Honoré de Balzac

Literature / Writers Datebook: May 20

 

Biography and works of French writer Honore de Balzac, novelist, playwright and short story writer, considered one of the greatest novelists of France.

 

Balzac was a great French novelist and playwright. Some people say he was the greatest novelist of all time. His works have had a huge influence on the development of the modern novel, and along with his colorful life that has become part of literary legend.

 

Early Life of Balzac

Honoré de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in the French city of Tours. His prosperous, middle-class family moved to Paris when he was 15, and he was forced by his father to study law, but eventually after he completed it in 1819, he promptly began to write fiction and persuaded his family to support him so that he could be a writer.

From the age of 22, Balzac wrote tirelessly from the age of twenty-two. He worked very long hours regularly producing stories, magazine articles and plays. But his first plays and novels are not very good and earned him no money.

The Novelist

When he was thirty years old, he produced his first novel, The Chouans, which tells about the peasants during the French Revolution. Wanting to get more money to support his writing, he undertook various business ventures, most of them incurred him more debts. But he persisted and for the rest of his life he was pursued by creditors. This was also primarily because he insisted on living beyond his means. His appetite for food, wine and frolic was legendary.

The Human Comedy 

In his mid-30s, Balzac began organizing his novels and plays in a more systematized form under the collective title La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy), which he wrote between 1842 and 1848. It's considered his greatest work. The word 'comedy' also meant 'story' in Balzac's time. This work is Balzac's attempt to create a complete picture of the French society in terms of its human behavior and specific conditions, including military and political life.  

Literary Contribution

When he died in August 17, 1850, at the age of fifty-one, Balzac completed nearly 100 books in the series. Many of them were individual masterpieces. There were over 2000 characters from all sections of society, some of whom appear at different stages of their lives.

 

Books by Honoré de Balzac

The Chouans, 1829

The Wild Ass's Skin, 1831

The Thirty-Year Old Woman, 1831-34

The Girl with the Golden Eyes (La Fille aux yeux d'or), 1834-1835

Droll Stories, 1832-1837

Eugénie Grandet, 1833

Father Goriot (Pere Goriot), 1835

Lost Ilusions (Illusions perdues), 1837-1843

Cousin Bette, 1846

 

Photo Credit:

Honoré de Balzac. Public Domain

 

Resources:

Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. Larousse (1994)

McGovern, Una, Ed. Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern. Chambers (2002)

Ousby, Ian. Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge. (1993)

 

 

(c) May 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Victor Hugo

Literature / Writers Datebook: February  26

   

Brief biography and works of French writer Victor Hugo, novelist, dramatist & poet, creator of 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' and 'Les Miserables.'

Victor Hugo was the most important of the French Romantic School of writers. He is most popular today as the author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) and Les Miserables (1862.)

Early Life

Victor Hugo, (1802-1885), French novelist, dramatist and poet, was born on February 26  in Besancon, France, the third son of a soldier in the army of the great French leader Napoleon. He was raised and educated by his mother. At the age of 14, he showed talent as a poet.

Influence and Early Works

Inspired by the example of the statesman and author Francois Rene Chateaubriand, he published poetry, plays and novels. His works showed a strong sense of social responsibility. The production of his play Hernani, a highly romantic and unconventional poetic drama, caused ripples between supporters and opponents of the new socially challenging drama at that time. Due to the controversy, Hugo established himself as leader of the French literary romanticism. His novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, published when he was 29, made him famous.

Molière Life and Works

Writers Datebook: January 15

Playwright and Actor, Greatest Writer of French Comedy     

Brief biography of dramatist and actor Moliere, considered greatest master of French comedy, famous for Tantruffe and Le Misanthrope.

Molière was a French playwright and actor considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. Among his best-known dramas are Le Misanthrope, (The Misanthrope), L'Ecole des femmes (The School for Wives), Tartuffe au l'Imposteur, (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite), L'Avare au l'École du mensange (The Miser), Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman).

Early Life of Molière

Molière was the pen name of Jean-Baptisete Poquelin, one of the greatest French comedy writers. He was born on January 15, 1622, in Paris, the son of a wealthy upholsterer. He had a strict upbringing at a Jesuit school. Despite qualifying as a lawyer, he never practiced law. His first love was the theatre, and at the age of 21 he formed a theatre company with a group of friends. They toured France for a number of years before coming to the attention of King Louis XIV, who gave them a permanent theatre.

Life as a Playwright

Molière had his first major success as a playwright at the age of 40, with The School for Wives. The play poked fun at the limited education that was given to daughters of rich families, and it was the first of what are generally regarded as a series of masterpieces. His comedies ranged from broad slapstick comedy to subtle satire. He almost always acted in the lead role himself, as he firmly believed that there was 'no comedy without truth, and no truth without comedy.'  

He made fun of anyone he thought was dishonest, and because of his satires, he often found himself in trouble especially from moralists – two of his plays, The Impostor and Don Juan, were banned. His plays - Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite), for its attack on religious hypocrisy received condemnations from the Church, while Don Juan was banned from performance.

Later Years of Molière

Molière's hard work in the theatre began to take its toll on his health and, by 1667, he was forced to take a break from the stage. He concentrated on writing musical comedies later in his life. In these plays the drama was interrupted by songs and dance or a combination of both.

Final Years

While performing in the production of  Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), who suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, was taken ill. He died in the same day on February 17, 1673. After his death the theatre group Comédie Française was formed to promote his works. They still enjoyed by modern theatre goers throughout the world.     

Books by Molière

The School for Wives, (L'Ecole des femmes), 1662

The Impostor, (Tartuffe au l'Imposteur), 1664

Don Juan, 1665

The Misanthrope, (le Misanthrope),1666

The Doctor in Spite of himself, 1666

Tartuffe, (a revised version),1667

The Miser, (L'Avare au l'École du mensange), 1668

George Dandin, 1668

The would-Be Gentleman, 1670

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (The Citizen Turned Gentleman), 1672

The Imaginary Invalid, (Le Malade imaginaire), 1673

 

Image Credit:

Moliere. Wikipedia / Public Domain.

 

Resources:

1. Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers, 2002

2. Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse, 1994   

 

Note: I first published this piece in August, 2008, written for Suite.com (now close).     

(c) January 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.    

Marcel Proust

Literature / Writer's Datebook: July 10

 

Brief biography of Marcel Proust, French novelist, short story writer and critic,  famous for his novel Remembrance of Things Past.  

 

French author Marcel Proust (1871-1922), is best known for his seven-part novel Remembrance of Things Past (sometimes translated as In Search of Lost Time), considered as one of the most profound and perfect achievements of literature.

 

Early Life of Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust was born on July 10, 1871, in Anteuil, near Paris in France. He was the son of a prominent doctor and a wealthy Jewish mother. He suffered with asthma from an early age, a semi-invalid all his life, but this did not prevent him from attending secondary school, doing his military service. He later studied law and literature at the famous Sorbonne in Paris. 

Proust began writing in magazines while at school. When he was 25 years old, he published a collection of serious yet stylish short stories entitled Pleasures and Days. About this time, he gradually withdrew from his high-society. With his health already deteriorating, and his support of Captain Dreyfus, the Jewish army officer who was wrongly accused of betraying French secrets to the Germans, Proust lost some of his aristocratic friends and other influential people in high places. The death of his father and beloved mother aggravated his grief, and he withdrew still further, becoming a virtual recluse, giving himself to introspection.

Proust the Freelance Writer

Proust became financially independent when he was 34 years old, following the death of his parents. He started his great novel, Remembrance of Things Past. Influenced by the autobiographies of Johann Wolfgang con Goethe and Francois René Chateaubriand, he set out to tell the story of a search for truth based on the events of his own life. In so doing, he transformed into art the realities of experience. The main character, Marcel, discovers that as an artist he can reveal truths about life through the careful expression and reflection of his own memories. The novel was originally published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927.

Marcel Proust died at the age of 51, on November 18, 1922.

 

Recommended viewing / listening: 

A literary legend: The life and legacy of Marcel Proust • YouTube, uploaded by  FRANCE 24 English. Accessed July 10, 2022. 

Marcel Proust Documentary. YouTube, uploaded by Write Like. Accessed July 10, 2023.

Proust - In Search of Lost Time - 7 Volumes (Full Summary). YouTube, uploaded by Fiction Beast. Accessed July 10, 2022.

 

Image Credit:

Marcel Proust.  Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

 

Works by Marcel Proust

Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time), published in seven parts, 1913-1927

Swann's Way, 1913 in French, 1922 in English

Within a Building Grove, 1919 in French, 1924 in English

The Guermantes Way, 1920-21, two volumes in French, 1925, in English

The Cities of the Plain, 1921-22, three volumes in French, 1927, in English

The Captive, 1923 in French, 1929 in English, posthumous

The Sweet Cheat Gone, 1925 in French, 1930 in English, posthumous

The Past Recaptured or Time Regained, 1927 in French, 1931 in English, posthumous  

 

Resources:

Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers, 2002

Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse, 1994   

Marcel Proust. Wikipedia.org

Illustrated Biographical Dictionary, edited by John Clark, Chancellor Press, 1978

 

(c) July 2009. Updated July 10, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Emile Zola: Social Reformer

Literature / Writers Datebook: April 2

Major 19^th-century novelist known for novels that deal with harsh realities in working-class life but reflective of his humane values and the need to defend them.  (170)

Emile Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902), French novelist, journalist and critic, was born in Paris, the son of an Italian engineer.  He grew up in Aix-en-Provence, southeast of France, educated at the College Bourbon (now College Mignet).  When he was seven his father died leaving the family with financial problems having been debt-ridden. He moved back with his mother to Paris when he was 18.  He studied in Lycee Saint-Louis.

After failing his final school exam, he went to work for a publisher as a clerk,  but soon became an active journalist. He began writing novels and gained his first  success with Therese Raquin, a story with a very powerful picture of remorse, which was published when he was 27 years old. Emile Zola was also a political journalist, critical of the French Emperor Napoleon III and his Second Empire. 

The people he subsequently met, and his experiences as he struggled for success as a writer, became provocative subject matter in the short stories and novels that earned him  place in literature. 

When he was 31, Zola began writing the great novels called Les Rougon-Macquart series of 20 novels about 'the natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire,' which he didn't complete until 22 year later. This series comprises a score of books, all linked to each other by the appearance of one or more members of the family, describing their lives and adventures. In order to apply his theory to the study of le document humain, Zola mastered the technical details of most professions, occupations and crafts, as well as the history of recent events in France at that time. Zola wrote about all levels of French society, from prostitutes (Nana), poor farm laborers (The Soil) to coal miners (Germinal).  His writings portrayed the harsh realities of life, nevertheless reflecting his attachment to humane values and the need to defend them.   
 

In the later years of the Empire he had formed with Flaubert, Daudet, the Goncourts, and Turgenev a sort of informal society, out of which grew the 'Naturalist school'.

Zola espoused the cause of Jewish soldier Alfred Dreyfus who was accused of treason, in his famous letter I Accuse! to the president of France in 1898. He was brought to trial for libel, convicted and sentenced, and removed from the Legion of Honor. Rather than go to jail, he escaped for a year to England, but welcomed back as a hero.

He wrote two more series of novels, The Three Cities (3 Volumes, 1894-98) and The four Gospels (4 volumes, 1899-1902).     

At 62, he died in Paris, suffocated by carbon monoxide poisoning, from charcoal fumes coming in the chimney of his home. 

Photo Credit:


Emile Zola. Public Domain.

Resources:  Emile Zola. en.wikipedia.org.  Accessed April 19, 2009

Emile Zola. Encyclopaedia Britanica. Accessed April 2009

The Life of Emile Zola.  A biographical film about his involvement with the Dreyfus affair and his friendship with painter Cezanne.  It won the Academy Award for best picture in 1937. 



(c) April 2, 2009. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Gustave Flaubert

Literature / Writers Datebook: December 12

 

French writer, a Realist novelist, famous for Madame Bovary

 

Brief biography of French novelist Gustave Flaubert, his life and major books. He is considered one of the greatest and most influential novelists in his time.

 

A son of a doctor, French novelist Gustave Flaubert (1821-80), was born in Rouen, near Paris on December 12. His was a highly respected middle-class family of doctors.  

He was known to rebel against his background and was expelled from school. He reluctantly studied law in Paris, where his friendship with Victor Hugo, Maxime du Camp, and the poet Louise Colet, his lover for some eight years, stimulated his considerable apparent talent for writing.

When barely past his student days he was afflicted by an obscure form of nervous disease, something like epilepsy. Some critics think that this may have been to some extent responsible for the morbidity and pessimism which characterized his work from the very beginning. These traits, together with a violent hatred and contempt for bourgeois society, are revealed in his first masterpiece, Madame Bovary (1857), English translation 1881).

After contracting the disease, he failed his law exams. His father bought him a house on the River Seine, in Croisset. Here, he settled to write. At 25, following the death of his father and sister, his mother and niece joined him.  

As a writer, Gustave Flaubert was a perfectionist who constantly revised his manuscripts until he got them right. 

 Madame Bovary is a painful but powerful tragedy of a bored and unhappy bourgeois housewife who lived in a small French town. She seeks solace in dreams of ideal love, and miserable affairs. The book achieved a scandalous nevertheless successful, after it had been condemned as immoral and Flaubert prosecuted, therefore unsuccessfully, but to this day Madame Bovary holds its place among the classics. His second work, Salammbo, dealt with the struggle between Rome and Carthage and is over-weighed with archaeological detail.

L'Education sentimentale (Sentimental Education) was less effective, but in 1874 appeared the splendid LaTentation de St Antoine (The Temptation of St Anthony) appeared, the masterpiece of its kind.  Trois contes (Stories or Tales) reveals his mastery of the short story and foreshadows Guy de Maupassant, whom he greatly influenced.

After his death appeared Bouvard et Pecuchet (Bouvard and Pecuchet), which had not received his final revision. His correspondence with George Sand was published in 1884.

Although he became very bitter with life, he brought a new awareness of structure and form to the novel. Gustave Flaubert died, aged 58. 

 

Books by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary 1857

Salammbo 1862

A Sentimental Education 1869

The Temptation of Saint Antoine 1874

Three Tales 1877

Bouvard and Pecuchet 1881 (Published after he died)

 

Image Credit:

Gustav Flaubert. NNDB / Public Domain.

 

Resources:

Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. Larousse Kingfisher Publishing,  1994.

Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org

 

(c) September 2007. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserrved.