1840 - 1843
"Vautrin"--_La Revue Parisienne_--Societe des Gens-de-Lettres
--Balzac leaves Les Jardies, and goes to the Rue Basse, Passy
--Death of M. de Hanski--"Les Ressources de Quinola"--"La
Comedie Humaine"--Balzac goes to St. Petersburg to meet Madame
Hanska--Her reasons for deferring the marriage.
The sad fate of "L'Ecole des Menages" did not long discourage Balzac.
At the beginning of 1840 he made an engagement to provide Harel, the
speculative manager of the Theatre Porte-St-Martin, with a drama. The
play was accepted before it was written; and in order to be near the
theatre Balzac established himself in the fifth floor of the house of
Buisson, his tailor, at the corner of the Rue Richelieu. His
proceedings were, as usual, eccentric. One day Gautier, who tells the
story, was summoned in a great hurry, and found his friend clad in his
monk's habit, walking up and down his elegant attic, and shivering
with impatience.
"'Here is Theo at last,' he cried, when he saw me. 'You idler! dawdle!
sloth! gee up, do make haste! You ought to have been here an hour ago!
To-morrow I am going to read to Harel a grand drama in five acts.'
"'And you want my advice,' I answered, settling myself comfortably in
an armchair, ready to submit to a long reading.
"From my attitude Balzac guessed my thought, and said simply, 'The
drama is not written.'
"'Good heavens!' said I: 'well, then you must put off the reading for
six weeks.'
"'No, we must hurry on the drama to get the money. In a short time I
have a large sum of money to pay.'
"'To-morrow is impossible; there is no time to copy it.'
"'This is the way I have arranged things. You will write one act,
Ourliac another, Laurent-Jan the third, De Belloy the fourth, I the
fifth, and I shall read it at twelve o'clock as arranged. One act of a
drama is only four or five hundred lines; one can do five hundred
lines of dialogue in a day and the night following.'
"'Relate the subject to me, explain the plot, sketch out the
characters in a few words, and I will set to work,' I said, rather
frightened.
"'Ah,' he cried, with superb impatience and magnificent disdain, 'if I
have to relate the subject to you, we shall never have finished!'"[*]
[*] "Portraits Contemporains--Honore de Balzac," by Theophile Gautier.
After a great deal of trouble, Gautier managed to persuade Balzac to
give him a slight idea of the plot, and began a scene, of which only a
few words remain in the finished work. Of all Balzac's expected
collaborators, Laurent-Jan, to whom "Vautrin" is dedicated, was the
only person who worked seriously.
In two months and a half of rehearsals Balzac became almost
unrecognisable from worry and overwork. His perplexities became public
property, and people used to wait at the door of the theatre to see
him rush out, dressed in a huge blue coat, a white waistcoat, brown
trousers, and enormous shoes with the leather tongues outside, instead
of inside, his trousers. Everything he wore was many sizes too big for
him, and covered with mud from the Boulevards; and it was an amusement
to the frivolous Parisians to see him stride along in these peculiar
garments, his face bearing the impress of the trouble and overstrain
he was enduring. He was at the mercy of every one. The manager hurried
and harried him, because the only hope of saving the theatre from
bankruptcy was the immediate production of a successful play. The
actors, knowing the piece was not finished, each clamoured for a part
to suit his or her peculiar idiosyncrasies, and Balzac was so
overburdened, that occasionally in despair he was tempted to abandon
his play altogether.
There was tremendous excitement in Paris about the approaching first
representation of "Vautrin"; and foreign politics, banquets, and even
the burning question of reform, paled in interest before the great
event. All the seats were sold beforehand; and as there was a rush for
the tickets, Balzac and Harel chose their audience, and thought that
they had managed to secure one friendly to Balzac. Unfortunately,
however, the seats were sold so early that many of them were parted
with at a profit by the first buyers, and in the end a large
proportion of the spectators were avowedly hostile to Balzac. March
14th, 1840, was the important date, and Balzac wrote to Madame Hanska:
"I have gone through many miseries, and if I have a success they will
be completely over. Imagine what my anxiety will be during the evening
when 'Vautrin' is being acted. In five hours' time it will be decided
whether I pay or do not pay my debts."[*]
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
He was very nervous beforehand, and told Leon Gozlan that he was
afraid there would be a terrible disaster.
The plot of the play is extraordinary and impossible. Vautrin, the
Napoleon among convicts, who appears in several of Balzac's novels, is
the hero; he had declared war against society, and the scene of the
drama, with Vautrin as the principal figure, passes in the
aristocratic precincts of the Faubourg St. Germain. The theatre was
crowded for the performance, and the first three acts, though received
coldly, went off without interruption. At the fourth act, however, the
storm burst, as Frederick Lemaitre, who evidently felt qualms about
the success of his part, had determined to make it comic, and appeared
in the strange costume of a Mexican general, with a hat trimmed with
white feathers, surmounted by a bird of paradise. Worse still, when he
took off this hat he showed a wig in the form of a pyramid, a coiffure
which was the special prerogative of Louis Philippe! The play was
doomed. The Duke of Orleans, who was in one of the boxes, left the
theatre hurriedly; and it was difficult to finish the performance, so
loud were the shouts, hisses, and even threats. The next day the
following official announcement appeared in the _Moniteur_: "The
Minister of the Interior has interdicted the appearance of the drama
performed yesterday at the Theatre of the Porte St. Martin under the
title of 'Vautrin.'" Balzac's hated foes, the journalists, of course
rejoiced in his downfall, and accentuated the situation by declaring
the piece to be not only disloyal, but revoltingly immoral. On the
other hand, Victor Hugo, George Sand, and Mme. de Girardin, stood
firmly by him, and Frederick Lemaitre, to whom Balzac evidently bore
no malice for his large share in the disaster, was, he said,
"sublime."
Leon Gozlan went to see Balzac the day after the performance, and
found him outwardly calm, but his face was flushed, his hands burning,
and his lips swollen, as though he had passed through a night of
fever. He did not mention the scene of the night before, but talked
eagerly of a plan to start a large dairy at Les Jardies, and to
provide Paris and Versailles with rich milk. He had several other
equally brilliant schemes on hand: he intended to grow vines,
cultivate vegetables, sell manure; and by these varied means to assure
himself of an income of eighteen thousand francs.
The Director of the Beaux-Arts was sent to offer Balzac money to make
up for his loss; he says, however: "They came to offer me an
indemnity, and began by proposing five thousand francs. I blushed to
my hair, and answered that I did not accept charity, that I had put
myself two hundred thousand francs in debt by writing twelve or
fifteen masterpieces, which would count for something in the glory of
France in the nineteenth century; that for three months I had done
nothing but rehearse 'Vautrin,' and that during those three months I
should otherwise have gained twenty-five thousand francs; that a pack
of creditors were after me, but that from the moment that I could not
satisfy all, it was quite indifferent to me whether I were tracked by
fifty or by a hundred, as the amount of courage required for
resistance was the same. The Director of the Beaux-Arts, Cave, went
out, they tell me, full of esteem and admiration. 'This,' said he, 'is
the first time that I have been refused.' 'So much the worse,' I
answered."[*]
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
Balzac became very ill with fever and brain neuralgia the day after
the performance of "Vautrin," and Madame Surville took him to her
house and nursed him. When he left his bed it was, of course to find
his affairs in a worse condition than ever, and he was, as he
described himself, "a stag at bay." His friendship with Madame
Visconti was a consolation to him in his troubles; he described her to
Madame Hanska, who did not quite appreciate these raptures, as "one of
the most amiable of women, of infinite and exquisite goodness. Of
delicate, elegant beauty, she helps me to support life." Nevertheless,
no friendships made up for the want of a wife, and home, the two
things for which he yearned; and he writes sadly: "I have much need
now of having my wounds tended and cured, and of being able to live
without cares at Les Jardies, and to pass my days quietly between work
and a wife. But it seems as if the story of every man will only be a
novel to me."[*]
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
His despondency did not abate his powers of work, as from April to
December he published "Z. Marcas," "Un Prince de la Boheme," and
"Pierre Grassou"; while in 1841, among other masterpieces, appeared
"La Fausse Maitresse," "Une Tenebreuse Affaire," "Un Menage de
Garcon," "Ursule Mirouet," and "Les Memoires de deux Jeunes Mariees."
He was almost at the end of his courage however, and talked seriously
in the case of failure in his new enterprise--the _Revue Parisienne_
--of going to Brazil on some mad errand which he would undertake
because it _was_ mad; and of either coming back rich or disappearing
altogether.
A monthly magazine, of which one man was to be director, manager,
editor, besides being sole contributor, was a heroic attempt at making
a fortune; and this was what Balzac contemplated, and accomplished for
a short time in the _Revue Parisienne_. His mode of working was not
calculated to lessen the strain to which he subjected himself, as,
never able to start anything till pressed for time, he left the work
till near the end of the month, when the printers were clamouring for
copy. Then there was no pause or slumber for him; his attention was
concentrated on his varied and difficult subjects till the moment when
he rushed with disordered garments to the printer's office. There,
seated anywhere--on the corner of a table, at a compositor's frame, or
before a foreman's bureau--he became completely absorbed in the
colossal labour of reading and correcting his proofs. The first number
of the _Revue Parisienne_ appeared on July 25th, 1840; but it was only
continued for three months, as Balzac decided that the task was too
much for him. During its short life however, it furnished a
magnificent and striking example of his extraordinary powers and
mental attainments; as each of the numbers was the size of a small
volume, and he provided novels, biography, philosophy, analysis, and
criticism, and treated brilliantly each subject he attacked.
A question in which Balzac took the greatest interest was that of the
rights of authors and publishers, under which Louis Philippe did not
meet with much respect. Not only did the Belgians reproduce French
works at a cheap rate by calmly dispensing with the duty of paying
their authors; but publishers in the provinces often followed this
pernicious practice, and it was difficult to prosecute them. A
striking instance of this injustice was to be found in the case of
"Paroles d'un Croyant," by M. de Lamennais, of which ten thousand
pirated copies were sold in Toulouse, where only five hundred of the
authorised edition had been sent by the publisher. No redress could be
obtained because, though the fact was certain, legal proofs were
apparently lacking; but in consequence of this glaring infraction of
the rights of both author and publisher, on December 28th, 1838,
Balzac became a member of the Societe des Gens-de-Lettres. This
Society, which was insignificant when he first joined it, owed
everything to his reputation, and to the energy with which he worked
for its interests. On October 22, 1839, he spoke at Rouen in its
behalf, in the first action brought by it against literacy piracy.
Later in the same year he was elected President, and in May, 1840,
he drew up the masterly "Code Litteraire de la Societe des
Gens-de-Lettres"[*] to which reference has already been made. On
September 5th, 1841, however, in consequence of a dispute concerning the
drawing up by the Gens-de-Lettres of a manifesto to be presented to the
deputies composing the Law Commission on Literary Property, Balzac
withdrew from the Society. The ostensible reason for his resignation
was, that at a committee meeting to discuss the Manifesto, doubts were
thrown on his impartiality; but it seems probable from his letter[+]
that some unwritten ground for complaint really caused his withdrawal.
After Balzac's death, the Society des Gens-de-Lettres acknowledged
with gratitude the debt owed him as one of the founders of the
Society, and the help received from his intelligence and activity.
[*] This may be found in the Edition Definitive of Balzac's works, or
in "Balzac Chez Lui," by Leon Gozlan.
[+] "Correspondance," vol. ii. p. 20.
In 1840, before he ceased to belong to the Societe des Gens-de-Lettres,
he had left Les Jardies; and had hidden himself under the name of
Madame de Brugnolle, his housekeeper, in a mysterious little house at
No. 19, Rue Basse, Passy; to which no one was admitted without many
precautions, even after he had given the password. Behind this was a
tiny garden where Balzac would sit in fine weather, and talk over the
fence to M. Grandmain, his landlord. In his new abode he established
many of his treasures: his bust by David d'Angers, some of the
beautiful furniture he was collecting in preparation for the home he
longed for, and many of his pictures, those treasures by Giorgione,
Greuze, and Palma, which were the delight of his heart. With great
difficulty, by publishing books and articles in quick succession, he
had prevented the sale of Les Jardies by his creditors. As he had no
money to pay cab fares this entailed rushing from Passy to Paris on
foot, often in pouring rain; with the result that he became seriously
ill, and found it necessary to recruit in Touraine and Brittany.
On June 15th, 1841, a fictitious sale for 15,500 francs was made of
Les Jardies, which had cost Balzac 100,000 francs; but he did not
really part with the villa till later, when he had decided that it
would not be suitable ultimately as a residence. To add to his
troubles, he found it necessary to take his mother to live with him,
an arrangement which gave rise to many little storms, and made writing
a difficult matter. Madame Visconti's society gave him no consolation
at this time,--he was disappointed in her; and decided that his abuse
of Englishwomen in the "Lys dans la Vallee," was perfectly justified.
Fortunately, he was now feeling tolerably cheerful about money
matters; as he had paid off the hundred thousand francs he owed from
his treaty in 1836, and hoped in fifteen months to have made
arrangements for discharging all his debts; while three publishers,
Dubochet, Furme, and Hetzel & Paulin, had undertaken to publish a
complete edition of his works with engravings. This was to be the
first appearance of the long-dreamt-of "Comedie Humaine," the great
work of Balzac's life.
However, for a time even this took secondary place, as on January 5th,
1842, a letter with a black seal arrived from Madame Hanska; and gave
the important news of the death of M. de Hanski, which had taken place
on November 10th, 1841. Balzac's letter in answer to this is pathetic
to any one cognisant of his subsequent history. He begins with
confidence:[*] "As to me, my dear adored one, although this event
enables me to reach what I have desired so ardently for nearly ten
years, I can, before you and God, say in justice, that I have never
had anything in my heart but complete submission, and that in my most
terrible moments I have not soiled my soul with evil wishes." Further
on, he tells her that nothing in him is changed; and suddenly seized
with a terrible doubt from the ambiguous tone of her letter, he cries,
in allusion to a picture of Wierzchownia which always hung in his
study: "Oh! I am perhaps very unjust, but this injustice comes from
the passion of my heart. I should have liked two words for myself in
your letter. I have hunted for them in vain--two words for the man
who, since the landscape in which you live has been before his eyes,
has never continued working for ten minutes without looking at it."
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."
He longs to start at once to see her, but from the tone of her letter
he gathers that he had better wait until she writes to him again, when
he begs for the assurance that her existence will henceforward belong
to him, and that no cloud will ever come between them. He is alarmed
about her anxiety on the subject of her letters. They are quite safe,
he says, kept in a box like the one in which she keeps his. "But why
this uneasiness now? Why? This is what I ask myself in terrible
anxiety!" He finishes with "Adieu, my dear and beautiful life whom I
love so much, and to whom I can now say 'Sempre medesimo.'"
Madame Hanska, in reply to this letter, objected strongly to the
breach of "les convenances" which would be committed if Balzac came to
see her early in her widowhood; and it was not till July 17th, 1843,
that he was at last permitted to meet her in St. Petersburg, and then
he had not seen her since his visit to Vienna, eight years before.
However, he was now full of happy anticipations, and it was with the
greatest enthusiasm that he looked forward to the appearance of "Les
Ressources de Quinola," which had been accepted by the Odeon, and on
which he founded the most extravagant hopes. The long night of trouble
was nearly over, and a late happiness would dawn upon him, heralded by
a brilliant success at the theatre, which would not only free him from
debt, but would also enable him to offer riches to the woman he loved.
At the first hearing of this play in the green-room of the Odeon, the
company had been rather disenchanted as we know, because, after
reading four acts admirably, Balzac was forced to improvise the
unwritten fifth, and this he did so badly that Madame Dorval, the
principal actress, refused to act. However, on the same day Lireux,
the director of the Odeon, came to the Restaurant Risbeck, where
Balzac was dining with Leon Gozlan, and said that he would accept the
play. Balzac at once insisted that for the first three representations
he must have command of the whole of the theatre, but he promised that
Lireux should share the receipts with him, and these he said would be
enormous. He also stipulated that for his three special performances
no journalists should be admitted, there being war to the knife
between him and them. As the place of Balzac's abode was being kept
strictly secret for fear of his creditors, the time of the rehearsal
each day was to be communicated to him by a messenger from the
theatre, who was told to walk in the Champs Elysees, towards the Arc
de l'Etoile. At the twentieth tree on the left, past the Circle, he
would find a man who would appear to be looking for a bird in the
branches. The messenger was to say to him, "I have it," and the man
would answer, "As you have it, what are you waiting for?" On receiving
this reply the emissary from the Odeon would hand over the paper, and
depart without looking behind him. The only comment that Lireux, who
appears to have been a practical man, made on these curious
arrangements was, that if the twentieth tree had been struck by
lightning during the night, he supposed that the servant must stop at
the twenty-first, and Balzac assented gravely to this proposition.
The great writer worked with his usual energy at the rehearsals,
continually rewriting parts of the play, and besides this occupation
spending hours in the theatre bureau, as he had determined to sell all
the tickets himself. For the first night of "Les Ressources de
Quinola" the audience was to be brilliantly representative of the
aristocracy, beauty, and talent of France. The proscenium would,
Balzac hoped, be occupied by ambassadors and ministers, the pit by the
Chevaliers de St. Louis, and the orchestra stalls by peers; while
deputies and state functionaries were to be placed in the second
gallery, financiers in the third, and rich bourgeoisie in the fourth.
Beautiful women were to be accommodated with particularly prominent
places; the price of the seats was to be doubled or trebled; and to
avoid the continual interruptions to which "Vautrin" was subjected,
tickets were only to be sold to Balzac's assured friends. Therefore
many persons who offered fabulous sums of money were refused
admittance, and told that every seat was taken. By these means Balzac
ultimately overreached himself, as people believed that all the seats
were really sold, and that it was no use to apply for tickets. When,
therefore, March 19th, 1842, the night of Balzac's anticipated triumph
arrived, instead of a brilliant assemblage crowding the Odeon, it was
three parts empty; and the small audience, who had paid enormously for
their seats, and naturally expected a brilliant throng in the theatre,
were in a critical and captious mood.
The scene of the play was laid in Spain in the time of Phillip II.,
and much of the dialogue was witty and spirited; but Balzac had mixed
up serious situations and burlesque in a manner irritating to the
audience, and there were many interruptions. Balzac was fortunately
unaware of his want of success; he had completely disappeared, and it
was not till half-past twelve, long after the finish of the
performance, that he was discovered fast asleep at the back of a box.
The fourth representation of "Les Ressources de Quinola" was specially
tumultuous. Lireux, being now master of the theatre, invited all the
journalistic world to be present, and they, furious at their exclusion
during the first three nights, encouraged the general clamour. Some of
the hooters were turned out, and the audience then amused themselves
by ejaculating "Splendid!" "Admirable!" "Superb!" and "Sublime!" at
every sentence, and by singing comic couplets, such as:
C'est M. Balzac,
Qu'a fait tout ce mic-mac!
During the intervals.
However, after two scenes had been entirely cut out, and several
others suppressed, "Quinola" ran for nineteen nights. Many years
afterwards, in 1863, it was acted at the Vaudeville, and was a great
success. During his lifetime Balzac's plays received little applause
--in fact, were generally greeted with obloquy; but when it was too
late for praise or blame to matter, his apotheosis as a dramatist took
place; and on this occasion his bust was brought to the stage, and
crowned amid general enthusiasm.
The year 1842 is important in the annals of Balzac's life, as on April
23rd his novels were for the first time collected together to form the
"Comedie Humaine," his great title to fame. The preface to this ranks
among the celebrated prefaces of the world, and it was written at the
suggestion of his friend Hetzel, who objected strongly to the prefaces
signed Felix David, which had been placed in 1835 at the beginning of
the "Etudes de Moeurs au XIXieme Siecle," and of the "Etudes
Philosophiques." In an amusing letter Hetzel tells Balzac that a
preface should be simple, natural, rather modest, and always
good-humoured. "Sum up--sum up as modestly as possible. There is the
true pride, when any one has done what you have. Relate what you want
to say quite calmly. Imagine yourself old, disengaged from everything
even from yourself. Speak like one of your own heroes, and you will
make something useful, indispensable.
"Set to work, my fat father; allow a thin publisher to speak thus to
Your Fatness. You know that it is with good intentions."[*]
[*] "Trois Lettres," in "Autour de Honore de Balzac," by the Vicomte
de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul.
We may be grateful to Hetzel for this advice, which Balzac evidently
followed; as the preface is written in a quiet and modest tone unusual
with him, and he follows Hetzel's counsel, and gives a concise summary
of his intention in writing the "Comedie Humaine."
He explains that he has attempted in his great work to classify man,
as Buffon has classified animals, and to show that his varieties of
character, like the differences of form in the lower creation, come
from environment. The three great divisions of the Comedie Humaine are
"Etudes de Moeurs," "Etudes Philosophiques," and "Etudes Analytiques";
and the "Etudes de Moeurs" comprise many subdivisions, each of which,
in Balzac's mind, is connected with some special period of life.
The "Scenes de la Vie Privee," of which the best-known novels are "Le
Pere Goriot" (1834), "La Messe de l'Athee" (1836), "La Grenadiere"
(1832), "Albert Savarus" (1842), "Etude de Femme" (1830), "Beatrix"
(1838), and "Modeste Mignon" (1844), Balzac connects with childhood
and youth. The "Scenes de la Vie de Province," to which belong among
others "Eugenie Grandet" (1833), "Le Lys dans la Vallee" (1835),
"L'Illustre Gaudissart" (1833), "Pierrette" (1839), and "Le Cure de
Tours" (1832), typify a period of combat; while "Scenes de la Vie
Parisienne," which contain "La Duchesse de Langeais" (1834), "Cesar
Birotteau" (1837), "La Cousine Bette" (1846), "Le Cousin Pons" (1847),
"Facino Cane" (1836), "La Maison de Nucingen" (1837), and several
less-known novels, show the effect of Parisian life in forming or
modifying character.
Next Balzac turns to more exceptional existences, those which guard
the interests of others, and gives us "Scenes de la Vie Militaire,"
comprising "Une Passion dans la Desert" (1830), and "Les Chouans"
(1827); and "Scenes de la Vie Politique," which contain "Un Episode
sous la Terreur" (1831), "Une Tenebreuse Affaire" (1841), "Z. Marcas"
(1840), and "L'Envers de l'Histoire Contemporaine" (1847). He finishes
the "Etudes de Moeurs" with "Scenes de la Vie de Campagne," consisting
of "Le Medecin de Campagne" (1832), "Le Cure de Village" (1837 to
1841), and "Les Paysans" (1844); and these are to be, Balzac says,
"the evening of this long day. Here are my purest characters, my
application of the principles of order, politics, morality."
There are no subdivisions to the "Etudes Philosophiques," among which
we find "La Peau de Chagrin," written in 1830, and considered by
Balzac a link between the "Etudes de Moeurs" and the "Etudes
Philosophiques"; "Jesus-Christ en Flandre" (1831), "Massimilla Doni"
(1839), "La Recherche de l'Absolu" (1834), "Louis Lambert" (1832), and
"Seraphita" (1835). To the division entitled "Etudes Analytiques"
belong only two books, "La Physiologie du Mariage" (1829), and
"Petites Miseres de la Vie Conjugale" (1830 to 1845).
"The Comedie Humaine" was never finished, but, incomplete as it is, it
remains a noble memorial of Balzac's genius, as well as an astonishing
testimony of his extraordinary power of work. The last edition of it
which was published in Balzac's lifetime appeared in 1846, and formed
sixteen octavo volumes. It consists of eighty-eight novels and tales,
and by far the greater number of these appeared in the first edition
of 1842. A strong connection is kept up between the different stories
by the fact that the same characters appear over and over again, and
the reader finds himself in a world peopled by beings who, as in real
life, at one time take the foremost place, and anon are relegated to a
subordinate position; but who preserve their identity vividly
throughout.
Balzac found it impossible to manage without a _pied-a-terre_ in
Paris, and for some reason he could no longer lodge with Bouisson, his
tailor, so in 1842 he took a lodging in the same house with his
sister, Madame Surville, at 28, Rue du Faubourg Poissonniere. Life was
brightening for him; he was beginning by his strenuous efforts to
diminish perceptibly his load of debt, and the star of hope shone
brightly on his path.
After many doubts on the part of Madame Hanska, who was most
particular in observing the proprieties, he was allowed in 1843 to
meet her in St. Petersburg, and arrived on July 17th, after a rough
passage from Dunkerque, during which his discomforts were nothing to
him, so joyous was he at the thought of soon seeing his beloved one.
Madame Hanska was established at the Hotel Koutaizoff, in the Rue
Grande Millione, and Balzac took a lodging near, and thought St.
Petersburg with its deserted streets a dreary place. All minor
feelings were, however, merged in the happiness of being near Madame
Hanska, of hearing her voice, and of giving expression to that
passionate love which had possessed him for more than ten years. In
his sight she was as young and beautiful as ever, and his fascinated
eyes watched her with rapture, as she leant back thoughtfully in the
little arm-chair in the blue drawing-room, her head resting against a
cushion trimmed with black lace. He could recall every detail
afterwards of that room, could count the points of the lace, and see
the bronze ornaments filled with flowers, in which he used to catch
his knees in his rapid pacings up and down; and his eyes would fill
with tears, and the creations of his imagination fade and become
unreal, beside the haunting pictures of his memory. He loved Madame
Hanska with a love which had grown steadily since their first meeting,
and which now was threatening to overmaster him, so that even work
would become impossible. Nevertheless, though she was most charming
and affectionate, and he stayed in St. Petersburg until September,
nothing definite was settled.
Madame Hanska was a prudent person; her dearly-loved daughter Anna was
growing up, and it was quite necessary to settle her in life before
taking any decided step. Besides, though she hardly allowed this to
herself, there is no doubt that she was rather alarmed at the prospect
of becoming Madame Honore de Balzac. The marriage would be decidedly a
_mesalliance_ for a Rzewuska, and her family constantly and steadily
exerted their influence to prevent her from wrecking her future. What,
they asked her, would be her life with a husband as eccentric,
extravagant, and impecunious, as they believed Balzac to be? They
collected gossip about him in Paris, and told Madame Hanska endless
stories, occasionally true, often false, and sometimes merely
exaggerated, about his oddities, his love affairs, and his general
unsuitability for alliance with an aristocratic family. It was no
doubt pleasant to have a man of genius and of worldwide fame as a
lover; but what would be her position if she took the fatal step, and
bound herself to him for life? Madame Hanska listened and paused: she
well understood her advantages as a great and moneyed lady; and she
was under no illusions as to the harassed and chequered existence
which she would lead with Balzac. She had often lent him money, his
letters kept her well informed about the state of his affairs; and the
idea of becoming wife to a man who was often forced to fly from his
creditors, must have been extremely distasteful to a woman used to
luxury and consideration. Maternal affection, love of her country,
prudence, social and worldly considerations--besides the fear of the
Czar's displeasure--were all inducements to delay; and even if she had
felt towards Balzac the passionate love for the lack of which
posterity has reproached her, it surely would have been the duty of an
affectionate mother to think of her child's welfare before her own
happiness. Later on, when Anna was married, and Balzac, broken in
health and tortured by his longings, was kept a slave to Madame
Hanska's caprices, the hard thing may be said of her, that she was in
part the cause of the death of the man she pretended to love. In 1843,
however, whatever motives incited her, her action in delaying matters
appears under the circumstances to have been right; and Balzac seems
to have felt that he had no just cause for complaint.
He wrote to Madame Hanska, at each of the stopping-places during his
tiring overland journey back to France, and describes vividly the
miserable, jolting journey through Livonia, where the carriage road
was marked out by boughs thrown down in the midst of a sandy plain,
and all around was depressing poverty and desolation. Berlin, peopled
with Germans of "brutal heaviness," he detested, and he loathed the
society dinner parties, with no conversation--nothing but tittle-tattle
and Court gossip; and complained of the trains, which travelled he
said no quicker than a French diligence. Nevertheless, in contrast
to Russia, the great _voyant_ was struck with the air of "liberte de
moeurs" which prevailed throughout Germany. He liked Dresden, and
enjoyed his visit to its picture gallery, where he especially admired
a Madeleine and two Virgins by Correggio, as well as two by Raphael,
one of them presumably the San Sisto Madonna. The gem of the whole
collection, however, in his opinion, was Holbein's Madonna; and he
longed to have Madame Hanska's hand in his while he gazed at it. As he
was away from her, he was very restless, and soon tired of all he saw.
He longed to be back in Paris, and to find distraction in his work.
"Think of my trouble, my sadness, and my sorrow, and you will be full
of pity and of indulgence for the poor exile,"[*] he writes.
[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."