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Volume 3: A blow of destiny, the king appears Chapter 63: Stone Monument

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    A busy day.  I saw an advertisement for house sales on the road. It must be an occupational disease!  Will pay attention to relevant information about houses in various places.

    On the case: "Read a mountain with the breath of the sea, taste the sea from the perspective of the mountain" This is probably what it means!  A construction project with mountains on its back and the sea on its back.

    One of the Guardians of Demons - Balzac

    Honor¨¦, de Balzac (1799-1850), a famous French writer in the 19th century, is one of the most accomplished figures in French realism.  He created a total of 91 novels "Human Comedy" with more than 2,400 characters. It is a rare academic monument in the history of anthropology and is known as the encyclopedia of French society.

    Balzac was born into a citizen family in the city of Tours in the Touraine region of France.  His father was a farmer, a fickle man who quickly accumulated wealth through clever tricks. His mother was the daughter of a Parisian banker. Her belief was that wealth was everything.

    Balzac was the eldest son, but rarely received the warmth of his family. Shortly after his birth, he was sent to the suburbs of Tours and was raised by the wife of a gendarme. When he grew up, he attended the Vend?me Mission School. The relationship between Balzac and his mother  It's always been bad, he said: I never had a mother, she was so terrible.

    Balzac has been reading extensively since he was a boy.  After graduating from high school in 1813, Balzac entered the Law School of the University of Paris according to his father's wishes, but he was not interested in law and instead attended many college courses.

    At the same time, he also studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and other natural science courses.  The accumulation of these natural science fields played an important role in the formation of Balzac's style.

    The opportunity when he began to conceive of "The Human Comedy" was influenced by the French biologist Buffon's creation of a natural history of the animal world.

    During his college years, in order to familiarize him with his future career as early as possible, his parents arranged for him to be an intern in the offices of a litigation attorney and a notary public.

    Several years of trainee life have benefited him a lot. Not only did he become familiar with civil procedure, he also had a glimpse of the mysteries of Parisian society from this legal window, and saw the evil under the prosperity.  Accumulate a lot of material for future creations.

    In 1819, Balzac graduated from law school. In the same year, he refused the position in the notary office arranged for him by his family and insisted on taking the path of study without any guarantee of life.

    In order to prove his academic talent to his parents, he worked hard for a year almost without leaving home, and completed his debut poetic drama "Cromwell".

    The result was a huge disappointment.  An academician of the French Academy said after watching the play: The author can do whatever he wants, just don't study.

    In order to get rid of financial dependence on his parents, Balzac used various pen names to concoct and write popular novels for booksellers to make ends meet.

    certainly.  These commercial works, purely for the purpose of making money, would not bring him the honor he expected, and he later even denied that these works were his.

    Subsequently, in order to find a stable source of income for his serious creation, he decided to temporarily abandon business.  Beginning in 1825, he tried his hand at publishing.  He opened a printing factory and a type foundry, but each time he failed.

    Four years of ups and downs in the business world have made him suffer enough from bankruptcy, bankruptcy, liquidation, and debt.  Finally, his mother stepped in to pay off his debt.  Desperate, Balzac had to give up and re-enter the study of creative writing.  All the setbacks in life are transformed into successful creative materials in his writing.

    At this time, Balzac decided to achieve great success in school.  He placed a statue of Napoleon in his study and carved the words on the scabbard of the statue: What he unfinished with his sword, I will finish with my pen!

    1829.  Balzac completed the long historical novel "The Chouans", which was the first historical novel published under the signatures of Honor¨¦ and Balzac.

    Although this novel did not cause a huge response in French society, it won Balzac a solid position in the academic world.

    In 1830, he published eight works including "The Physiology of Marriage", "Suburban Dances", "Cat Ball Shop", "The Loan Shark" and "Donkey Skin".

    The various setbacks and pains in his early life made Balzac write with an almost masochistic diligent attitude.  From 1830, he entered into creation.  Dozens of novels of varying lengths were published at a dizzying speed, each one attracting attention.

    By the time "Eug¨¦nie Grandet" was published in 1833, Balzac was already a famous writer well-known in Europe.

    From 1829 to 1834, it was the first stage of Balzac's creation.  It was also the brewing stage of "Human Comedy".  During this period, he published a total of 42 novels, and most of the short and medium-sized works were born during this period.  For example, "Cat Playing Ball Shop", "Su Town Ball", and "Longevity Potion" published in 1830.

    1831's "Mysticism""Masterpiece", "The Red House Hotel", "Colonel Chabe" in 1832, "The Priest of Tours", etc.  The novels "Donkey Skin" and "Eugenie and Grandet" are also the results of this stage.

    For Balzac, the most significant event at this stage was the completion of his grand plan for "The Human Comedy".

    He decided to serialize all his works.  At first, he named this huge work framework "Social Studies", but later changed it to "Human Comedy" due to the influence of Dante's "Divine Comedy" (originally literally translated as "Divine Comedy").  It is divided into three parts: custom research, philosophical research and analytical research.

    Balzac wanted to compare all the disputes, joys and sorrows in the world to scenes on the big stage of life, scenes of tragedies and comedies.

    Starting from the publication of "Petro Goriot" in 1835, Balzac entered the second stage of his creative career, that is, the stage of planned creation for "The Human Comedy".

    "Petro Goriot" is undoubtedly the most outstanding work of this period. The novel truly shows all aspects of Parisian society and exposes the sins of human nature corroded by money.

    During this period, Balzac published a total of 16 novels, 10 novellas and 8 short stories.  Including "Eve's Daughter", "Antique Showroom", "The Woman Who Stirred the Water" and so on.

    Among them, "Disillusionment", published in 1839, is another outstanding work after "Petro Goriot". The novel's criticism and exposure of the press and publishing industry caused an uproar. A siege and pen war lasted for several years. After that, Balzac  Almost all works are maliciously attacked by the press.

    In 1841, Balzac and the publisher formally signed a publishing contract for 16 volumes of "The Human Comedy".  All his early works are compiled in it.  form an orderly whole.

    In 1842, Balzac's creation entered the third stage, the stage of systematic publication of "The Human Comedy".  While revising and compiling old works, new works are constantly being added.

    "Peasants", which reflects the disintegration of the manor economy, is an important achievement of this stage.  The Human Comedy was published at the rate of three to four volumes per year.  By 1846, 16 volumes had been published.

    From the autumn of 1846 to the spring of 1847, he published two more novels, "Aunt Betty" and "Uncle Bunce". These two works were supplemented into the seventeenth volume of "Human Comedy", published in 1848.

    So far, a "Human Comedy" consisting of more than 90 novels has been basically completed.

    In order to complete the huge creative plan of "Human Comedy".  Balzac worked day and night for 20 years.

    He often goes to bed at 6 o'clock every night, gets up at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night, puts on the Saint-Domingue monk's robe, lights four candles, and works for 16 hours at a stretch.  Only at 7 o'clock in the morning could I take a shower and take a short rest. The publisher would then send someone to get the manuscript. In 1834, I had to write 20 hours a day.

    Balzac's biographer Sbury said that no one can tell whether he was living or writing.

    With his thoughts gushing and his writing flying, he finished the hundreds of thousands of words of "Old Man Goriot" in one go in three days.  "The Country Doctor" took 72 hours to write, and "Seza, Birotteau" was written in 25 hours.

    Balzac often also served as proofreader, and a manuscript had to be revised six or seven times, which was very drastic.  You can change it as you like until you are satisfied; sometimes you will also ask for changes to the published content, which will increase the publisher's expenses, and the two will occasionally have disputes.

    ??A 200-page book.  The total proofs are often more than 2,000 pages.  Balzac neither smoked nor drank.  However, in order to ensure that he was awake when writing, Balzac was addicted to strong coffee. Whenever he had time during the day, he would go to the streets of Paris to buy coffee beans.

    There is no milk or sugar in the coffee, and it is so bitter that it can paralyze the stomach. He once said: I will die from 30,000 cups of coffee.  , some experts have calculated that he drank about 50,000 cups of strong coffee in his life.

    In addition, he was troubled by debt problems throughout his life, was constantly pursued by loan sharks and publishers, and was often forced to flee his residence to avoid debts. Balzac's health deteriorated from the age of 40, and he became seriously ill after the age of 50.

    Balzac had many dreams in his life, and marrying a rich lady was one of them. The 24-year-old Balzac once fell in love with the 44-year-old Madame Berni. At that time, Balzac was unknown, and his wife often  Help him.

    Madame Berny is said to be the only woman who truly loved Balzac.

    After he became famous, he visited the salons of France's upper class society. He had several residences and villas in Paris. He rode in the most gorgeous carriages when he went out. His servants all wore uniforms. He had affairs with many mistresses and had several illegitimate children. He also borrowed money from his girlfriends and mistresses.  Pay off debt.

    Once he had money, he spent it carelessly and indulged in luxury. His mother asked him to borrow money, but Balzac was reluctant to lend it.

    In 1850, he married Mrs. Hanska, who had been in love for a long time, in Russia. After the wedding, the two returned to France.  Balzac fell ill on the way and was almost blind.??

    When he arrived in Paris, he was already ill. In his coma, he called out the names of the miraculous characters Billoan and Horace in "The Human Comedy": If Billoan were here, he would definitely save me!  On August 18, Balzac passed away, ending his hard-working life.

    91 episodes of "Human Comedy" have been completed.  Three days later, a funeral was held at Lachaise Cemetery, and the procession of Parisian citizens who came to pay their respects stretched for several streets.

    The famous French sculptor Rodin personally sculpted a bust of him.  Shortly after his death, his wife lived with a painter nicknamed Gray Lice, but still paid off all debts for Balzac and published his complete works.

    Balzac¡¯s position in the history of French scholarship is very important.  Before him, French novels had never been able to completely get rid of the story pattern, and there were certain limitations in subject matter, content and artistic expression.

    Balzac expanded the artistic space of the novel and expanded the subject matter of the novel almost infinitely, allowing all aspects of society to be described, including those things that seemed to be incompatible with the poetic and artistic conception of the novel.

    He drew on the characteristics of other academic subjects and integrated various art forms such as drama, epic, painting, and modeling into the creation of novels. For the first time in the history of Western academics, he greatly enriched the artistic skills of novels.

    Critic Taine praised him and said: What truly makes him a philosopher, and what transcends all great arts, is that all his works are combined into one work, and all the works are connected to each other and share the same character.  appear repeatedly and are related to each other.

    No artist has ever gathered so much brilliance in the characters he describes, and there has never been such perfection. The reason why Balzac is truly great is that he grasped reality and the whole, his great system,  And it unites his paintings powerfully, faithfully and interestingly.

    Balzac¡¯s greatest contribution to realism lies in his detailed portrayal of typical characters and social customs, and his expression of the changes and development of characters in the social environment.

    He used a chronicle to describe the increasing impact of the rising bourgeoisie on aristocratic society year by year.  The characters he created such as Goriot, Grandet, Gobsek, Rastignac, Lucien, Aunt Bet, Voutolin, etc. have almost become model images for representatives of different types of bourgeoisie in the study of history, and will play a vital role in future generations of bourgeoisie.  Realism had a profound impact.  Although these characters are all typical, they have distinctive personalities.

    Although Balzac¡¯s novels ruthlessly exposed the injustice and darkness of society, others did not approve of large-scale social revolutions, which was why he did not join the French Romanticism movement, which was so powerful at the time.  He once said: Nothing can change the hierarchical system of human society except slow improvement.

    Balzac¡¯s self-evaluation is: If I collect all the stones thrown at me, I can build the largest monument to scientists.  My acquisition of other people's things is not stealing, but conquest and merging.
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