“Z. Marcas” - A Short Story by Honore de Balzac - A Component of La Comedie Humaine - 1840

There are many inaccurate claims about the size of Balzac’s Grand cycle of literary works, La Comedie Humaine, making it seem simply to large to undertake.  In fact many book bloggers could finish it in under three months.

Here is the breakdown 

45 Novels

25 Short Stories

21 Novellas.

I have as of now completed 82 of the 91 works.

Included in La Comedie Humaine are about five novels you will rightfully find on 100 greatest novels lists, several very good novellas and short stories.  You will also find works you are bored with but in every work there is something of real value.  Balzac is the ultimate chronicler of Paris, from the highest levels of society, exposing shady dealings, to the poorest of Paris.  He is a genius at descriptions, knows the cost of everything and the reputation of every district.  His cultural influence is simply huge.  The only practicable  way to read him is in an E book.  The disadvantage is the translations are old.

When he feels like it Balzac is a master of compression.  In “Z. Marcas” we learn, through the eyes of two  impecunious Parisian students about their mysterious neighbour.  Marcas lives in poverty.  We gradually learn he has a doctorate in law and was an advisor to a powerful government minister.  He and the students become friends.  

I hope to finish this project by April 1, 2018.

"Gaudissart II" by Honore de Balzac - A Short Story Component of La Comedie Humaine - 1844

Paris in July - Year Ten - Hosted by Thyme for Tea

"To know how to sell, to be able to sell, and to sell. People generally do not suspect how much of the stateliness of Paris is due to these three aspects of the same problem. The brilliant display of shops as rich as the salons of the noblesse before 1789; the splendors of cafes which eclipse, and easily eclipse, the Versailles of our day; the shop-window illusions, new every morning, nightly destroyed; the grace and elegance of the young men that come in contact with fair customers; the piquant faces and costumes of young damsels, who cannot fail to attract the masculine customer; and (and this especially of late) the length, the vast spaces, the Babylonish luxury of galleries where shopkeepers acquire a monopoly of the trade in various articles by bringing them all together, —all this is as nothing." From "Gaudissart II" by Honore de Balzac

There are 91 components to Balzac's La Comedie Humaine.  I have seen numerous
 Statements by academics concerning the make up of the cycle saying it is 91 full volumes.  Here is the breakdown

45 Novels
25 short stories
21 Novellas.

Many book bloggers could finish this in under three months.  I have been reading on and off for a while now.

I have now read 81 of 91.



Honore de Balzac is the greatest chronicler of Paris, a towering figure in world literature.  His literary output, fired by a legendary fifty cups of coffee a day, is gargantuan.  He wrote five or six works considered among the world's greatest novels, some wonderful short works and some only one determined to read through his grand cycle of France, The Comedie Humaine, would wish to read.  I am currently nearing completion of this project and I urge it on all serious literary autodidacts as well as those into French history and culture.

A Gaudissart was, I think based on my google research, a term referring to a salesman.  I recently posted on a very good short story about a Parisian traveling salesman making a tour of the provinces.  Balzac focuses greatly on issues related to business, to the importance of money.  One thing you must respect is the tremendous range of practical knowledge of Balzac.  "Gaudissart II" written in 1844 but not published until 1846 is in the Poor Relations section of La Comedie Humaine.  It can be read in five minutes.  It is set in a millinery shop for rich women, they specialize in shawls, many imported from India.  As soon as a lady enters the shop she is at once sized up.  If she is an older matron a handsome young man is assigned to wait upon her.  If the young demimonde mistress of a wealthy old man, to give her a feeling of power, an elegant older man bows and scraps.  The primary customer today is an English lady.  The shop owner himself waits on her but he is having difficulty closing a sale as he cannot sense what she wants.  The close is a lot of fun, of course the French triumph over the English woman    Who ends being skillfully manipulated into buying a shawl for 100 times the normal prize.

This is a really entertaining story, pure Balzac.

Mel u

"The Illustrious Gaudissart" -by Honore de Balzac - A Short Story Compotent of The Comedie Humaine (1833,)

Honore de Balzac on The Reading Life

Paris in July - Year Ten - Hosted by Thyme for Tea

So far as my participation in Paris In July Year Ten I have read 

1.  Colette- Two Early Short Stories

2. The Black Notebook by Patrick Modiano 

3. "A Duel" by Guy de Maupassant ( A Franco-Prussian War Story)

4. Life, Death, and Betrayal at The Hotel Ritz in Paris by Tilar Mazzeo (non fiction)

5. How the French Invented Love by Marilyn Yolem (literary history)

6. "The Lost Child" by Francois Coppée 

7. "The Juggler of Norte Dame" by Anatole France- no post

8. A Very French Christmas- A Collection of the Greatest Holiday Stories of France

9. "The Illustrious Gaudissart" by Honore de Balzac 

There are 91 components to Balzac's La Comedie Humaine.  I have seen numerous 

 Statements by academics concerning the make up of the cycle saying it is 91 full volumes.  Here is the breakdown 

45 Novels

25 short stories

21 Novellas.

Many book bloggers could finish this in under three months.  I have been reading on and off for a while now.

I have now read 80 of 91 works 

I think the errors come from not looking at the full work, available and as practical matter, only really readable in an E book. I am employing the Delphi Edition, it is not perfect but it is ok.  It is only $2.51.  My biggest complaint is that it does not have a chronological index.  The translations are older public domain works.  

Honore de Balzac is the greatest chronicler of Paris, a towering figure in world literature.  His literary output, fired by a legendary fifty cups of coffee a day, is gargantuan.  He wrote five or six works considered among the world's greatest novels, some wonderful short works and some only one determined to read through his grand cycle of France, The Comedie Humaine, would wish to read.  I am currently nearing completion of this project and I urge it on all serious literary autodidacts as well as those into French history and culture.

"The Illustrious Gaudissart"  is a competent of La Comedie Humaine, part of the Parisians in Paris section.  It really is a delightful work, pure top of his form Balzac.  The story begins with a description of the importance of the traveling salesman in France in the 1830s.  It was through these men that the products of Paris spread throughout the provinces.  Balzac is the master of description and Gaudissart perfectly fits the role of the glib talking can size up anyone from a back country farmer to a wealthy businessman at one look salesman who knows how to sell them anything.  This is just done perfectly.  Balzac always has small touches to bring humanity to his characters.  It was so much fun to read about him and his mistress who totally has him under her lovely Parisian thumb.  

Because of his extreme success he comes to the attention of wealthy owners of insurance companies and newspapers who want him to sell subscriptions.  His girl friend knows how many subscriptions he has to sell to keep her happy.  Of course he is married. 

We follow him to a rural town.  Something really funny, I mean hilarious happens.  I loved it and I think you will also.  I really want to leave it unspoiled.  I think you can find this online.

Mel u

The Reading Life

Rereadinglives.blogspot.com

"The Purse" - A Short Story by Honore de Balzac (1832, a component ofthe Comedie Humaine, translated by Clara Bell)

My Posts on Balzac

Question. Who do you think is the greatest literary chronicler of Paris? 

Balzac's Comedie Humaine is my biggest life time reading project, so far.  There are 41 novels, twenty novellas and twenty short stories.  So far I have completed 78 of the 91 works.  Balzac intended it to be a complete portrait of French life.   The works in the cycle include novels always listed in the top hundred of the world to works only those doing a read through would attempt.  Balzac loved Paris and portrayed the city in great detail.  Some say no city anywhere ever had a better chronicler than Balzac.  Balzac very much was concerned with economics, the cost of things,  

I hope to complete my read through by Paris in July 2017. 

I should note that reading the full Comedie  Hunaine is not a "crazy" project.  Many book bloggers I follow could complete it in three or four months.  I strongly endorse this as a life time project to all serious literary autodidacts.

 "The Purse, reading time around twenty minutes, is a very good short story, with all the typical, for better or not. elements of Balzac.  The lead character is a painter.  One day he takes a bad fall in his studio and is found and helped by an older lady and her much younger female companion.  He develops an acquaintance with them and is invited to their fourth floor apartment.  Balzac does his usual masterful job of describing their enviorment, their furniture and such.  He vividly describes both women.  He becomes a frequent visitor and discovers every night an elderly Baron comes to play cards with the older lady.  He always loses forty francs.  He begins to wonder if this is his way of paying for something.  He is troubled as he has fallen in love with the girl. Instant love is a common feature in Balzac.  Some very interesting and at first mysterious events occur but I will leave them untold.

French Literature and History on The Reading Life 

Host Webpage for Paris in July 2016

So far for July in Paris I have read

1.  The Dogs and the Wolves by Iréne Nemirovsky 

2.  Mavis Gallant -  Two Set in Paris works, a short story and a note book entry

3.  Five Nights in Paris by John Baxter.

4.  The Little Paris Book Store by Nina George

5.  "The Problem of Summer Time" by Marcel Ayme

6.  "Love Under the Roof" by Emile Zola

7.  "The Purse" by Honore de Balzac 

Mel u

"Domestic Peace" a short story by Honore de Balzac (1839, a component of The Human Comedy)

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My Comedie Humaine read through project is nearing close and has slown down.  I have read all of most famous works.  Balzac wrote very fast at a speed powered by fifty cups of coffee a day, legend has it.  A good bit of his shorter works are kind of formula stories about the sexual and romantic antics of the wealthy.  "Domestic Peace" is set in 1809, at a fancy dress ball at which Napolean and Josephine are expected.  It is a place where everyone wants to be at their most glamourus.  In one very interesting segment we learn how the high death rates of the young aristocrats in the French army has stimulated the sexual appetites of women.  Interesting to me, this was the precise thing Elizabeth Bowen said about the Blitz.

There is a mysterious woman at the ball who has refused offers to dance.  One man bets his friend he can get her to dance with him.   Carried through the story is the idea of live at first sight and immediate commitment to marriage we find in other works of Balzac and the period generally.  A quarrel between the mysterious woman and her husband and a deception revealed close out the story.

There are the usual long descriptions  of people and clothing.   The atmosphere of the party is well done.  

"Domestic Peace" is a decent story.  

Mel u

"Z. Marcus" - A Short Story by Honore de Balzac (first published October 11, 1841 in La Revue Parisienne, a component of La Comedie Humaine)

A Post by Ambrosia Boussweau, European Correspodent of The Reading Life

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"Z. Marcus" refers to one Zepphrin Marcus, a seemingly brilliant young man who tries a number of courses of study and fields of work but can barely manage to support himself.  The main, perhaps the only, enduring interest in this story is the picture it gives of life in a rooming house for law students which is very well done.  The conversations between the students and the depiction of the way the students studied, partied and struggled through their meage incomes to get by was interesting.

Ambrosia Boussweau 

The Wrong Side of Paris by Honore de Balzac (1848, sometimes translated as The Seamy Side of History. - A Novel. - A Component of The Comedie Humaine)

A Post by Ambrosia Boussweau, European Correspodent of The Reading Life

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A Novel in Two Parts

Madame de la Chanterie

The Initiate 

Balzac loved to dwell on the dark side of Paris.  One must assume, based partially on Stefan Zweig's book, Balzac, that a manwith the incredible energy and couiosity of our author, that he had a direct acquaintance with rhis aspect of Paris life.  Like Dickens, he comes most to life writing about imperfect people.  

In The Wrong Side of Paris, I think this is the best translation of the title, our thirty year old main character has become tired of the dissolute money driven life he is leading.  He learns of a rooming house run by a noble woman with a tragic past, inhabited by an organization of men devoted to announmosly doing good deeds, helping those in distress.  The revolution of 1793 had devasted the lives of all the men in the organization, destroying their world.  

He learns of a Polish family (Balzac had his own "Polish Connection") living in the slums of Paris.  The wife lives in luxury not knowing the cost of her life style is born by the poverty ridden existence of her family.   Of course our hero saves the day and joins the secret society. 

This is an interesting work but not Balzac at his best

Ambrosia Boussweau

The Lesser Bourgeoise by Honore de Balzac (unfinished at death, completed by Charles Robou, 1855, A Novella, A Component of The Human Comedy)

A post by Ambrosia Boussweu, European Correspodent of The Reading Life 

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The

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Mel u and I have been more or less reading the works in Honore de Balzac's Comedie Humaine in accord with the author's organization of the work segments based on what aspects of French life they deal with.  I think if we were starting again we would read them in publication order.  

The information I found indicates that Thd Lesser Bourgeois was uncompleted at the death of Balzac.  His friend,Charles Robou, a well know novelist at the time, finished the work.  I do not know how much Balzac completed and how much of the novella is the work of Robou.  

The story focuses on the changing residences of an old house.  Other than for those reading through the Comedie Humaine most will prefer to spend their time reading something else.  

"Unconscious Comedians" by Honore de Balzac (1846, A Short Story, A Component of The Human Comedy)

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 "During this monstrous breakfast —advisedly so called in view of six dozen Osten oysters, six cutlets a la Soubise, a chicken a la Marengo, lobster mayonnaise, green peas, a mushroom pasty, washed down with three bottles of Bordeaux, three bottles of Champagne, plus coffee and liqueurs, to say nothing of relishes —Gazonal was magnificent in his diatribes against Paris."  - now that is a Balzacian best breakfast! 

"Unconscious Commedians" is a very good story, I liked everything about it but the close.  As the story opens a business man from the South of France, where you are from is very important in Balzac, has come to Paris to get in touch with a cousin who he has not seen for a long time.  The cousin, who we met sixteen years ago when he was just starting as a painter, has become a very successful known all over artist.  The man has come to Paris because he is being sued.  He owns a factory that depends on a stream that runs through his land for power and one of his neighbors is trying to block the stream.  The man feels he is going to lose and hopes his cousin can give him some advice.  He finds his cousin and the cousin tells him he thinks he can help him with the suit, which will be settled in Paris.  First the country cousin needs a Parisian education and make over!

The painter and one of his friends decides to take their country cousin on a tour of Paris.  They meet a lot of fascinating people.  They start out in front of a  theater.  We and the cousin learn about the people leaving the theater, the different jobs for theater people and the intrigues of the theater goers.

We find out why being a porter, arriving bags in a hotel, is such a good job.  We also learn a bit about how people get into different lines of work.

We meet a famous barber.  Of course there are all sorts of barbers in Paris, ultra-high society stylists to barbers to the poor.  In the fancy salon we go to we meet the people who do the different jobs and learn a lot about this business.  We go along when they take the country cousin for a pedicure, the idea is he has to be fixed up so he can meet the woman who is the mistress of the government official who will decide his case.  We meet a pawn broker who deals only with wealthy women.  Everybody is corrupt in this story or they are the victim of their vices and vanities.  Balzac spends just the right about of time with each person the cousin meets.  

The only I think I do not especially like in this story is how it closes, it rings false to me but Balzac knew what his audience wanted.  

This story is worth reading because of the great tour of Paris, not just as a component of The Human Comedy.  Over all I liked it a lot. 

Mel u

Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac (1837, A Novel, A Component of The Human Comedy)

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Bureaucracy, set in the 1820s, is centered on the attempt of a French government career employee  to greatly reduce expenses, cut superfluous employees and reduce corruption  while greatly increasing revenue and helping citizens.  Of course this is an outrageous idea to his fellow bureaucrats.   Our central character gets this opportunity when the head of his bureau dies and he is placed in charge.  

Of course when the other employees learn of his plans and especially when they seem to be working they are very upset.  His long time arch-rival sets out to destroy his plan.  There is lots of work place drama. 

There are over fifty characters in the novel, the wife of the lead character is very eager for him to advance himself.  Balzac does his usual great job of bringing even the minor characters to life.  

Bureaucracy is a good novel, a worthy segment of The Comedie Humaine.

Ambrosia Boussweau 

European Correspondent

The Reading Life

"Gaudissart II" by Honore de Balzac (1846, A Short Story, A Component of The Human Comedy)

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"Gaudissart II" is a quite brief (reading time under ten minutes) short story about the approach of  salesmen in Paris, specializing in shawls and materials for ladies' dresses, to their female customer.  It is written in a kind of arch mode and shows how the salesmen quickly size up their customers and play on their vanity and such to make a sale.  Some of the shawls seem very expensive and I assume their is a  large Commision on a ten thousand franc shawl.  The narrator describes how all sorts of women come in the shop, from ordinary house wives, women of easy virtue and the very rich.  An experienced salesmen knows how to play each one.  

This was actually a fun story to read and it is a good slice of a small part of the human comedy.

I will next read his novella about working your way ulm in a government agency, Bureaucracy.

Ambrosia Boussweau 

A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac (1840, trans. by Clara Bell, A Short Story, A Component of The Human Comedy)

Overview of The Comedy Humaine as a reading project.  A must do project for serious literary autodidacts.  

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"Balzac’s one-hundred-volume printout of all French society comes in separate packages; the links between the volumes serve as a special reward for the persevering."  From Proust's Way A Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time by Roger Shattuck.

It bothers me that academic authorities on French literature often get the deminsions of Balzac's La Comedie Humaine so wrong.  Of course faced with reading "one hundred volumes" many readers will see themselves as unable to find the time to do this and in doubt whether the time needed to read this is worthwhile.  

Here are the components of The Human Comedy

41 Novels.  Only a few over 500 pages, most around 250 pages or less

25 short stories - none with a reading time over thirty minutes.

25 Novellas estimated reading time between one to two hours.

If we overestimate for most the reading time of the novels at eight hours each, they would take 328 hours. We will round up to 400.   The short stories in total say 15 hours.  The Novellas at the top fifty hours.  So as a guess 465 hours to read the full cycle.  Many book bloggers I follow could read this in three or four months, a number in much less time. In return you have met 2000 very well articulated and described characters, been all over Paris and much of France and a good bit of Italy as well.  It is as close to time traveling as you will find.  It is also for literary  autodidacts a work of tremendous importance.  The only non-online work on Balzac I have read, other than the chapter on French Realism in Auerbach and a bit in Ford Madox Ford's The March of Literature is Stefan Zweig's Balzac, which I highly recommend.  

 As a convenience, you can get the entire cycle as an E book for $2.95 but it means you will be reading older probably in some cases toned down translations.   Many of the components do not seem to have modern translations but the top name novels all do and The New York Review of Books has just published new translations of the most famous short stories.  Upon completion of my read through I will boldly post The Reading Life Guide to Getting Started in Balzac.

"A Prince of Bohemia" is another story structured as one person telling a story to a group of people at a social gathering.  Bohemia as a political entity in 1840 is roughly continuous with contemporary Czechoslovakia.  The expression "bohemian" comes from the perception in France and elsewhere in the first half of the 19th century that Bohemians were very artistic and intellectual types.  Balzac heavily types people based on where they are from.  It is a decent story about how a family got rich and how they dealt with the political turmoil in France.

Ambrosia Boussweau  

 

"A Man of Business" by Honore de Balzac (1845, A Short Story, A Component of The Human Comedy)

"Colette would later observe that she had never liked fairy tales or children’s books, and had begun reading The Human Comedy at the age of seven. “I was born in Balzac,” she told an interviewer as an old lady. “He was my cradle, my forest, my travels.” 

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"A Man of Business" is set at a gathering of old friends, in Paris.  The topic of discussion is the eternal war of creditors versus debtors with a digression into the romantic foibles of a fifty year old widower.   The narrative is carried entirely by dialogue.  

In one very interesting segment, one of the men present says he always paid his larger business debts in a timely fashion but he has made his milliner call twenty seven times to try to collect a trifling amount.  He says it would be shameful of him to have on his person the mere twenty francs the milliner is owed.  He says it is ok for his cook or  coachmen to have twenty francs upon him but not for a gentleman.  He says he will make the mi,liner happy by giving him a bigger commission which he can pay without seeing a triffler.   Of course he may not actually have twenty Francs at the moment but this is never mentioned.  

We learn various ways to delay payments, to use the laws of France to your advantage.  The conversations are lively and ring true.

One of the men, a widower of fifty, tells how he set up an attractive young girl of eighteen in a reading room.  He says she will be his first "commoner", always before involved with ladies of the aristocracy.  Of course it does not quite work out, a wealthy man took her over from him.  

This is a decent story.  

Ambrosia Boussweau 

Secrets of the Princess of Cadigan by Honore de Balzac (1840, a novella, a component of The Comedie Humaine)

"Balzac has invented everything". COLETTE, The Evening Star"

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The Secrets of the Princess of Cadigan is one of the better set among the rich novellas of Balzac.  The central character, Princess Cadigan once had a reputation as a coquette, having supposedly numerous lovers in her social set. Political events and her advancing age, thirty six, has motivated her to retire from society, living with her eighteen year old son.  Of course things change when a new man falls in love with her. 

Vautrin' s Last Stand by Honore de Balzac (part four of Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, A Component of The Human Comedy, 1847)

"Balzac has invented everything. —COLETTE, The Evening Star"

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"One of the greatest tragedies of my life is the death of Lucien de Rubempré” -  Oscar Wilde 

"My mention of two of Balzac’s books where homosexuality played a part was not intended to be exhaustive. There are others as well. Balzac was wonderfully skillful in presenting the subject without naming it. My remark about his not bothering was meant to be admiring rather than reproachful: he broke through conventional limits of fictional interest without any fuss." Richard Ellmann, New York Review of Books, October 27, 1977

One of the most important recurring characters in The Comedie Humaine is that of Lucien de Rubempere.  He first appears in Lost Illusions as the quintessential provincial poet determined to take his place on the Parisian literary stage.  In part of four of the  tetralogy, Scene's From the Life of a Courtesan, Vautrin's Last Avatar he kills himself in prison after having been framed in a very complicated embezzlement scheme.  Much of the very real drama is in the efforts of his attorney to free him from these false charges.  We get a very good luck at behind the scenes maneuvers to achieve this.  The attorney's wife sees it as a possible way for her husband to raise his status in the court system.  Balzac goes into a lot of details about the different ranks of judges, their social and economic status and such. 

Many, including Proust and Gide, were fascinated by the suggestion that Lucien de Rumempre was meant to be seen as gay.  Oscar Wilde thought he was meant to be read that way.  He may be the first central Gay character in European Literature.  To me the issue is unresolved.

Mel u

 

The End of Evil Ways by Honore de Balzac (1846, trans. by James Waring, A Novella Component of La Comedie Humaine) A Post for Paris in July # 6

"Balzac has invented everything. —COLETTE, The Evening Star"

Balzac Takes us Inside the Paris Justice System in 1830

A post by Ambrosia Boussweau,European Correspondent    of The Reading Life

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Paris in July # 6. 

Paris in July # 6. , hosted by Tamarra of Thyme for Tea, a blog I have followed for years, is one of my favorite book blog events.  It covers much more than literature and there are lots of wonderful participant posts online.

Paris in July # 6. has motivated me to read some very interesting works.

1.  "Baum, Gabriel, 1935" by Mavis Gilbert - A wonderful set in Paris short story

2.  "Two Friends" by Guy de Maupassant- Paris in July # 6. Requires reading de Maupassant!

3.  "Mildred Larson" by George Moore- What Paris Meant to the Irish

4.  "The Parisian Stage" by Henry James - an illuminating essay

5.  "The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls" by Marcel Aymé- a new to me writer I will return to

6.   Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris, 1932 by Francine Prose - interesting 

7.  Shocking Paris Soutine, Chagall and the Outlaw Art of Montaparrne by Stanley Meisler-a 

     Well done account of Yiddish emigre artists in Paris

8.  Short Stories about Cats by Three Classic French authors 

9.  Suite Francaise by Iréne Némirovsky- a true masterwork. Paris under the Germans

Honore de Balzac is not just the king of Parisian chroniclers, he is the Emperor. Stefan Zweig in his great book on Balzac ranked him just below Shakespeare.  His influence on French literature is all powerful and his impact on world literature is so pervasive it is hard to see.  Sometime ago I decided to read through Balzac's cycle of works, The Comedie Humaine. Balzac intended this to present a complete picture of French life. There is a lot of disinformation on the size of this work.  I have found numerous claims by distinguished literary pedagogical professionals that it consists of "over 100 full volumes".  It in fact consists of 41 novels, 25 short stories, and 25 novellas.  Many book bloggers read more than this in just three months.  

As I read on in Balzac, he has for sure his ups and downs, I feel him very much coming to life when he describes the dark side of Paris, sinister mysterious characters, dangerous streets, murderous plots, greed driven children and cheat spouses.  A lot of his work is set among aristocratic characters.  I guess just as now nothing sells like a scandal about a celebrity.  Henry James said Balzac is at his very best describing ordinary people in Paris.  The Human Comedy is a time traveling machine, as close to a trip to Paris 1830 or so as you can take.  

The End of Evil Ways is part three of The Loves of a Courtesan.  (The translation is attributed to James Waring but it was really done by Ellen Marriage.  She used this name in translating the "racier" parts of Balzac).  Balzac makes use of recurring characters.  One of the most important of his creations is Lucien de Rumempre.  We first meet him as an aspiring young poet moved to Paris from the provinces to ply his craft in the ultimate place for literature in the world.  He also appears in the trilogy, Lost Illusions. As we follow the rise, loves, and travails of Lucien we transverse Paris.

The End of Evil Ways begins with a very detailed Balzac really on a roll description of a police van used to transport convicts.  Balzac goes into great detail describing these vehicles.  We ride along as a luckless convict is transported to the guilitine.  Lucien has been arrested for murder.  We learn a lot about the justice system and life in prison.  The plot is very melodramatic and complicated.  The story is really like a mini course on French Justice circa 1830.

Balzac created over 2000 characters.  One very fascinating character mentioned just in passing in The End of Evil Ways is Jacques Collin.  He rules the lives of released convicts of Paris, making them loans and directing their enterprises.  

I know it sounds a bit much, but I think literary autodidacts will be very well rewarded by reading the full Comedie Humaine.  This project is really only practical through an E Book.  

An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac (1841)

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An Historical Mystery, sometimes translated as The Gondreville Mystery, is set in 1803.  The central location of the story is one of the grandest estates in France.   Much of the story revolves around how members of the Nobel family estate holders regarded Napolean.  The most interesting aspect of this book was trying to see or understand Balzac's attitude toward Napolean.

I found this a "duty" read.  I think most readers would feel inclined to abandon it.   Being by Balzac, there are great passages but this is for those reading the full Comedie Humaine.

"The Elixir of Life" by Honoré de Balzac (1831, A Short Story Component of The Human Comedy)

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In his preface to this story Balzac acknowledges he got the idea from a story by Hoffman.  In his defense he says he has created enough original stories in The Comedie Humaine so his subscribers cannot really complain.

I prefer Balzac's works about ordinary people in contemporary France to his fictions on the nobility of Italy set in the 15th and 16th century.  Maybe this was what the Paris reading public wanted in 1831 but I find these works can be tedious.  I hope there are not too many more of them to go😁

"The Elixir of Life" centers on a ninety year old Italian Duke, set in the 16th century, and the son of his old age.  The father is a man of sober habits, financially prudent in everything but his indulgence of the prolificate  ways of his 25 or so year old only son.  The son indulges in what goes for debauchery in the period, beautiful aristocratic women, fine wines and rich food.  He longs for the death of his father so he can have full control of the vast estate.  Thinks take a turn for the supernatural when he tries to poison his father.  The ending is kind of intriguing and I will leave it untold.  

Ambrosia Boussweau 

The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac (1831, A Novella, A Component of The Human Comedy)

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The last few works by Balzac I have read have been works mostly for those reading through The Human Comedy.  Even mediocre Balzac works will have good descriptions so I do not mind the lesser works.  The Red Inn, a brief novella is a step back toward the Balzac we love, who creates full bodied characters we can visualize. 

Balzac for sure stereotypes people based on where they are from.  "The Red Inn" is structured as a German stopped over at The Red Inn responding to a request of a group of visitors that he tell them a scary story.   There is a feeling of good natured ribbing in Balzac's description of the German.  German's are portrayed as very serious no-nonsense types and we are surprised to find this German enjoyable company.  He begins a story about two young surgeons who just joined the German army.  The two men, friends, are assigned to a unit and hope to advance in rank. Of course they are looking for adventures along the way. The two men end up sharing a room with a third man who tells them he has a huge amount of gold coins in the bag under his pillow and he feels very secure sleeping in the room with two army surgeons.  Now the story does get very exciting and scary.  The man is found dead with his money missing and one of the two surgeons is blamed for the crime, a capital offense.  He is sure he did not do it but he has vague doubts he might have some how had a mental lapse and did kill the man but cannot recall it and he fears his friend framed him.  Balzac does a great job with this party of the story.  In the last chapter Balzac goes into the efforts of a third man to prove the surgeon innocent and save him. I felt the narrative power waned here, but over all a good work.  

I will next read Balzac's three part novel based on the life of Catherine de Medici.

Ambrosia Boussweau 

Mel u