French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Smaniotto, Balzacian Poetics of Character Names: Rivaling the Civil Registry
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Ada Smaniotto
Balzacian Poetics of Character Names: "Rivaling the Civil Registry"
Paris, Classiques Garnier, Romantic and Nineteenth-Century Studies Series, 2020
EAN: 9782406100157
539 pp. — €39.00
Balzac sought to "rival the civil registry," which involved putting 1,842 character names into circulation. From serious anthroponymic commentary to puns highlighting the motivation behind the names, this work offers a comprehensive study of character names in La Comédie humaine.
P. Assouline dedicated a post to this book on his blog larepubliquedeslivres.com…
Introduction 13
The Character, the Name, and the Person-Effect 13
How Are Characters Named?
A Brief Onomastic History 16
"Rivaling the Civil Registry" 18
Character Names in La Comédie humaine.
Methods and Issues 25
Prologue – Onomatorama
Personal Names in the 19th Century 33
Historical Overview.
The Administrative Adventures of the Civil Registry 33
Sociological Overview.
First Names and the Individual 41
Theoretical Perspective.
From Essay to Physiology 44
Biographical Perspective.
"I [...] declare [...] that my name is on my birth certificate" 49
PART ONE
RIVALING THE CIVIL REGISTRY
Introduction 59
The Civil Status of Characters 61
Multiplication of Names and Individuals 66
First Names and the Stylistics of Naming 71
Secondary Proper Names? 71
The Mark of an Amorous Utterance 73
Diminutives: Variation and Distinction 74
Surnames.
Privileged Names in the Balzacian Civil Registry 78
Multiplication of Names and the Pleasure of Neology 78
Long Names with a Noble Particle 82
The "Kaleidoscope" of Surnames 85
Strategic Places and Spaces for Highlighting
Character Names 90
"Naming" at the Incipit:
The Narrator's Onomastic Competences 91
Eponymy: The Author's Onomastic Competences 97
Supplementary Names
Nicknames and Pseudonyms 111
Nicknames Beneath Names 114
An Onomastics Unleashed 115
Underworld Nicknames 120
Noms de Guerre: Waging War on the Civil Registry 123
Chouan Noms de Guerre:
"Names to Give You Colic" 125
Noms de Guerre of the Lorettes:
From Carabine to Mme Schontz 126
Pseudonyms: Inventing Lives 132
Pen Names 134
Impostors 139
Jacques Collin, a.k.a. Trompe-la-Mort (Gaba-Morto),
Vautrin, Abbé Carlos Herrera, William Barker 146
Reappearing Names 157
The Return of Characters or Names? 161
This Admirable Invention of Balzac's
to Have Kept the Same Names in All His Novels... 161
Toward a Redefinition of the Reappearing Character 164
Reappearing Names and the Cohesion
of La Comédie humaine 166
The Onomastic Web 166
Poetics of the Return of Names 172
Obituary of Vanished Names.
Genetic Paths for the Study of Names 175
Fictionalization of the Civil Registry 176
Homogenization of the Character Name System 180
PART TWO
NAMES IN THE HISTORY OF 19TH-CENTURY MANNERS
Introduction 187
The "Infinite Nuances" of Names 191
Nostalgia for a Meaningful Onomastic Ancien Régime 191
The Revolution of Proper Names 196
The Decapitation of Names and the "Bizarre Names
of the Republican Calendar" 196
The Reverse Side of Contemporary Onomastics:
Toward the Oblivion and Erasure of Characters 198
The Confusion of Revolutionized Society 203
The Multiplication of Noble Titles:
The Restoration's "Wave of a Wand" 203
The "Savonnette à Vilain" and the "Aristocratic Addition" 205
"The Illegal Superfetation of [the] Particle" 212
Illusions perdues: How to Gain a Noble Name? 215
And Foreign Names? 219
Families, Individuals, and Proper Names 225
(Family) Names 227
Marriage and the Patriarchal Norm 227
Births 231
Lineages of Names 231
The Diversification of First Names and Individuation 233
"What is a kid
who doesn't bear our name?" 239
The Multiplication of Names 239
The Failures of the Civil Registry 243
The Case of Matronymics 244
The Cinq-Cygne: A Historical Curiosity 245
Family Failures: Those Who Do Not Marry 246
Anonymity: On the Margins of Family and Society 249
From Blank Space to Anonymity 249
Hyacinthe, Known as Chabert, Number 164 251
From Family Honor to Individual Celebrity 257
Honor and the Surname 258
The Aristocracy and the "Name That Makes
the Future Bound to the Past" 258
Corsicans and the Vendetta 270
A Bourgeois Honor 272
Celebrity: How to Make a Name for Oneself? 273
Science and Technology: Séchard 274
Politics: Z. Marcas 276
Art: Pierre Grassou 277
Commerce: César Birotteau 279
Finance: Nucingen 283
PART THREE
POETICS OF CHARACTER NAMES
Introduction 291
In the Onomaturge's Workshop 295
The Place of Names in Balzac's Writing.
Genetic Perspectives 295
Programmatic Proper Names on Title Pages 297
A Collection of Proper Names
in a Workbook: Reverie on Names 304
The Onomastic Museum of La Comédie humaine 308
A Poetics of Real Names 308
An Autobiography Through Names 315
The Obsession with the Name-That-Existed 318
And Literature? 325
ONOMASTICS IN LA COMÉDIE HUMAINE: A HERMENEUTICS 327
The Tendency Toward the Motivation of Names 327
The Motivation of Character Names
in La Comédie humaine 327
Outside of La Comédie humaine: The Motivation
of Proper Names in Les Contes drolatiques 330
The Hermeneutics of Character Names 337
The Predestination of Names: The Sterne Method 339
Three Experts in Onomastics:
Rabourdin, Colleville, and the Narrator 348
Wordplay on Names 356
A Reader Specialized in Onomastic Caricature? 363
Nomen duplex 367
The Magic of Names in Amorous Discourse 368
A Religion of the Name 368
An Erotics of Names 371
A Magic of Names 373
An Alchemy of the Name? 376
The Materiality of Names 378
Signs: Color and Trade 380
Posters: The Ephemeral and the Reproducible 385
Business Cards: Presence 386
A Tattoo: The Body 390
Signatures: The Hand 390
Epitaphs: The Cult of the Dead and of Names 398
Conclusion 403
La Comédie humaine and Character Names 403
Names and Things 406
Rivaling Balzac? 408
Appendix I
Inventory of Character Names in La Comédie humaine 413
First Names 414
Surnames 431
Appendix II
Number of Character Names
and Number of Reappearing Names per Novel 473
Appendix III
"Naming" at the Incipit of the Novels 477
Appendix IV
Supplementary Names in La Comédie humaine 481
Appendix V
Obituary of Vanished Names in La Comédie humaine 487
Bibliography 497
Index of Character Names 519
Index of Balzac's Works 529
List of Figures 531
This volume investigates the extensive system of proper names deployed across Honoré de Balzac's fictional universe, examining how thousands of designations operate within the overarching project of La Comédie humaine. The study traces the circulation of character names from their initial appearance to their recurring presence in successive works, analyzing anthroponymic choices through historical, sociological, and theoretical lenses. Attention is given to the administrative status of personal names in the nineteenth century, the mechanics of the civil registry, and the various strategies of naming employed by the narrator from the opening pages of the novels onward.
Further sections explore nicknames, pseudonyms, noble particles, and family lineages, alongside the ways names intersect with social mobility, marriage, and personal identity in nineteenth-century manners. The analysis addresses the motivation behind proper names, the use of wordplay, and the material dimensions of naming, including signatures, business cards, and epitaphs. Readers interested in nineteenth-century French literature, narrative technique, and the poetics of character construction may find this comprehensive examination of Balzacian onomastics particularly relevant to their studies.