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Lost Illusions By: Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) |
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BY HONORE DE BALZAC PREPARER'S NOTE The trilogy known as Lost Illusions consists of:
Two Poets
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Eve and David In many references parts one and three are combined under
the title Lost Illusions and A Distinguished Provincial at
Paris is given its individual title. Following this trilogy
is a sequel, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, which is set
directly following the end of Eve and David. LOST ILLUSIONS INTRODUCTION The longest, without exception, of Balzac's books, and one which
contains hardly any passage that is not very nearly of his best,
Illusions Perdues suffers, I think, a little in point of composition
from the mixture of the Angouleme scenes of its first and third parts
with the purely Parisian interest of Un Grand Homme de Province . It
is hardly possible to exaggerate the gain in distinctness and lucidity
of arrangement derived from putting Les Deux Poetes and Eve et
David (a much better title than that which has been preferred in the
Edition Definitive ) together in one volume, and reserving the
greatness and decadence of Lucien de Rubempre for another. It is
distinctly awkward that this should be divided, as it is itself an
enormous episode, a sort of Herodotean parenthesis, rather than an
integral part of the story. And, as a matter of fact, it joins on much
more to the Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisanes than to its actual
companions. In fact, it is an instance of the somewhat haphazard and
arbitrary way in which the actual division of the Comedie has
worked, that it should, dealing as it does wholly and solely with
Parisian life, be put in the Scenes de la Vie de Province , and
should be separated from its natural conclusion not merely as a matter
of volumes, but as a matter of divisions. In making the arrangement,
however, it is necessary to remember Balzac's own scheme, especially
as the connection of the three parts in other ways is too close to
permit the wrenching of them asunder altogether and finally. This
caution given, all that is necessary can be done by devoting the first
part of the introduction entirely to the first and third or Angouleme
parts, and by consecrating the latter part to the egregious Lucien by
himself. There is a double gain in doing this, for, independently of the
connection as above referred to, Lucien has little to do except as an
opportunity for the display of virtue by his sister and David Sechard;
and the parts in which they appear are among the most interesting of
Balzac's work. The "Idyllic" charm of this marriage for love, combined
as it is with exhibitions of the author's power in more than one of
the ways in which he loved best to show it, has never escaped
attention from Balzac's most competent critics. He himself had
speculated in print and paper before David Sechard was conceived; he
himself had for all "maniacs," all men of one idea, the fraternal
enthusiasm of a fellow victim. He could never touch a miser without a
sort of shudder of interest; and that singular fancy of his for
describing complicated legal and commercial undertakings came in too.
Nor did he spare, in this wide ranging book, to bring in other
favorite matters of his, the hobereau or squireen aristocracy, the
tittle tattle of the country town and so forth. The result is a book of multifarious interest, not hampered, as some
of its fellows are, by an uncertainty on the author's part as to what
particular hare he is coursing. Part of the interest, after the
description of the printing office and of old Sechard's swindling of
his son, is a doubling, it is true, upon that of La muse du
Departement , and is perhaps a little less amusingly done; but it is
blended with better matters. Sixte du Chatelet is a considerable
addition to Balzac's gallery of the aristocracy in transition of the
Bonaparte parvenus whom perhaps he understood even better than the
old nobility, for they were already in his time becoming adulterated
and alloyed; or than the new folk of business and finance, for they
were but in their earliest stages... Continue reading book >>
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