Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings - Mary F. Sandars
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By the law of election of 1830, any Frenchman who was thirty years of
age, and contributed 500 francs a year directly, in taxes, was
eligible as a deputy. When the law was made Balzac was thirty-one, and
paid the requisite amount; he therefore determined, in spite of his
enormous output of literary work at this time, to add the career of a
deputy to his labours; and in April, 1831, he wrote to ask for the
assistance of the General Baron de Pommereul, with whom he had been
staying at Fougeres, collecting material for "Les Chouans," while at
the same time he worked up the country politically. His manifesto, at
this period, is found in the "Enquete sur la Politique des Deux
Ministeres,"[*] in which he calls the Government a "monarchie tempere
par les emeutes," objects to the "juste milieu" observed by the
Ministers; and while bringing forward, with apparent impartiality, the
advantages of the two courses of peace and war, very evidently longs
for France to take the battlefield again, to obtain what he considers
her natural frontier, that of the Rhine. He also enters _con amore_
into the details of raising a Napoleonic army, and of establishing the
system of the Landwehr in France. A very remarkable passage in this
manifesto is that on the Press; by which, he says, the Government is
terrorised. With extraordinary penetration, he advises that the
strength of journalism shall be broken by the sacrifice of the three
or four millions gained by the "timbre," and the liberation of the
newspapers, which are stronger than the seven ministers--for they
upset the Government, and cannot be themselves suppressed--there will
be a hundred, and the number will neutralise their power, so that they
will become of no account politically.
[*] Another political pamphlet, entitled "Du Gouvernement Moderne,"
written by Balzac at Aix in 1832, has lately been published in the
_North American Review_. The original is in the collection of the
Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul.
Balzac had no chance at Fougeres, where a rich proprietor of the
neighbourhood was chosen as deputy, and no doubt M. de Pommereul
advised him not to proceed further in the matter. However, with his
usual tenacity, he wrote in September to M. Henri Berthoud, manager of
the _Gazette de Cambrai_, who wanted to collaborate with the _Revue de
Paris_, promising to further his wishes by all the means in his power,
if M. Berthoud would, on his part, support his candidature at Cambrai.
At the same time, he determined to try Angouleme, where he sometimes
went to stay with a relation, M. Grand-Besancon, and had met a M.
Berges, chief of the Government preparatory school, who was much
struck by his talent, and promised to help him. In June, 1831, he
wrote to Madame Carraud,[*] who took much interest in his political
aspirations, and sent her three copies of the Manifesto for
distribution. He told her that he was working day and night to become
deputy, was going out into society for this purpose; and was so
overwhelmed with business, that he had not touched "La Peau de
Chagrin" since he was last at Saint-Cyr.
[*] "Correspondance," vol. i. p. 118.
He was evidently full of hope; but in spite of the powerful support of
the _Revue de Paris_, the _Temps_, the _Debats_, and the _Voleur_, the
steady-going electors had no mind to be represented by a penniless
young author, who was chiefly known to the general public as the
writer of the "Physiologie du Mariage," a book distinctly _not_
adapted for family reading. Therefore, in this, as in many other hopes
of his life, Balzac was doomed to disappointment; though the readers
of novels may be grateful to the unkind fate which caused him to turn
with renewed ardour to the neglected "Peau de Chagrin." He cherished a
slight resentment against Angouleme, as he showed in "Illusions
Perdues," where the aristocracy of that town are rather unkindly
treated; but he was not discouraged in his political ambitions, and in
1832 he joined with M. Laurentie, the Duc de Noailles, the Duc de
Fitz-James (nephew to the Princesse de Chimay, who acted as proxy for
Marie Antoinette at Madame de Berny's christening) and others, to
found a Legitimist journal, the _Renovateur_. In this appeared an
article against the proposed destruction of the monument to the Duc de
Berry, in which Balzac indignantly asks: "Why do you not finish the
monument, and raise an altar where the priests may pray God to pardon
the assassin?"
Having thus shown his principles clearly, he turned his attention in
1832 to Chinon, which was close to Tours, where he and his family had
lived for so long, and to Sache, where he was a constant visitor.
There, if anywhere, he seemed likely to succeed; and the
_Quotidienne_, the paper which afterwards supported him during his
lawsuit against the _Revue de Paris_, had promised its voice in his
favour. Again cruel Fate dogged his footsteps, as in May he tumbled
out of his tilbury, and his head came violently into contact with what
he calls the "heroic pavements of July"; the accident being a sad
result of his childish delight in driving at a tremendous pace in the
Bois, which is rebuked by his sage adviser, Madame Carraud. Certainly
carriages, horses, and a stable, seemed hardly prudent acquisitions
for a man in debt; but Balzac always defended his pet extravagances
with the specious reasoning that nothing succeeds like success; and
that most of his literary friends did not become rich because they
lived in garrets, and were on that account trampled on by haughty
publishers and editors. He writes to Madame de Girardin on this
occasion: "Only think, that I who am so handsome have been cruelly
disfigured for several days, and it has seemed curious to be uglier
than I really am."[*] As a further and more serious result, he was
laid up in bed, and had to undergo a severe regimen of bleeding,
during the time that he should have been at Sache, working hard about
his election; and when he did arrive there, in June, he recognised
that he was too late for success. However, another dissolution, which
after all did not take place, was expected in September, and Balzac
looked forward to making a determined attempt then. This hope being
frustrated, it was not till 1834 that he again came forward as a
candidate: this time for Villefranche, where, curiously enough,
another M. de Balzac was nominated, and when M. de Hanski wrote to
congratulate Balzac, the latter was obliged to explain the mistake. On
this occasion he had purposed to present himself as champion of the
Bourbon Royal Family, especially of the Duchesse de Berry, for whom he
had an immense admiration, while she read his books with much delight
during her captivity in the Castle of Blaye. He wrote to M. de Hanski
that he considered the exile of Madame and the Comte de Chambord the
great blot on France in the nineteenth century, as the French
Revolution had been her shame in the eighteenth.
[*] "Correspondance," vol. i. p. 147.
This was Balzac's last serious attempt to stand for Parliament during
the Monarchy of July, though he often talked in his letters to Madame
Hanska of his political aspirations, looked forward to becoming a
deputy in 1839, and hoped till then to dominate European opinion
--rather a large ambition--by a political publication. In his letters
he is continually on the point of beginning his career as a statesman;
and in 1835 his views are even more inflated than usual. He will
absorb the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ and the _Revue de Paris_, is in
treaty to obtain one newspaper, and will start two others himself, so
that his power will be irresistible. "Le temps presse, les evenements
se compliquent,"[*] he cries impatiently. He is still strangled by
want of money--a hundred thousand francs is the modest sum he
requires; but he will write a play in the name of his secretary, and
the spectre of debt will be laid for ever.
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
However, in the stress of work, which made his own life like the
crowded canvas of one of his own novels, these brilliant schemes came
to nothing, and Balzac was never in the proud position of a deputy. He
gives his views clearly in a letter to Madame Carraud in 1830.[*]
"France ought to be a constitutional monarchy, to have a hereditary
royal family, a house of peers of extraordinary strength, which will
represent property, etc., with all possible guarantees for heredity,
and privileges of which the nature must be discussed; then a second
assembly, elective, representing all the interests of the intermediary
mass, which separates those of high social position from the classes
who are generally termed the people."
[*] "Correspondance," vol. i. p. 108.
"The purport of the laws, and their spirit, should be designed to
enlighten the masses as much as possible--those who have nothing, the
workmen, the common people, etc., in order that as many as possible
should arrive at the intermediary state; but the people should, at the
same time, be kept under a most powerful yoke, so that its individuals
may find light, help, and protection, and that no idea, no statute, no
transaction, may make them turbulent.
"The greatest possible liberty should be allowed to the leisured
classes, for they possess something to keep, they have everything to
lose, they can never be dissolute.
"As much power as possible should be granted to the Government. Thus
the Government, the rich people, and the bourgeoisie have interest in
keeping the lowest class happy, and in increasing the number of the
middle class, which is the true strength of the state.
"If rich people, the hereditary possessors of fortune in the highest
Chamber, are corrupt in their manners, and start abuses, these are
inseparable from the existence of all society; they must be accepted,
to balance the advantages given."
This extract is taken from a letter which is, Balzac tells his
correspondent, strictly private; but, with his usual independence and
fearlessness, he did not hesitate to enunciate his opinions in public,
and invariably refused to stoop to compromise or to disguise.
Consequently, we cannot wonder that he never attained his ambition;
particularly as he lacked the aid of money, and had no support, except
the politically doubtful one of a literary reputation. His penetration
and power of prescience were remarkable, and it is startling to find
that he foretells the fall of the Monarchy of July, and the Revolution
of 1848.[*] "I do not think," he says, "that in ten years from now the
actual form of government will subsist--August, 1830, has forgotten
the part played by youth and intelligence. Youth compressed will burst
like the boiler of a steam engine." In "Les Paysans," one of his most
wonderful novels, he gives a vivid picture of the constant struggle
going on under the surface between the peasants and the bourgeoisie,
and shows that the triumph of the former class must be the inevitable
result.
[*] "Revue Parisienne," p. 26
His was essentially a loyal, reverential nature, with the soldierly
respect for constituted authority which is often the characteristic of
strong natures; and he was absolutely unswerving in his principles
--the courage and tenacity which distinguished him through life, never
deserting him in political emergencies. He was patriotic and
high-minded; absolutely immovable in all that concerned his duty. On
one occasion, when it was proposed at a public meeting that the
Legitimists should follow the example of their political opponents and
should stoop to evil doings, he refused decidedly, saying: "The cause
of the life of man is superhuman. It is God who judges; His judgment
does not hinge on our passions."[*] In his eyes, Religion and the
Monarchy were twin sisters, and he speaks sadly in "Le Medecin de
Campagne" of the downfall of both these powers. "With the monarchy we
have lost honour, with our unfruitful attempts at government,
patriotism; and with our fathers' religion, Christian virtue. These
principles now only exist partially, instead of inspiring the masses,
for these ideas never perish altogether. At present, to support
society we have nothing but selfishness."[+] Elsewhere, he laments the
atheistic government, and the increase of incredulity; and longs for
Christian institutions, and a strong hierarchy, united to a religious
society.
[*] "Balzac et ses Oeuvres," by Lamartine de Prat.
[+] "Le Medecin de Campagne."
Balzac was not orthodox. There is no doubt, from a letter to Madame
Hanska, that the Swedenborgian creed he enunciates in "Seraphita" is
to a great extent his own; but he believed in God, in the immortality
of the soul, and considered natural religion, of which, in his eyes,
the Bourbons were the depositors, absolutely essential to the
well-being of a State. He had a great respect for the priesthood, and
has left many a charming and sympathetic picture of the parish _cure_,
such as l'Abbe Janvier in "Le Medecin de Campagne," who acts hand in
hand with the good doctor Benassis, as an enlightened benefactor to
the poor; or l'Abbe Bonnet, the hero of "Le Cure du Village," whose
face had "the impress of faith, an impress giving the stamp of the
human greatness which approaches most nearly to divine greatness, and
of which the undefinable expression beautifies the most ordinary
features." In "Les Paysans" we have another fine portrait, L'Abbe
Brossette, who is doing his work nobly among debased and cunning
peasants. "To serve was his motto, to serve the Church and the
Monarchy at the most menaced points; to serve in the last rank, like a
soldier who feels destined sooner or later to rise to generalship, by
his desire to do well, and by his courage."
There is a beautiful touch in that terrible book "La Cousine Bette,"
where the infamous Madame Marneffe is dying of a loathsome and
infectious disease, so that even Bette, who feels for her the
"strongest sentiment known, the affection of a woman for a woman, had
not the heroic constancy of the Church," and could not enter the room.
Religion alone, in the guise of a Sister of Mercy, watched over her.
CHAPTER X
1836
Balzac starts the _Chronique de Paris_--Balzac and Theophile
Gautier--Lawsuit with the _Revue de Paris_--Failure of the
_Chronique_--Strain and exhaustion--Balzac travels in Italy
--Madame Marbouty--Return to Paris--Death of Madame de Berny
--Balzac's grief and family anxieties--He is imprisoned for
refusal to serve in Garde Nationale--Werdet's failure--Balzac's
desperate pecuniary position and prodigies of work--Close of
the disastrous year 1836.
Balzac opened the first day of the year 1836 by becoming proprietor of
the _Chronique de Paris_, an obscure Legitimist publication, which had
been founded in 1834 by M. William Duckett. It started under Balzac's
management with a great flourish of trumpets, the Comte (afterwards
Marquis) de Belloy and the Comte de Gramont taking posts as his
sectaries; while Jules Sandeau, Emile Regnault, Gustave Planche,
Theophile Gautier, Charles de Bernard, and others, became his
collaborators. Balzac's special work was to provide a series of papers
on political questions, entitled "La France et l'Etranger," papers
which show his extraordinary versatility; and his helpers were to
provide novels and poems, satire, drama, and social criticism; so that
the scope of the periodical was a wide one.
At first, Balzac was most sanguine about the success of his new
enterprise, and was very active and enthusiastic in working for it. On
March 27th, he wrote to Madame Hanska about the embarrassment caused
him by his plate having been pawned during his unfortunate absence in
Vienna, nearly a year ago. It was worth five or six thousand francs,
and he required three thousand to redeem it. This sum he had never
been able to raise, while, to add to his difficulties, on the 31st of
the month he would owe about eight thousand four hundred francs.
Nevertheless, he _must_ have the silver next day or perish, as he had
asked some people to dine who would, he hoped, give sixteen thousand
francs for sixteen shares in the _Chronique_. If borrowed plate were
on his table he was terribly afraid that the whole transaction would
fail; as one of the people invited was a painter, and painters are an
"observant, malicious, profound race, who take in everything at a
glance."[*] Everything else in his rooms would represent the opulence,
ease, and wealth of the happy artist.
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
Poor Balzac! To add to his difficulties, it was impossible to borrow
anywhere in Paris, as he had only purchased the _Chronique_ through
the exceptional credit he enjoyed, and this would be at once destroyed
if he were known to be in difficulties. We do not hear any further
particulars about this tragedy, and cannot tell how far the
conjunction of the borrowed plate--if it _were_ after all borrowed
--and the astute painter, contributed to the downfall of the
_Chronique_. Werdet, however, attributes the disaster to the laziness
of the talented staff, who could not be induced to work together.
However that may be, the result was a terrible blow to Balzac; who was
now, in addition to all his other liabilities, in debt for forty
thousand francs to the shareholders.
It is as a member of the staff of the _Chronique_, that the name of
Theophile Gautier first appears in connection with Balzac; and the two
men remained close friends till Balzac's death. In 1835 Theophile
Gautier published "Mademoiselle de Maupin," in which his incomparable
style excited Balzac's intense admiration, painfully conscious as he
was of his own deficiencies in this direction. Therefore, in forming
the staff of the _Chronique_, he at once thought of Gautier, and
despatched Jules Sandeau to arrange matters with the young author, and
to give him an invitation to breakfast. Theophile Gautier, much
flattered, but at the same time rather alarmed at the idea of an
interview with the celebrated Balzac, tells us that he thought over
various brilliant discourses on his way to the Rue Cassini, but was so
nervous when he arrived that all his preparations came to nothing, and
he merely remarked on the fineness of the weather. However, Balzac
soon put him at his ease, and evidently took a fancy to him at once,
as during breakfast he let him into the secret that for this solemn
occasion he had borrowed silver dishes from his publisher!
The friendship between Balzac and Gautier, though not as intimate and
confidential as that between Balzac and Borget, was true and
steadfast; and was never disturbed by literary jealousy. Gautier
supported Balzac's plays in _La Presse_, and helped with many of his
writings. Traces of his workmanship, M. de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul
tells us, are specially noticeable in the descriptions of the art of
painting and of the studio, in the edition of "Un Chef-d'Oeuvre
Inconnu" which appeared in 1837.[*] These descriptions are in
Gautier's manner, and do not appear in the edition of 1831; so that in
all probability they were written, or at any rate inspired by him.
Gautier also wrote for Balzac, who had absolutely no faculty for
verse, the supposed translation of two Spanish sonnets in the
"Memoires de Deux Jeunes Mariees," and the sonnet called "La Tulipe"
in "Un Grand Homme de Province a Paris." On his side, Balzac defended
Gautier on all occasions, and in 1839 dedicated "Les Secrets de la
Princesse de Cadignan," then called "Un Princesse Parisienne," "A
Theophile Gautier, son ami, H. de Balzac."
[*] "H. de Balzac and Theophile Gautier" in "Autour de Honore de
Balzac," by the Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul.
Beyond this friendship, the affair of the _Chronique_ brought Balzac
nothing but worry and trouble. And it came at a time when misfortune
assailed him on all sides. Madame de Berny was approaching her end,
and he wrote to his mother on January 1st, 1836, the day he started
the _Chronique de Paris_: "Ah! my poor mother, I am broken-hearted.
Madame de Berny is dying! It is impossible to doubt it! Only God and I
know what is my despair. And I must work! Work weeping."[*]
[*] "Correspondance," vol. i. p. 323.
In the midst of his trouble, a most unfortunate occurrence took place,
which besides embittering his life at the time had a decided effect on
his subsequent career; and indirectly obscured his reputation even
after his death.
In 1833, as we have already seen, Balzac, after long dissensions with
Amedee Pichot, had definitely left the _Revue de Paris_. However, in
1834, when Pichot retired from the management, the new directors, MM.
Anthoine de Saint-Joseph, Bonnaire, and Achille Brindeau, tried to
satisfy their readers by recalling Balzac; and "Seraphita" began to
appear in the pages of the _Revue_. Difficulties, as might be
expected, soon arose between Balzac and the management; and the
undercurrent of irritation which subsisted on both sides only required
some slight extra cause of offence, to render an outbreak inevitable.
In September, 1835, M. Buloz, already director of the _Revue des Deux
Mondes_, an extremely able, but bad-mannered and dictatorial man, took
possession also of the much-tossed-about _Revue de Paris_. Balzac had
known Buloz since 1831, when the latter bought the _Revue des Deux
Mondes_, which was then in very low water, and was working with
tremendous energy to make it successful. At that time, Buloz and he
often shared a modest dinner, and with the permission of M. Rabou,
then manager of the _Revue de Paris_, Balzac contributed "L'Enfant
Maudit," "Le Message," and "Le Rendez-Vous" to the _Revue des Deux
Mondes_, and only charged a hundred francs for the same quantity of
pages for which he was paid a hundred and sixty francs by Rabou.
However, on April 15th, 1832, there appeared in the _Revue des Deux
Mondes_ a scathing, anonymous criticism of the first dizain of the
"Contes Drolatiques." This had apparently been written by Gustave
Planche; but Balzac considered Buloz responsible for it, and therefore
refused to write any longer for his review. In August, 1832, Buloz,
who does not appear to have been particularly scrupulous in his
business relations, wrote to apologise, saying that though it was not
in his power to suppress the offending article, he had done his best
to soften it; and that now he was sole master of the Revue, so that
not a word or line could pass without his permission. He therefore
begged Balzac to resume his old connection with him, and explained
that if he had not been confined to his bed and unable to walk, or
even to bear the shaking of a cab, he would have come to visit him,
and matters would have been quickly arranged. Balzac's answer, which
is written from Angouleme, is couched in the uncompromising terms of
"no surrender," which he generally adopted when he considered himself
aggrieved. He did not absolutely refuse to write for the Review, and
referred Buloz to Madame de Balzac for terms; but, by the tone of his
letter, he negatived decidedly the idea of resuming friendly relations
with his correspondent, and while rather illogically professing a
lofty indifference to criticism, remarked that he felt the utmost
contempt for those who calumniated his books.[*]
[*] See "Correspondance Inedite--Honore de Balzac," _Revue Bleue_,
March 14, 1903.
After this the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ became hostile to Balzac; and
when Buloz and Brindeau bought the _Revue de Paris_, a proceeding
which must have been a shock to him, he believed that Brindeau would
be sole director, and drew up his agreement with him alone; having
already refused to have business dealings with the ever active Buloz.
However, Buloz soon took the principal place, and was so apologetic
for his past misdeeds, and so insistent in promising amendment for the
future, that Balzac, evidently reflecting that it would be distinctly
against his interests to exclude himself from two of the most
important reviews in Paris, consented to reconsider his decision.
Therefore the following agreement, which is interesting as an example
of Balzac's usual conditions when issuing his novels in serial form,
was drawn up between the two men.
The Review was only to use Balzac's articles for its subscribers. He
was to regain absolute rights over his books three months after their
first publication--this was an invariable stipulation in all Balzac's
treaties--and was to give up fifty francs out of the two hundred and
fifty considered due to him for each "feuille" of fifteen pages, to
reimburse Buloz for the number of times the proofs had to be
reprinted.[*] On these terms he agreed to finish "Le Pere Goriot," as
well as "Seraphita," and to write the "Memoires d'une Jeune Mariee,"
with the understanding that a separate contract was to be made for
each of his contributions, and that he was free to write for other
periodicals.
[*] The account of the lawsuit between Balzac and the _Revue de Paris_
is taken from his "Historique du Proces auquel a donne lieu 'Le
Lys dans la Vallee,'" which formed the second preface of the first
edition of "Le Lys dans la Vallee" and is contained in vol. xxii.
of the Edition Definitive of Balzac's works; and from "H. de
Balzac et 'La Revue de Paris,'" which is the Review's account of
the case, and may be found in "Un dernier chapitre de l'Historie
des Oeuvres de H. de Balzac," by the Vicomte de Spoelberche de
Lovenjoul.