The Black Sheep by Balzac

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The Black Sheep (1842)
by Honore de Balzac, translated by Donald Adamson
339 pages - Penguin Classics

'All human passions work harmoniously together whenever they are leading to reckless folly.' (pg.76)

Philippe and Joseph are two brothers whose father dies while they are young. Philippe is a soldier who quits the army once Napoleon is defeated, and carries a grudge against the current government as he spends his time gambling and drinking, and as his material conditions worsen he begins to cheat and steal from whoever he can, even his own family. Joseph is a few years younger, and early on he discovers a talent for painting which he applies himself to, though this only brings in a mediocre income and is seen as foolish by his family and middle-class, bourgeois society. Philippe presents a confident, sociable exterior, but this only hides his wickedness, while Joseph comes across a bit strangely and awkwardly, but is steady and reliable in life. The novel begins in Paris, but moves to the provinces when Joseph and his mother try to re-establish contact with Joseph's uncle, who is wealthy but single and childless, and is being used by two conniving characters who are trying to twist the family fortune out of him.

''My dear child,' the old woman answered, 'the trials of life are in the heart. The greater and the more necessary our attitude of resignation is, the more struggles we have within ourselves.'' (pg.211)

The description on the back of the book, combined with the title, threw me off a bit as to what the book was going to be about, because even though it starts off with the conflict between the two brothers, it actually often focuses on other characters for a significant time, and could even be called a series of novellas with continuing characters. The book is split into three parts, and though I enjoyed the first two quite a bit, unfortunately the last part was very much a let-down, with a series of cliched and unbelievable reversals, and several sections just relating facts as if Balzac was sketching out parts of the plot he didn't have time to actually write out. It is all very melodramatic from start to finish, but in the third part that doesn't become enjoyable anymore.

I read Balzac's Pere Goriot some time ago, and after that I decided that his writing probably wasn't for me. But I re-read one of his short stories recently ("Le Grande Breteche") and liked it quite a bit, so I thought I would give him another try. After reading this book to the end, I think I'm back to my former position. It's all just drawn a bit too broadly and roughly, which isn't surprising considering how many books Balzac wrote.

'God is only harsh on this earth towards his chosen people. Woe betide those whose misdeeds meet with a favourable reception in this world, they will be formed again within humanity until eventually their simple errors are harshly punished, and not until then will they reap their celestial harvest. Your life, my daughter, has been one long act of wrongdoing. You now fall into the pit you have dug for yourself; the only side of our characters in which we ever fail is the one we have weakened within ourselves.'(pg.325)