La Comédie humaine


La Comédie humaine is Honoré de Balzac's 1829–48 multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and stories depicting French society in the period of the Restoration in France|Restoration] and the July Monarchy.
La Comédie humaine consists of 91 finished works and 46 unfinished works. It does not include Balzac's five theatrical plays or his collection of humorous tales Les Cent Contes drolatiques.
A pioneer of the modern novel, Balzac describes the totality of reality as he understood it, and shows aspects of life hitherto ignored in literature, because they were ugly or vulgar. He shows in its various forms the rise of capitalism and the omnipotence of money, leading to the disappearance of nobility and the dissolution of social ties. La Comédie Humaine refers to the medieval poem Divine Comedy. Balzac's world is grounded in sociology, not theology, where love and friendship are of prime importance and which highlights the complexity of people and the deep immorality of a social mechanism where the weak are crushed while the crooked banker and the venal politician triumph. A keen observer, Balzac created human types that are strikingly true. Some of his characters are so vivid that they have become archetypes, such as Rastignac, the ambitious young provincial, Grandet, the miserly domestic tyrant, or Father Goriot, the icon of fatherhood. He gives an important place to financiers and notaries, but also to the character of Vautrin, the outlaw with multiple identities. His work includes many courtesans and grisettes, as well as admirable and angelic women. The importance of these women and their psychology earned him an enthusiastic female readership very early on.
Despite the opposition of the Catholic Church, this work quickly became a printing phenomenon and greatly influenced the development of the novel both in France and elsewhere. Translated into many languages, it is still published today and has often been adapted for film and television.

The title

The title of the series is usually considered an allusion to Dante's Divine Comedy; while Ferdinand Brunetière, the famous French literary critic, suggests that it may stem from poems by Alfred de Musset or Alfred de Vigny. While Balzac sought the comprehensive scope of Dante, his title indicates the worldly, human concerns of a realist novelist. The stories are placed in a variety of settings, with characters reappearing in multiple stories.

Evolution of the work

The Comédie humaine was the result of a slow evolution. The first works of Balzac were written without any global plan, but by 1830 Balzac began to group his first novels into a series entitled Scènes de la vie privée.
In 1833, with the publication of Eugénie Grandet, Balzac envisioned a second series entitled "Scènes de la vie de province". Most likely in this same year Balzac came upon the idea of having characters reappear from novel to novel, and the first novel to use this technique was Le Père Goriot.
In a letter written to Madame Hanska in 1834, Balzac decided to reorganize his works into three larger groups, allowing him to integrate his "La physiologie du mariage" into the ensemble and to separate his most fantastic or metaphysical stories—like La Peau de chagrin and Louis Lambert —into their own "philosophical" section. The three sections were:
  • "Etudes de Moeurs au XIXe siècle" – including the various "Scènes de la vie..."
  • "Etudes philosophiques"
  • "Etudes analytiques" – including the "Physiologie du mariage"
In this letter, Balzac went on to say that the "Etudes de Moeurs" would study the effects of society and touch on all genders, social classes, ages and professions of people. Meanwhile, the "Etudes philosophiques" would study the causes of these effects. Finally, the third "analytical" section would study the principles behind these phenomena. Balzac also explained that while the characters in the first section would be "individualités typisées", the characters of the "Etudes philosophiques" would be "types individualisés".
By 1836, the "Etudes de Moeurs" was already divided into six parts:
  • "Scènes de la vie privée"
  • "Scènes de la vie de province"
  • "Scènes de la vie parisienne"
  • "Scènes de la vie politique"
  • "Scènes de la vie militaire"
  • "Scènes de la vie de campagne"
In 1839, in a letter to his publisher, Balzac mentioned for the first time the expression Comédie humaine, and this title is in the contract he signed in 1841. The publication of the Comédie humaine in 1842 was preceded by an important preface or "avant-propos" describing his major principles and the work's overall structure. For this edition, novels which had appeared in serial form were stricken of their chapter titles.
Balzac's intended collection was never finished. In 1845, Balzac wrote a complete catalogue of the ensemble which includes works he started or envisioned but never finished. In some cases, Balzac moved a work around between different sections as his overall plan developed; the catalogue given below represents that last version of that process.
Balzac's works were slow to be translated into English because they were perceived as unsuitable for Victorian readers. John Wilson Croker attacked it in the April 1836 issue of the Quarterly Review, excoriating Balzac for immorality, saying "a baser, meaner, filthier scoundrel never polluted society ...". The consensus of the day was that only Eugénie Grandet, Le Curé de Tours, Le Médecin de campagne and a few of the early short stories were suitable for females. Individual works appeared, but not until the 1890s did "complete" versions appear, from Ellen Marriage in London and from G. B. Ives and others in Philadelphia.

The "Avant-propos"

In 1842, Balzac wrote a preface to the whole ensemble in which he explained his method and the collection's structure.
Motivated by the work of biologists Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Georges Cuvier and most importantly Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Balzac explains that he seeks to understand "social species" in the way a biologist would analyse "zoological species", and to accomplish this he intends to describe the interrelations of men, women and things. The importance of the woman is underlined by Balzac's contention that, while a biologist may gloss over the differences between a male and female lion, "in Society the woman is not simply the female of the man".
Balzac then gives an extensive list of writers and works that influenced him, including Sir Walter Scott, François Rabelais and Miguel de Cervantes.
He then describes his writer's role as a "secretary" who is transcribing society's "history"; moreover, he posits that he is interested in something that no previous historian has attempted: a history of "moeurs". He also notes his desire to go behind the surface of events, to show the reasons and causes for social phenomena. Balzac then professes his belief in two profound truths—religion and monarchy—and his concern for understanding the individual in the context of his family.
In the last half of his preface, Balzac explains the Comédie humaines different parts, and which are more or less the final form of the collection.

The historical novel

The historical novel was a European phenomenon in the first half of the 19th century—largely through the works of Sir Walter Scott, James Fenimore Cooper and, in France, Alexandre Dumas, père, and Victor Hugo. Balzac's first novel Les Chouans was inspired by this vogue and tells of the rural inhabitants of Brittany during the revolution with Cooper-like descriptions of their dress and manners.
Although the bulk of the Comédie humaine takes place during the Restoration and the July Monarchy, there are several novels which take place during the French Revolution and others which take place in the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, including "About Catherine de Medici" and "The Elixir of Long Life".

The popular novel

Balzac's later works are decidedly influenced by the genre of the serialised novel popular at the time, especially the works of Eugène Sue which concentrate on depicting the secret worlds of crime and vice that hide below the surface of French society, and by the ethos of melodrama typical of these part-works.

Fantasy

Many of Balzac's shorter works have elements taken from the popular "roman noir" or gothic novel, but often the fantastic elements are used for very different purposes in Balzac's work.
The magical ass's skin in La Peau de chagrin for example becomes a metaphor for diminished male potency and a key symbol of Balzac's conception of energy and will in the modern world.
In a similar way, Balzac undermines the character of Melmoth the Wanderer in his "Melmoth Reconciled": Balzac takes a character from a fantastic novel who has sold his soul for power and long life and has him sell his own power to another man in Paris ... this man then sells this gift in turn and very quickly the infernal power is traded from person to person in the Parisian stock exchange until it loses any of its original power.

Swedenborg

Several of Balzac's characters, particularly Louis Lambert, traverse mystical crises and/or develop syncretic spiritual philosophies about human energy and action that are largely modelled on the life and work of Emanuel Swedenborg. As depicted in his works, Balzac's spiritual philosophy suggests that individuals have a limited quantity of spiritual energy and that this energy is dissipated through creative or intellectual work or through physical activity, and this is made emblematic in his philosophical tale La Peau de chagrin, in which a magical wild ass's skin confers on its owner unlimited powers, but shrinks each time it is used in science.

Themes of the ''Comédie humaine''

The following are some of the major themes that recur throughout the various volumes of the Comédie humaine:

France after the Revolution

Balzac frequently bemoans the loss of a pre-Revolutionary society of honor which has now become—especially after the fall of Charles X of France and the arrival of the July Monarchy—a society dominated by money.

Money and power

"At the origin of every fortune lies a crime": this precept from the "Red Inn" recurs constantly in the Comédie humaine, both as a biographical truth, and as a sign of French collective guilt at the horrors of the Revolution.
The other source of power is rank. People of good blood aspire to a title, while people with titles aspire to the peerage. The opening section of The Secrets of the Princess Cadignan provides an explanation of why the title of prince is not prevalent nor coveted in France.

Social success

Two young men dominate the Comédie humaine: Lucien de Rubempré and Eugène de Rastignac. Both are talented but poor youths from the provinces, both attempt to achieve greatness in society through the intercession of women and both come into contact with Vautrin, but only Rastignac succeeds while Lucien de Rubempré ends his life by his own hand in a jail in Paris. The difference in outcome is partly explained by Balzac's views on heredity: Rastignac comes from a noble family, while only Rubempré's mother comes from a noble family. This deficit is compounded by the fact that his mother had not only married a commoner far beneath her in rank, but she had also performed menial labour to support herself when her husband died.
Another contrast is between Emile Blondet and Raoul Nathan. Both are multi-talented men-of-letters. Blondet is the natural son of the prefect of Alençon and is described as witty but lazy, incurably hesitant, non-partisan, a political atheist, a player of the game of political opinions, having the most judicious mind of the day. He marries Madame de Montcornet and eventually becomes a prefect. Nathan is described as half-Jewish and possessing a second-rate mind. Nathan succumbs to the flattery of unscrupulous financiers and does not see that they are prepared to bankrupt him to achieve their purposes. Blondet sees what is happening but does not enlighten Nathan. The downfall drives Nathan to attempt suicide by the method of "any poor work-girl". He then sells out to the government of the day to secure an income, and returns to living with the actress/courtesan Florine. In the end he accepts the cross of the Legion of Honour and becomes a defender of the doctrine of heredity.

Paternity

The Comédie humaine frequently portrays the complex emotional, social and financial relationships between fathers and their children, and between father-figures and their mentees, and these relationships are metaphorically linked as well with issues of nationhood, nobility, history, wealth and artistic creation. Father Goriot is perhaps the most famous—and most tragic—of these father figures, but in Le Père Goriot, Eugène de Rastignac also encounters two other paternal figures, Vautrin and Taillefer, whose aspirations and methods define different paternal paths. Other significant fathers in the series include Eugénie Grandet's abusive and money-hoarding father and César Birotteau, the doomed capitalist.

Maternity

At one end of the scale we have 100% maternal involvement – as depicted by the upbringing of the sisters de Granville later Mesdames Felix de Vandenesse and du Tillet.
At the other end of the scale we have 0% maternal involvement – as depicted by the upbringing of Ursule Mirouët by four men: her half-uncle-in-law, the local priest, the district judge and a retired soldier.
We are left in no doubt that it is the second option that produces what Balzac considers to be the ideal woman. Ursula is pious and prone to collapsing in tears at the slightest emotion.

Women, society and sex

The representation of women in the Comédie humaine is extremely varied—spanning material from both the romantic and pulp traditions—and includes idealized women, the tragic prostitute Esther Gobsek, the worldly daughters of Goriot and other women in society who can help their lovers advance, the masculine and domineering Cousine Bette, and the alluring and impossible love object. The latter category also includes several lesbian or bisexual characters.

Structure of ''La Comédie humaine''

Balzac's final plan of the Comédie Humaine is as follows :

Studies of manners (''Études de moeurs'')

Scenes from private life (''Scènes de la vie privée'')

  1. At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
  2. The Ball at Sceaux
  3. The Purse
  4. The Vendetta
  5. Madame Firmiani
  6. A Second Home
  7. Domestic Bliss
  8. The Imaginary Mistress
  9. Study of a Woman
  10. Another Study of a Woman
  11. La Grande Bretèche
  12. Albert Savarus
  13. Letters of Two Brides
  14. A Daughter of Eve
  15. A Woman of Thirty
  16. The Deserted Woman
  17. La Grenadière
  18. The Message
  19. Gobseck
  20. A Marriage Contract
  21. A Start in Life
  22. Modeste Mignon
  23. Béatrix
  24. Honorine
  25. Le Colonel Chabert
  26. The Atheist's Mass
  27. L'Interdiction
  28. ''Pierre Grassou''

Scenes from provincial life (''Scènes de la vie de province'')

  1. Ursule Mirouët
  2. Eugénie Grandet
  3. The Celibates
  4. # Pierrette
  5. # The Vicar of Tours
  6. # The Black Sheep
  7. Parisians in the Country
  8. # The Illustrious Gaudissart
  9. # The Muse of the Department
  10. The Jealousies of a Country Town
  11. # The Old Maid
  12. # The Collection of Antiquities
  13. Lost Illusions
  14. # The Two Poets
  15. # A Great Provincial in Paris
  16. # ''Eve and David''

Scenes from Parisian life (''Scènes de la vie parisienne'')

  1. Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans , comprising
  2. # Esther Happy
  3. # What Love Costs an Old Man
  4. # The End of Evil Ways
  5. # The Last Incarnation of Vautrin
  6. A Prince of Bohemia
  7. A Man of Business
  8. Gaudissart II
  9. The Unwitting Comedians
  10. The Thirteen
  11. # Ferragus
  12. # The Duchess of Langeais
  13. # The Girl with the Golden Eyes
  14. Old Goriot
  15. César Birotteau
  16. The Firm of Nucingen
  17. The Secrets of the Princess Cadignan
  18. The Government Clerks
  19. Sarrasine
  20. Facino Cane
  21. Poor Relations
  22. # Cousin Bette
  23. # Cousin Pons
  24. ''The Lesser Bourgeoisie''

Scenes from political life (''Scènes de la vie politique'')

  1. A Murky Business
  2. An Episode Under the Terror
  3. The Seamy Side of History
  4. Z. Marcas
  5. ''The Deputy for Arcis''

Scenes from military life (''Scènes de la vie militaire'')

  1. The Chouans
  2. ''A Passion in the Desert''

Scenes from country life (''Scènes de la vie de campagne'')

  1. The Country Doctor
  2. The Lily of the Valley
  3. The Village Rector
  4. ''The Peasants''

Philosophical studies (''Études philosophiques'')

  1. The Wild Ass's Skin
  2. The Quest of the Absolute
  3. Christ in Flanders
  4. Melmoth Reconciled
  5. The Unknown Masterpiece
  6. The Hated Son
  7. Gambara
  8. Massimilla Doni
  9. The Maranas
  10. Farewell
  11. The Conscript
  12. El Verdugo
  13. A Drama on the Seashore
  14. The Red Inn
  15. The Elixir of Life
  16. The Exiles
  17. Maître Cornélius
  18. About Catherine de' Medici
  19. #The Calvinist Martyr
  20. #The Ruggieri's Secret
  21. #The Two Dreams
  22. Louis Lambert
  23. ''Séraphîta''

Analytical studies (''Études analytiques'')

  1. Physiology of Marriage
  2. Little Miseries of Conjugal Life
  3. Pathology of Social Life , a collection of nonfiction essays
  4. # Treatise on Elegant Living
  5. # Theory of Walking Habits
  6. # ''Treatise on Contemporary Stimulants''

Posthumous "definitive" structural revision by Rabou

In French, the series is more often published according to the plan of the posthumous "Definitive Edition" that was prepared by Charles Rabou, Balzac's chosen literary executor who he even entrusted to complete some of his unfinished works in the series:

Studies of manners (''Études de moeurs'')

Scenes from private life (''Scènes de la vie privée'')

  1. At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
  2. The Ball at Sceaux
  3. Letters of Two Brides
  4. The Purse
  5. Modeste Mignon
  6. A Start in Life
  7. Albert Savarus
  8. The Vendetta
  9. A Second Home
  10. Domestic Bliss
  11. Madame Firmiani
  12. Study of a Woman
  13. The Imaginary Mistress
  14. A Daughter of Eve
  15. The Message
  16. La Grande Bretèche
  17. La Grenadière
  18. The Deserted Woman
  19. Honorine
  20. Béatrix
  21. Gobseck
  22. A Woman of Thirty
  23. Old Goriot
  24. Le Colonel Chabert
  25. The Atheist's Mass
  26. L'Interdiction
  27. A Marriage Contract
  28. ''Another Study of a Woman''

Scenes from provincial life (''Scènes de la vie de province'')

  1. Ursule Mirouët
  2. Eugénie Grandet
  3. From The Celibates
  4. # Pierrette
  5. # The Vicar of Tours
  6. # The Black Sheep
  7. From Parisians in the Country
  8. # The Illustrious Gaudissart
  9. # The Muse of the Department
  10. From The Jealousies of a Country Town
  11. # The Old Maid
  12. # The Collection of Antiquities
  13. From Lost Illusions
  14. # The Two Poets
  15. # A Great Provincial in Paris
  16. # ''Eve and David''

Scenes from Parisian life (''Scènes de la vie parisienne'')

  1. The 13
  2. # Ferragus
  3. # The Duchess of Langeais
  4. # The Girl with the Golden Eyes
  5. César Birotteau
  6. The Firm of Nucingen
  7. Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans , comprising
  8. # Esther Happy
  9. # What Love Costs an Old Man
  10. # The End of Evil Ways
  11. # The Last Incarnation of Vautrin
  12. The Secrets of the Princess Cadignan
  13. Facino Cane
  14. Sarrasine
  15. Pierre Grassou
  16. Poor Relations
  17. # Cousin Bette
  18. # Cousin Pons
  19. A Man of Business
  20. A Prince of Bohemia
  21. Gaudissart II
  22. The Government Clerks
  23. The Unwitting Comedians
  24. The Lesser Bourgeoisie
  25. ''The Seamy Side of History''

Scenes from political life (''Scènes de la vie politique'')

  1. An Episode Under the Terror
  2. A Murky Business
  3. The Deputy for Arcis
  4. ''Z. Marcas''

Scenes from military life (''Scènes de la vie militaire'')

  1. The Chouans
  2. ''A Passion in the Desert''

Scenes from country life (''Scènes de la vie de campagne'')

  1. The Peasants
  2. The Country Doctor
  3. The Village Rector
  4. ''The Lily of the Valley''

Philosophical studies (''Études philosophiques'')

  1. The Wild Ass's Skin
  2. Christ in Flanders
  3. Melmoth Reconciled
  4. The Unknown Masterpiece
  5. Gambara
  6. Massimilla Doni
  7. The Quest of the Absolute
  8. The Hated Son
  9. Farewell
  10. The Maranas
  11. The Conscript
  12. El Verdugo
  13. A Drama on the Seashore
  14. Maître Cornélius
  15. The Red Inn
  16. About Catherine de' Medici
  17. #The Calvinist Martyr
  18. #The Ruggieri's Secret
  19. #The Two Dreams
  20. The Elixir of Life
  21. The Exiles
  22. Louis Lambert
  23. ''Séraphîta''

Analytical studies (''Études analytiques'')

  1. Physiology of Marriage
  2. Little Miseries of Conjugal Life
  3. Pathology of Social Life , a collection of nonfiction essays
  4. # Treatise on Elegant Living
  5. # Theory of Walking Habits
  6. # Treatise on Contemporary Stimulants
Rabou's "definitive" revisions and additions were generally panned by literary critics, and that has left Balzac's final ordering more common in English translation than Rabou's.

Characters

Recurring characters

  • Eugène de Rastignac – student, dandy, financier, politician
  • Lucien Chardon de Rubempré – journalist, parvenu
  • Jacques Collin a.k.a. Abbé Carlos Herrera a.k.a. Vautrin a.k.a. Trompe-la-Mort – a criminal run away from forced labour
  • Camusot – examining magistrate
  • Blondet, Emile – journalist, man of letters, prefect. Compare and contrast with Raoul Nathan.
  • Raoul Nathan – in 19 works, writer, politician
  • Daniel d'Arthez
  • Delphine de Nucingen née Goriot
  • Roger de Granville
  • Louis Lambert
  • la duchesse de Langeais
  • la comtesse de Mortsauf
  • Jean-Jacques Bixiou – in 19 works, artist
  • Joseph Bridau – in 13 works, painter
  • Marquis de Ronquerolles – in 20 works
  • la comtesse Hugret de Sérisy – in 20 works
  • Félix-Amédée de Vandenesse
  • Horace Bianchon – in 24 works, doctor
  • des Lupeaulx – public servant
  • Salon leaders: the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, the Marquise d'Espard
  • Dandies: Maxime de Trailles, Henri de Marsay
  • Courtesans: La Torpille, Madame du Val-Noble
  • Financiers: Ferdinand du Tillet, Frédérick de Nucingen, Keller brothers
  • Actresses: Florine, Coralie
  • Publishers/Journalists/Critics: Finot, Etienne Lousteau, Felicien Vernou
  • Money lenders: Jean-Esther van Gobseck, Bidault a.k.a. Gigonnet
;Characters who appear in several titles but only significantly in one of them
  • Birotteau
  • Goriot
  • Claude Vignon
  • Mademoiselle des Touches

Characters in a single volume

  • Raphaël de Valentin
  • le baron Hulot
  • Balthazar Claës
  • Grandet
  • le cousin Pons