Mantex

Tutorials, Study Guides & More

  • HOME
  • REVIEWS
  • TUTORIALS
  • HOW-TO
  • CONTACT
>> Home / Archives for Balzac

Cousin Bette

July 12, 2017 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, web links

Cousin Bette (1846) is often regarded as the greatest of Balzac’s many novels and stories. It is an action-packed story that deals with all his favourite themes – financial greed, sexual desire, and the drive for social status – plus some spectacular examples of successful and failed revenge. The setting is upper-class society in Paris, most of whose inhabitants are ruthless social climbers, wallowing in financial corruption, adultery, and a world of polite hypocrisy.

Cousin Bette


Cousin Bette – background

La Cousine Bette (full French title) was first published as a serial in La Constitutionnel in 1846. This was a newspaper featuring commerce, politics, and literature. In 1847 the novel appeared in book format, published by Chlendowski. A year later it appeared as Volume XVII in the definitive Furne edition of Balzac’s collected works, given the title La Comedie Humaine.

The novel began life as a long story called Le Parasite (an ironic reference to Bette’s role in the family) and from the start it was seen as a companion novel to Cousin Pons which appeared the following year. Balzac wrote the whole of Cousin Bette in only two months – an astonishing rate of literary production, even by his normal standards.

In fact he abandoned his usual practice of editing his work on printers’ proof copy. Instead he sent his instalments directly to the newspaper editor. He never saw his work until it was published, and he had to write feverishly in order to stay ahead of the daily instalments. These are still available at Le Constitutionnel online archives (in the original French). See entries for 8 October to 3 December 1846.

It is worth noting that his original text was split into short scenes, each of which was given a descriptive and sometimes ironic title (‘A third father for the Marneffe child’). These titles were removed in later editions in order to save space – but they make the novel much easier to read, and offer an additional level of entertainment.


Cousin Bette – commentary

Sex and money

It is quite clear from this novel that Balzac sees the principal forces driving his characters as their desire for sex and money, quite apart from their social climbing and a taste for sumptuous living. The main character Hulot is an example of sexual obsession, who ruins his family in his pursuit of courtesans and young girls. His counterpart Valerie Marneffe uses her sexual allure to achieve a rich and comfortable life in the upper echelons of society. The two items – sex and money – are often directly related.

But it is interesting to note the differences in the ways these two topics are treated Whilst there is no shortage of desperation, dramatic irony, and social ruin into which characters are prepared to put themselves in their pursuit of sex – the female characters passively and the males actively – there is remarkably little explicit mention of any sexual activity.

This can be explained by the literary conventions of the period. It would simply not have been possible to publish descriptions of explicit sex in the early nineteenth century – either in France or any other European country. In fact novels produced in France were considered dangerously racy for even hinting at sexual desire.

Yet the reverse is true of the financial connections that dominate the characters’ lives. Everybody seems to be aware to the last Franc how much people are worth, how much they spend on their homes, how much it costs to maintain a mistress or furnish an apartment, and how big some daughter’s dowry will be.

Characters such as Crevel and Hulot offer quite clearly defined sums of money in return for sexual favours from their mistresses – sometimes in the form of regular incomes. Crevel offers to pay a specific dowry for Adeline’s daughter Hortense if Adeline will become his lover. When she refuses, his similar offer to Valerie Marneffe makes even clearer the business-like nexus between cash and sex:

Be all mine. You won’t regret it. To start with, I’ll give you a share certificate with eight thousand Francs a year, but as an annuity. I won’t give you the capital until you’ve been faithful to me for five years.

The separation of sexual desire from conventional marriage might strike many readers as rather surprising, if not shocking. But there are legal and socially structural reasons why this was prevalent. For an explanation of the French establishment of the Napoleonic Code and its effects on marriage and inheritance, see my comments on Balzac’s earlier and equally powerful novel Old Goriot (1834).

Baron Hulot

From the opening of the novel until its very last sentence, Baron Hulot is obsessed by his pursuit of sex. He disgraces and ruins his family by his behaviour, he spends (squanders) thousands and thousands of Francs on keeping one mistress after another, and he neglects his saintly wife who dies with shock when she overhears him propositioning a kitchen maid when he is eighty years old: ‘My wife hasn’t got long to live, and if you like you can be a baroness’. For good measure, he is also guilty of embezzlement. He sets up a fraudulent operation in government military supplies to Algeria, and when the crime is exposed his elder brother has to repay the debt in order to save the honour of the family.

Valerie Marneffe
Hulot spends much of the novel in thrall to the young and attractive Madame Marneffe, until he is displaced by Crevel – who has more money. She is adept at sustaining multiple simultaneous relationships, extracting money from her admirers, and living in luxury at secret locations. Even though she is married to the seedy clerk Marneffe, she counts Hulot, Crevel, Steinbock, and Montes amongst her lovers. When she becomes pregnant she manages to persuade all five men that they are the father of her child. Her success appears unstoppable, until she and Crevel are poisoned by the jealous Montes – both of them dying in a gruesome and lingering manner.

Cousin Bette
Bette is the ‘poor relation’ of the novel. She is a cousin of the Hulot family, and bitterly resents their patronising attitude to her. She is motivated entirely by revenge – in a series of psychologically complex manoeuvres. First she takes Steinbock under what is supposed to be her maternal wing; but she is intensely jealous when he marries Hortense and becomes a member of the family. She allies herself with Valerie Marneffe in order to extract money from the Hulots, and she gradually becomes obsessed with the idea of marrying Hulot’s elder brother and being a countess. But none of her schemes are successful, and she dies of tuberculosis, taking her secret hatred of the family to her grave.


Cousin Bette – study resources

Cousin Bette – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Cousin Bette – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Cousin Bette – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Cousin Bette – Oxford Classics – Amazon US

Cousin Bette – Everyman – Amazon UK

Cousin Bette – Everyman – Amazon US


Gobseck

Honore de Balzac


Cousin Bette – plot summary

Monsieur Crevel calls on Adeline Hulot to pay court to her. He reveals his illicit relationship with the singer Josepha, whom Adeline’s husband Hector Hulot stole to be his own mistress. Crevel predicts that Hulot will ruin himself with expenditure on women, and he offers to supply a dowry for Adeline’s daughter Hortense in exchange for her ‘favours’ as a lover. She flatly refuses his proposal.

Cousin Bette is a ‘family parasite’ who remains stubbornly unfashionable. She secretly has under her protection Count Steinbock, a young sculptor, but as his patroness, not his lover. She files legal papers to record the financial support she has given him.

Josepha leaves Hulot for a much richer man. Adeline consoles her husband for this loss, and he promptly takes up with Madame Marneffe. Their daughter Hortense meets Steinbock, who immediately falls in love with her. Hulot promotes Steinbock, who immediately rises to fashionable success.

Mme Marneffe reveals the relationship between Steinbock and Hortense to Bette, who is furious. The two scheming women become accomplices. Bette vows to avenge herself on Steinbock and the Hulots. Crevel seeks revenge on Hulot as a sexual rival.

Bette has Steinbock arrested for debt so that he cannot marry Hortense, but he is released the same day. Hulot engages in fraudulent business deals to fund his daughter’s marriage and his own expenses in keeping a mistress. He moves his wife into a smaller apartment to save money.

Crevel is envious of Hulot’s possession of Mme Marneffe. Bette accumulates money from Crevel and Hulot, both of whom think she is working on their behalf. She also ingratiates herself with Adeline. Hulot incurs further debts which the family cannot meet. Bette schemes to marry into the family as an act of revenge.

Tbe young Brazilian Montes suddenly appears as Mme Marneffe’s youngest lover. She hides him in her bedroom whilst Hulot rages jealously about Crevel. Valerie then tricks Crevel into deposing Hulot as her ‘protector’. Crevel reveals his hidden love nest to Hulot and pretends that they are both better off without her. Next day they all meet at Valerie’s where she is deciding between Crevel and Montes as her ‘protector’.

Steinbock’s reputation declines and he lives extravagantly. Bette persuades him to borrow money from Mme Marneffe Steinbock flirts with Valerie and asks her to pose for a sculpture. He lies to his wife Hortense, and they quarrel, but are reconciled by Adeline. Valerie becomes pregnant with Hulot’s child.

Hortense leaves Steinbock and goes to live with her mother. Montes, Crevel, Hulot, and Steinbock all believe they are the father of Valerie’s child – and Monsieur Marneffe pretends to be. Hulot’s fraud in Algeria is uncovered. He continues to meet Valerie Marneffe in Crevel’s love nest, until there is suddenly a police raid. This is exposed as a trap set by Mme Marneffe herself. The official report of Hulot’s Algerian fraud is silently quashed by his young boss as a favour.

But Hulot must find money to cover up the Algerian swindle. His wife Adeline offers herself to Crevel in exchange for the money. Crevel turns her down – but is touched by her piety and offers to lend her the money.

Hulot’s brother pays the missing Algerian money in order to protect the family’s good name – but he then dies. Adeline seeks to ‘rescue’ her husband morally, but he runs away and hides in secret, pursued by debtors.

He visits Josepha, who sets him up in an embroidery shop with money and a sixteen year old mistress. Valentin Hulot and his mother Adeline are also given money and jobs. Valerie Marneffe bears a stillborn child, and her husband dies.

Adeline visits Josepha where they both learn that Hulot’s embroidery business has gone into debt and he has run off with another young girl. Josepha promises to help her find Hulot. Bette finds Hulot and lends him money to set up another business with the girl.

At a courtesan’s dinner party it is revealed to Baron Montes that Valerie Marneffe is about to marry Crevel and has Steinbock as a lover. Crevel vows to kill her, but even when confronted in the love nest with Steinbock, she bluffs her way out

Crevel and Valerie Marneffe both become infected with the deadly disease Montes has threatened to use as a revenge. They both die, leaving money to the Hulots.

Adeline meets the fifteen year old Atila who is living with Hulot in hiding. She takes her husband back home, and the whole family is re-united. Cousin Bette dies, along with her secret hatred of the family. Adeline discovers Hulot seducing the young kitchen maid and dies of shock, after which Hulot, now eighty years old, marries the maid.


Cousin Bette – principal characters
Baron Hulot a 60 year old rake, ex-army administrator
Count Hulot his honourable older brother
Adeline Hulot the Baron’s attractive and saintly forgiving wife (48)
Hortense Hulot their daughter, who marries Steinbock
Victorin Hulot the son, who becomes a successful lawyer
Lizbeth Fischer their cousin, an old maid at 41
Celestin Crevel a wealthy rake, mayor in Paris, former perfumier
Celestine Crevel his daughter, married to Victorin Hulot
Josepha (Mirah) young Jewish singer, mistress to Crevel and Hulot
Valerie Marneffe young and attractive, with multiple lovers
Jean-Paul Marneffe her seedy and depraved husband
Wenceslas Steinbock a young Polish count and sculptor
Baron Montes de Montejanos a rich Brazilian, lover to Valerie Marneffe

© Roy Johnson 2017


More on literature
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories


Filed Under: Honore de Balzac Tagged With: Balzac, Cousin Bette, French Literature, Literary studies, The novel

Gobseck

July 12, 2017 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, web links

Gobseck (1830) is a powerful novella that features a character who crops up in several novels of Balzac’s Comedie Humaine. Jean-Esther van Gobseck is an amazing Scrooge-like character who has reduced his entire life to the acquisition of wealth. He is also a miser who lives in a state of extreme frugality. The story also includes characters who appear later in the later novel Old Goriot (1834), including Anastasia de Resaud, a glamorous socialite who is prepared to rob her own husband to pay off her lover’s gambling debts.

Gobseck

Honore de Balzac


Gobseck – background

Gobseck is a short novella that first appeared as a newspaper serial in 1830 under the title L’Usurier. It was then published in the periodical Le Voleur later the same year, and after that as a single volume with the title Les Dangers de l’inconduite. It was given its definitive title of Gobseck when it appeared in the definitive Furne edition of La Comedie Humaine in 1842.

All of these separate publications illustrate Balzac’s commercial enterprise in exploiting the potential value of his work, recycling the same materials in so many different formats. He was a great novelist, but there was nothing precious or dilettante in his approach to literature He was a professional writer of immense energy and practical application. He wrote with high literary ideals, but he also wrote to make money. In fact he was usually paying off debts incurred through his extravagant lifestyle and business ventures that had gone wrong. As the French critic Hyppolyte Taine observed ‘the most complete description of Balzac is that he was a man of business – a man of business in debt’.


Gobseck – critical commentary

Gobseck is is essentially a a study in extreme avarice. The principal character is a money-lender who charges exorbitant interest rates. He is also a business speculator who who strikes crooked deals with collaborators and even rivals. The foundation of his wealth is in colonial exploitation of the Dutch East Indes. He is also a collector, and a hoarder of precious objects. Most importantly, he has reduced his personal morality to two principles – the relentless pursuit of self-interest, and the worship of gold.

Throughout the story he appears to be consistent in his methods and the successful application of his principles. But the conclusion of the story reveals the ultimate futility of his enterprise. The house he lives in is packed with foodstuffs that have gone rotten whilst he has been haggling over their selling price. As for his gold and other material assets, he has absolutely no one – no friends, neighbours, or relations – to whom he can bequeath them. He neither uses nor enjoys the artefacts he has collected. His obsession is ultimately reductive. He stands alongside Felix Grandet, the avaricious father in Eugene Grandet (1833) as one of the great and tragic misers of Balzac’s fiction.

And yet …

Gobseck is supposed to be an emotionless puritan with no interests except self-interest and the relentless acquisition of money. Yet his descriptions of his creditors and their domestic interiors are those of an aesthete. He knows the names of furnishings, fabrics, and the details of decorative wood inlays, It is difficult to escape the suspicion that these reflect the interests of Balzac himself, who was a great enthusiast for sumptuous interior décor.

He [Balzac] was a profound connoisseur in these matters; he had a passion for bric-à-brac, and his tables and chairs are always in character.

This observation by implication criticises Balzac of failing to make a distinction between his own interests and those of his fictional character. It is certainly true that Balzac intrudes his own political and religious beliefs, his opinions and manifestos on taste with prodigious vitality throughout his fictional work

There is also an argument that he puts a lot of himself into his fictional characters – as do many novelists in their work. In addition to this, it should also be kept in mind that there can be unacknowledged contradictions between an author’s conscious and unconscious intentions. In other words, Balzac is creating a character (Gobseck) whom he is offering as a negative example of greed and excessive puritanism – but he cannot resist giving this character a knowledge and appreciation of furniture, interior décor, and fine arts that Balzac posessed himself.

Is it a novella?

There is good reason for considering Gobseck as an extended character sketch sandwiched into a short story. The basic structure of the tale is the issue of Camille de Grandlieu and her infatuation with Ernest de Restaud. Her mother thinks Restaud is not a suitable marriage prospect because he lacks money. This issue is resolved by the family lawyer Derville, whose largely first-person account terminates with the information that Restaud has inherited generously, and will therefore be acceptable.

But his explanation involves the potted life history of Gobseck, plus his complex financial dealings with the Restaud family. This notably includes his relationship with Anastasia, who tries to pawn her family’s diamonds in order to raise money to pay off the gambling debts of her lover, the playboy Maxime de Trailles.

This episode not only has the substance of a literary form longer than the short story, but it also forms part of a larger literary work – Old Goriot. Anastasia is the elder daughter of Father Goriot, a man who has been brought to the point of ruin by his two spendthrift and morally bankrupt daughters.

The most convincing reason for considering Gobseck as a novella is that it has as its controlling symbol and metaphor that of avarice. This is Gobseck’s raison d’etre, and it dictates all his actions from the start of the narrative up to its quasi-tragic conclusion. But other characters are also tainted by their relationship to money. Madame de Grandlieu would not dream of letting her daughter marry a young man unless he was rich. Anastasia de Restaud is up to her ears in debt. She has fleeced her own father and still needs more money to pay off de Trailles’ gambling debts.

Money runs through all aspects of the story like the letters in a stick of rock. It is a theme, a metaphor, and a symbol all in one. And that is one of the constituents of a novella – that it has unifying elements holding all its parts together.

La Comedie Humaine

From 1834 onward Balzac conceived of his novels as free-standing but interlocking elements in a huge study of French society to which he gave the general title of La Comedie Humaine. He used the device of recurring characters and overlapping events to produce a sort of three-dimensional literary portrait of post-revolutionary France.

Gobseck is a very good example of how this method works. The rapacious and eponymous money-lender is the central figure in this novella, but he crops up in a number of the other works as a minor character – in Old Goriot (1834), Cesar Birotteau (1837), and The Unconscious Comedians (1846).

But more importantly, the dramatic incident of lending money to Anastasia de Restaud to pay off her lover’s gambling debts also forms part of the plot of Old Goriot. Anastasia is the elder daughter of Goriot, who is a doting father. She and her sister Delphine have brought about his financial ruin by the demands they have made on his good nature. We thus have a more fully-rounded portrait of her selfish and self-indulgent nature than from one novel alone.

We also know that even after being rescued from her financial problems by borrowing yet more money from Eugene de Rastignac (another recurring figure) she cannot be bothered to go to her own father’s funeral.

If you wish to track any of the characters and their appearances in Balzac’s whole oeuvre, there is a huge list on line with detailed biographies at – The Repertory of the Comedy Humaine


Gobseck – study resources

Gobseck – Paperback – Amazon UK

Gobseck – Paperback – Amazon US

Balzac – Complete Works – Kindle – Amazon UK

Balzac – Complete Works – Kindle – Amazon US

Cambridge Companion to Balzac – Cambridge UP – Amazon UK

Gobseck


Gobseck – plot summary

Young Camille de Grandlieu has an enthusiasm for Ernest de Restaud, but her mother thinks he has not enough money to get married. The family lawyer Derville recounts the history of a money-lender Jean-Esther van Gobseck – from his earliest days as a Dutch imperialist adventurer to his later years as a desiccated and miserly usurer.

Gobseck believes that the only worthwhile values are self-interest and the worship of gold. He describes a morning recovering debts from clients. The first is aristocratic Anastasia de Restaud and the second is a poor seamstress Fanny Malvaut. He considers his influence over those who have fallen into debt as a form of power. He is also part of a usurer’s cabal that meets weekly to share information.

Derville buys the practice where he works with a loan from Gobseck. He pays off the debt in five years and marries Fanny Malvaut. He attends a bachelors’ breakfast banquet where he meets the dandy Maxime de Trailles who is in need of money to pay off gambling debts. Anastasia de Restaud (his lover) offers her family diamonds as security on a loan. Gobseck strikes a murky deal that includes bills of credit in de Trailles’ name which he has bought cheaply from another money-lender. Restaud then calls, demanding the return of his family’s jewels. He is forced to enter a legal agreement drawn up by Derville.

Restaud visits Derville to arrange papers relating to his will and a false sale of his property. He leaves his younger children out of his will, since he believes they may not be his own offspring. Restaud then falls ill and dies in conflict with his wife. She burns a secret counter-document to his will. Gobseck arrives and immediately takes possession of the house, which now belongs to him. He lives in the house and becomes a government liquidator for Haiti and San Domingo.

He appoints Derville his executor, who on searching the house following Gobseck’s death finds it packed with trinkets, gifts, antiques, and foodstuffs that had turned rotten because he had been haggling so long over the price. Ernest de Restaud inherits enough money to enable him to marry Camille.


Gobseck – principal characters
Madame de Grandlieu an aristocratic grande dame
Camille de Grandlieu her young daughter, in love with Ernest de Restaud
Maitre Derville lawyer to the Grandlieu family, neighbour of Gobseck
Jean-Esther van Gobseck a Dutch Jewish miser and money leander
Anastasia de Restaud an improvident and adulterous wife
Ernest de Restaud her only legitimate son, who marries Camille

© Roy Johnson 2017


More on literature
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories


Filed Under: Honore de Balzac, The Novella Tagged With: Balzac, French Literature, Literary studies, The novel

Old Goriot

June 24, 2017 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, web links

Old Goriot (1834) is the second masterpiece to come out of Balzac’s multi-volume project to dramatise the whole of French society – La Comedie Humaine. It tells the story of an old man who is reduced to poverty by the rapacious greed of his own daughters. He loves them dearly, but they spend all his money on lovers and self-indulgent lifestyles.

Old Goriot

The novel also covers the rise in society of Eugene de Rastignac, an ambitious young law student from the provinces who is attracted to the glamour of fashionable society. He rapidly acquires a beautiful mistress whom he cannot afford, but he retains sufficient moral integrity to stand by his old friend Goriot in his dying hours.


Old Goriot – critical commentary

The serial novel

This is the first of the Comedie Humaine series in which Balzac introduced the device of recurring characters. A secondary character in one volume might crop up as the principal character in a later novel. Alternatively, a character might appear in several volumes in the series. Balzac was plotting the rise (and fall) of individuals in what is now called ‘serial fiction’. This is roughly the same device that came to be used in twentieth century radio soap operas, or twenty-first century multi-part television drama series.

For instance, the character of Rastignac is introduced into Old Goriot as a young law student from the south of France who has arrived in Paris as a student of law. He becomes caught up in fashionable society and rises (very rapidly) because of social and family connections. In later volumes of the Comedie Humaine Rastignac rises even further and becomes a member of the government and eventually a peer of the realm.

Balzac was exploiting the technological means of distributing his literary product which were available to him at that time. He wrote obsessively, sent his manuscripts off to printers, re-wrote and corrected proofs, sometimes for publication the following day. His work appeared in newspapers, magazines, and printed book formats – often all at the same time. He was immensely productive, became very successful and rich, but lost a lot of his money because of reckless business ventures and an extravagant lifestyle. He was almost like one of the characters in his own novels.

The Napoleonic Code

Following the French revolution Napoleon established a new legal code in 1804. It was designed to replace archaic and over-complex laws relating to people and their property. One of its stipulations (still in force today) is that the inheritance of property and capital must pass through a strictly defined path of family relations

One of the side effects of this requirement (and in common with other countries with monarchies and aristocracies) was that people with money were more inclined to form marriages based on someone’s wealth (and social status) rather than on any romantic attachments.

There was also a dowry system in common usage that required a potential bride to be offered along with a substantial financial incentive to any prospective husband. The marriage was a legal contract between two owners of property or capital. Romantic liaisons were a separate matter, conducted discretely or secretly once the formal marriage had been established.

Balzac’s novels are a clear illustration of this system in practice. Anastasia de Restaud is married, but spends her afternoons with her lover Maxime de Trailles. In fact she is in conflict with him because she is paying off his gambling debts. Rastignac’s cousin Mme de Beauseant makes no secret of her affair with the Portugese nobleman Marquis d’Ajuda-Pinto. She too is in conflict with her lover, because he is threatening to marry the rich young woman Berthe de Rochefide.

Delphine de Nucingen is married to the German banker Baron Frederic de Nucingen – but you would hardly think so. She spends her evenings at the theatre with Rastignac, whilst her husband spends his time with a mistress (also from the theatre). Old Goriot eventually pays for a separate apartment where Rastignac can live and where his daughter is free to visit as a lover. Goriot dislikes Nucingen, and feels no qualms at all in facilitating his daughter’s adultery in this way.

Anyone doubting the persistence of this system of hypocrisy and double standards should acquaint themselves with the recent history of the English Prince of Wales who was married to Diana Spencer but was also conducting a long term affair with the married woman Camilla Parker Bowles – whom he eventually married after his wife’s death in what many see as mysterious circumstances.

Narrative compression

Events move very rapidly in this novel. Rastignac arrives in Paris as a humble law student, yet almost immediately via the social connections provided by his aunt, he is circulating amongst fashionable society. And he just as immediately conceives a socially ambitious project to raise his status to that of the young aristocratic blades who are his contemporaries.

His main problem is that he lacks the financial wherewithal to live such a life. He borrows money from his mother and sisters – and repays it; he gambles and has astonishing (barely credible) good luck; and his good looks win him the love of an attractive woman with a rich husband. He also has the protection of the godfather Old Goriot, who supports him and even organises for him a bachelor apartment in a fashionable district of Paris.

This ultra-rapid rise has something of the fairy-tale about it, but it should be kept in mind that in Balzac’s scheme of French society Rastignac had still further to go. In later volumes he becomes a politician, then a minister, and eventually a peer. Balzac was plotting the stages of social advancement, ascents up the greasy pole of social climbing and the careers of arrivistes .

This is not to say that the whole of La Comedie Humaine needs to be taken on board before an appreciation of its individual parts can be made. But it does help in making an assesment of a particular volume that Balzac had other parts of his grand scheme already written or planned which threw light on each other.

Balzac and 19C literature

Balzac was a towering figure in nineteenth century literature, with an influence that stretched across Europe and beyond to America. He himself had been influenced by the pan-European influence of Walter Scott, and he was to influence Charles Dickens and contemporaries such as Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. He was a great influence on Henry James, whose novel Washington Square (1880) is almost an American version of Eugenie Grandet.

Balzac more or less invented what we now call the ‘serial’ novel. That is, a fictional world in which characters come and go from one episode or novel to another. They might be a minor character in one episode, then the major figure in another. This literary technique was facilitated both by the technical means of production and Balzac’s prodigious creative powers in being able to supply the text for the newspapers, magazines, and books in which his characters made their appearances.

He had a great influence within the realm of French literature, and his style of realistic detail was taken up by Emile Zola in his series of twenty novels called the Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-1893). These novels sought to document society under the Second Empire. Forty years later Marcel Proust created an account of the collapse of the French aristocracy at the start of the twentieth century in Remembrance of Things Past. This has many elements and echoes of Balzac’s work.

Old Goriot and King Lear

It should be apparent to anyone familiar with King Lear that Old Goriot follows a similar plot and is concerned with the same principal theme. Shakespeare’s character King Lear is a rich patriarch who divides his kingdom for the sake of his daughters – only to be then neglected and betrayed by two of them.

In Old Goriot the sisters Anastasie and Delphine behave towards their father exactly like Goneril and Regan do towards their father King Lear. They accept all the money he gives them and demand more, whilst showing him no respect or thanks at all. And similarly to the plot of King Lear their husbands seek control of the daughters’ inherited wealth to support their oiwn ends.

Anastasie squanders huge sums of money paying off her lover’s gambling debts, whilst Delphine’s husband Nucingen wants the money to support his dubious property development schemes. Both daughters pretend to be respectful but shamelessly neglect their father. Neither of them can be bothered to be present when he is dying, and even at his funeral they send token empty carriages

The parallels with King Lear are neatly completed by the minor figures of Taillefer and his daughter Victorine. The dubious Taillefer is a fabulously wealthy man who has unjustly disowned his daughter. She loves him with unquenchable devotion, and represents the third daughter Cordelia in the Shakespeare tragedy. Cordelia is rejected by Lear throughout the drama, but then is reunited with him only in death. Victorine too is ultimately re-united with her father on his death bed, but she does inherit his wealth.

Henry James however, in his extended essay on Balzac, casts doubt on the novelist’s acquaintance with the Shakespeare text:

Balzac’s masterpiece, to our own sense, if we must choose, is Old Goriot. In this tale there is most of his characteristic felicity and least of his characteristic infelicity. Shakespeare had been before him, but there is excellent reason to believe that beyond knowing that King Lear was the history of a doting old man, buffeted and betrayed by cruel daughters, Balzac had not placed himself to be in a position to be accused of plagiarism. He had certainly not read the play in English, and nothing is more possible than that he had not read it in such French translations as existed in 1835.

The accusation of plagiarism simply does not arise. Shakespeare himself took the plot outline of his play from an earlier source (Holinshed’s Chronicles) and even if Balzac was intimately acquainted with the Lear text, he transforms and re-imagines the story line completely, making it into something quite different – which he describes as ‘this obscure but appalling Parisian tragedy’.


Old Goriot – study resources

Old Goriot Old Goriot – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Old Goriott Old Goriot – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Old Goriot Pere Goriot – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

Old Goriot Pere Goriot – Oxford Classics – Amazon US

Old Goriot Old Goriot – Everyman – Amazon UK

Old Goriot Old Goriot – Everyman – Amazon US

Cambridge Companion to Balzac – Cambridge UP – Amazon UK

Old Goriot


Old Goriot – plot synopsis

A Family Boarding House

The Maison Vauquer is a seedy boarding house in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Run frugally by the widow Madame Vauquer, its principal inhabitants are Pere Goriot, a retired pasta merchant, Eugene de Rastignac, a law student, and Vautrin a shady character of unknown occupation.

When Goriot first arrives he is quite prosperous and Mme Vauquer has designs on him. She tries to allure him but fails, and so turns against him. Later, Goriot’s fortunes begin to decline, and malicious rumours are circulated about him. He is visited by young women, but he explains they are his two daughters.

The ambitious student Rastignac is provided with an entree into fashionable society by his aunt. Goriot is selling off his silver plate to the money lender Gobseck. Mysterious fellow boarder Vautrin seems to know everybody’s business. Rastignac visits Anastasia de Restaud where he is snubbed by both her husband and her lover Maxime.

Rastignac then goes to see his cousin Mme de Beauseant who is engaged in a dispute with her Portugese lover. There he learns the history of Goriot’s two daughters and their rejection of their father. Rastignac vows to enter fashionable society, and writes to his mother and sisters for money.

Entry on the Social Scene

Rastignac’s mother and sisters send him money. Vautrin outlines to him the difficulties of professional success and lists the vices and corruption underlying fashionable society. Vautrin reveals his plans to become a rich plantation owner and proposes a devil’s pact with Rastignac. He will find him a rich wife in exchange for a lump sum. He has in mind fellow boarder Victorine, whose father is a wealthy man.

Rastignac gets new clothes and is introduced to Delphine de Nucingen at the theatre. He flatters her unashamedly. He reports the meeting to Goriot , who deceives himself about the devotion of his daughters.

Rastignac gambles at roulette for Delphine and wins money which she owes to her former lover, who has just left her. Rastignac indulges himself in fashionable society and gets himself into debt. He borrows money from Vautrin, gambles successfully again, and pays off his debts.

Vautrin is revealed as an ex-convict (‘Death Dodger’) whose real name is Jacques Collin. Rastignac is frustrated by Delphine, so he pays court to Victorine Traillefer. Goriot reveals his scheme to house Rastignac in an apartment that his daughter Delphine can visit. Vautrin has meanwhile arranged for Victorine’s brother to be killed in a duel.

There is an impromptu party at Maison Vauquer where Vautrin drugs Rastignac and Goriot – but next day he is betrayed to the police and arrested. The woman who betrayed him is forced to leave.

Goriot takes Rastignac to the bachelor apartment he has arranged and paid for. Mme Vauquer is upset at the loss of boarders. Rastignac receives an invitation to a grand ball. Anastasie has money problems. Delphine has kept Rastignac dangling for almost two years.

The Father’s Death

Nucingen’s property schemes are in trouble, and he needs control of his wife’s money. Anastasie has sold her husband’s family diamonds to pay off her lover’s gambling debts – but she still needs more money Rastignac gives her a bill of exchange for twelve thousand Francs. The sisters quarrel and harass their ailing father.

Goriot is dying, but both sisters go to Mme de Beauseant’s ball. The old man is nursed by Rastignac and young doctor Bianchon, neither of whom have any money. When Goriot dies, he is given a pauper’s funeral.


Old Goriot – principal characters

This is a quick guide to the main players in Old Goriot. For a comprehensive survey of all the characters in La Comedie Humaine, see the excellent compilation of notes by Anatole Cerfberr and Jules François Christophe at Gutenberg.org. They give an alphabetical list of potted biographies of all the main characters in the whole series of novels

Given any single Balzac novel as a starting point, you can trace where a character has come from and what happens to them in subsequent parts of the great work.

Madame Vauquer widowed boarding house keeper
Eugene de Rastignac an ambitious law student from the South
Old Goriot a retired and impoverished pasta merchant
Vautrin a celebrity convict (‘Death Dodger’) real name Jaques Collin
Marquis Ajuda-Pinto a Portugese nobleman, Claire de Beauseant’s lover
Horace Bianchon a medical student and friend of Rastignac’s at Maison Vauquer
Monsieur de Trailles Anastasie’s lover, a playboy and gambler
Monsieur Taillefer a rich but heartless father
Victorine Taillefer his devoted but neglected daughter
Anastasie de Restaud Goriot’s elder daughter
Delphine de Nucingen Goriot’s younger daughter
Baron de Nucingen corrupt German banker and speculator

© Roy Johnson 2017


More on literature
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories


Filed Under: Honore de Balzac Tagged With: Balzac, Cultural history, French Literature, Literary studies, The novel

Ursule Mirouet

December 4, 2017 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, study guide, web links, and further reading

Ursule Mirouet was first published 1841, and forms part of Scenes of Provincial Life in the grand scheme of Balzac’s Comedie Humaine. The story is set in Nemours, just south of Paris in the years 1829-1837. As is common in many of the novels that make up Balzac’s gigantic picture of French society, it concentrates heavily on money, inheritance, property, and the fight between virtue and greed.

Ursule Mirouet

It’s worth noting that the story also includes elements of mystery and crime. In the years that followed Ursule Mirouet there was a vogue for such stories in the English literary world – known as ‘the sensation novel’. These were narratives featuring events designed to shock the reader. In this sense Balzac was the father to novelists such as Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and even later writers such as Thomas Hardy who included elements of mystery and crime in their work.


Ursule Mirouet – commentary

Choosing a text

During his short life Balzac wrote a prodigious amount – novels, stories, novellas, journalism, and even plays. His work appeared in newspapers, magazines, and as individual printed books. Because he is so famous as a classic novelist, his works have been translated many times, and they are available in any number of formats.

One thing is worth noting in making your choice of text. Balzac broke up the overflowing torrent of his original narratives into separate chapters with sub-titles. These individual headings were particularly suitable for newspapers and magazines, where unbroken blocks of text do not look attractive. But in various editions of his work produced later in book form, these sub-titles were sometimes omitted in order to save space.

This apparently innocent change can be a sad loss – for two reasons. The first is that the novels become more difficult to read without these chapter breaks. The second is that Balzac’s choice of sub-titles often present a form of satirical running commentary on the content of the events he describes. They are both an aid to interpretation and a source of amusement. They also reveal the structure of the work, which is not always apparent when the story is presented as one continuous block of text.

The Comedie Humaine

Balzac produced most of his works at fever pitch, racing to stay ahead of printing deadlines. This sort of compositional approach is not conducive to careful plotting and structure. His narratives are often erratic, backtracking chronologically on the story to fill in necessary details.

But at the same time Balzac certainly had in mind a grand design. There are in the whole Comedie Humaine more than two thousand named characters – and examples of two of them make brief appearances in Ursule Mirouet. Some have first been introduced in an earlier novel, others are due to become major figures in a later novel.

For instance the Abbe Chaperon’s frugal domestic household expenses are described as ‘more meticulous than Gobseck’s with his – if indeed that notorious Jew ever did employ a housemaid’. Gobseck is the central character in the 1830 novella that bears his name and is a notorious miser. Balzac throws in this allusion (plus a small instance of casual racism) as if confident that readers were familiar with his entire works.

Similarly, when Minoret wishes to develop Ursule’s skills ‘he now had an able music teacher coming down once a week from Paris, an old German named Schmucke’. This character Wilhelme Schmucke was to become one of the principals in Cousin Pons which was not published until five years later in 1846 – which indicates that Balzac certainly had this world of characters and events in mind.

In fact both Schmucke and the eponymous Cousin Pons are musicians in an orchestra at a theatre run by the impresario Felix Gaudissart, who was first introduced in a short story of 1833, The Illustrious Gaudissart.

When Savinien de Portedures is in Paris, his advising friends include Eugene de Rastignac, and Lucien de Rubempre – both of whom have appeared as major characters in earlier novels and would continue to rise socially in works that followed.

There is no need for a first-time reader to have knowledge of these secondary characters. Ursule Mouriet stands independently as a work in its own right – but a knowledge of their existence in other novels reinforces Balzac’s claim to be creating an in-depth world of French society. It might in the end be a work which he never managed to complete – but the attempt is impressive.

The Napoleonic Code

There is one feature in the background to events of this novel which may not be immediately apparent to readers unfamiliar with French society and its laws. Following the revolution of 1793 there was a radical overhauling of the legal system – which became known as the Napoleonic Code. This included a law specifying that property and capital must be inherited solely via family connections.

All real estate in France is governed by succession laws dating from 1804, which include compulsory inheritance provisions. Children are ‘protected heirs’ and cannot be disinherited. They receive a certain proportion of the estate, depending on their number and on the existence of a surviving spouse. It’s also worth noting that in the case of people who die without heirs, their property is swallowed up by the French government.

Today, if you are English with a million pounds in the bank, you can leave this money to whomever you wish by making a will. You can nominate as legatees your children, your friends, or even the Battersea Dogs Home. But in France, your money (and property) can only be willed to your family. This is an over-simplification of a very complex system.

Hence the significance of this law in the plot of Ursule Mirouet. Dr Minoret is a widower whose children have died in infancy. Ursule is his niece, but she is his illegitimate protected god-daughter – not a natural heir. His nearest legitimate relatives are remote members of extended family networks, whom he avoids socially. He has helped them all financially, but they are rapaciously anticipating his death and their inheritance of his wealth – to which they know they are entitled by law.

Much of the drama in the novel arises from their vulgar greediness, and their fear that Minoret might in some way outsmart them, depriving them of money they already think of as theirs, even before his demise. They are also frustrated by the fact that they do not know accurately the extent of his wealth – which they both over and under-estimate.

The weaknesses

There are three weaknesses in the plot of the novel which undermine its serious claims to greatness. The first is Balzac’s idiosyncratic belief in supernatural phenomena. He was well known for proselytising on behalf of the Catholic church and French royalty – but he also had a gullible streak which led him to give credence to mystic events.

The first instance of this ocurrs when the rational Encyclopedist Dr Minoret is suddenly converted to religious belief. He is persuaded by his old friend Bouvard’s demonstration of ‘Magnetism’ to overthrow the scientific basis of his beliefs in favour of an immediate conversion to Catholicism.

There is no demonstrated or argued connection between somebody’s apparently telepathic knowledge of events taking place elsewhere and a sudden religious conversion. Yet Balzac goes out of his way with a lengthy ‘digression’ to persuade us that this is reasonable. This interpolated lecture is itself something of an affront to literary cohesion and realistic credibility.

The use of supernatural-based plotting is then repeated when Ursule has nocturnal revelations of the exact circumstances of the theft of her guardian’s final will and instructions. These mystical plot devices are difficult to accept in the context of a narrative which is otherwise fundamentally based in social realism.

Balzac, as a former operative in a lawyer’s office, well knew the intricacies of law relating to wills, property, inheritance, and the Napoleonic Code that had sought to redress injustices perpetrated by aristocrats against the middle class. These form the legal niceties that make the novel a fascinating study in power, class, money, and legal rulings.

But the central dramatic incident of the novel is based upon a naive improbability. The sophisticated and intelligent doctor writes a will and last testament, making financial provision for both Ursule and her intended husband Savinien. This will is stolen and destroyed by the villainous heir Minoret.

In a novel bristling with lawyers, notaries, magistrates, and justices, it is virtually unthinkable that someone like Dr Minoret would not lodge a copy of such a will and statement of intentions with legal representatives. The idea of a single handwritten note tucked away in a bureau drawer is not really credible.

Not only that, but the details of the doctor’s government scrips are finally discovered in the most improbable manner. We are asked to believe that not only is the secret of the original theft revealed in a dream, but that the Abbe Chaperon then detects the imprint of three serial numbers that have been transferred to the pages of an old book. This permits both the money and its rightful destined owner to be traced via government records. We are offered plotting of a kind that belongs to the lower levels of serial narratives – or what we would now call ‘soap operas’.

There are similar weaknesses in the dramatic reversals of character that litter the final pages of the novel. For no persuasive reasons, some characters suddenly reform themselves. Minoret confesses his crime – and becomes a changed man. The snake-like Goupil who has spent the entire novel menacing Ursule suddenly repents of his crimes. Mme de Portenduere suddenly abandons her aristocratic disapproval when her son wishes to marry the daughter of an illegitimate band-master.

And if these improbable voltes face were not enough, there are also a couple of grand guinol flourishes to bring the narrative to its close. The unfortunate Desire Minoret, for no reason connected to the plot, is involved in a coaching accident, has both legs amputated, and dies as a result of the operation. Meanwhile his mother is so shocked by the event that she becomes deranged, it put into an insane asylum by her husband, where she dies shortly afterwards.

This is Balzac packing out La Comedie Humaine with ‘events’ at the expense of producing a well crafted novel. But it has to be said that his primary intent was the creation of a whole multi-faceted fictional world, and we are forced to accept his greatness where it emerged – along with these occasional blemishes.


Ursule Mirouet – study resouces

Ursule Mirouet Ursule Mirouet – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Ursule Mirouet Ursule Mirouet – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Ursule Mirouet Collected Works of Balzac – Kindle – Amazon UK

Ursule Mirouet Collected Works of Balzac – Kindle – Amazon US

Ursule Mirouet Selected Stories – NYRB – Amazon UK

Ursule Mirouet Selected Stories – NYRB – Amazon US

Ursule Mirouet


Ursule Miroet – plot synopsis

PART ONE

1. The Heirs are Alarmed

On a Sunday in Nemours in 1830, rich Dr Minoret goes to church – which is unusual. His relatives speculate about his intentions and worry about the possible effect on their inheritances.

2. The Uncle Worth a Fortune

Dr Minoret rises to fame during the revolution and then retires to Nemours. He moves into a refurbished house with Ursule, a baby girl. He acts with financial generosity towards his relatives, but keeps them at bay.

3. The Doctor’s Friends

The doctor befriends Abbe Chaperon, the virtuous and frugal parish priest and M. de Jordy an ex-army captain with a sad background. They form a quartet of friendship with the magistrate M. Bongrand. The doctor prefers their company to that of his relatives. His family regard him as a miser, and they speculate about the extent of his wealth.

4. Zelie

A relative Desire Minoret arrives by coach and notices Ursule as she emerges from church with her godfather the doctor. The relatives are surprised by his church attendance, and are obsessed by the potential repercussions on their inheritances.

5. Ursule

Dr Minoret becomes godfather to Ursule via a remote family connection. When his own children die, he raises Ursule as his own daughter. She is educated by his friends. When the captain dies he leaves her a small inheritance. She becomes a devout Catholic.

6. A Brief Digression on Magnetism

Dr Minoret is summoned to Paris by his old friend Bouvard to witness a demonstration of ‘magnetism’ given by a follower of Swedenborg. A hypnotised ‘medium’ provides a detailed account of Minoret’s house and Ursule’s growing love for a neighbour Savinien Portenduere.

7. The Double Conversion

Dr Minoret returns to Paris for further proof – and is given a detailed account of Ursule’s bedtime preparations. He drives back to Nemours and next day checks that they were indeed accurate. The whole of his scientific belief system is undermined; and he becomes a religious believer.

8. A Double Consultation

The notary Dionis explains to the family heirs that Ursule is the illegitimate niece of Dr Minoret and cannot inherit his money – unless he marries her. The heirs explore several self-interested alternatives. Dr Minoret and Bongrand discuss the same issue.

9. The First Confession of a Secret

Dionis visits Dr Minoret, who rejects the heirs’ plans. He then explains to Ursule why Savinien would not be a suitable match for her. Savinien is currently in a debtor’s prison. She has fallen in love with him at a distance.

10. The Portendueres

Savinien de Portendures goes to Paris, spends all his money in six months, and ends in a debtors’ prison. His friends advise him to return home and marry into money. His mother’s appeals for financial help are refused by her relatives. Abbe Chaperon advises her to make a request to her neighbour Dr Minoret.

11. Savinien is Rescued

Dr Minoret agrees to rescue Savinien from his debts and the prison. He goes to Paris with Ursule and raises the money. Savinien returns to Nemours and promises to reform himself

PART TWO

12. The Lovers Meet with Obstacles

Savinien’s mother snobbishly disapproves of Ursule, and resents having to borrow money from Dr Minoret, whom she regards as her social inferior. The doctor thinks it safer for the two families not to socialise under these circumstances.

13. A Betrothal of Hearts

Ursule and Savinien exchange letters and pledge their love. He joins the navy as the first step in his moral recovery. Ursule and the doctor travel to Toulon to see him embark for Algeria.

14. Ursule Becomes an Orphan Again

In 1830 the heirs gain more political power. The doctor spends money on luxuries for Ursule. Savinien distinguishes himself at the capture of Algiers. By 1834 the doctor is dying. The heirs express their greed openly by his bedside. He has prepared a will and a written statement of intent to protect Ursule, but the documents are stolen by his relative the postmaster

15. The Doctor’s Will

Dr Minoret left separate provisions fo both Ursule and Savinien, but the postmaster burns the documents. On the day of the doctor’s death the heirs immediately seize all the doctor’s property and expel Ursule from her home.

16. Two People at Loggerheads

Ursule is forced to buy a small house in Nemours. The heirs sue Mme de Portenduere for the money she owed to Dr Minouet. Postmaster Minoret buys and lives in the doctor’s old house. The heirs wonder where all the doctor’s money has gone. Minoret wants to drive Ursule out of Nemours to ease his conscience.

17. The Terribly Malicious Tricks that Can be Played in the Country

Goupil sends anonymous poisonous pen letters to Ursule and Savinien’s mother. Mme de Portenduere wants her son to marry a fellow aristocrat. Savinien refuses to marry anyone other than Ursule. Goupil threatens Ursule and arranges menacing recitals of music outside her house.

18. Two Acts of Revenge

Mme de Portenduere suddenly decides to forgive and accept Ursule, whilst Goupil just as unexpectedly confesses his persecution of Ursule. But he claims he was acting for Minoret. Savinien threatens Minoret and his son with a duel.

19. Ghostly Apparitions

Ursule has a dream which reveals all the details of Minoret’s theft. She reports this to the Abbe Chaperon, who then challenges Minoret with the details. Minoret denies everything. There is a second apparition, which has the same consequences

20. The Duel

Savinien arranges the duel with Desire Minoret, who confesses the theft of the doctor’s will to his mother, who tries to persuade Ursule to marry Desire.

21. How Difficult it is to Steal What Seems Easiest

Abbe Chaperon finds the imprints of the doctor’s government scrips in an old library book – and the theft is exposed. The money is restored and the duel called off. Minoret becomes a reformed man. Desire is in a coaching accident and has both legs amputated, then dies. Zelie Minoret goes mad and is placed in an asylum, where she dies. Ursule and Savinien are married then move to live in Paris.


Ursule Mirouet – characters
M. Minoret

postmaster at Nemours
Zélie

the postmaster’s acerbic wife
Desire Minoret

his self-indulgent son, a law graduate
Dr Denis Minoret

a rich retired former Encyclopedist
Goupil

a dissolute clerk, friend to Desire
Abbe Chaperon

parish priest, friend of Dr Minoret
Dionis

a local notary
Ursule Mirouet

niece and ward of Dr Minoret
Mme de Portenduere

a proud and aristocratic widow
Savinien de Portenduere

her son, a reformed rake

© Roy Johnson 2017


More on literature
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories


Filed Under: Honore de Balzac Tagged With: Balzac, Cultural history, French Literature, Literary studies, The novel

Get in touch

info@mantex.co.uk

Content © Mantex 2016
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Clients
  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Links
  • Services
  • Reviews
  • Sitemap
  • T & C’s
  • Testimonials
  • Privacy

Copyright © 2025 · Mantex

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in