Dubiously Instructive Human Shipwreck Wednesday

[evelyn_b]

I'm not reading anything this week (I'll read and respond to comments next week) but I did finish Prometheus: The Life of Balzac on Friday. I loved every horrible minute; it was one of the most enjoyable biographies I've ever read.

Comments

[lost_spook]

Your summary here is also pretty enjoyable! :-)

[evelyn_b]

Aww, thank you! I did have the best time reading this book.

[a_phoenixdragon]

What a character! Sounds like he was a pure ass - but even his impending death didn't seem to change that overly much, so at least he was consistent?!

*HUGS*

[evelyn_b]

Not so pure, I think -- he was apparently excellent at writing books, and an enjoyable if not always reliable correspondent, and honestly, with one very glaring exception (his treatment of Louise toward the end of his life) I couldn't help liking him most of the time. I get the impression that most of his friends just learned to take the good with the bad (and not to lend him money).

I don't know, really. I think he's the kind of trouble I tend to find slightly attractive despite my better judgement, so there's a little automatic machine at the back of my mind making excuses for him even as I roll my eyes in despair. He's a bit like Pigpen from Peanuts, except instead of the little cloud of dust, he's got sandstorms of intoxicating talent and energy and unbelievable obliviousness swirling all around him, knocking all the tea things off the table and getting grit in the consommé.

Not that that makes it any better, I realize as I write this.

[osprey_archer]

BALZAC. Oh my God. He sounds like he wanted to live up to the idea of the tortured artistic genius and put his all into doing so (and also just had no business sense, because I don't think losing money on dodgy speculations was ever part of the tortured artistic genius ideal).

[evelyn_b]

BALZAC. I KNOW. I don't know that the tortured-artist ideal was necessarily much of an influence on young Balzac -- more that he could make a lot of money and get lots of accolades if he became a successful writer. He definitely wasn't interested in the sad underappreciated genius thing, which I think was a trope that got popular a bit later -- he wanted to be elected to the Immortals and awarded a peerage -- he could not understand why Hugo didn't appreciate his peerage more! and to have a fresh pair of gloves for every day of the year and to dress like triumph feels. He wanted any room he rolled into to go instantly hushed and glowing. And he deserved to be successful! He was an incredibly hard worker with an endlessly fertile imagination. His books were ambitious and popular. He WAS successful, except for the part where he couldn't get his shit together for anything.

:|

BALZAC. >:|

[osprey_archer]

I haven't even read anything by or about Balzac and you have given me Balzac feelings, you monster. I am imagining him being all tragically confused by Hugo's failure to appreciate his peerage - a peerage, Hugo! - and Hugo is like HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK I WOULD APPRECIATE A PEERAGE, WHYYYYYYY.

[evelyn_b]

Hah, yes. You KNOW Hugo tried to explain it to him. You know Hugo tried to explain it to him AT LENGTH. But. . . why would anyone not want a peerage????? It's like custom gold plating for your NAME!

One of my favorite things from this book was learning that Balzac and Hugo were on friendly terms and respected each other, despite their differences.

[sue_bursztynski]

I've only read Cousin Bette for French at uni(a story about a sort of female Shakespearean Richard III and what was the one about a sort of King Lear, except there wasn't a Cordelia. A long time since I've read Balzac and then it was because I had to.

[evelyn_b]

Cousin Bette was one of the ones that looked most interesting to me -- do you remember if you enjoyed it?

[sue_bursztynski]

It has been a very long time, but I vaguely recall finding it readable. I was about seventeen at the time, though; your tastes change. Best to plunge in and give it a go. There's bound to be a translation somewhere on Gutenberg. ;-)

[ramasi]

I love Balzac, I'm slowly making my way through the whole cycle. I think Le Père Goriot is one of the most well-known ones for a good reason, so I recommend that (that's the King Lear one). My favourite is Les Illusion Perdues (Lost Illusions), which is mainly about the writer and journalist milieu at the time, which I'm guessing Balzac knew particularly well. I also liked Le Lys dans la vallée (The Lily of the Valley) a lot, but the best part of it is the answering letter at the very end, so you have to like the whole initial letter, which the book is written as and whose author is pretty annoying, enough to get to that part.

I'd also recommend many the novellas, if you can get them, and maybe they're even a better place to start: The Deserted Woman, The Girl with the Golden Eyes, The Unknown Masterpiece are all pretty awesome.

That's kind of Balzac's own view of genius, it's pretty unpleasant when it shows up, considering he's probably thinking of himself. >_>

[evelyn_b]

Lost Illusions sounded really interesting! And maybe I will enjoy this annoying letter-writer in Lily of the Valley; sometimes I do. I might see what they have at the library, now that I have a little time. I'm looking forward to it!

(I have no trouble believing that Balzac is thinking of himself when he writes about genius. "Honoré thinks he's either everything or nothing" -- that's how his mother summed him up. If not in the depths of despair and convinced of his own worthlessness, then The Most Important Writer Ever in the History of Language. And even the conviction of worthlessness is a symptom of ego. :|)