Essays on literary works - 2023
Muse in the creative destiny of Honore de Balzac
Honore de Balzac
Balzac is a genius, Balzac is a titan, Prometheus of literature. The personality of the great French writer constantly excites the imagination of posterity. What was the creator of The Human Comedy really like? What inspired him to create? How did Balzac manage, under the incessant hail of everyday adversity, under the burden of ever-growing financial debts, personal troubles, in an atmosphere of insulting misunderstanding on the part of a significant part of criticism and the reading public, and often hostility and slander, to erect the colossal building of the "Human Comedy"? How and when was he able to learn the vast material of life, working eighteen hours a day? Balzac's life is not rich in external events. It was reduced mainly to the titanic writing work.
The most significant thing in life happened behind the closed door of his working room, in the inner world, where he rarely allowed anyone.
In relation to women, Balzac was like the heroes of some of his creations - charming, cheerful, gallant, never rushing things: he retained human dignity. Balzac owes a lot to women. He owes the Duchess de Castries a thousand stories from modern life. The plot of the "Director" was given to him by another woman - Mrs. Sophie. At the beginning of The Physiology of Marriage, he hints slightly at these two ladies, each of whom was wonderful in her own way ...
Novella is the first. The first love. Louise Antoinette Laura de Verny.
Reference. Louise Antoinette Laura de Verny (nee Hinner) (1777-1836), Balzac's lover. The era of de Verny in 1832 was dedicated to the novel "Louis Lambert", on the first page of which was written: "Now and forever chosen." A woman who dedicated herself to warning me in time of the dangers hidden along the way... and giving advice while sparing my pride. Balzac: “Men and women can, without fear of dishonoring themselves, have a passion for several people at once. After all, it is natural to strive for happiness! But true love is always the only one in life.” Honore de Balzac experienced this only love for Madame de Verny. At the same time sensual, prudent and tender, she was for him "like an angel descended from heaven." Madame de Verny intuitively guessed a great talent in Balzac, helped him to form, guided him. Don't be this woman the genius of Balzac, of course, would have manifested itself differently. And Balzac knew it. During the Jacobin dictatorship, on April 8, 1793, Gabriel de Verny married Laura Hinner, daughter of a German harpist, and Louise de Laborde, Marie Antoinette's maid. The godfather of little Laura, who was born on May 23, 1777, was Louis XVI, and the queen was the godmother. Therefore, the girl was named Louise Antoinette Laura. It sounded great. As a child, Laura lived among the courtiers and throughout her life retained the grace and nobility of manners. and godmother - queen. Therefore, the girl was named Louise Antoinette Laura. It sounded great. As a child, Laura lived among the courtiers and throughout her life retained the grace and nobility of manners. and godmother - queen. Therefore, the girl was named Louise Antoinette Laura. It sounded great. As a child, Laura lived among the courtiers and throughout her life retained the grace and nobility of manners.
After the death of the musician Hinner, his widow remarried - to the Chevalier de Jarges, one of the adherents of Marie Antoinette, who later tried to arrange the escape of the queen, imprisoned in the Temple Tower. Zharzhz served as a prototype for the hero of Dumas father's novel "Chevalier de Maisons-Rouge". In the midst of impending tragic events, Laura Hiner, who was only sixteen years old, was hastily married to the Comte de Verny. The newlyweds were arrested almost immediately. The fall of Robespierre saved their lives. In 1791, Gabriel de Verny entered the service of the army supply department. In 1800 he became clerk in one of the departments of the Ministry of the Interior, and in 1811 he became an adviser to the Parisian court. The couple had nine children, two of them - a son and a daughter - died. There was a lot going on in the family. Gabriel de Verny was tormented by ailments, and at fifty he seemed an old man. Grumpy, bilious, always grumbling, he gradually lost his sight and left his wife with full authority to dispose of the estate, "which she cut and reshaped at her discretion."
Her husband constantly reproached her, pestering her with his complaints. From 1800 to 1805, the count and his wife even lived separately. At that time, Laura de Verny fell passionately in love with "a fierce Corsican, to whom she gave her youth." From this connection she had a daughter, Julie. Soon the terrible Campi disappeared, Laura's parents reconciled, and Monsieur de Verny got used to little Julie Campi: over the years, she turned into a girl of "rare beauty, a wonderful flower of Bengal." Honore de Balzac often met Madame de Verney and her children. "Young ladies in white dresses and their parents in black" were present at the village holiday, they were also at the baptism of the child of Louise Bruet, the Balzac cook. "Ladies from the outskirts" played the role of ruling persons.
Balzac - Laurie Surville, February 1822.
“I want to tell you ... that Madame de Verny sells oats, bran, grain and hay for cattle, because after forty years of reflection, she realized that money is everything. Verney sees no better this year than last. Madame de Verney's children only know how to laugh, dance, eat, sleep and talk, and she herself is still a very amiable and loving woman. Behind this playful tone was a very lively interest. Honore, who visited the "house on the outskirts", where he gave lessons to the youngest of Verni's children, was captivated by their mother. Not that she wanted to.
She did not hide the fact that she was forty-five years old, that she was already a grandmother, and, of course, she was not going to seduce a twenty-two-year-old youth. Mocking, sometimes even sarcastic, Madame de Verny merrily teased Honoré's manners, his youthful arrogance and ambitious thoughts. But at the same time, she respected in him an extraordinary mind, a rare gift for improvisation and an ardent nature. For his part, he never tired of asking her about court life under the old regime. Honore was keenly aware of the contrast between the bourgeois of the Marzes, friends of his parents, and this goddaughter of the queen. He reveled in the sound of her silvery voice. Her pretty face shone with intelligence and kindness. The skin on the neck and shoulders was like that of a young girl.
And most importantly, he guessed that this woman - and only she - could give what he lacked: taste, knowledge of the world, even the satisfaction of the passions of love, exacerbated by his age, reading and father's free talk. "Love, like genius, gives rise to inspiration." He fell in love suddenly. Every day, parting with Madame de Verney, Honore asked himself: "Will she be mine?" But his love was more tender than bold, and for a long time he did not dare to talk to her about his feelings. Finally, in the fall of 1821 or in the spring of 1822, he ventured a confession: “Know, madam, that a man lives far from you, whose soul is what a wonderful gift! - overcomes distances, rushes along invisible heavenly paths and constantly rushes towards you in order to be intoxicated with joy, always be near.
This person is enthusiastically ready to take part in your life, your feelings. He sometimes pities you, sometimes he wants to, and at the same time he invariably loves you with all the ardor and freshness of a feeling that blooms only in youth. You are more than a friend to him, more than a sister, you are almost like a mother to him. You are an earthly deity for me, to whom I turn all my thoughts and deeds. I dream of greatness and glory only because I see in them a step that will bring me closer to you, and when I think of something important, I always do it in your name. You don’t even suspect that you have become a true guardian angel for me.” (From a letter of 1822). All this was true: in youth, a person almost always believes what he writes in love letters. Madame de Verny laughed at Honore, at his sighs, his novels, his manner of dressing and behaving. He didn't back down. “What a pleasure it is for a woman with an elevated soul to laugh at the unfortunate? .. The further, the more clearly I see that you do not love me, that you will never love me ... And my stubbornness is sheer madness. But still, I persevere."
Day after day, he sends her passionate messages, often they are truly beautiful. One evening, after saying good-bye, Honoré returned and found Madame de Verney pensive. They sat down on a bench, around - shrouded in twilight garden, overhead - twinkling stars.
She gave him the first kiss. The next evening she pretended to leave, then returned, and, finding him in the garden, yielded. If Madame de Verny, at the beginning of this relationship, behaved in a motherly manner, tenderly and a little mockingly, then after a while she passionately attached herself to a young man, whose extraordinary talent she was the first to feel. Ten years later, Honore de Balzac would write to Evelina Ganskaya: “In this terrible struggle, an angel supported me. Madame de Verny became a real deity for me. She was at the same time a mother, a friend, a family, a friend, an adviser. She created a writer; she consoled the young man. She cried like a sister. She laughed, she appeared every day, like a blessed slumber, and lulled all sorrows. Even decades later, Balzac's affection and loyalty to her will become even deeper and more beautiful.
Everything that he wrote about Madame de Verny, both during her lifetime and after her death, merges into a single, all-consuming song to the glory of this "great and exalted woman, this angel of friendship." In any life circumstances, he will unconsciously strive for a diverse, combining all shades of love, love that he found in this woman who was everything for him: mother, sister, girlfriend, and mentor. Both lover and companion.