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Honoré de Balzac. Genius.
Gifted Honoré de Balzac, also called The
Shakespeare of the Novel, was in reality Honoré Balssa and lived
1799 - 1850.
Honoré was a French novelist and creator
of The Human Comedy (La Comédie humaine),
which contains around 90 novels, 2,472 named characters, and 566
unnamed characters.
HONORE BALZAC SIGNATURE
Here is a quote from Cousin
Bette,
She examined Crevel in the mirror, and was, like all
women of her sort, annoyed to see — although she still knew nothing
of the occasion — that he was under the stress of an emotion of
which she was not the cause.
Honoré Balssa had to look bankruptcy deep in the eye before
he managed to focus and become one of the most illustrious
celebrities in Paris. This didn't happen by accident. Smart Honore
knew that his brain was in a league of its own and he decided to
cash in on it.
He adopted the name Balzac, an old aristocratic family
name, and a family to which he didn't have any connection whatsoever,
and he threw in the "de" in front of it, for good measure.
It worked like a charm.
Working like a horse, Balzac also knew how to spent his recreation
time and lived it up, partying, womanizing, growing a double chin, and throwing money
around like you can only do it in Paris.
He eventually fell in love with Éveline Hanska, a
Polish countess. But the dame was first married and afterwards still hesitant
to commit. It took the good man Balzac 18 years until she finally agreed to marry
him.
The big event took place in March 1850. Unfortunately, by then Balzac was
spent. He died shortly afterwards, in August 1850.
Besides humongous, Balzac's literary
output is witty, energetic, clever, and skilled with remarkable
psychological insight. There might be
weaknesses in his style, but you will never find them because the
rest is so brilliant.
Balzac's sister Laure became his
first biographer.
HONORE DE BALZAC
Here, you can read many of his works online for free,
some in French, some in English.
And here is the
Honore de Balzac
timeline.
HONORE DE BALZAC
More History
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