Balzac
by Stefan Zweig, translated
by William & Dorothy Rose.
Cassell & Co. London,
1947. pp XIII + 400.
This review was written on November 11 2005.
The date of the original
biography is not given but clearly Balzac was personally known to the author
during his subject’s later years. The English text is unusually florid and
stylised for a translation as late as 1947, which may more accurately reflect the
French style of the early nineteenth century.
Honoré Balzac (later to adopt
the more aristocratic name Honoré de Balzac) was born in 1799 to a relatively
prosperous family in Tours. They were regarded at the time of his birth as
members of the haute bourgeoisie. His mother’s family was prosperous and part of
the lesser aristocracy, while his ambitious father had recently emerged from
more modest peasant stock.
Balzac was perhaps the most
famous of the French novelists of the 19th century. He was the first
of eleven children. His mother, who outlived him, played an important part in
his life. She is described as difficult, mean, spiteful, interfering and
showing little sense of love or concern about the welfare of her children, and
particularly her eldest boy, although in later years she looked after his
chaotic affairs as best she could during his long absences from Paris. He hated
her, treated her badly but depended in latter years on her advice, assistance
and money. No doubt his bad behaviour
was derived from his earlier relations with his mother.
.
After he left the family at the age of 17, he lived as an
impoverished recluse in Paris where he wished to become a writer, very much
against the wishes of his mother and family. His first twelve or thirteen years
away from home were marred by his impatience to make money and thus to achieve
his freedom. He started his career as a literary hack, reaching the lowest
level of writing in order to earn a few francs. No type of literary production
and no commission were beneath his dignity during this time.
It was only when he reached
the age of thirty that he found his true metier as a great novelist. That was
after many misfortunes, mostly self-induced by his ill-judged and unsuccessful attempts
to enter the publishing and printing trade, which cost him and his creditors
relatively large sums of money. He was immature, untidy in habits and dress,
inconsiderate of others, boastful and adulterous, but shortly after his
thirtieth year, with the publication of La Peau de Chagrin he became famous
overnight and continued to produce novels at an extraordinary rate until the
time of his death. Between his novels, short stories, newspapers articles, various
literary contributions and other political commentaries, he published at least
70 items in 1830 and 75 in 1831.
During his writing periods, he
wrote for up to 18 hours every day, remaining totally reclusive except for an
hour or two while he visited the market to purchase his beloved coffee or visit
his many lovers. He usually started writing at midnight, after a brief meal and
a few hours sleep, and could work continuously until the late afternoon without
respite. Since I first read an account in Time of Mario Puza’s writing habits
(The author of the Godfather), I became interested in writers’ approach to
their trade. I emulated Mario Puza’s strict discipline when I wrote Beat Heart
Disease in 1974. I had given myself four to six weeks to write the text and to
put it in publishing format but I had it finished in my attic in Provence in
eleven days. Starting at 8.0 am, I wrote non-stop until lunchtime. Lunch was followed
by a siesta and at 5.0 pm I went running among the orchards and vineyards
beside the Durance River, a tributary of the Rhone. Ten to 12 kilometres in the
balmy heat of that peaceful countryside provided a euphoric sense of relaxation
bordering on the sensuous and an opportunity of conceptualising the next day’s
writing. Since then I have appreciated
the importance of the discipline and organisation which is required to become a
professional and prolific writer. Unfortunately, I did not have the inclination
to adopt this as a lifetime commitment although the few books I have published
were the result of such resolution and of a firm decision to adhere to a time
limit.
Balzac was an extraordinarily
conscientious writer, despite his prolific production. He was addicted to
copious quantities of coffee during his work and without this he could neither
find inspiration nor the energy to write. His huge coffee intake may have
contributed to his early demise. His obsessional insistence on being satisfied
with the final text of his novels caused much anger and frustration among his
publishers. In those times of
tedious handwriting, he needed to spend much of his time correcting proofs and
illustrations. The illustrated copies of corrected proofs are difficult to
decipher and must have added to the frustrations of his publishers. It was
remarkable that he kept all his proofs which he had bound into folios and which
he then presented to friends and acquaintances. His production was such that it was described by Zweig as
equivalent to about 16 printed pages every day. 
He is rightly described by
Zweig as a genius and as the greatest French novelist of the twentieth century.
It appears that his genius was based on an obsessive and compulsive personality,
a person who must have had little happiness during his lifetime. He had
numerous affairs, both adulterous and otherwise, and was clearly much happier
with women rather than men. In fact, apart from one of his sisters and one or
two others who helped him in adversity and had faith in his genius, he had few
friends among men but he could readily share a few moments of leisure and
moments of intimacy with women.
I dictated these paragraphs
when I had got to page 140 of the book, I had tired of the author’s style, his
constant use of metaphor, and of his constant repetition of Balzac’s failings,
misfortunes and personality traits. I doubted if I had the patience or time to
finish the book which I had taken from my father’s library because of a dearth
of other reading, but a visit to Brazil at the end of May and the travel time
involved perforce allowed me to finish its 380 rather tedious pages.
For Balzac, work came even
before love. His life was marked by solitude, hard work and self-denial. He was
hopelessly extravagant and constantly in debt and under siege by creditors and
bailiffs. Yet, because of his deep and passionate commitment to writing, he was
able to adopt a schizophrenic attitude to life’s adversity, to his chronic and
disastrous financial state and to his many misfortunes. He was best and most
productive as a writer when his material circumstances were at their worst. He
said
My finest flashes
of inspiration always came to me in my moments of deepest anxiety and distress
He had a compelling belief
that he could only find peace and happiness by finding and marrying a rich
widow. This compulsion was to endure for the latter half of his life, and was to
be granted shortly before his death when his health was already in serious
decline. His search for the rich widow of his choice lead him into the most ridiculous
and humiliating encounters, with the aristocracy in particular, and he
understandably became of figure of fun and ridicule among the public. This
search for a rich wife caused him to neglect his writing for prolonged periods,
particularly during his last remaining years.
His novels covered a vast
variety of themes. Apart from his many articles and other contributions, he
wrote many droll short stories and longer novels about humanity and success and
failure. His metier was the novel based on the history of his own time; the
contemporary scene provided the material for his most successful work. He was a
brilliant recorder of character, and every type of person, whatever their
class, occupation or gender, were his subjects. He portrayed life and character
as mirrors of his own experience. Hence the realism of his writing
It particularly emerges in the
account of his 18 year affair with Madame de Hanska, the wealthy Ukrainian, how
the words liar, mendacious, disingenuous, self-delusion, self-seeking,
extravagance and childishness were relevant to his character and behaviour. His
death occurred shortly after his last-minute marriage to the reluctant and
unsympathetic Madame de Hanska, who had lead him a dance for so long. She
showed little compassion for him during his final illness and at the time of
his death. Despite his being the greatest novelist of the 19th
century in France with his immense contribution to our insight of these times,
his story is essentially a sad and unhappy one, largely because of his many
personality failings, his immaturity and his appalling judgement in managing
his affairs. One might enquire if his novels are of sufficient greatness and
insightfulness to maintain popularity 180 years later, and if his writing style
(and that of his biographical) has survived the changing taste of modern
society.
His breadth and ambition as a
novelist is evident from his long-term ambition to finish La Comédie Humaine.
This title was based on the Italian magnum opus and epic poem, the Divine
Comedy, by Dante. It was to be a comprehensive account of every aspect of
French life in the 19th century, from life in Paris and the cities,
the countryside; life among the many professions, politics, the law, medicine
and business; the lives of men and women, children, old people, and finally an
overview of early 19th century French society.. The many hundreds of
characters in his novels were based on those whom he had known during his
lifetime and some were clearly based on those whom he wished to praise or to
deride or ridicule. Much of this ambitious project was achieved but it is a
measure of his intentions and ambition that there were still 50 titles which remained
unwritten when he died prematurely at the age of 50 years. His early death was
a blow to France and French literature
Difficult relations with his
colleagues in the literary and media world, the jealousy of his contemporary
writers, his boastful, improvident and erratic lifestyle, and his subservient
attitude to the aristocracy and the wealthy, were only some reasons why he was
denied public honours, such as membership of the Académie Francaise or
recognition by the head of state. Most of those who were elected to the Académie
during his time have been long forgotten while the name of Honoré de Balzac
remains fresh in the minds of his countrymen and of the literary world.
The biography includes a
short chronological summary of his places of residence during his lifetime and
the titles and dates of publication of his best known novels. It also includes
a short bibliography of biographical sources.
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