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Balzac and Sainte-Beuve
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
So many false and misleading statements concerning the historic literary feud between Balzac and Sainte-Beuve have found acceptance that it seems important to reopen the question in an attempt to arrive at the real facts.
There are three well-known documents in the quarrel: first, Sainte-Beuve's criticism of Balzac in the Revue des Deux Mondes of November 15, 1834; second, Balzac's review of the first volume of Port-Royal, appearing in his Revue parisienne of August 25, 1840, and, lastly, Sainte-Beuve's tempered eulogy of Balzac in the Constitutionnel, September 2, 1850, shortly after the novelist's death. But these represent only a few aspects of a drama which, it must be admitted, at times bordered on the burlesque, and which is complicated by a number of apparently extraneous factors.
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References
1 Œuvres complètes, Paris, 1869-1876, XXII, 181 (May 29, 1830).
2 Ibid., XXIII, 180 (January 29, 1831).
3 IV, 440-458.
4 Ibid., p. 440.
5 Ibid., pp. 446-447.
6 Ibid., p. 448.
7 Ibid., p. 449 ff.
8 Ibid., pp. 451-452.
9 Ibid., p. 443.
10 Ibid., pp. 441, 455.
11 Ibid., pp. 442-443. Cf. Remy de Gourmont, Promenades littéraires, Paris, 1904-1927, V, 233 ff.
12 Op. cit., V, 230, 238.
13 Sainte-Beuve et le Dix-Neuvième Siècle, Paris, 1927, p. 249. M. Bellessort has apparently consulted only the 1846 version of the article, which, as we shall see, contained variants which changed the whole tone of the earlier study. There is nothing “perfidious” about the latter, unless it be the two minor points we have mentioned.
14 E.g., Portraits contemporains, Paris, 1870, II, 356, note 2; Port-Royal, Paris, 1860, I, appendice, p. 549; Nouveaux Lundis, Paris, 1884, XIII, 15; Mes Poisons, Paris, s. d. (1926), p. 109. Curiously enough, Balzac is quoted somewhat differently on each occasion.
15 Op. cit., V, 230.
16 Cf. L. Lumet, Honoré de Balzac, critique lit., Paris, 1912, p. 12 ff.
17 Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1834, IV, 450.
18 O. C., XXII, 407. In whatever spirit Balzac may have intended this remark, Sainte-Beuve seems to have taken it as a personal affront, construing it thus: “Only those who lack creative ability become critics.” Cf. Causeries du Lundi, II, 455.
19 O. C., XXII, 252, 271-273. Cf. especially p. 271: “… . Volupté, l'un des livres les plus remarquables de ce temps… . .” (October 30, 1836.)
20 For Balzac's version of the affair, see O. C., XXII, 430 ff. For a different viewpoint, cf. Mme M.-L. Pailleron, François Buloz et ses amis. La Vie littéraire sous Louis-Philippe, Paris, s. d. (1919).
21 Buloz's granddaughter, Mme Pailleron, sees no reason for believing that Sainte-Beuve's article offended Balzac. Op. cit., p. 204.
22 Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1838, IV, 253.
23 Ibid., IV, 365.
24 Ibid., IV, 366 ff.
25 O. C., XXII, 275 ff. Balzac ascribes to Victor Hugo the expression, “les dix ou douze maréchaux de France littéraires.”
26 Cf. Port-Royal, ed. 1860, I, appendice, p. 552.
27 Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1839, III, 676.
28 Ibid., p. 678. The italics are Saint-Beuve's.
29 Ibid., p. 678.
30 The “Lettre a propos du Curé de village” referred to above.
31 Loc. cit., p. 690. The italics are Sainte-Beuve's.
32 Ibid., p. 690.
33 The Chronique had been abandoned in July, 1837. Cf. L. Lumet, op. cit pp. 17-18.
34 The Revue des Deux Mondes. Balzac is here referring to the lawsuit of 1836.
35 Sainte-Beuve, loc. cit., pp. 689-690; the italics are Balzac's. Villemain had resigned the office when called to Marshal Soult's cabinet.
In a later edition of this article, Sainte-Beuve appends to his remarks on Villemain the following note: “Tout ceci est sensiblement ironique. Le courage d'esprit est ce qui a toujours manqué le plus essentiellement à cet homme de tant de talent et de faiblesse, M. Villemain.” This note, which is signally disingenuous, was prompted not only by Balzac's rejoinder in the Presse, but by a quarrel which Sainte-Beuve had with Villemain just a few days after he had written the original article. Cf Sainte-Beuve, Correspondance, I, 98 (September 10, 1839), 109. As we shall see, this system of footnotes was one of the critic's most deadly weapons.
36 Balzac, O. C., XXII, 538-539.
37 “Dix Ans après en littérature,” Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1840, I, 695.
38 O. C., XXIII, 568-569.
39 Ibid., pp. 15-98.
40 Ibid., pp. 634-635.
41 Ibid., p. 635. The italics are ours.
42 Ibid., p. 639.
43 Ibid., p. 655.
44 Ibid., p. 657. Mme Pailleron gives Musset as the author of this nickname, op. cit., p. 174.
45 O. C., XXIII, 658-659.
46 Ibid., p. 658.
47 Ibid., p. 635: “En France, il (Sainte-Beuve) se garde bien de pérorer comme il l'a fait a Lausanne, où les Suisses, extrêmement ennuyeux eux-mêmes, ont pu prendre son cours pour une flatterie”; p. 636, Balzac sarcastically congratulates the ministry on having entrusted the affairs of the Théâtre Français to “des Suisses, anciens chercheurs de produits chimiques.”
48 P. 559.
49 M.-L. Pailleron, op. cit., pp. 217-218.
50 Buloz had been appointed royal commissioner to the Comédie Française in 1838, hence the earlier allusion.
51 Balzac, O. C., XI, 21 ff.
52 O. C., XXIII, 664. Cf. Sainte-Beuve, “M. de Balzac,” Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1834, IV, 443.
53 O. C., XXIII, 692. Let us not forget that, despite his shortcomings as a critic, it was Balzac who “discovered” Stendhal.
54 Ibid., p. 753.
55 Correspondance, I, 198.
56 Port-Royal, I, appendice, p. 549 ff.
57 Nouveaux Lundis, XI, 401.
58 Chroniques parisiennes, Paris, 1876, p. 72. First published in la Revue suisse.
59 Portraits contemporains, I, 451.
60 Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1834, IV, 448.
61 Portraits contemporains, I, 453.
62 Critiques et portraits littéraires, Paris, 1836-1839, III, 62. The date 1832 on the title page of this volume is erroneous.
63 Portraits contemporains, I, 447. It is interesting to follow this evolution through to its conclusion. The definitive edition (1869-1871) adds a note (II, 332) which had not appeared in 1846: “Je mets son nom exact au moins une fois dans tout l'article. M. de Balzac, par son affectation nobiliaire ridicule improvisée du jour au lendemain, a l'un des premiers mis à la mode cette manie de tant d'hommes de notre génération et qui depuis n'a fait que croître et embellir, de se donner pour ce qu'on n'est pas.”
64 Critiques et portraits lit., III, 67, note.
65 Portraits contemporains, I, 450, note. This last is probably aimed at Mme d'Abrantès. Cf. Port-Royal, ed. 1860, I, appendice, pp. 558-559.
66 Portraits contemporains, I, 444, note.
67 Mes Poisons, p. 109.
68 Ibid., p. 110; Nouveaux Lundis, XIII, 264.
69 Portraits contemporains, I, 451, note. Sainte-Beuve had already made this criticism in 1838, Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1838, iv, 367.
70 Causeries du Lundi, II, 443 ff. (September 2, 1850.)
71 Cf. Chroniques parisiennes, pp. 81-82.
72 Cf. Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1834, IV, 441 ff., 455.
73 Correspondence, I, 249-250.
74 Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1834, IV, 456 ff.
75 Causeries du Lundi, XIII, 295 ff.
76 Port-Royal, ed. 1860. I, appendice, p. 552.
77 Distinguished French surgeon, born in Baltimore (1800-1889).
78 Mes Poisons, pp. 110-111.