1832 - 1835
Advertisement in the _Quotidienne_--Letters between Balzac and
Madame Hanska--His growing attachment to her--Meeting at
Neufchatel--Return to Paris--Work--"Etudes de Moeurs au XIXieme
Siecle"--"Le Medecin de Campagne"--"Eugenie Grandet"--Meets Madame
Hanska at Vienna--"La Duchesse de Langeais"--Balzac's enormous
power of work--"La Recherche de l'Absolu"--"Le Pere Goriot"
--Vienna--Monetary difficulties--Republishes romantic novels
--Continual debt--Amusements.
Meanwhile, during the tragic drama of the downfall of poor Balzac's
high hopes, Madame Hanska continued to write steadily; but she was
becoming tired of receiving no answer to her letters, and of not even
knowing whether or no they had reached their destination. Therefore
she wrote on November 7th, 1832, to ask Balzac for a little message in
the _Quotidienne_, which she took in regularly, to say that he had
received her letters; and Balzac, in reply, inserted the following
notice in the _Quotidienne_ of December 9th, 1832. "M. de B. has
received the message sent him; he can only to-day give information of
this through a newspaper, and regrets that he does not know where to
address his answer. To. L'E.--H. de B."[*]
[*] A copy of the _Quotidienne_ with this advertisement is in the
possession of the Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, and I have
seen it.
After this, it is amusing to see that Balzac was most particular in
impressing on his publishers the necessity of advertising his
forthcoming works in the _Quotidienne_, one of the few French papers
allowed admission into Russia. On the other hand, the receipt of the
_Quotidienne_ with this announcement made Madame Hanska so bold, that
in a letter dated January 9th, 1833, she gave Balzac the welcome
information that she and M. de Hanski were leaving Ukraine for a time,
and coming nearer France; and that she would indicate to him some way
of corresponding with her secretly. As this is the last of her letters
that can be found, we do not know what method she pointed out to
Balzac; and his first letter to her is dated January, 1833, and after
their meeting at Neufchatel in September, he wrote a short account of
his day every evening to his beloved one, and once in eight days he
despatched this journal to its destination. As he kept to this plan
with only occasional interruptions whenever he was absent from her,
till his marriage four months before his death, these letters, some of
which are published in a volume called "Lettres a l'Etrangere," form a
most valuable record of his life. In one of the first, it is
interesting to see that he is obliged to soothe her uneasiness at the
strange variety of his handwritings, as Madame Carraud had answered
one of her letters in his name; and to allay her suspicions, he makes
the rather unlikely explanation, that he has as many writings as there
are days in the year. In the future, however, her letters are sacred,
no eye but his own being permitted to gaze on them; and with his usual
reticence where his feelings are seriously involved, he ceases to
mention to his friends his correspondent in far Ukraine.
A little later he comments with joy on the fact that Madame Hanska has
sent him a copy of the "Imitation of Christ,"[*] which represents our
Lord on the cross, just as he is writing "Le Medecin de Campagne,"
which portrays the bearing of the cross by resignation, and love,
faith in the future, and the spreading around of the perfume of good
deeds. To Balzac, believer in the power of the transmission of
thought, this coincidence was of good augury.
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
All this time he had not forgotten Madame de Berny, or the faithless
Madame de Castries; and is profoundly miserable. On January 1st, 1833,
he writes to his faithful friend, Madame Carraud, to pour out his
troubles, and says: "In vain I try to transfer my life to my brain;
nature has given me too much heart, and in spite of everything, more
than enough for ten men is left. Therefore I suffer. All the more
because chance made me know happiness in all its moral extent, while
depriving me of sensual beauty. She" (Madame de Berny) "gave me a true
love which must finish. This is horrible! I go through troubles and
tempests which no one knows of. I have no distractions. Nothing
refreshes this heat, which spreads and will perhaps devour me." He
then passes on to Madame de Castries, and continues: "An unheard-of
coldness has succeeded gradually to what I thought was passion, in a
woman who came to me rather nobly."[*] In a letter to Madame Hanska,
speaking of Madame de Castries, though he does not name her, he says:
"She causes me suffering, but I do not judge her. Only I think that if
you loved some one, if you had drawn him every day towards you into
heaven, and you were free, you would not leave him alone in the depths
of an abyss of cold, after having warmed him with the fire of your
soul."[+]
[*] Letters sent by the Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul to the
_Revue Bleue_ of November 21st, 1903.
[+] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
Gradually, however, the new love gained ground; though at first Balzac
showed that nervous dread of repetition of pain which was, in a man of
his buoyancy and self-confidence, the last expression of depression
and disillusionment. "I trembled in writing to you. I said to myself:
'Will this be only a new bitterness? Will the skies open to me again,
for me only to be driven from them?'"[*] Nevertheless, passages such
as the following, even taking into account the sentimental tone Balzac
always adopted to his female correspondents, show that he was not
destined to remain permanently inconsolable. "I love you, unknown, and
this strange thing is the natural effect of an empty and unhappy life,
only filled with ideas, and the misfortunes of which I have diminished
by chimerical pleasures."[*]
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
In these words he gives himself the explanation of his overmastering
love for Madame Hanska, a love which seems to have puzzled his
contemporaries and some of his subsequent biographers. The man with
the passionate nature, who cried in his youth for the satisfaction of
his two immense desires--to be celebrated and to be loved--soon found
the emptiness of the life of fame alone; and Madame Hanska, dowered
with all that he longed for, came into his life at the psychological
moment when he had broken with the old love, born into the world too
soon, and had suffered bitterly at the cruel hands of the new. He
turned to her with a rapture of new hope in the glories that might
rise for him; and through trouble, disappointment and delay, he never
once wavered in his allegiance.
In the early spring of 1833, the Hanski family, after no doubt many
preparations, and surrounded by a great paraphernalia--for travelling
in those days was a serious matter--started on the journey about which
Madame Hanska had already told Balzac. Neufchatel was their
destination; and through Mlle Henriette Borel, Anna's governess, who
was a native of the place, and Madame Hanska's confidante, the Villa
Andrie, in the Faubourg, just opposite the Hotel du Faubourg, was
secured for them. Mlle Borel was a most useful person, as she always
went to the post to claim Balzac's letters, and through Madame Hanska
he sends her many directions, and specially enjoins great caution. We
are told[*] that she was so much struck by the solemnities at M. de
Hanski's funeral--the lights, the songs, and the national costumes
--that she decided to abjure the Protestant faith, and that in 1843
she took the veil. We may wonder however, whether tardy remorse for
her deceit towards the dead man, who had treated her with kindness,
had not its influence in causing this sudden religious enthusiasm,
and whether the Sister in the Convent of the Visitation in Paris
gave herself extra penance for her sins of connivance.
[*] "Balzac a Neufchatel," by M. Bachelin.
From Neufchatel, Madame Hanska sent Balzac her exact address; and as
he had really settled to go to Besancon in his search for inexpensive
paper to enable him to carry out his grand scheme for an universal
cheap library, it was settled that, travelling ostensibly for this
purpose, he should go for a few days to Neufchatel, and meet Madame
Hanska. He therefore wrote to Charles de Bernard, at Besancon, to ask
him to take a place for him in the diligence to Neufchatel, on
September 25th, 1833; and it is easy to imagine his qualms of anxiety,
and yet joyful excitement, when he left Paris on the 22nd, and started
on his fateful journey. At Neufchatel, he went to the Hotel du
Faucon,[*] in the centre of the town, but found a note begging him to
be on the Promenade du Faubourg next day from one to four; and he at
once removed to the Hotel du Faubourg, so that he might be near the
Villa Andrie. Madame Hanska no doubt shared to a certain extent his
tremors of anticipation; but as a beauty and great lady she would
naturally feel more confident than Balzac--especially when she had
donned with care her most elegant and becoming toilette, and felt
armed at every point for the encounter.
[*] "Un Roman d'Amour," by the Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul,
p. 75.
The Promenade du Faubourg at Neufchatel overlooks the lake, and is
terminated by a promontory known as the Cret, a splendid point of
vantage, whence there is a view of the Villa Andrie and over the
gardens of the Hotel du Faubourg. Here, on the afternoon of September
26th, 1833, among others strollers, were two who might have seemed to
an observant eye to be waiting for somebody: one was a stout,
inelegant little man, with something bizarre about his costume, and
the other a dark, handsome lady, dressed in the height of fashion, and
perhaps known to some of the loungers as the rich Russian Countess.
The manner of their meeting is uncertain; but whether Madame Hanska,
with one of Balzac's novels in her hand, recognised him at once and
rushed towards him joyously, or whether, as another story goes, she
was at first disenchanted by his unromantic appearance and drew back,
matters little.[*] In either case, according to Balzac's letter to his
sister written on his return to Paris, they exchanged their first kiss
under the shade of a great oak in the Val de Travers, and swore to
wait for each other; and he speaks rapturously of Madame Hanska's
beautiful black hair, of her fine dark skin and her pretty little
hands. He mentions, too, her colossal riches, though these do not of
course count beside her personal charms; but the remark is
characteristic, and Balzac's pride and exultation are very
apparent.[+] At last he has found his "grande dame," endowed with
youth, beauty and riches, one who would not be ashamed to live with
him in a garret, and yet would, by her birth, be able to hold her own
in the most exclusive society in the world.
[*] "Un Roman d'Amour," by the Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul,
p. 75.
[+] I have seen in M. de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul's collection, the
autograph of the whole of this letter as quoted in the "Roman
d'Amour."
He is specially pleased, too, that he has succeeded in charming Madame
Hanska's husband, to whom he was apparently introduced at once, though
we do not know by what means. Certainly M. de Hanski appears to have
felt a warm liking for the great writer, who charmed him and made him
laugh by his amusing talk, kept his blue devils at bay, sent him first
copies of his books, and sympathised with his views on political
matters. M. de Hanski was also much flattered by Balzac's friendship
for his wife, and would finish a polite and stilted epistle by saying
that he need trouble Balzac no more, as he knows his wife is at the
same time writing him one of her long chattering letters. Even when,
by sad mischance, two of Balzac's love-letters fell into M. de
Hanski's hands, and the great writer was forced to stoop to the
pretence that they were written in jest, the husband seems to have
accepted the explanation, and not to have troubled further about the
matter. Later on, he sent Balzac a magnificent inkstand as a present,
which the recipient rather ungratefully remarked required palatial
surroundings, and was too grand for his use.
On October 1st, the happy time at Neufchatel came to an end, as the
Hanskis were leaving that day, and Balzac's work awaited him in Paris.
He got up at five o'clock on the morning of his departure, and went on
to the promontory, whence he could gaze at the Villa Andrie, in the
vain hope of a last meeting with Madame Hanska; but to his
disappointment the Villa was absolutely quiet, no one was stirring. He
had a most uncomfortable journey back, for everything was so crowded
that fifteen or sixteen intending passengers were refused at each
town; and as Charles de Bernard had not been able to secure a place
for him in the mail coach, he was obliged to travel in the imperial of
the diligence with five Swiss, who treated him as though he were an
animal going to the market, and he arrived in Paris bruised all over.
In Balzac's letters after his return to Paris there is much mention of
his enjoyment of the Swiss scenery, which is after all only Madame
Hanska under another name; but he is absolutely discreet, and never
speaks of the lady herself. He is redoubling his work, on the chance
of managing to pay her another visit. "For a month longer, prodigies
of work, to enable me to see you. You are in all my thoughts, in all
the lines that I shall trace, in all the moments of my life, in all my
being, in my hair which grows for you."[*]
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
Fortunately the long years of waiting, the anxieties, the hope
constantly deferred, the pangs of unequally matched affection, and at
last the short and imperfect fruition, were hidden from him.
Henceforward everything in his life refers to Madame Hanska, and he
waits patiently for his hoped-for union with her. His deference to his
absent friend, his fear of her disapproval, his admiration for her
perfections, are half pathetic and half comical.
Though she does not appear to have been strait-laced in her reading,
he is terribly afraid of falling in her estimation by what he writes,
and he explains anxiously that such books as "Le Medecin de Campagne"
or "Seraphita" show him in his true light, and that the "Physiologie
du Mariage" is really written in defence of women. The "Contes
Drolatiques" he is also nervous about, and he is much agitated when he
hears that she has read some of them without his permission.
He is not always _quite_ candid, and the reader of "Lettres a
l'Etrangere" may safely surmise that there is a little picturesque
exaggeration in his account of the solitary life he leads; and that
Madame Hanska had occasionally good reason for her reproaches at the
reports she heard, though Balzac always replies to these complaints
with a most touching display of injured innocence. Nevertheless, the
"Lettres a l'Etrangere" are the record of a faithful and ever-growing
love, and there is much in them which must increase the reader's
admiration for Balzac.
The year 1833 was a prosperous one with him, as in October he sold to
the publisher, Madame Charles Bechet, for 27,000 francs, an edition of
"Etudes de Moeurs au XIXieme Siecle" in twelve octavo volumes,
consisting of the third edition of "Scenes de la Vie Privee," the
first of "Scenes de la Vie de Province," and the first part of the
"Scenes de la Vie Parisienne." The last volume of this edition did not
appear till 1837, and before that time Balzac had taken further
strides towards his grand conception of the Comedie Humaine. In
October, 1834,[*] he writes to Madame Hanska that the "Etudes de
Moeurs," in which is traced thread by thread the history of the human
heart, is only to be the base of the structure; and that next, in the
"Etudes Philosophiques," he will go back from effect to cause, from
the feelings, their life and way of working, to the conditions behind
them on which life, society, and man have their being; and that having
described society, he will in the "Etudes Philosophiques" judge it. In
the "Etudes de Moeurs" types will be formed from individuals, in the
"Etudes Philosophiques" individuals from types. Then, after effects
and causes, will come principles, in the "Etudes Analytiques." "Les
moeurs sont le spectacle, les causes son les coulisses et les
machines, et les principes c'est l'auteur." When this great palace is
at last completed, he will write the science of it in "L'Essai sur les
Forces Humaines"; and on the base, he, a child and a laugher, will
trace the immense arabesque of the "Contes Drolatiques," those
Rabelaisian stories in old French tracing the progress of the
language, which he often declared would be his principal claim to
fame. In 1842 the name "La Comedie Humaine" was after much
consideration given to the whole structure, and in the preface he
explains this title by saying: "The vastness of a plan which includes
Society's history and criticism, the analysis of its evils, the
discussion of its principles, justifies me, I think, in giving to my
work the name under which it is appearing to-day--'The Human Comedy.'
Pretentious, is it? Is it not rather true? That is a question for the
public to decide when the work is finished."
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that in twelve years, from 1830 to
1842, Balzac wrote seventy-nine novels--an enormous number, especially
remembering the fact that during the same time he published tales and
numberless articles--the great work was never finished; and the last
philosophical study, which was entitled "The Marquis of Carabbas," and
was to treat of the life of nations, was not even begun.
However, in 1833, when he really started the germ of his life-work,
he, like his father, had the idea that he would live to an enormous
age; and he was in high spirits about the pecuniary side of his
transaction with Madame Bechet.
Except for what he owes his mother, in seven months he will be free of
debt, he cries rapturously; but it is hardly necessary to mention that
this happy time of deliverance never did arrive. Indeed, we are
scarcely surprised, when he writes on November 20th, to say that his
affairs are in the most deplorable condition; that he has just sent
four thousand francs, his last resource, to Mame, the publisher, and
is as poor as Job; with one lawsuit going on, and another beginning
for which he requires twelve hundred francs. His chronic state of
disagreement with Emile de Girardin, editor of _La Presse_, had at
this time, in spite of Madame de Girardin's attempts at mediation,
become acute; so that they nearly fought a duel. The year before, as
we have already seen, he had quarrelled with his former friend, Amedee
Pichot, and had deserted the _Revue de Paris_, so his business
relations were, as usual, not very happy.
However, he was at first much pleased with Madame Bechet, who, with
unexpected liberality, herself paid 4000 francs for corrections; and
in July, 1834, he got rid of publisher Gosselin, whom he politely
designates as a "nightmare of silliness," and a "rost-beaf ambulant,"
and started business with Werdet, not yet the "vulture who fed on
Prometheus," but an excellent young man, somewhat resembling
"l'illustre Gaudissart," full of devotion and energy.
The year 1833 was rich in masterpieces. In September appeared "Le
Medecin de Campagne," with its motto, "For wounded souls, shade and
silence"; and though, like "Louis Lambert," it was not at first a
success, later on its true value was realised; and the hero, the good
Dr. Benassis, is one of Balzac's purest and most noble creations. It
was followed in December by "Eugenie Grandet," a masterpiece of Dutch
genre, immortalised by the vivid vitality of old Grandet, that type of
modern miser who, in contradistinction to Moliere's Harpagon, enjoyed
universal respect and admiration, his fortune being to some people in
his province "the object of patriotic pride." The book raised such a
storm of enthusiasm, that Balzac became jealous for the fame of his
other works, and would cry indignantly: "Those who call me the father
of Eugenie Grandet wish to belittle me. It is a masterpiece, I know;
but it is a little masterpiece; they are very careful not to mention
the great ones."[*] This, which is the best known and most generally
admired of Balzac's novels, is dedicated by a strange irony of fate to
Maria, whose identity has never been discovered; the only fact really
known about her being her pathetic request to Balzac, that he would
love her just for a year, and she would love him for all eternity. She
did not, however, have undisputed possession of even the short time
she longed for, as Madame Hanska's all-conquering influence was in the
ascendant; but, as Balzac was always discreet, perhaps poor Maria was
not aware of this.
[*] "Balzac, sa Vie et ses Oeuvres d'apres sa Correspondance," by
Madame L. Surville.
In the midst of the acclamations and congratulations on the appearance
of "Eugenie Grandet," Balzac again left Paris, and went to Geneva,
where he arrived on December 25th, 1833. He left for Paris on February
8th, having spent six weeks with the Hanski family. During this time a
definite promise was made by Madame Hanska, that she would marry him
if she became a widow. "Adoremus in aeternum" was their motto; he was
her humble "moujik," and she was his "predilecta, his love, his life,
his only thought."[*]
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
Curiously enough, his occupation in Geneva, in the rapture of his
newly-found happiness, was to write the "Duchesse de Langeais," by
which he intended to revenge himself on Madame de Castries, though he
could not help, in his book, making her turn to him at last, when it
was too late. The wound was still smarting. He detests and despises
her, he says; and the only words of spitefulness recorded in his
generous, large-minded life, are when he mentions, with pretended
pity, that owing to ill-health she has completely lost her beauty. In
spite of this outburst, however, we find that he came forward later
on, and helped her with much energy when she was in difficulties. He
never had the satisfaction of knowing whether she were punished or
not; as when he showed her the book before it was published, with the
ostensible reason of wishing her to disarm the Faubourg St. Germain,
which is severely criticised in its pages, she professed much
admiration for it.
Meanwhile, Madame de Berny was beginning the slow process of dying;
and Balzac speaks constantly with trouble of her failing health, and
of the heart disease from which she suffered, and which, with her
usual unselfishness, she tried to conceal from him. She was too ill
now to correct his proofs, and her family circumstances were, as we
have already seen, very miserable; so that her life was closing sadly.
In January, 1835, Balzac spent eight days with her at La Boulonniere,
near Nemours, working hard all the time; and was horrified to find her
so ill, that even the pleasure of reading his books brought on severe
heart attacks.
His life at this time was enormously busy; the passion for work had
him in its grip, and even _his_ robust constitution suffered from the
enormous strain to which he subjected it by his constant abuse of
coffee, which caused intense nervous irritation; and by the short
hours of sleep he allowed himself. He never rested for a moment, he
was never indifferent for a moment, his faculties were constantly on
the stretch, and Dr. Nacquart remonstrated in vain. In August, 1834,
he was attacked by slight congestion of the brain, and imperatively
ordered two months' rest; which, of course, he did not take; and now
from time to time, in his letters, occur entries of sinister omen,
about symptoms of illness, and doctor's neglected advice. In October
"La Recherche de l'Absolu" appeared, and instead of greeting it with
the enthusiasm he usually accorded to his books, he remarked to Madame
Hanska that he hoped it was good, but that he was too tired to judge.
However, by December of the same year, when "Le Pere Goriot" was
published, he had to a certain extent recovered his elasticity, and
said that it was a beautiful work, though terribly sad, and showed the
moral corruption of Paris like a disgusting wound. A few days later he
became more enthusiastic, and wrote: "You will be very proud of 'Le
Pere Goriot.' My friends insist that nothing is comparable to it, and
that it is above all my other compositions."[*] Certainly the vivid
portrait of old Goriot, that ignoble King Lear, who in his
extraordinary passion of paternal love rouses our sympathy, in spite
of his many absurdities and shortcomings, is a striking instance of
Balzac's power in the creation of type.
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
He was straining every nerve to be able to meet Madame Hanska in
Vienna; but with all his efforts his journey was put off month after
month, and it was not till May 9th, 1835, that he was at last able to
start. He arrived at Vienna on the 16th; having hired a post carriage
for the journey, a little extravagance which cost him 15,000 francs.
His stay there was not a rest, as, to Madame Hanska's annoyance, he
worked twelve hours a day at "Le Lys dans la Vallee," and explained to
her that he was doing a good deal in thus sacrificing three hours a
day for her sake--fifteen hours out of the twenty-four being his usual
time for labour. He visited Munich on his way back, and arrived in
Paris on June 11th, to find a crowd of creditors awaiting his arrival,
and his pecuniary affairs in terrible confusion. Owing, he considered,
to the machinations of his enemies, articles had appeared in different
papers announcing that he had been imprisoned for debt--a report which
naturally ruined his credit, and caused a general gathering of those
to whom he owed money. It was not a pleasant home-coming; as Werdet
and Madame Bechet were in utter despair, and reproached Balzac
bitterly for his absence, while all his silver had been pawned by his
sister to pay his most pressing liabilities.
It is curious about this time to notice the reappearance of the early
romantic novels, "Jane la Pale," "La Derniere Fee," and their
fellows.[*] Balzac, as we have seen was in terrible straits for money,
and he knew that the Belgians, who at this time practised the most
shameless piracy, would reprint the books for their own advantage, if
he did not. Therefore, in self-defence, he determined to bring out an
edition himself; though, as he consistently refused to acknowledge the
authorship of these despised productions, the treaty was drawn up in
the name of friends. Nevertheless, with his usual caution, he drew up
a secret document which was signed by M. Regnault, one of those in
whose name the sale to the publisher was arranged, to the effect that
the works of the late Horace de Saint-Aubin were really the property
of M. de Balzac. "L'Heritiere de Birague" and "Jean Louis" did not
appear in this edition, probably owing to the intervention of M. Le
Poitevin, who considered them partly his property; but they were
published with the others in an edition printed in 1853, after a
lawsuit between Balzac's widow and his early collaborator.
[*] "Une Page Perdue de Honore de Balzac," by the Vicomte de
Spoelberch de Lovenjoul.
The condition of the whole Balzac family at the close of 1835 was
tragic, M. Henri, back from abroad, and utterly incapable, as Balzac
says, of doing anything, talked of blowing out his brains; Madame
Surville was ill, Madame Balzac's reason or life was despaired of; and
Balzac chose this time to consult a somnambulist about Madame Hanska,
and was told the distressing news that she was in anxiety of some
sort, and that her heart was enlarged! Fortunately, in October, 1835,
the Hanski family returned to Wierzchownia, and the constant worry to
Balzac of their proximity to France was removed for the time.
In December another misfortune befell Balzac. A fire broke out at the
printing office in the Rue du Pot-de-Fer, and burnt the first hundred
and sixty pages of the third dizain of the "Contes Drolatiques," as
well as five hundred volumes of the first and second dizain, which had
cost him four francs each. He thus lost 3,500 francs, and to add to
the calamity, did not receive the sum of 6,000 francs which in the
ordinary course of events would have been due to him at the end of the
year, when but for this disaster he would have handed over the third
dizain to Werdet and an associate.
Figures and sums of money occur constantly in Balzac's letters; but
his accounts of his pecuniary affairs are so conflicting and so
complicated that it is impossible to understand them; indeed it is
doubtful whether he ever mastered them himself, as he continually
expected to be out of debt in a few months. According to his own story
to Madame Hanska, he left the printing office owing 100,000 francs,
had to find 6,000 francs a year for interest on this debt, and
required 3,000 francs to live on; while in 1828, 1829, and 1830, he
only made 3,000 francs each year, so that in three years he had
increased his debt by 24,000 francs. In 1830 the Revolution caused
general disaster among the publishers, and "La Peau de Chagrin" only
made 700 francs, so that in 1830 and 1831 Balzac had an income of only
10,000 francs a year, and had to pay out 18,000 francs. From 1833 to
1836 he received 10,000 francs a year by his treaty with Madame
Bechet; 6,000 of this he paid in interest on his debt, while 4,000
apparently remained to live on. However, between the fire in the Rue
du Pot-de-Fer, Werdet's delinquencies, the failure of the _Chronique_,
and the sums paid back to publishers who had advanced money on
arrangements Balzac cancelled to fulfil this new agreement, hardly
anything was left; and in 1837 he owed 162,000 francs.
In August, 1835, he describes his life thus[*]: "Work, always work!
Heated nights succeed heated nights, days of meditation days of
meditation; from execution to conception, from conception to
execution! Little money compared with what I want, much money compared
with production. If each of my books were paid like those of Walter
Scott, I should manage; but although well paid, I do not attain my
goal. I received 8,000 francs for the 'Lys'; half of this came from
the publisher, half from the _Revue de Paris_. The article in the
_Conservateur_ will pay me 3,000 francs. I shall have finished
'Seraphita,' begun 'Les Memoires de Deux Jeunes Mariees,' and finished
Mme. Bechet's edition. I do not know whether a brain, pen, and hand
will ever before have accomplished such a 'tour de force' with the
help of a bottle of ink."
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
As it is impossible for even a Balzac to live without relaxation, even
if he goes without rest, what, may we ask, were his recreations at
this time? In the first place he often went to the theatre; and he was
passionately fond of music, occupying a place in the box at the
Italian Opera, which was reserved specially for dandies. One of his
extravagances was a dinner at which he entertained the five other
"tigres," as the occupants of this box were nicknamed, and Rossini,
Olympe Pelissier, Nodier, Sandeau, and Bohain. At this banquet, the
most sumptuous fare and the most exquisite wines were provided for the
guests, and the table was decked with the rarest flowers. Balzac
enjoyed the festivity immensely, as well as the _eclat_ which followed
it; and relates with delight that all Paris was talking of it, and
that Rossini said he had not seen more magnificence when he dined at
royal tables.
However busy he was, he never completely deprived himself of the
pleasure of listening to music; though on one occasion he remarks
regretfully, that he has been obliged to limit his attendance at the
Opera to two visits each month; and on another, that he has been so
overwhelmed with business that he has not been able even to have a
bath, or go to the Italian Opera, two things that are more necessary
to him than bread. His works abound in references to his beloved art,
and when he was writing "Massimilla Doni" he employed a professional
musician to instruct him about it. Beethoven, in particular, he speaks
of with the utmost enthusiasm, and after hearing his "Symphony in Ut
mineur," he says that the great musician is the only person who makes
him feel jealous, and that he prefers him even to Rossini and Mozart.
"The spirit of the writer," he says, "cannot give such enjoyment,
because what _we_ print is finished and determined, whereas Beethoven
wafts his audience to the infinite."[*]
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
The other amusements of this great thinker and seer would strike the
reader as strange, if he did not perhaps, by this time, realise that
no anomaly need surprise him in Balzac's extraordinary personality.
He writes to Madame Hanska[*]: "As to my joys, they are innocent. They
consist in new furniture for my room, a cane which makes all Paris
chatter, a divine opera-glass, which my workers have had made by the
optician at the Observatory; also the gold buttons on my new coat,
buttons chiselled by the hand of a fairy, for the man who carries a
cane worthy of Louis XIV. in the nineteenth century cannot wear
ignoble pinchbeck buttons. These are little innocent toys, which make
me considered a millionaire. I have created the sect of the
'Cannophiles' in the world of fashion, and every one thinks me utterly
frivolous. This amuses me!" Certainly Balzac was not wrong when he
told his correspondent that there was much of the child in him.
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."