Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a French journalist and writer, regarded as one of the creators of realism in literature. Balzac's huge production of novels and short stories are collected under the name La Comédie Humaine.
A dream to write
Honoré de Balzac was born in Tours on March 20, 1799. His father, Bernard François Balzac, had risen to the middle class, and married the daughter of his Parisian superior, Anna-Charlotte-Laure Sallambier. In 1814 the family moved to Paris. Balzac was trained as a lawyer and studied at the Collège de Vendôme and the Sorbonne and worked for a while in law offices before deciding that his dream was to become a writer. By 1822 Balzac had produced several novels under pseudonyms, but he was ignored as a writer. He also bought a publishing company and printing house and when these commercial activities failed, Balzac was left with a heavy burden of debt.
The Human Comedy
In 1829 appeared La Dernier Chouan (later called Les Chouans), a historical work in the manner of Sir Walter Scott, which Balzac published under his own name. Gradually he began to be noticed as an author. Between the years 1830 and 1832 he published six novelettes titled Scènes de la Vie Privée. In 1833 Balzac conceived the idea of linking together his novels so that they would comprehend the whole of society in a series of books. Eventually this plan led to 90 novels and novellas, which featured more than 2,000 characters. Balzac's huge and ambitious plan drew a picture of the customs, atmosphere, and habits of bourgeois France. Balzac got down to the work with great energy, writing through the night, from fourteen to eighteen hours a day.
Among the masterpieces included in The Human Comedy are Le Pére Goriot, Les Illusions Perdues, Les Paysans, La Femme de Trente Ans, and Eugénie Grandet. In these books the primary landscape is Paris, with its old aristocracy, new financial wealth, middle-class trade, demi-monde, professionals, servants, young intellectuals, clerks, criminals etc. In this social mosaic Balzac had recurrent characters, such as Eugène Rastignac or Henry de Marsay who appeared in twenty-five different novels. There are many anecdotes about Balzac's relationship to his characters, who also lived in the author's imagination outside the novels.
Balzac lived mostly in his villa in Sèvres during his later years. Among his friends was Eveline Hanska, a rich Polish lady, with whom he had corresponded for more than 15 years, and who had posed as a model for some of his feminine portraits. In September 1848 Balzac traveled to Poland to meet her. His health had broken down, but they were married in 1850. Balzac died three months later in Paris, on August 18.