volume to which he signed his name was Le dernier Ghouan, published in 1829, a historical novel, written in La Vend6e, amid the scenes so faithfully described in its pages. His next work, Phyriologie du manage, drew public attention to the originality and subtlety of the author's genius ; La peau de chagrin, in 1831 (included in his Contes philosophiquef), increased the general admiration. From this time to the close of his life he continued to produce in rapid succession that remarkable series of romances, novels, and tales to which he gave the general title of Comedie humaine, including his celebrated Scenes de la vie privee, Scenes de la vie de province, Scenes de la vie parisienne, &c. ; Etudes pnilosophiques, and Etudes analytiques. He proposed to himself nothing less than the complete delineation of every phase of modern French society. This great work, with all its natural limitations and manifold defects of execution, yet remains a marvellous monument of genius and industry. Portions of it considered as independent works, such as Eugenie Grandet, Cesar Birotteau, Le pere Goriot, and Les illusions perdues, are masterpieces in themselves. Among his other works are: La Jille aux yeuxifor; Memoires de deux jeunes mariees ; Les parents pauvres ; Le contrat de manage; Vautrin ; and Contes drolatiques. According to his sister, between 1827 and 1848 he wrote 97 works, containing nearly 11,000 pages, and thrice as large as ordi- nary octavo volumes. Most of his works have been translated into the principal foreign lan- guages. Among the many biographies of him, the most interesting are those by his sister Laure and Theophile Gautier (Paris, 1859). His best works are distinguished for depth, acute- ness, and boldness of observation, but his mi- nute accuracy of external description and ful- ness of detail often become wearisome, clog the movement of the story, and detract from the interest that should centre round the main figures. He is sometimes gross even to cyni- cism, which he mingles with traits of exquisite purity and delicacy; but both the grossness and delicacy generally reside in his subjects. He rarely projects his own personality. It has been regretted that he had no high ideal ; but that did not enter into his system of art. He aimed only to present the realities of life. He advances no theory, pretends to no moral teaching. Treating largely of female emotions, he found among women his warmest admirers. On occasion of the publication of his Medecin de campagne'm 1835, he received a complimen- tary letter from the countess Evelina Han- ska, a Polish lady, which was the commence- ment of a long and intimate correspondence. After her husband's death, Balzac went to Poland and married her (1848). His health was already seriously impaired by excessive work and by drinking coffee in large quantities as an habitual stimulus. A few months after his return from Poland, and after having fitted up his house in the rue Fortunee (Champs lys6es) with exquisite works of art for a per- manent residence, he died of hypertrophy of the heart, and was buried at Pore Lachaise, amid an immense concourse of people, Victor Hugo pronouncing the funeral oration. II. Lanre de, sister and biographer of the preced- ing, born in 1800. She married M. Allain, sur- named Surville, an engineer. She wrote fairy tales and other stories for her children, which have acquired great popularity. Her brother's novel, Un debut dans la me (1842), was founded upon one of her tales entitled Le voyage en Coucou. She published in 1858 Balzac, sa vie et ses centres, containing his correspondence and many interesting details of his life. BALZAC, Jean Louis Gnez, seigneur de, a French writer, born in Angoulemo in 1594, died at Balzac, Feb. 18, 1654. His father, a nobleman of Languedoc, and a favorite of Henry IV., as- sumed the name of De Balzac after a small estate on the Charente. He was a pupil of Malherbe. accompanied Cardinal de la Valette to Italy, and became his agent in Rome ; and on his return to Paris, when his correspondence had estab- lished for him a high literary reputation, he became one of the most admired visitors of the h6tel Rambouillet, a favorite of the bishop of Lucon, afterward Cardinal Richelieu, and a member of the newly established French acad- emy. His rapid success excited much jealousy, especially among the old school of prose writers and the order of the Feuillants, whose general, Father Goulu, published a most virulent attack upon him. Balzac, weary of these assaults, left Paris for his country seat, and was hence called the hermit of the Charente. Toward the end of his life he often retired for religions meditation to the Capuchin convent of Angouleme, where he had two rooms built for his own use. He dis- tributed large amounts among the poor, and be-