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The Composition of Balzac's Œuvres de Jeunesse and La Comedie Humaine: A Comparison
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Balzac is said to have written in all some forty works before the Human Comedy, but many were in collaboration with other writers. We have now available, among others, Sténie, recently edited by A. Prioult, and ten novels collected under the title Œuvres de jeunesse. Monsieur Pierre Barrière claims that “il n'est presque rien dans la Comédie Humaine qui ne soit en germe dans les Romans de Jeunesse.” While this great admirer of Balzac is inclined to let his enthusiasm color his judgments, he has put forth strong arguments to prove his point. And yet he has failed to include in his evidence a study of the organization and composition of these early novels which would have strengthened his claims. The plots are often ridiculously fantastic, a characteristic, let it be said, that does not entirely disappear in La Comédie Humaine. They exist primarily as devices whereby Balzac makes the characters act and react on each other, and thus they bring out those psychological aspects that he is at the moment interested in revealing. The absurdity of the plot has little to do with the excellence of the novel. The most fantastic tale of all is probably La Dernière fée (1823) and yet this is perhaps the best of these early works.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1940
References
1 Sténie ou les erreurs philosophiques, texte inédit établi par A. Prioult (Paris: Georges Courville, 1936).
2 All references are to the Œuvres de jeunesse illustrées, (Paris: Michel-Lévy, 1868).
3 Honoré de Balzac, Les Romans de jeunesse (Paris: Hachette, s.d.), p. 87. Cf. A. Prioult, Balzac avant la Comédie Humaine (1818–29), (Paris: Courville, 1936), pp. viii–ix.
4 Barrière thinks that these popular writers had little influence on the Comédie Humaine. See Honoré de Balzac, Les Romans de jeunesse, p. 88. Prioult on the other hand contends that Balzac's acquaintance with popular literature constituted about all his early training. See Balzac avant la Comédie Humaine, p. xvii.
5 P. 2.
6 P. 45.
7 Honoré de Balzac, Les Romans de jeunesse, p. 58.
8 See Le Vicaire des Ardennes, p. 20, and Argow le pirate, pp. 6–7. Cf. also Prioult, Balzac avant la Comédie Humaine, p. 206.
9 P. Barrière finds many characters in the Human Comedy which resemble the heroes of Corneille. See Honoré de Balzac et la tradition classique (Paris: Hachette, 1928).
10 Argow le pirate, p. 15. Cf. the famous speech of Augustus in Cinna, l. 1696, “Je suis maître de moi comme de l'univers.”
11 Prioult edition, p. xvi.
12 Idem, p. 147, note 1.
13 See idem, p. 148, note 1. “Le portrait ici tracé de Sténie contient déjà en germe les héroïnes résignées de Balzac, depuis Annette Gérard (Argow le pirate) à Eugénie Grandet. Plus chrétienne et soumise à un directeur de conscience, elle eût pu jouer le rôle de Mme de Granville dans Une double famille. L'étude de ces personnages prouve qu'en 1820 Balzac savait déjà composer un caractère et avait même dégagé certains types mentaux qui prendront place dans la Comédie humaine.”
14 P. 14, ch. VI.
15 Pp. 33–35.
16 Balzac presents a typical Racinian situation where A loves B and B loves C.
17 In another study the present author will show that many of the novels of the Human Comedy readily divide into a prologue and three acts, and that at one time Balzac had divided these works into parts corresponding to these divisions.
18 P. 5. See also Barrière, Honoré de Balzac, Les Romans de jeunesse, p. 32.
19 P. 6.
20 In Argow le pirate, p. 21, Balzac speaks of himself as “un romancier descriptif.”
21 P. 2.
22 Cf. R. P. Bowen, “Balzac's Interior Descriptions as an Element in Characterization,” PMLA, XL (1925), 289–301.
23 Argow le pirate, p. 4.
24 Idem, p. 30.
25 P. 22.
26 La Dernière fée, p. 4.
27 P. 26.
28 P. 45.
29 Conard edition, xxii, 123.
30 Honoré de Balzac, Les Romans de jeunesse, p. 35, “Il résulte qu'en 1825 Balzac a dé couvert tous ces procédés de composition, il ne lui reste qu'à les perfectionner.”
31 Le Poitevin de L'Egreville is said to be the co-author with Balzac of L'Héritière de Birague, the Marquis de Belloy the author of L'Excommunié, and the Comte de Grammont of Dom Gigadas. See Barrière, Honoré de Balzac, Les Romans de jeunesse, note on p. 7, and also Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, Histoire des oeuvres de Honoré de Balzac (Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1879), p. 256. Prioult, however, declares that the novel L'Excommunié was conceived by Balzac in 1825, as is proved by the manuscript at Chantilly, and finished by one of his secretaries in 1836 (See Balzac avant la Comédie Humaine, pp. 59, 281, 283). Thus we are left in doubt as to who wrote the description of Tours with which L'Excommunié opens.