A message about Honore de Balzac. Balzac, Honoré de

Honoré de Balzac (French Honoré de Balzac, May 20, 1799, Tours - August 18, 1850, Paris) - French writer. Real name - Honore Balzac, the particle "de", meaning belonging to noble family, began to be used around 1830.

Biography

Honore de Balzac was born in Tours, into a family of peasants from Languedoc. In 1807-1813 he studied at the College of Vendôme, in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, and at the same time worked as a scribe for a notary; abandoned his legal career and devoted himself to literature.

Since 1823, he published a number of novels under various pseudonyms in the spirit of “frantic romanticism.” In 1825-28 B. was engaged in publishing activities, but failed.

In 1829, the first book signed with the name "Balzac" was published - the historical novel "The Chouans" (Les Chouans). Balzac's subsequent works: "Scenes privacy"(Scènes de la vie privée, 1830), the novel “The Elixir of Longevity” (L"Élixir de longue vie, 1830-31, a variation on the themes of the legend of Don Juan); the story by Gobseck (Gobseck, 1830) attracted wide attention from readers and critics In 1831 Balzac published his philosophical novel“Shagreen Skin” and begins the novel “The Thirty-Year-Old Woman” (La femme de trente ans). In the cycle “Mischievous Stories” (Contes drolatiques, 1832-1837), Balzac ironically stylized Renaissance short stories. In part autobiographical novel“Louis Lambert” (Louis Lambert, 1832) and especially in the later “Seraphîta” (Séraphîta, 1835) reflected B.’s passion for the mystical concepts of E. Swedenborg and Cl. de Saint Martin. If his hope of getting rich has not yet been realized (since a huge debt weighs on him - the result of his unsuccessful commercial enterprises), then his hope to become famous, his dream of conquering Paris and the world with his talent was realized. Success did not turn Balzac's head, as it did with many of his young contemporaries. He continued to lead a hard working life, sitting at his desk for 15-16 hours a day; working until dawn, publishing three, four and even five, six books annually.

The works created in the first five or six years of his writing activity depict the most diverse areas of his contemporary life. French life: village, province, Paris; various social groups: merchants, aristocracy, clergy; various social institutions: family, state, army. The huge amount of artistic facts contained in these books required systematization.

Balzac's innovation

The end of the 1820s and the beginning of the 1830s, when Balzac entered literature, was the period of greatest flowering of the work of romanticism during French literature. Great romance in European literature By the time Balzac arrived, he had two main genres: the novel of the individual - an adventurous hero (for example, Robinson Crusoe) or a self-absorbed, lonely hero ("Suffering young Werther"W. Goethe) and a historical novel (Walter Scott).

Balzac departs from both the novel of personality and the historical novel of Walter Scott. He strives to show the “individualized type”, to give a picture of the whole society, the whole people, the whole of France. Not a legend about the past, but a picture of the present, artistic portrait bourgeois society is at the center of his creative attention.

The standard-bearer of the bourgeoisie is now a banker, not a commander; its shrine is the stock exchange, not the battlefield.

Not a heroic personality and not a demonic nature, not a historical act, but modern bourgeois society, France of the July Monarchy - this is the main literary theme era. In place of the novel, the task of which is to give in-depth experiences of the individual, Balzac puts a novel about social mores, in place historical novels — artistic history post-revolutionary France.

“Studies on Morals” unfolds the picture of France, depicts the life of all classes, all social conditions, all social institutions. The key to this story is money. Its main content is the victory of the financial bourgeoisie over the landed and clan aristocracy, the desire of the entire nation to become in the service of the bourgeoisie, to become related to it. Thirst for money - main passion, the ultimate dream. The power of money is the only indestructible force: love, talent, family honor, family hearth, and parental feelings are submissive to it.

One of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century is O. de Balzac. The biography of this writer is in no way inferior to the stormy adventures of the heroes he created. The world is still interested in his personal life.

Bitter childhood

The founder of realism was born on May 20, 1799, in the city of Tours, which is located in the center of France. The prose writer came from a simple but enterprising family. His father, a local lawyer, Bernard Francois Balssa bought and resold the lands of ruined nobles. This business brought him profit. This was the reason that he changed his last name and boasted of his relationship with popular writer Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, to whom he had nothing to do.

Subsequently he acquired the noble prefix “de”. Bernard married a girl, Anne-Charlotte-Laure Salambier, who was 30 years younger than him. Honore's mother comes from an aristocratic family. The woman was freedom-loving and did not hide her romances. From connections on the side, the writer’s brother appeared, who was Anna’s favorite. And the future writer was given to a nurse. Afterwards he lived in a boarding house.

In a house where everyone except the family was put first, it was not easy for the boy. Honore de Balzac received little attention as a child. His biography is briefly described in some of his works. The problems he experienced when he was little were later present in his works.

Failed lawyer

Apparently, the genius inherited the main traits of his parents, since later they were clearly expressed in his character. At the request of his father and mother, his son was sent to Vendôme College, where he studied law. The institution was distinguished by harsh discipline, which the boy constantly disrupted. For this he earned the reputation of a slacker and a robber. There the child discovered the world of books. At the age of 12, he first tried himself as a writer. Then all his classmates mocked his works.

Due to constant stress and lack of attention, the child fell ill. His parents took him home. The guy was sick for several years. Many doctors did not guarantee that the child would live. Nevertheless, he pulled through.

The young man continued to study the legal profession in Paris, where his parents moved. He studied at the law school from 1816 to 1819. At the same time he works as a notary. But he was truly attracted only by the world of literature. Balzac was drawn to him. The biography could have turned out differently, but the parents decided to support their son’s passion and give him a chance.

First love

The father promised to support Honore for two years. During this time, the young man had to prove that he could work in the chosen direction. During this time, the future talent worked actively, but none of his works were taken seriously. The first Cromwell tragedy was mercilessly condemned. In total, until 1823 he wrote about 20 volumes. Later, the writer himself called his early works a complete mistake.

From time to time the young man left Paris for the province where his parents had moved. There he met Laura de Berni. His biography is closely intertwined with this woman. Balzac Honore, who received a minimum of maternal affection, found warmth and tenderness in the arms of Madame (20 years older than him). Unhappy in family life, with six children in her arms, she became his love and support.

When the time came to report to his family for the two years they had financed his hobby, Balzac had nothing to provide. All attempts to break into the world of words failed. Therefore, the family refused him money.

Entrepreneur's streak

Since childhood, the master of words dreamed of becoming filthy rich. While literature was not going well, the prose writer was trying to make money. At first it issues one-volume editions of classics. Also organized by the publishing house. Then he goes to Sardinia to find the silver of the ancient Romans in the mines. Another plan that did not pay off was growing pineapples near Paris. Balzac's biography is full of complex and fantastic business schemes. All his plans can be briefly described in one word - fiasco.

Because of the failures, the already large debts grew even more. He was saved from prison for promissory notes by his mother, who partially repaid the loans.

For a long period of his life, the genius was haunted by poverty. So, one night a thief broke into his simple apartment. He groped for something he could steal. The owner, who was in the room at the time, was not taken aback and said: “In vain you are looking in the dark for something that I cannot see even in the light.”

Way to success

Submission was not one of the virtues that Honore de Balzac had. The writer's biography would not have evoked so many emotions if not for his unshakable faith in his destiny. The master continued to work, no matter what.

In 1829, the prose writer took up his pen again. He made a strict schedule for himself. I went to bed at 6 pm and woke up at midnight. I wrote all the time. Dozens of pages came out from under his hand. He maintained his strength with numerous cups of strong coffee.

The efforts were crowned with success. The historical novel “The Chouans” brought him fame. The world did not yet know who Balzac was. The author's biography notes that until now he has used various pseudonyms.

The actions in this book take place during the Great french revolution. Here, the talented author skillfully described the struggle of the Republican troops with the Chouans.

The foundation of the main work

On the wings of success, the master decides in 1831 to create a series of stories. This was supposed to be a description of the morality of that time. The title is "Human Comedy". Work began with scenes of life in Paris in the 18th-19th centuries.

The name Honore de Balzac opened many doors. The man’s biography acquired new colors after his lightning popularity. In the most fashionable salons he was received as a respected guest. There the author met many of the heroes of his future works, who were included in The Human Comedy. The goal of the work was to combine all of his written works into one cycle. He took all previously published novels and partially changed them. The heroes of different books have established family, friendship and other connections with each other. The epic was supposed to consist of 143 novels. But the Frenchman failed to complete his plan.

Comedy theory

“The unsurpassed novelist” - this is the name Balzac received from critics. The writer's biography is forever connected with The Human Comedy. It consists of three parts. The first and widest, which included previous works- “Etudes about morals.” Here the audience meets the miser Gobsek, the selfless father Goriot, and the French officer Chabert. The second section is “Philosophical”. It helps the reader reason about the meaning of life. This includes the novel “Shagreen Skin”. The third part is “Analytical studies”. The books in this piece tend to be overly thought-provoking and sometimes put the plot in the background.

Balzac's biography is full of funny situations. Creativity brought profit, but did not cover all expenses and past debts. There is a story about an author going to his editor weekly to ask for an advance on future royalties. The boss was stingy, so he rarely gave out money. One day the writer, as always, came for payment, but the secretary said that the owner did not accept it today. To which Balzac replied that it didn’t matter to him, the main thing was that the leader gave the money.

Women of Balzac's age

Unattractive in appearance, Honore nevertheless conquered many ladies. They were amazed by the fervor and passion with which the prose writer spoke. Therefore everything free time From writing, the man spent time with numerous mistresses. Many noble ladies sought his attention, but often in vain. Balzac loved women of “elegant” age. The writer's biography is full of romantic adventures. Their heroines were ladies who were well over 30. He described such persons in his works.

The most popular character in the novel “The Thirty-Year-Old Woman” became the most popular. The main figure is the girl Julie. Through this image, the author clearly conveys the psychology of the fair sex. It was because of this work that the expression “woman of Balzac’s age” was born, that is, a lady between 30 and 40 years old.

A dream come true

Love plays big role In human life. The Polish Countess Ewelina Hanska became the greatest passion that Honore de Balzac ever felt. The biography briefly describes their acquaintance. The woman, like hundreds of other fans, sent the writer a confession. The man answered. Correspondence began. For a long time they met secretly.

Evelina refused to leave her husband and marry a prose writer. The relationship lasted for 17 years. She became free when she was widowed. Then the couple got married. This happened in May 1850, in the Ukrainian city of Berdichev. But Balzac did not have time to enjoy married life. He for a long time was seriously ill and died the same year on August 18, in Paris.

The master carved out each of his heroes. He was not afraid to make their lives not only bright, but also realistic. That is why Balzac's characters are still interesting to the reader.

). Balzac's father became rich by buying and selling confiscated noble lands during the revolution, and later became an assistant to the mayor of Tours. No relation to the French writer Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654). Father Honore changed his last name and became Balzac. Mother Anne-Charlotte-Laure Salambier (1778-1853) was much younger than her husband and even outlived her son. She came from the family of a Parisian cloth merchant.

The father prepared his son to become a lawyer. In -1813, Balzac studied at the College Vendôme, at the Paris School of Law, and at the same time worked as a scribe for a notary; however, he abandoned his legal career and devoted himself to literature. The parents did little with their son. He was placed at the Collège Vendôme against his will. Meetings with family were prohibited there all year round, excluding Christmas holidays. During the first years of his studies, he had to be in a punishment cell many times. In the fourth grade, Honore began to come to terms with school life, but he didn’t stop ridiculing the teachers... At the age of 14, he fell ill, and his parents took him home at the request of the college authorities. For five years Balzac was seriously ill, it was believed that there was no hope of recovery, but soon after the family moved to Paris in 1816, he recovered.

The director of the school, Marechal-Duplessis, wrote in his memoirs about Balzac: “Starting from the fourth grade, his desk was always full of writings...”. Honore with early years He was fond of reading, and he was especially attracted to the works of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Holbach, Helvetius and other French educators. He also tried to write poetry and plays, but his children's manuscripts have not survived. His essay “Treatise on the Will” was taken away by his teacher and burned before his eyes. Later his childhood years in educational institution the writer will describe in the novels “Louis Lambert”, “Lily in the Valley” and others.

His hope of becoming rich had not yet been realized (he was weighed down by debt - the result of his unsuccessful business ventures) when fame began to come to him. Meanwhile, he continued to work hard, working at his desk for 15-16 hours a day, and publishing 3 to 6 books annually.

The works created during the first five or six years of his writing career depict the most diverse areas of contemporary life in France: the village, the province, Paris; various social groups - merchants, aristocracy, clergy; various social institutions - family, state, army.

In 1845, the writer was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Honore de Balzac died on August 18, 1850, at the age of 52. The cause of death was gangrene, which developed after he injured his leg on the corner of the bed. However fatal disease was only a complication of several years of painful illness associated with the destruction of blood vessels, presumably arteritis.

Balzac was buried in Paris, in the Père Lachaise cemetery. " All the writers of France came out to bury him." From the chapel, where they said goodbye to him, and to the church, where they buried him, among the people bearing the coffin were

(French Honoré de Balzac, May 20, 1799, Tours - August 18, 1850, Paris) - French writer. His real name was Honore Balzac, the particle “de” meaning belonging to a noble family, he began to use it around 1830.
Biography
Honore de Balzac was born in Tours, into a family of peasants from Languedoc. In 1807–1813 he studied at the College of Vendôme, in 1816–1819 - at the Paris School of Law, and at the same time worked as a scribe for a notary; abandoned his legal career and devoted himself to literature.
Since 1823, he published a number of novels under various pseudonyms in the spirit of “frantic romanticism.” In 1825–28, B. was engaged in publishing, but failed.
In 1829, the first book signed with the name “Balzac” was published - the historical novel “The Chouans” (Les Chouans). Balzac's subsequent works: “Scenes of Private Life” (Scènes de la vie privée, 1830), the novel “The Elixir of Longevity” (L"Élixir de longue vie, 1830–31, a variation on the theme of the legend of Don Juan); the story Gobseck (Gobseck, 1830) attracted widespread attention from readers and critics. In 1831, Balzac published his philosophical novel “Shagreen Skin” and began the novel “La femme de trente ans” in the cycle “Naughty Stories” (Contes drolatiques, 1832–1837). ironically stylized the short stories of the Renaissance. The partly autobiographical novel “Louis Lambert” (Louis Lambert, 1832) and especially the later “Seraphîta” (1835) reflected B.’s passion for the mystical concepts of E. Swedenborg and C. de Saint-Martin. His hope of getting rich has not yet been realized (since he is weighed down by a huge debt - the result of his unsuccessful business ventures), but his hope of becoming famous, his dream of conquering Paris and the world with his talent, has not been realized. Success did not turn Balzac's head, as it happened with many of his young contemporaries. . He continued to lead a hard working life, sitting at his desk for 15–16 hours a day; working until dawn, publishing three, four and even five, six books every year.
The works created in the first five or six years of his writing career depict the most diverse areas of contemporary French life: the village, the province, Paris; various social groups: merchants, aristocracy, clergy; various social institutions: family, state, army. The huge amount of artistic facts contained in these books required systematization.
Innovation Balzac
The late 1820s and early 1830s, when Balzac entered literature, were the period of greatest flowering of Romanticism in French literature. The great novel in European literature by the time of Balzac had two main genres: the novel of the individual - an adventurous hero (for example, Robinson Crusoe) or a self-absorbed, lonely hero (The Sorrows of Young Werther by W. Goethe) and a historical novel (Walter Scott).
Balzac departs from both the novel of personality and the historical novel of Walter Scott. He strives to show the “individualized type”, to give a picture of the whole society, the whole people, the whole of France. It is not a legend about the past, but a picture of the present, an artistic portrait of bourgeois society that is at the center of his creative attention.
The standard-bearer of the bourgeoisie is now a banker, not a commander; its shrine is the stock exchange, not the battlefield.
Not a heroic personality and not a demonic nature, not a historical act, but modern bourgeois society, France of the July Monarchy - this is the main literary theme of the era. In place of the novel, the task of which is to provide in-depth experiences of the individual, Balzac puts a novel about social mores, in place of historical novels - the artistic history of post-revolutionary France.
“Studies on Morals” unfolds the picture of France, depicts the life of all classes, all social conditions, all social institutions. The key to this story is money. Its main content is the victory of the financial bourgeoisie over the landed and tribal aristocracy, the desire of the entire nation to serve the bourgeoisie, to become related to it. The thirst for money is the main passion, the highest dream. The power of money is the only indestructible force: love, talent, family honor, family hearth, and parental feelings are submissive to it.

Honore de Balzac, biography

Vital and creative path Honore de Balzac

Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in Tours. His grandfather, a farmer, had the surname Balsa, but his father, having become an official, changed it to the aristocratic one - Balzac.

From 1807 to 1813, Balzac studied at the College of Vendôme, and it was here that his love for literature manifested itself.

Having moved with his father to Paris in 1814, he studied in private institutions. In 1816, he was a free student at the Faculty of Law, at the same time he worked as a scribe for a notary, three years later he graduated from the faculty with a bachelor's degree, but, despite the wishes of his parents, he did not become a lawyer, and devoted himself to literature.

Having settled in the attic, Honore began his first unsuccessful attempt write, it was a tragedy in the verses of "Cromwell." He also wrote and published various action-packed novels and codes of social conduct under pseudonyms. Some of them were published under the pseudonym Horace de Saint-Aubren. Soon he decided to devote himself to a genre that would help him gain recognition - it became the novel.

His first novel, “The Chouans,” was published in 1829, but Balzac himself considered the novel “Shagreen Skin,” published in 1830, to be the most significant in his work. Next works were combined into the epic “The Human Comedy”, this epic brought fame to the author. Balzac was very fond of the aristocratic lifestyle. But despite this in his " Human Comedy“all classes of France of that time are described, and not only city life, but also the life of the provinces and villages. Honore de Balzac created a truly unique work, in which he typified the entire French society of his time. Balzac moved away from typical novels, he was not interested in history, he was not interested in the exploits of one person. He painted a portrait of real France, all of France, without embellishment or romance.

He never waited for inspiration. He was a workaholic writer, working 12-14 hours. He drank huge quantities of coffee, which he prepared for himself. His works are not the favor of a muse, but persistent research into human nature, the psychology of society, its life and culture. He himself, in the preface to The Human Comedy, draws a parallel between the development of the animal world and the human world, noting that the formation of personality and developmental features largely depend on the environment and upbringing.

In 1832, Honore de Balzac received a letter from Odessa from Evelina Ganskaya, who lived in Verkhovna near Kiev; they corresponded for 18 years. In March 1850 he married Evelina, they were recent months his life.