Honoré de Balzac: His Life and Writings

Honoré de Balzac, His Life and
Writings

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Title: Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings
Author: Mary F. Sandars
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HONORE DE BALZAC: LIFE & WRITINGS By Mary F. Sandars
First published 1904.

HONORE DE BALZAC HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS
BY
MARY F. SANDARS

PREFACE
Books about Balzac would fill a fair-sized library. Criticisms on his
novels abound, and his contemporaries have provided us with several
amusing volumes dealing in a humorous spirit with his eccentricities,
and conveying the impression that the author of "La Cousine Bette" and
"Le Pere Goriot" was nothing more than an amiable buffoon.
Nevertheless, by some strange anomaly, there exists no Life of him
derived from original sources, incorporating the information available
since the appearance of the volume called "Lettres a l'Etrangere." This
book, which is the source of much of our present knowledge of Balzac,
is a collection of letters written by him from 1833 to 1844 to Madame
Hanska, the Polish lady who afterwards became his wife. The letters
are exact copies of the originals, having been made by the Vicomte de
Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, to whom the autographs belong.
It seems curious that no one should yet have made use of this mine of
biographical detail. In English we have a Memoir by Miss Wormeley,
written at a time when little as known about the great novelist, and a

Life by Mr. Frederick Wedmore in the "Great Writers" Series; but this,
like Miss Wormeley's Memoir, appeared before the "Lettres a
l'Etrangere" were published. Moreover, it is a very small book, and the
space in it devoted to Balzac as a man is further curtailed by several
chapters devoted to criticism of his work. The introduction to the
excellent translation of Balzac's novels undertaken by Mr. Saintsbury,
contains a short account of his life, but this only fills a few pages and
does not enter into much detail. Besides these, an admirable essay on
Balzac has appeared in "Main Currents of Nineteenth-century
Literature," by Mr. George Brandes; the scope of this, however, is
mainly criticism of his merits as a writer, not description of his
personality and doings.
Even in the French language, there is no trustworthy or satisfactory
Life of Balzac--a fact on which numerous critical writers make many
comments, though they apparently hesitate to throw themselves into the
breach and to undertake one. Madame Surville's charming Memoir only
professes to treat of Balzac's early life, and even within these limits she
intentionally conceals as much as she reveals. M. Edmond Bire, in his
interesting book, presents Balzac in different aspects, as Royalist,
playwriter, admirer of Napoleon, and so on; but M. Bire gives no
connected account of his life, while MM. Hanotaux and Vicaire deal
solely with Balzac's two years as printer and publisher. The Vicomte de
Spoelberch de Lovenjoul is the one man who could give a detailed and
minutely correct Life of Balzac, as he has proved by the stores of
biographical knowledge contained in his works the "Roman d'Amour,"
"Autour de Honore de Balzac," "La Genese d'un Roman de Balzac, 'Les
Paysans,'" and above all, "L'Histoire des Oeuvres de Balzac," which
has become a classic. The English or American reader would hardly be
able to appreciate these fascinating books, however, unless he were
first equipped with the knowledge of Balzac which would be provided
by a concise Life.
In these circumstances, helped and encouraged by Dr. Emil Reich,
whose extremely interesting lectures I had attended with much
enjoyment, and who very kindly gave me lists of