Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings - Mary F. Sandars
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The great writer worked with his usual energy at the rehearsals,
continually rewriting parts of the play, and besides this occupation
spending hours in the theatre bureau, as he had determined to sell all
the tickets himself. For the first night of "Les Ressources de
Quinola" the audience was to be brilliantly representative of the
aristocracy, beauty, and talent of France. The proscenium would,
Balzac hoped, be occupied by ambassadors and ministers, the pit by the
Chevaliers de St. Louis, and the orchestra stalls by peers; while
deputies and state functionaries were to be placed in the second
gallery, financiers in the third, and rich bourgeoisie in the fourth.
Beautiful women were to be accommodated with particularly prominent
places; the price of the seats was to be doubled or trebled; and to
avoid the continual interruptions to which "Vautrin" was subjected,
tickets were only to be sold to Balzac's assured friends. Therefore
many persons who offered fabulous sums of money were refused
admittance, and told that every seat was taken. By these means Balzac
ultimately overreached himself, as people believed that all the seats
were really sold, and that it was no use to apply for tickets. When,
therefore, March 19th, 1842, the night of Balzac's anticipated triumph
arrived, instead of a brilliant assemblage crowding the Odeon, it was
three parts empty; and the small audience, who had paid enormously for
their seats, and naturally expected a brilliant throng in the theatre,
were in a critical and captious mood.
The scene of the play was laid in Spain in the time of Phillip II.,
and much of the dialogue was witty and spirited; but Balzac had mixed
up serious situations and burlesque in a manner irritating to the
audience, and there were many interruptions. Balzac was fortunately
unaware of his want of success; he had completely disappeared, and it
was not till half-past twelve, long after the finish of the
performance, that he was discovered fast asleep at the back of a box.
The fourth representation of "Les Ressources de Quinola" was specially
tumultuous. Lireux, being now master of the theatre, invited all the
journalistic world to be present, and they, furious at their exclusion
during the first three nights, encouraged the general clamour. Some of
the hooters were turned out, and the audience then amused themselves
by ejaculating "Splendid!" "Admirable!" "Superb!" and "Sublime!" at
every sentence, and by singing comic couplets, such as:
C'est M. Balzac,
Qu'a fait tout ce mic-mac!
During the intervals.
However, after two scenes had been entirely cut out, and several
others suppressed, "Quinola" ran for nineteen nights. Many years
afterwards, in 1863, it was acted at the Vaudeville, and was a great
success. During his lifetime Balzac's plays received little applause
--in fact, were generally greeted with obloquy; but when it was too
late for praise or blame to matter, his apotheosis as a dramatist took
place; and on this occasion his bust was brought to the stage, and
crowned amid general enthusiasm.
The year 1842 is important in the annals of Balzac's life, as on April
23rd his novels were for the first time collected together to form the
"Comedie Humaine," his great title to fame. The preface to this ranks
among the celebrated prefaces of the world, and it was written at the
suggestion of his friend Hetzel, who objected strongly to the prefaces
signed Felix David, which had been placed in 1835 at the beginning of
the "Etudes de Moeurs au XIXieme Siecle," and of the "Etudes
Philosophiques." In an amusing letter Hetzel tells Balzac that a
preface should be simple, natural, rather modest, and always
good-humoured. "Sum up--sum up as modestly as possible. There is the
true pride, when any one has done what you have. Relate what you want
to say quite calmly. Imagine yourself old, disengaged from everything
even from yourself. Speak like one of your own heroes, and you will
make something useful, indispensable.
"Set to work, my fat father; allow a thin publisher to speak thus to
Your Fatness. You know that it is with good intentions."[*]
[*] "Trois Lettres," in "Autour de Honore de Balzac," by the Vicomte
de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul.
We may be grateful to Hetzel for this advice, which Balzac evidently
followed; as the preface is written in a quiet and modest tone unusual
with him, and he follows Hetzel's counsel, and gives a concise summary
of his intention in writing the "Comedie Humaine."
He explains that he has attempted in his great work to classify man,
as Buffon has classified animals, and to show that his varieties of
character, like the differences of form in the lower creation, come
from environment. The three great divisions of the Comedie Humaine are
"Etudes de Moeurs," "Etudes Philosophiques," and "Etudes Analytiques";
and the "Etudes de Moeurs" comprise many subdivisions, each of which,
in Balzac's mind, is connected with some special period of life.
The "Scenes de la Vie Privee," of which the best-known novels are "Le
Pere Goriot" (1834), "La Messe de l'Athee" (1836), "La Grenadiere"
(1832), "Albert Savarus" (1842), "Etude de Femme" (1830), "Beatrix"
(1838), and "Modeste Mignon" (1844), Balzac connects with childhood
and youth. The "Scenes de la Vie de Province," to which belong among
others "Eugenie Grandet" (1833), "Le Lys dans la Vallee" (1835),
"L'Illustre Gaudissart" (1833), "Pierrette" (1839), and "Le Cure de
Tours" (1832), typify a period of combat; while "Scenes de la Vie
Parisienne," which contain "La Duchesse de Langeais" (1834), "Cesar
Birotteau" (1837), "La Cousine Bette" (1846), "Le Cousin Pons" (1847),
"Facino Cane" (1836), "La Maison de Nucingen" (1837), and several
less-known novels, show the effect of Parisian life in forming or
modifying character.
Next Balzac turns to more exceptional existences, those which guard
the interests of others, and gives us "Scenes de la Vie Militaire,"
comprising "Une Passion dans la Desert" (1830), and "Les Chouans"
(1827); and "Scenes de la Vie Politique," which contain "Un Episode
sous la Terreur" (1831), "Une Tenebreuse Affaire" (1841), "Z. Marcas"
(1840), and "L'Envers de l'Histoire Contemporaine" (1847). He finishes
the "Etudes de Moeurs" with "Scenes de la Vie de Campagne," consisting
of "Le Medecin de Campagne" (1832), "Le Cure de Village" (1837 to
1841), and "Les Paysans" (1844); and these are to be, Balzac says,
"the evening of this long day. Here are my purest characters, my
application of the principles of order, politics, morality."
There are no subdivisions to the "Etudes Philosophiques," among which
we find "La Peau de Chagrin," written in 1830, and considered by
Balzac a link between the "Etudes de Moeurs" and the "Etudes
Philosophiques"; "Jesus-Christ en Flandre" (1831), "Massimilla Doni"
(1839), "La Recherche de l'Absolu" (1834), "Louis Lambert" (1832), and
"Seraphita" (1835). To the division entitled "Etudes Analytiques"
belong only two books, "La Physiologie du Mariage" (1829), and
"Petites Miseres de la Vie Conjugale" (1830 to 1845).
"The Comedie Humaine" was never finished, but, incomplete as it is, it
remains a noble memorial of Balzac's genius, as well as an astonishing
testimony of his extraordinary power of work. The last edition of it
which was published in Balzac's lifetime appeared in 1846, and formed
sixteen octavo volumes. It consists of eighty-eight novels and tales,
and by far the greater number of these appeared in the first edition
of 1842. A strong connection is kept up between the different stories
by the fact that the same characters appear over and over again, and
the reader finds himself in a world peopled by beings who, as in real
life, at one time take the foremost place, and anon are relegated to a
subordinate position; but who preserve their identity vividly
throughout.
Balzac found it impossible to manage without a _pied-a-terre_ in
Paris, and for some reason he could no longer lodge with Bouisson, his
tailor, so in 1842 he took a lodging in the same house with his
sister, Madame Surville, at 28, Rue du Faubourg Poissonniere. Life was
brightening for him; he was beginning by his strenuous efforts to
diminish perceptibly his load of debt, and the star of hope shone
brightly on his path.
After many doubts on the part of Madame Hanska, who was most
particular in observing the proprieties, he was allowed in 1843 to
meet her in St. Petersburg, and arrived on July 17th, after a rough
passage from Dunkerque, during which his discomforts were nothing to
him, so joyous was he at the thought of soon seeing his beloved one.
Madame Hanska was established at the Hotel Koutaizoff, in the Rue
Grande Millione, and Balzac took a lodging near, and thought St.
Petersburg with its deserted streets a dreary place. All minor
feelings were, however, merged in the happiness of being near Madame
Hanska, of hearing her voice, and of giving expression to that
passionate love which had possessed him for more than ten years. In
his sight she was as young and beautiful as ever, and his fascinated
eyes watched her with rapture, as she leant back thoughtfully in the
little arm-chair in the blue drawing-room, her head resting against a
cushion trimmed with black lace. He could recall every detail
afterwards of that room, could count the points of the lace, and see
the bronze ornaments filled with flowers, in which he used to catch
his knees in his rapid pacings up and down; and his eyes would fill
with tears, and the creations of his imagination fade and become
unreal, beside the haunting pictures of his memory. He loved Madame
Hanska with a love which had grown steadily since their first meeting,
and which now was threatening to overmaster him, so that even work
would become impossible. Nevertheless, though she was most charming
and affectionate, and he stayed in St. Petersburg until September,
nothing definite was settled.
Madame Hanska was a prudent person; her dearly-loved daughter Anna was
growing up, and it was quite necessary to settle her in life before
taking any decided step. Besides, though she hardly allowed this to
herself, there is no doubt that she was rather alarmed at the prospect
of becoming Madame Honore de Balzac. The marriage would be decidedly a
_mesalliance_ for a Rzewuska, and her family constantly and steadily
exerted their influence to prevent her from wrecking her future. What,
they asked her, would be her life with a husband as eccentric,
extravagant, and impecunious, as they believed Balzac to be? They
collected gossip about him in Paris, and told Madame Hanska endless
stories, occasionally true, often false, and sometimes merely
exaggerated, about his oddities, his love affairs, and his general
unsuitability for alliance with an aristocratic family. It was no
doubt pleasant to have a man of genius and of worldwide fame as a
lover; but what would be her position if she took the fatal step, and
bound herself to him for life? Madame Hanska listened and paused: she
well understood her advantages as a great and moneyed lady; and she
was under no illusions as to the harassed and chequered existence
which she would lead with Balzac. She had often lent him money, his
letters kept her well informed about the state of his affairs; and the
idea of becoming wife to a man who was often forced to fly from his
creditors, must have been extremely distasteful to a woman used to
luxury and consideration. Maternal affection, love of her country,
prudence, social and worldly considerations--besides the fear of the
Czar's displeasure--were all inducements to delay; and even if she had
felt towards Balzac the passionate love for the lack of which
posterity has reproached her, it surely would have been the duty of an
affectionate mother to think of her child's welfare before her own
happiness. Later on, when Anna was married, and Balzac, broken in
health and tortured by his longings, was kept a slave to Madame
Hanska's caprices, the hard thing may be said of her, that she was in
part the cause of the death of the man she pretended to love. In 1843,
however, whatever motives incited her, her action in delaying matters
appears under the circumstances to have been right; and Balzac seems
to have felt that he had no just cause for complaint.
He wrote to Madame Hanska, at each of the stopping-places during his
tiring overland journey back to France, and describes vividly the
miserable, jolting journey through Livonia, where the carriage road
was marked out by boughs thrown down in the midst of a sandy plain,
and all around was depressing poverty and desolation. Berlin, peopled
with Germans of "brutal heaviness," he detested, and he loathed the
society dinner parties, with no conversation--nothing but tittle-tattle
and Court gossip; and complained of the trains, which travelled he
said no quicker than a French diligence. Nevertheless, in contrast
to Russia, the great _voyant_ was struck with the air of "liberte de
moeurs" which prevailed throughout Germany. He liked Dresden, and
enjoyed his visit to its picture gallery, where he especially admired
a Madeleine and two Virgins by Correggio, as well as two by Raphael,
one of them presumably the San Sisto Madonna. The gem of the whole
collection, however, in his opinion, was Holbein's Madonna; and he
longed to have Madame Hanska's hand in his while he gazed at it. As he
was away from her, he was very restless, and soon tired of all he saw.
He longed to be back in Paris, and to find distraction in his work.
"Think of my trouble, my sadness, and my sorrow, and you will be full
of pity and of indulgence for the poor exile,"[*] he writes.
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
CHAPTER XIII
1843 - 1846
Pamela Giraud--Balzac again attempts to become member of the
Academie Francaise--Mlle. Henriette Borel's reception into a
religious house--Comte Georges Mniszech--"Les Paysans" started in
_La Presse_--Madame Hanska's unreasonableness hinders Balzac's
work--He travels with her and her daughter, and they return with
him to Passy--Comtesse Anna engaged to Comte Georges Mniszech
--Balzac takes Madame Hanska and her daughter to Brussels--He
meets Madame Hanska at Baden-Baden--Leaves Paris again, meets
Wierzchownia party at Naples--Buys bric-a-brac for future home
--Work neglected--Dispute with Emile de Girardin--Balzac's
unhappiness and suspense--He goes to Rome--Comes back better
in health and spirits--"La Cousine Bette" and "Le Cousin Pons"
--Balzac goes to Wiesbaden--Marriage of Comtesse Anna and Comte
Georges Mniszech--Balzac and Madame Hanska secretly engaged
--Parisian gossip.
On September 26th, 1843, during Balzac's absence in St. Petersburg,
another play of which he was author was produced at the Gaite. It was
called "Pamela Giraud," and the plot is contrived with an ability
which proves Balzac's increased knowledge of the art of writing for
the theatre. At the same time he has attempted no innovations, but he
has kept to the beaten track; and the play is an old-fashioned
melodrama with thrilling and heart-rending situations, and virtue
triumphant at the end. Owing to Balzac's attack on journalism in the
"Monographie de la Presse Parisienne," which had appeared in March,
and finished with the words, "Si la presse n'existait pas, il faudrait
ne pas l'inventer," the whole newspaper world was peculiarly hostile
to him at this time, and his play received no mercy, and was a
failure. Curiously enough, Balzac seemed rather pleased at this news,
which reached him at Berlin, on his journey home to France. He had
made use of the services of two practised writers for the theatre to
fit his melodrama to the exigencies of the stage, and possibly this
fact dulled his interest in it. At any rate he was strangely
philosophical about its fate.
On November 28th, 1843, soon after his return to Paris, a vacancy was
left in the Academy by the death of M. Vincent Campenon; and Charles
Nodier and Victor Hugo proposed Balzac as a candidate for the empty
seat. Balzac, however, soon withdrew, as he found that his impecunious
condition would be a reason for his rejection, and he wrote promptly
to Nodier and to M. de Pongerville, another member of the Academy,
that if he could not enter L'Academie because of honourable poverty,
he would never present himself at her doors when prosperity was his
portion. In September, 1845, another vacancy occurred; but in spite of
Madame de Girardin's entreaties that Balzac should again come forward
as a candidate, he refused decidedly, and wrote to Madame Hanska that
in doing this he knew himself to be consulting her wishes.
The year 1844 was not an unhappy one with Balzac, though his health
was bad, and he speaks of terrible neuralgia; so that he wrote "Les
Paysans" with his head in opium, as he had written "Cesar Birotteau"
with his feet in mustard. Apparently Madame Hanska held out hopes that
in 1845 his long probation might come to and end, as he writes: "Days
of illness are days of pleasure to me, for when I do not work with
absorption of all my moral and physical qualities, I never cease
thinking of 1845. I arrange houses, I furnish them, I see myself
there, and I am happy."[*] It was a joy to him to fulfil Madame
Hanska's commissions, and thus to come in contact with people who had
been at any time connected with her. Therefore, in spite of his busy
life, he took much trouble over the arrangements for the entrance of
Anna's former governess, Mlle Henriette Borel, into a religious house
in Paris, and was present at her reception into the Couvent de la
Visitation, Rue l'Enfer, in December, 1845. He was rather annoyed on
this occasion, as he was working tremendously hard at the "Comedie
Humaine," and at his "Petites Miseres de la Vie Conjugale," and the
good nuns, who "thought the world turned only for themselves," told
him that the ceremony would take place at one o'clock and would last
an hour, whereas it was not over till four, and as he had to see
Lirette afterwards, he could not get away till half-past five.
However, he was consoled by the idea that he was representing his dear
Countess and Anna, who were in Italy at the time, and he thought the
service imposing and very dramatic. He was specially thrilled when the
three new nuns threw themselves on the ground, were covered with a
pall, while prayers for the dead were recited over them; and after
this rose up crowned with white roses, as the brides of Christ.
Lirette was radiant when she had taken the veil, and wished that every
one would enter a religious house.
[*] "Correspondance," vol. ii. p. 102.
In July, 1844, Madame Hanska and her daughter made the acquaintance
of the Comte Georges Mniszech, who appeared to be a very suitable
_parti_for Anna. Balzac naturally took a keen interest in all the
prospective arrangements, and consulted anxiously with Madame Hanska
about the young Comte's character, which must of course have proved
perfect, before a treasure like the young Countess could be confided
to his keeping. It is strikingly characteristic of Balzac's
disinterestedness, that though he knew that the young Countess's
marriage would remove the principal obstacle between him and Madame
Hanska, he was most insistent in recommending caution till the young man
had been for some time on probation. However, an engagement soon took
place, and it seemed as though the great desire of Balzac's heart would
in a short time be within his reach, and that happiness would shine upon
him at last.
In 1844 he published among other books "Modeste Mignon," "Gaudissart
II," a fragment of the first part of "L'Envers de L'Histoire
Contemporaine," which he entitled "Madame de la Chanterie," the end of
the first part of "Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisanes," the third
and last part of "Beatrix," and the first part of "Les Paysans." This
began to appear in _La Presse_ on December 3rd, and the disputes about
its publication led to Balzac's final rupture with Emile de Girardin.
"Les Paysans" was never finished; but was intended to be the most
considerable, as it is, even in its present fragmentary condition, one
of the most remarkable of Balzac's novels. For eight years he had at
intervals started on the composition of this vivid picture of the deep
under-current of struggle which was going on between the peasant of
France and the _bourgeoisie_; that deadly fight for the possession of
the soil which resulted, as the great _voyant_ plainly descried it
must, in the Revolution of 1848, and the victory of the peasant.
Balzac also intended to depict the demoralisation of the people by
their abandonment of the Catholic religion; and the novel, in
emulation of Victor Hugo and of Dumas, was to fill many volumes. The
first version of it, entitled "Le Grand Proprietaire," was begun about
1835, and the Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul in his interesting
book entitled "La Genese d'un Roman de Balzac," gives the text of
this, the MS. of which forms part of his collection. About the year
1836 or 1838, Balzac altered the title of his proposed novel to "Qui a
Terre, a Guerre," and it was not till 1839 that he named the work "Les
Paysans." In 1840 Balzac offered "Les Paysans," which he said was
ready to appear in fifteen days, to M. Dujarier, the manager of _La
Presse_, and received 1,650 francs in advance for the novel. However,
in 1841 he substituted "Les Deux Freres," which was the first part of
"La Rabouilleuse," for "Les Paysans," and offered the latter work as
if finished to Le Messager and also to the publisher Locquin, under
the title of "La Chaumiere et le Chateau."
In April, 1843, Balzac had paid back part of his debt to _La Presse_
by publishing "Honorine" in its columns, but in September, 1844, he
received 9,000 francs in advance for the still unwritten "Les
Paysans." It was further arranged that when this debt had been worked
out, he should be given sixty centimes a line for the remainder of the
novel, and that _La Presse_ should pay for composition and
corrections. It will be noticed that Emile de Girardin, the autocratic
chief of _La Presse_, had at last wearied of the bickering which had
gone on between him and Balzac ever since their first relations of
1830, and in 1840 had handed over the task of dealing with the
aggravating author to his subordinate Dujarier. The treaty concerning
"Les Paysans" was therefore drawn up with Dujarier, and matters no
doubt would have proceeded harmoniously, had not the latter been
killed in a duel in March, 1845.
The first number of "Les Paysans" appeared on December 3rd, 1844, and
then, owing to a most untoward concatenation of circumstances, there
was a long pause in Balzac's contributions to _La Presse_. Madame
Hanska had unfortunately decided for some time that she would in 1845
make one of those journeys which more than anything else threw Balzac
and his affairs into inextricable confusion. Before M. de Hanski's
death, however, Balzac was at any rate welcomed with effusion when, in
his longing to see Madame Hanska, he left his affairs in Paris to take
care of themselves. In those early days she was devotedly attached to
him; besides, an adorer was a fashionable appendage for an elegant
married woman, and the conquest of a distinguished man of letters like
Balzac was something to be proud of. Now, however, there was no
husband as a protector in the eyes of the world; and marriage, a
marriage about which she felt many qualms, loomed large before her
startled eyes. She had no intention of giving up the delightful luxury
of Balzac's love; but might she not by judicious diplomacy, she
sometimes asked herself, manage to enjoy this, without taking the last
irrevocable step? Her position was not enviable, the state of feeling
embodied in the words "she would and she wouldn't" always betokening
in the subject a wearing variability of mind posture; but compared
with the anguish of Balzac, whom she was slowly killing by her
vacillations, her woes do not deserve much sympathy.
At St. Petersburg, possibly during one of their walks on the quay, or
on a cozy evening when the samovar was brought up at nine o'clock, and
placed on the white table with yellowish lines--she had promised
Balzac that he might meet her next year at Dresden. However, when she
arrived there, and found herself in a circle of her own relations, who
according to Balzac poisoned her mind against him, she not only
objected to his presence, but, in her sudden fear of gossip, she
forbade him to write to her again during her stay at Dresden. She sent
off another letter almost at once, contradicting her last command; but
she would not make up her mind whether Balzac might come to her at
Dresden, whether she would consent to meet him at Frankfort, or
whether he should prepare a house for her and Anna in Paris. Balzac
could settle to nothing. In order to work as he understood the word,
it was necessary that he should exclude all outside disturbing
influence, and hear only the voices of the world where Le Pere Goriot,
old Grandet, La Cousine Bette, and their fellows, toiled, manoeuvred,
and suffered. How could he do this, how could he even arrange his
business affairs, when a letter might come by any post, telling him to
start at once and meet his beloved one? Precious time was wasted,
never to be recalled; and when Balzac, raging with impatience and
irritation, dared very gently, and with words of affection, to express
the feelings which devoured him, the divinity was offended, and he
received a rebuke for his impatience and tone of authority.