The Pen and the Brush How the Passion for Art Shaped Nineteenth Century French Novels by Anka Muhlstein (2016)

French Literature and History on The Reading Life

My Posts on Anka Muhlstein

Balzac's Omelette and Monsieur Proust's Library both by Anka Muhlstein are as delightful a pair of books as one can find on French Literature.   Her new book, The Pen and the Brush How the Passion for Art Shaped Nineteenth Century French Literature is a wonderful account of how their experience of painting influenced the giants of French literature, Balzac, Flaubert, de Maupassant, Zola, and Proust.   

Mulhstein details the ways the authors encountered art, the depiction of painters in their work, and the influence different painters had on their literary methods.  Starting with Balzac, where else could one begin, she talks about the most featured painters in the Comedie Humaine. I am currently working on a read through of this and as a first reader it is hard for mr to keep track of all the times a painter appears in the full works.  Muhlstein very interestingly explains how Balzac's style was influenced by the painters he admired.

One of my favorite works by Emile Zola is The Drinking Den.  I love the hilarious scene when the family of a young Nana make an outing to the Louvre.     As the book progress in time through the 19th century up to the cross century Proust,  we see different painters come into fashion and how each writer had their own favorites.

i will, I hope, be reading in this field for year to come and this book will increase my appreciation of the great power of these writers.

Muhlstein is very deeply read and has a profound knowledge of the visual arts.  Her work will be of value to everyone from those with advanced degrees from the Sorbonne in 19th century French literature to general readers.  Her style is charming and her manner warm.

I highly recommend a visit to the publisher's web page, Other Press.  They offer an elegantly diverse selection of works.

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Anka Muhlstein is the author of biographies of Queen Victoria, James de Rothschild, and Cavelier de La Salle; studies on Catherine de Médicis, Marie de Médicis, and Anne of Austria; a double biography, Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart; and most recently, Balzac’s Omelette and Monsieur Proust’s Library (Other Press). She won the Goncourt Prize for her biography of Astolphe de Custine, and has received two prizes from the Académie française. She and her husband, Louis Begley, are the authors of Venice for Lovers. They live in New York City  - from the publisher webpage

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Balzac's Omlette: A Delicious Tour of French Food and Culture with Honore de Balzac by Anka Muhlstein (2012)

Not long ago I read and adored Monsieur Proust's Library by Anka Muhlstein.  I have of late been making small excursions into the gargantuan  corpus of Honore de Balzac so I knew I wanted to read her book on Balzac, Balzac's Omlette.   The focus is not just on food references in Balzac but on the history of French cooking and restaurant culture.   I was fascinated to learn that the modern restaurant with a multi-choice menu began when 1000s of chefs in the employ of French aristocrats lost their positions after the revolution and needed to find a way to make a living.  Muhlstein provides lots of fascinating details on the French restaurant scene, circa 1832 or so,from the haunts of ultra-rich dandies and jaded aristocrats to the eateries of poor writers and students.   

Balzac is commonly treated as a writer about money and for sure this is correct.   Muhlstein says Balzac was the first fiction writer to deal in detail with the role of food in the life of his characters.  She also takes about food in Dickens, mainly used as indicator of poverty by its lack or low quality, in Zola and in  Proust.  She makes detailed refrences to Balzac's work and I got a number of good reading ideas from the book.

I think you need to read at least five of the major novels of Balzac before reading this very good book.  If you like Balzac and like French food, or wish you had access to some, I think you will like this book.

Balzac's Omlettte is not heavy duty academic writing.  Muhlstein loves French Literature  and has a great depth of culture which she shares in a delightful fashion.

My post on Proust's Library (it has background information on Muhlstein)

http://rereadinglives.blogspot.com/2014/09/monsieur-proust-library-by-anka.html

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Monsieur Proust's Library by Anka Muhlstein (2012, 161 pages)

My recent reading of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time (sometimes translated as Remembrance of Things Past) was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  I will very soon begin again.   As I read through I thought that this might be the ultimate book about people who lead reading centered lives.  Everyone reads in the world of Proust.  I loved it when Princess Guermantes said there was nothing better in life than reading.    Anka Muhlstein in her short very pleasant highly cultured book, Monsieur Proust's Library helped me to understand how classic French literature helps structure the novel and she also lets us know a lot about the writers that Proust most admired.

Among English writers he loved Robert Louis Stevenson, George Elliot,and above all Thomas Hardy.

The most mentioned writer in In Search of Lost Time is Honore de Balzac. Refrences to Balzac permeate the work.  People have extended conversations about Balzac and relate events in their own world to La Comedie Humaine.  One glaring difference between Proust and Balzac is that if a character in one of Balzac's works is rich, he explains how they got rich in detail.  In Proust we don't find this. 

We also learn of the great importance of Racine and Baudlieire to Proust and his novel.  

We learn the Proustian difference between good and bad readers.  One intriguing chapter is devoted to the "homosexual" reader.  

In the closing lines of the book, I was deeply impacted and knew she was very right when Muhlstein said one of the meaning of a search for lost memories was in a rediscovery of old books.  

I really am glad I read this book.  I strongly endorse it to all readers of Proust.  It is very much worth reading and is itself a work of art.   By all means read Proust first. 

Muhlstein has a book on Balzac and I hope to read that soon.

Ms Muhlstein gave a very illuminating lecture centering on the influence of Balzac on Proust which can be heard here

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-3vdn9WC3js

Anka Muhlstein was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1996 for her biography of Astolphe de Custine, and has twice received the History Prize of the French Academy. Her books include 
Balzac’s Omelette and, most recently, Monsieur Proust’s Library. From the NYRB webpage.