The main characters of O. Balzac

14. The theme of money and the image of a miser in the works of Balzac: “Gobsek”, “Eugenie Grande”, etc.

The theme of the power of money is one of the main ones in Balzac’s work and runs like a red thread in The Human Comedy.

"Gobsek" written in 1830 and included in Scenes of Private Life. This is a mini-novel. It begins with a frame - the ruined Viscountess de Granlier was once helped by the solicitor Derville, and now wants to help her daughter marry Ernest de Resto (son of the Countess de Resto, ruined by his mother, but just the other day, according to Derville, entering into inheritance rights Already here is the theme of the power of money: a girl cannot marry the young man she likes, because he does not have 2 million, and if he did, then she would have many contenders). Derville tells the Viscountess and her daughter the story of Gobsek, a moneylender. The main character is one of the rulers of the new France. A strong, exceptional personality, Gobsek is internally contradictory. “Two creatures live in him: a miser and a philosopher, a vile creature and a sublime one,” says lawyer Derville about him.

Gobsek's image– almost romantic. Telling surname: Gobsek is translated from French as “guzzler”. It is no coincidence that clients turn to him only last, because he takes into account even the most unreliable bills, but takes hellish interest from them (50, 100, 500. Out of friendship, he can give 12%, this, in his opinion, is only for great merits and high moral). Appearance: " moon face, Facial features, motionless, impassive, like Talleyrand, they seemed cast from bronze. The eyes, small and yellow, like those of a ferret, and almost without eyelashes, could not stand the bright light" His age was a mystery, his past is little known (they say that in his youth he sailed on a ship and visited most countries of the world), he has one great passion - for the power that money gives. These features allow us to consider Gobsek as a romantic hero. Balzac uses more than 20 similes for this image: a man-bill, an automaton, a golden statue. The main metaphor, Gobsek’s leitmotif, is “silence, like in the kitchen when a duck is killed.” Like Mr. Grandet (see below), Gobsek lives in poverty, although he is terribly rich. Gobsek has his own poetry and philosophy of wealth: gold rules the world.

He cannot be called evil, because he helps honest people who came to him without trying to deceive him. There were only two of them: Derville and Count de Resto. But he also takes an extortionate percentage from them, explaining this very simply. He doesn’t want their relationship to be bound by a feeling of gratitude, which can make even friends enemies.

Gobsek's image is idealized, he is expressive, and gravitates towards the grotesque. He is practically asexual (although he appreciates female beauty) and has gone beyond passions. He enjoys only power over the passions of other people: “I am rich enough to buy other people's consciences. Life is a machine driven by money.”

He dies like a true miser - alone, his stinginess reaches fantastic limits. He accepts gifts from his debtors, including food, tries to resell them, but is too intractable, and in the end it all rots in his house. Everywhere there are traces of crazy hoarding. Money falls out of books. The quintessence of this stinginess is the pile of gold that the old man, for lack of a better place, buried in the fireplace ashes.

Balzac initially existed within the framework of the romantic movement, but the image of Gobsek is given with the help of the narrator - Mr. Derville, and romantic exaggeration is objectified, the author is eliminated from it.

"Evgenia Grande" belongs to the novels of the “second style” (repetitions, comparisons and coincidences), is included in “Scenes of Provincial Life”, and it develops the theme of the power of money and has its own image of the miser - Felix Grande, the father of the main character. The path to describing Eugenie's character begins with her surroundings: the house, the history of her father Grande and his wealth. His stinginess, monomania - all this influenced the character and fate of the main character. Little things in which his stinginess is manifested: he saves on sugar, firewood, uses the food reserves of his tenants, consumes only the worst of the products grown on his lands, considers 2 eggs for breakfast a luxury, gives Evgenia old expensive coins for her birthdays, but constantly monitors so that she doesn’t spend it, she lives in a poor dilapidated house, although she is fabulously rich. Unlike Gobsek, Father Grande is completely unprincipled in accumulating wealth: he violates the agreement with neighboring winemakers, selling wine at exorbitant prices before others, and even knows how to benefit from the ruin of his brother, taking advantage of the fall in the price of bills.

The novel, seemingly devoid of deep passions, in fact simply transfers these passions from the love sphere to the market. The main action of the novel is the transactions of Father Grande, his accumulation of money. Passions are realized in money and are also bought for money.

U Father Grande- his values, views on the world, characterizing him as a miser. For him, the worst thing is not the loss of his father, but the loss of his fortune. He cannot understand why Charles Grandet is so upset about his father’s suicide, and not about the fact that he is ruined. For him, bankruptcy, intentional or unintentional, is the most terrible sin on earth: “To be bankrupt means to commit the most shameful of all acts that can disgrace a person. A highway robber is even better than an insolvent debtor: the robber attacks you, you can defend yourself, at least he risks his neck, but this one...”

Papa Grande is a classic image of a miser, miser, monomaniac and ambitious. Its main idea is to possess gold, to physically feel it. It is no coincidence that when his wife dies and he tries to show her all his tenderness, he throws gold coins on the blanket. Before his death, a symbolic gesture - he does not kiss the golden crucifix, but tries to grab it. From the love of gold grows the spirit of despotism. In addition to his love of money, similar to the “Stingy Knight,” another of his features is cunning, which manifests itself even in his appearance: a bump on his nose with veins that moved slightly when Father Grande was planning some trick.

Like Gobsek, at the end of his life his stinginess takes on painful traits. Unlike Gobsek, even at the moment of death maintaining a sound mind, this man loses his mind. He constantly rushes to his office, makes his daughter move bags of money, and asks all the time: “Are they there?”

The theme of the power of money is the main one in the novel. Money rules everything: it plays a major role in the fate of a young girl. They trample all human moral values. Felix Grande counts the profits at his brother's obituary. Evgenia is interesting to men only as a rich heiress. Because she gave the coins to Charles, her father almost cursed her, and her mother died from nervous shock because of this. Even the actual engagement of Eugenia and Charles is an exchange of material values ​​(gold coins for a gold box). Charles marries for convenience, and when he meets Evgenia, he perceives her more as a rich bride, although, judging by her lifestyle, he comes to the conclusion that she is poor. Evgenia’s marriage is also a trade deal; for money she buys complete independence from her husband.

15. Character and environment in Balzac’s novel “Eugenie Grande”.

“Eugenie Grande” (1833) is a truly realistic stage in Balzac’s work. This is a drama contained in the simplest circumstances. Two of his important qualities appeared: observation and clairvoyance, talent - depicting the causes of events and actions, accessible to the artist’s vision. At the center of the novel is the fate of a woman who is doomed to loneliness, despite all her 19 million francs, and her “mold-colored life.” This work “is not like anything I have created so far,” the writer himself notes: “Here the conquest of absolute truth in art has been completed: here the drama is contained in the simplest circumstances of private life.” The subject of depiction in the new novel is bourgeois everyday life in its outwardly unremarkable course. The scene is the typical French provincial city of Saumur. The characters are Saumur townsfolk, whose interests are limited to a narrow circle of everyday concerns, petty squabbles, gossip and the pursuit of gold. The cult of cleanliness is dominant here. It contains an explanation of the rivalry between two eminent families of the city - the Cruchots and the Grassins, who are fighting for the hand of the heroine of the novel, Eugenie, the heir to the multimillion-dollar fortune of “Papa Grande”. Life, gray in its wretched monotony, becomes the background of Eugenia’s tragedy, a tragedy of a new type - “bourgeois... without poison, without a dagger, without blood, but for the characters more cruel than all the dramas that took place in the famous family of Atrides.”

IN character Eugenia Grande Balzac showed a woman’s ability to love and remain faithful to her beloved. This is an almost perfect character. But the novel is realistic, with a system of techniques for analyzing modern life. Her happiness never materialized, and the reason for this was not the omnipotence of Felix Grande, but Charles himself, who betrayed his youthful love in the name of money and position in the world. Thus, forces hostile to Eugenia ultimately prevailed over Balzac’s heroine, depriving her of what she was intended for by nature itself. The theme of a lonely, disappointed woman, her loss of romantic illusions.

The structure of the novel is of the “second manner”. One theme, one conflict, few characters. This is a novel that begins with everyday life, an epic of private life. Balzac knew provincial life. He showed boredom, everyday events. But something more is put into the environment, things - this Wednesday, which determines the character of the heroes. Small details help to reveal the character of the heroes: the father, saving on sugar, the knock on the door of Charles Grandet, unlike the knock of provincial visitors, Chairman Cruchot, trying to erase his surname, who signs “K. de Bonfon”, since he recently bought the de Bonfon estate, etc. The path to Eugenia's character consists of a description of everything that surrounds her: the old house, Father Grande and the history of his wealth, accurate information about the family, the struggle for her hand between two clans - the Cruchots and the de Grassins. The father is an important factor in the formation of the novel: the stinginess and monomania of Felix Grande, his power, to which Eugenia submits, largely determines her character; later, the stinginess and mask of the father’s indifference is passed on to her, although not in such a strong form. It turns out that the Saumur millionaire (formerly a simple cooper) laid the foundations of his well-being during the Great French Revolution, which gave him access to the ownership of the richest lands expropriated by the republic from the clergy and nobility. During the Napoleonic period, Grandet became mayor of the city and used this post to build a “superior railway” to his possessions, thereby increasing their value. The former cooper is already called Mr. Grande and receives the Order of the Legion of Honor. The conditions of the Restoration era did not hinder the growth of his well-being - it was at this time that he doubled his wealth. The Saumur bourgeoisie is typical of France at that time. Grande, a former simple cooper, laid the foundations of his wealth during the years of the revolution, which gave him access to the ownership of the richest land. During the Napoleonic period, Grande became mayor of the city and used this post to build a “superior road” to his possessions, thereby increasing their value. The former cooper is already called Mr. Grande and receives the Order of the Legion of Honor. The conditions of the Restoration era do not hinder the growth of his well-being - he doubles his wealth. The Saumur bourgeoisie is typical of France at that time. In discovering the “roots” of the Grande phenomenon, the historicism of Balzac’s artistic thinking, which underlies the ever-increasing deepening of his realism, is manifested in all its maturity.

The adventure and love that readers expect is missing. Instead of adventures, there are stories of people: the story of the enrichment of Grande and Charles, instead of a love line, deals with Father Grande.

Evgeniya's image. She has a monastic quality and the ability to suffer. Another characteristic feature of her is ignorance of life, especially at the beginning of the novel. She doesn’t know how much money is a lot and how much is little. Her father doesn't tell her how rich she is. Eugenia, with her indifference to gold, high spirituality and natural desire for happiness, dares to come into conflict with Father Grande. The origins of the dramatic collision lie in the heroine’s emerging love for Charles. In the fight for Charlyaon, he shows rare audacity, again manifested in “little truthful facts” (secretly from his father, he feeds Charles a second breakfast, brings him extra pieces of sugar, lights the fireplace, although it’s not supposed to, and, most importantly, gives him a collection of coins, although he has no right to dispose of them). For Grande, Eugenie’s marriage to the “beggar” Charles is impossible, and he floats his nephew to India, paying for his way to Nantes. However, even in separation, Evgenia remains faithful to her chosen one. And if her happiness never materialized, then the reason for this is not the omnipotence of Felix Grande, but Charles himself, who betrayed his youthful love in the name of money and position in the world. Thus, forces hostile to Eugenia ultimately prevailed over Balzac’s heroine, depriving her of what she was intended for by nature itself.

The final touch: betrayed by Charles, having lost the meaning of life along with love, the internally devastated Eugenie at the end of the novel by inertia continues to exist, as if fulfilling her father’s behest: “Despite eight hundred thousand livres of income, she still lives the same way as poor Eugenie Grande lived before , lights the stove in her room only on those days when her father allowed her... Always dressed like her mother dressed. The Saumur house, without sun, without heat, constantly shrouded in shadow and filled with melancholy - a reflection of her life. She carefully collects her income and, perhaps, could seem like a hoarder if she did not refute the slander with the noble use of her wealth... The greatness of her soul conceals the pettiness instilled in her by her upbringing and the skills of the first period of her life. This is the story of this woman - a woman not of the world in the midst of the world, created for the greatness of a wife and mother and who received neither a husband, nor children, nor a family.”

16. The plot and composition of the novels “Père Goriot” and “Lost Illusions”: similarities and differences.

both novels

Composition.

In Lost Illusions, the plot develops linearly, what happens in Lucien. Start with the printing house - and then all the twists and turns

1. "Père Goriot"

Composition: Its composition seems to be linear, chronic. In fact there are a lot of backstories, and they are very natural, as if one of the characters learns something about the other. This interaction is a mechanism of secrets and intrigue - Vautrin, Rastignac, betrayal - it seems to be a chronicle day after day. However, this is a novel that provides a broad picture of social life.

Balzac faced the need transformation of the poetics of the traditional novel, which is usually based on the principles of chronicle linear composition. The novel proposes a new type of novel action with pronounced dramatic beginning.

Plot:

Balzac uses a fairly well-known plot (almost the Shakespearean story of King Lear), but interprets it in a unique way.

Among Balzac's creative recordings, entitled "Thoughts, plots, fragments", there is a short sketch: “The old man - a family boarding house - 600 francs of rent - deprives himself of everything for the sake of his daughters, both of whom have an income of 50,000 francs; dies like a dog." In this sketch, you can easily recognize the story of Goriot’s boundless fatherly love, desecrated by his daughters.

The novel shows the boundless, sacrificial love of a father for his children, which turned out to be not mutual. And which ultimately killed Goriot.

The story begins with the boarding house Vauquet, where Goriot lives. Everyone in the boarding house knows him, treats him extremely unkindly and calls him nothing more than “Père Goriot.” Together with him, young Rastignac also lives in the boarding house, who, by the will of fate, learns the tragic fate of Goriot. It turns out that he was a small merchant who amassed a huge fortune, but squandered it on his adored daughters (Rastignac becomes the lover of one of them), and they, in turn, squeezed everything they could out of their father and abandoned him. And it was not a matter of noble and rich sons-in-law, but of the daughters themselves, who, having entered high society, began to be embarrassed by their father. Even when Goriot was dying, the daughters did not deign to come and help their father. They didn't show up at the funeral either. This story became the impetus for the young Rastignac, who decided to conquer Paris and its inhabitants at all costs.

SIMILARITIES: both of these works are parts of Balzac’s “human comedy”. One environment, approximately one society, AND!!! a person encounters this society and, in fact, loses some of his illusions, naivety, faith in goodness (we continue in the same spirit).

19. The image of Rastignac and his place in Balzac’s “Human Comedy”.

The image of Rastignac in "C.K." - the image of a young man who wins personal well-being. His path is the path of the most consistent and steady ascent. The loss of illusions, if it occurs, is accomplished relatively painlessly.

IN "Pere Goriot" Rastignac still believes in goodness and is proud of his purity. My life is “pure as a lily.” He is of noble aristocratic origin, comes to Paris to make a career and enroll in law school. He lives in Madame Vake's boarding house with his last money. He has access to the Viscountess de Beauseant's salon. In terms of social status, he is poor. Rastignac's life experience consists of a collision of two worlds (the convict Vautrin and the Viscountess). Rastignac considers Vautrin and his views above aristocratic society, where crimes are petty. “Nobody needs honesty,” says Vautrin. “The colder you expect, the further you will go.” Its intermediate position is typical for that time. With his last money, he arranges a funeral for the poor Goriot.

He soon realizes that his situation is bad and will lead nowhere, that he must sacrifice honesty, spit on his pride and resort to meanness.

In the novel "Banker's House" tells about Rastignac's first business successes. Using the help of the husband of his mistress Delphine, Goriot's daughter, Baron de Nucingen, he makes his fortune through clever play on stocks. He is a classic opportunist.

IN "Shagreen skin"- a new stage in the evolution of Rastignac. Here he is already an experienced strategist who has long said goodbye to all illusions. This is an outright cynic who has learned to lie and be a hypocrite. He is a classic opportunist. In order to prosper, he teaches Raphael, you need to climb forward and sacrifice all moral principles.

Rastignac is a representative of that army of young people who followed not the path of open crime, but the path of adaptation carried out by means of legal crime. Financial policy is robbery. He is trying to adapt to the bourgeois throne.

20. The main conflict and arrangement of images in the novel “Père Goriot”.

The novel is an important part of the artistic history of society of the last century conceived by the writer. Among Balzac’s creative notes, entitled “Thoughts, plots, fragments”, there is a short sketch: “The old man - a family boarding house - 600 francs of rent - deprives himself of everything for the sake of his daughters, both of whom have an income of 50,000 francs; dies like a dog." In this sketch, you can easily recognize the story of Goriot’s boundless fatherly love, desecrated by his daughters.

The image of Father Goriot, of course, is, if not the main one in the novel, then at least one of the main ones, since the entire plot consists of the story of his love for his daughters.

Balzac describes him as the last of all the “freeloaders” in Madame Vauquer’s house. Balzac writes “...As in schools, as in corrupt circles, and here, among eighteen parasites, there turned out to be a wretched, outcast creature, a scapegoat, on whom ridicule rained down (...) Next, Balzac describes the story of Goriot in the boarding house - how he appeared there, how he filmed a more expensive room and was “Mr. Goriot,” as he began to rent rooms cheaper and cheaper until he became what he was at the time of the story. Balzac further writes: “However, no matter how vile his vices or behavior were, hostility towards him did not go so far as to expel him: he paid for the boarding house. Moreover, there was also benefit from him: everyone, ridiculing or bullying him, poured out their good or bad mood.” Thus, we see how all the boarding house residents treated Father Goriot and what their communication with him was like. As Balzac further writes about the attitude of the residents towards Father Goriot, “He inspired disgust in some, pity in others.”

Further, the image of Goriot's father is revealed through his attitude towards his daughters, Anastasi and Eugene. Already through the description of his actions, it is clear how much he loves his daughters, how much he is ready to sacrifice everything for them, while they seem to love him, but do not appreciate him. At the same time, at first it seems to the reader that Goriot, behind his boundless love for his daughters, does not see this certain indifference to himself, does not feel that they do not value him - he constantly finds some kind of explanation for their behavior, is content with what he can only out of the corner of his eye he sees his daughter passing him in a carriage; he can only come to them through the back door. He doesn’t seem to notice that they are ashamed of him, doesn’t pay attention to it. However, Balzac gives his point of view on what is happening - that is, outwardly Goriot seems not to pay attention to how his daughters behave, but inside “... the poor man’s heart was bleeding. He saw that his daughters were ashamed of him, and since they love their husbands, then he is a hindrance for their sons-in-law (...) the old man sacrificed himself, that’s why he is a father; he expelled himself from their houses, and the daughters were pleased; noticing this, he realized that he had done the right thing (...) This father gave away everything.. He gave his soul, his love for twenty years, and he gave away his fortune in one day. The daughters squeezed the lemon and threw it into the street.”

Of course, the reader feels sorry for Goriot; the reader immediately feels compassion for him. Father Goriot loved his daughters so much that even the state in which he was - for the most part, precisely because of them - he endured, dreaming only that his daughters would be happy. “By equating his daughters to angels, the poor fellow thereby elevated them above himself; he even loved the evil that he suffered from them,” writes Balzac about how Goriot raised his daughters.

At the same time, Goriot himself, realizing that his daughters are treating him unfairly and incorrectly, says the following: “Both daughters love me very much. As a father I am happy. But two sons-in-law behaved badly with me.” That is, we see that he in no way blames his daughters for anything, shifting all the blame onto his sons-in-law, who, in fact, are much less to blame for him than his daughters. »

And only dying, when none of his daughters came to him, although both knew that he was dying, Goriot says out loud everything that the reader was thinking about while watching the development of the plot. “They both have hearts of stone. I loved them too much for them to love me,” Goriot says of his daughters. This is what he did not want to admit to himself: “I have completely atoned for my sin - my excessive love. They cruelly repaid me for my feeling - like executioners, they tore my body with pincers (...) They don’t love me and never have loved me! (...) I'm too stupid. They imagine that everyone's father is just like their father. You must always keep yourself in value.”

“If fathers are trampled under foot, the fatherland will perish. It is clear. Society, the whole world is held together by fatherhood, everything will collapse if children stop loving their fathers,” says Goriot, thereby, in my opinion, voicing one of the main ideas of the work.

13. Concept and structure of Balzac's "Human Comedy".

1. Concept. In 1834, Balzac conceived the idea of ​​creating a multi-volume work, which was to become an artistic history and artistic philosophy of France. Initially, he wanted to call it “Studies of Morals”; later, in the 40s, he decided to call this huge work “ A human comedy”, by analogy with Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. The task is to emphasize the comedy inherent in this era, but at the same time not to deny humanity to its heroes. The Cheka was supposed to include 150 works, of which 92 were written, works of the first, second and third manners of Balzac. It was necessary not only to write new works, but also to significantly rework the old ones so that they corresponded to the plan. The works included in the “Chka” had the following features:

ü A combination of several storylines and dramatic construction;

ü Contrast and juxtaposition;

ü Leitmotifs;

ü The theme of the power of money (in almost all sections of The Human Comedy);

ü The main conflict of the era is the struggle between man and society;

ü Shows his characters objectively, through material manifestations;

ü Pays attention to little things - the path of a truly realistic writer;

ü The typical and individual in the characters are dialectically interconnected. The category of typical applies to both circumstances and events that determine the movement of the plot in novels.

ü Cyclization (the hero of "Chka" is considered as a living person about whom more can be told. For example, Rastignac appears, in addition to "Père Goriot", in "Shagreen Skin", "The Banker's House of Nucingen" and barely flashes in "Lost Illusions").

The intention of this work is most fully reflected in “ Preface to The Human Comedy”, written 13 years after the start of the implementation of the plan. The idea of ​​this work, according to Balzac, “was born from comparisons of humanity with the animal world", namely, from the immutable law: " Everyone for themselves, - on which the unity of the organism is based.” Human society, in this sense, is similar to nature: “After all, Society creates from man, according to the environment in which he operates, as many diverse species as there are in the animal world.” If Buffon tried to represent the entire animal world in his book, why not try to do the same with society, although, of course, the description here will be more extensive, and women and men are completely different from male and female animals, since often a woman does not depend on men and plays an independent role in life. In addition, if descriptions of the habits of animals are unchanged, then the habits of people and their environment change at every stage of civilization. Thus, Balzac was going to " to embrace three forms of existence: men, women and things, that is, people and the material embodiment of their thinking - in a word, to depict a person and life».

In addition to the animal world, the idea of ​​the “Human Comedy” was influenced by the fact that there were many historical documents, and history of human morals was not written. It is this story that Balzac has in mind when he says: “Chance is the greatest novelist of the world; to be prolific, you need to study it. The historian itself was supposed to be the French Society; I could only be its secretary».

But it was not only his task to describe the history of morals. To earn the praise of readers (and Balzac considered this the goal of any artist), “ it was necessary to reflect on the principles of nature and discover in what ways human Societies move away from or approach the eternal law, truth, and beauty" A writer must have strong opinions on matters of morality and politics; he must consider himself a teacher of people.

Truthfulness of details. The novel "would not have any meaning if it were not truthful in detail" Balzac attaches the same importance to constant, everyday, secret or obvious facts, as well as to the events of personal life, their causes and motivations, as historians have hitherto attached to the events of the social life of peoples.

The implementation of the plan required a huge number of characters. There are more than two thousand of them in The Human Comedy. And we know everything necessary about each of them: their origin, parents (sometimes even distant ancestors), relatives, friends and enemies, previous and current income and occupations, exact addresses, apartment furnishings, the contents of wardrobes and even the names of the tailors who sewed them. costumes. The story of Balzac's heroes, as a rule, does not end in the finale of a particular work. Moving on to other novels, stories, short stories, they continue to live, experiencing ups and downs, hopes or disappointments, joys or torments, since the society of which they are organic particles is alive. The interconnection of these “returning” heroes holds together the fragments of the grandiose fresco, giving rise to the polysyllabic unity of the “Human Comedy”.

2. Structure.

Balzac's task was to write a history of the morals of France in the 19th century - to depict two or three thousand typical people of this era. Such a multitude of lives required certain frames, or “galleries.” This is where the entire structure of The Human Comedy comes from. It is divided into 6 parts:

· Scenes of private life(this includes "Père Goriot" - the first work written in accordance with the general plan of the Cheka , "Gobsek"). « These scenes depict childhood, youth, their delusions»;

· Scenes of provincial life (« Evgenia Grande" and part " Lost illusions" - "Two poets"). " Mature age, passions, calculations, interests and ambition»;

· Scenes of Parisian life (« Banking house of Nucingen»). « A picture of tastes, vices and all the unbridled manifestations of life caused by the morals characteristic of the capital, where extreme good and extreme evil meet simultaneously»;

· Scenes of political life. « A very special life, in which the interests of many are reflected, is a life that takes place outside the general framework.” One principle: for monarchs and statesmen there are two moralities: great and small;

· Scenes of military life. « Societies in a state of highest tension, emerging from their usual state. Least complete piece of work»;

· Scenes of rural life. « Drama of social life. In this section are found the purest characters and the realization of the great principles of order, politics and morality».

Paris and the provinces are socially opposite. Not only people, but also the most important events differ in typical images. Balzac tried to give an idea of ​​the different areas of France. "Comedy" has its own geography, as well as its own genealogy, its own families, setting, characters and facts, it also has its own armorial, its own nobility and bourgeoisie, its own artisans and peasants, politicians and dandies, its own army - in a word, the whole world.

These six sections are the basis of The Human Comedy. Above it rises the second part, consisting of philosophical studies, where the social engine of all events finds expression. Balzac discovers this main “social engine” in the struggle of egoistic passions and material interests that characterize the public and private life of France in the first half of the 19th century. (" Shagreen leather" - connects scenes of morals with philosophical studies. Life is depicted in a fight with Desire, the beginning of every Passion. The fantastic image of shagreen skin does not conflict with the realistic method of depicting reality. All events are strictly motivated in the novel by a natural coincidence of circumstances (Raphael, who had just wished for an orgy, came out from an antique shop, unexpectedly encounters friends who take him to a “luxurious feast” in Taillefer’s house; at the feast, the hero accidentally meets with a notary, who has been looking for the heir of a deceased millionaire for two weeks, who turns out to be Raphael, etc.) Higher than philosophical – analytical studies(for example, “Physiology of Marriage”).

There are 3 stages in Balzac’s work:

1. 1820s (the writer’s proximity to the romantic school)

2. The 2nd half of the 1830s is the period of creative maturation of Balzac the realist (during this period such works as “Gobsek”, “Shagreen Skin”, “Père Goriot”, etc. were published).

3. mid-30s (the beginning of the period is associated with the work on “Lost Illusions,” the first volume of which was published in 1837) – the heyday of the writer’s creative powers. 1837-1847 - the embodiment of the concept of the “Human Comedy”.

As noted earlier, the idea of ​​​​combining works into an epic appeared in Balzac after the publication of the novel “Eugenie Grande”. In 1834, he wrote to E. Ganskaya about working on a “large collection of works.” Under the general title “Social Studies”, “it will unite all these individual fragments, capitals, columns, supports, bas-reliefs, walls, domes - in a word, it will create a monument that will turn out to be ugly or beautiful...”.

Initially, Balzac plans autonomous editions of “Etudes of Morals of the 19th Century” (in October 1833, an agreement was concluded to publish 24 volumes) and “Philosophical Etudes” (in July 1834, the writer undertook to publish 5 volumes by the end of the year). Obviously, at the same time it becomes clear to him that the two main channels of his creative endeavors must merge into a single stream: a realistic depiction of morals requires a philosophical understanding of the facts. At the same time, the idea of ​​“Analytical Studies” arose, which would include “The Physiology of Marriage” (1829). Thus, according to the plan of 1834, the future epic should include three large sections, like three tiers of a pyramid, towering one above the other.

The basis of the pyramid should be the “Etudes of Morals”, in which Balzac intends to depict all social phenomena so that for one life situation, not a single character, not a single layer of society is forgotten. “Fictitious facts will not find a place here, because only what is happening everywhere will be described,” the writer emphasized. The second tier is “Philosophical Studies”, because after the consequences it is necessary to show the reasons, after “an overview of society”, it is necessary to “pass a verdict on it.” In “Analytical Studies” the beginnings of things must be determined. “Morals are the performance, reasons are the scenes and mechanisms of the stage. The beginning is the author... as the work reaches the heights of thought, it, like a spiral, contracts and thickens. If “Etudes of Morals” requires 24 volumes, then “Philosophical Etudes” will need only 15 volumes, and “Analytical Etudes” only 9.”

Later, Balzac will try to connect the birth of the idea of ​​the “Human Comedy” with the achievements of contemporary natural science, in particular with the system of unity of organisms by Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire. It was his acquaintance with these achievements (as well as with the achievements of French historiography of the 1820s and 30s) that contributed to the formation of his own system. In other words, in “The Human Comedy” Balzac wanted, inspired by the works of great naturalists who had already come to the idea of ​​​​the mutual connection of all life processes, of their unity in nature, to present the same unity of all phenomena of social life. The multifaceted and multidimensional world of the “Human Comedy” will represent Balzac’s system of the unity of organisms, in which everything is interconnected and interdependent.

The concept of the work matures gradually, its plan will mainly be drawn up by 1835.

By the time Lost Illusions is published, the plan to create a single cycle of works about modernity will be finalized. In 1832, at the time the general plan for the epic was drawn up, it did not yet have a name. It will be born later (by analogy with Dante’s “Divine Comedy”). From a letter to Ganskaya dated June 1, 1841, it is known that it was during this period that the writer decided what the cycle would finally be called.

In 1842, the Preface to the “Human Comedy” appeared - a kind of manifesto of the writer, aware of the innovative nature of the ensemble of works he was creating.

In the Preface, Balzac will outline the main provisions of his aesthetic theory and explain in detail the essence of his plan. It will formulate the basic aesthetic principles on which Balzac relies when creating his epic, and tells about the writer’s plans.

Balzac notes that, inspired by the works of great naturalists who came to the idea that all organisms and life processes are interconnected, he wanted to show the same connection of all phenomena of social life. He points out that his work should “encompass 3 forms of existence of men, women and things, that is, people and people and the material embodiment of their thinking - in a word, depict a person and life.”

The goal of a systematic and comprehensive study of reality dictates to the writer the method of artistic cyclization: within the framework of one novel or even a trilogy it is impossible to realize such a grandiose plan. We need an extensive cycle of works on one topic (the life of modern society), which should be presented consistently in many interrelated aspects.

The author of The Human Comedy feels like the creator of his own world, created by analogy with the real world. “My work has its own geography, as well as its genealogy, its families, its localities, settings, characters and facts, it also has its own armorial, its nobility and bourgeoisie, its artisans and peasants, politicians and dandies, its army - in a word, the whole world." This world lives an independent life. And since everything in it is based on the laws of real reality, in its historical authenticity it ultimately surpasses this reality itself. Because patterns that are sometimes difficult to discern (due to the flow of accidents) in the real world take on a clearer and clearer form in the world created by the writer. The world of The Human Comedy is based on a complex system of interrelations between people and events, which Balzac comprehended by studying the life of contemporary France. Therefore, it is possible to fully understand the poetic world of the writer only by perceiving the entire epic in its multidimensional unity, although each of its fragments is an artistically completed whole. Balzac himself insisted that his individual works be perceived in the general context of the “Human Comedy”.

Balzac calls parts of his epic “studies.” In those years, the term “etude” had two meanings: school exercises or scientific research. There is no doubt that the author had in mind the second meaning. As a researcher of modern life, he had every reason to call himself a “doctor of social sciences” and a “historian.” Thus, Balzac, that the work of a writer is akin to the work of a scientist who carefully studies the living organism of modern society from its multi-layered, constantly moving economic structure to the highest spheres of intellectual, scientific and political thought.

The “history of morals” that Balzac wants to write can only be created through selection and generalization, “compiling an inventory of vices and virtues, collecting the most striking cases of manifestation of passions, depicting characters, selecting the most important events from the life of society,” creating types by combining individual traits of numerous homogeneous characters. “I needed to study the fundamentals or one general basis of social phenomena, to grasp the hidden meaning of a huge collection of types, passions and events.” Balzac discovers this main “social engine” in the struggle of egoistic passions and material interests that characterize the public and private life of France in the first half of the nineteenth century. The author comes to the conclusion that there is a dialectic of the historical process, marked by the inevitable replacement of an obsolete feudal formation with a bourgeois formation.

In his epic, Balzac seeks to trace how this basic process manifests itself in various spheres of public and private life, in the destinies of people belonging to various social groups, from hereditary aristocrats to residents of towns and villages.

As noted above, the “Human Comedy” is divided into “Etudes on Morals” (“Etudes of Morals”), “Philosophical Etudes”, “Analytical Etudes”. The writer considers “The Physiology of Marriage” to be the latter and intends to write two or three more works (“Pathology of Social Life”, “Anatomy of a Pedagogical Corporation”, “Monograph on Virtue”). “Philosophical Studies” gives the expression “the social engine of all events,” and Balzac considers such an “engine” to be the “destructive” boiling of human thoughts and passions. Finally, “Etudes on Morals” traces numerous and varied combinations of specific causes and motivating principles that determine the private destinies of people. This group of works turns out to be the most numerous; 6 aspects are distinguished in it:

“Scenes of Private Life” (“Gobsek”, “Père Goriot”, “Marriage Contract”, etc.);

“Scenes of Provincial Life” (“Eugenia Grande”, “Lost Illusions”, “Museum of Antiquities”);

“Scenes of Parisian life” (“The splendor and poverty of courtesans”, “the story of the greatness and fall of Caesar Birotto”);

“Scenes of Military Life” (“Chouans”, “Passion in the Desert”);

“Scenes of political life” (“Dark Affair”, “The Underside of Modern History”),

“Scenes of Village Life” (“Village Priest”, “Peasants”

In the Preface, the author explains the meaning of the title of the cycle. “The enormous scope of the plan, which simultaneously embraces the history and criticism of society, the analysis of its ulcers and the discussion of its foundations, allows me, I think, to give it the name under which it now appears - “Human Comedy.” Is it demanding? Or just right? It’s up to the readers to decide when the work is finished.”

The meaning of the cycle name can be “deciphered” as follows. It should

– emphasize the grandiose scope of the plan (according to the author, his work should have the same significance for modern times as Dante’s great work “The Divine Comedy” for the Middle Ages);

– point out the writer’s desire to contrast the divine with the earthly, the circles of Dante’s hell with the social “circles” of human society;

– capture the main critical pathos of the work. According to the writer, modernity is a pitiful and at the same time cruel caricature of the revolutionary era. If the origins of bourgeois France are connected with the majestic and tragic events of the revolution of 1789, then the July Monarchy is, in the perception of Balzac, a pathetic and at the same time cruel caricature of the ideals of the leaders of this revolution. The tragedy of the 18th century gave way to the comedy of the mid-19th century, a comedy that is played - sometimes even unknown to themselves - by the real heirs of the great revolutionaries (hence the characteristic title of one of the works of the “Human Comedy”: “Comedians unknown to themselves”). By calling his epic “The Human Comedy,” Balzac, in essence, pronounced a verdict on the entire bourgeois-noble society of his time;

– the title also reflected the internal drama of the epic. It is no coincidence that its first part, “Studies of Morals,” was divided into scenes, as is customary in drama. Like a dramatic work, “The Human Comedy” is full of conflict situations that dictate the need for active action, a fierce confrontation of antagonistic interests and passions, which is most often resolved tragically for the hero, sometimes comically, less often melodramatically. It is no coincidence that the author himself indicates in the preface that his work is “a drama with three to four thousand characters.”

Balzac's vision of reality is distinguished by its depth and versatility. A critical assessment of human vices and all kinds of manifestations of social injustice, the imperfection of social organization as a whole is only one aspect of his analytical approach to the topic of modern life. The “Human Comedy” cycle is by no means a phenomenon of “pure criticism”. For the writer, it is obvious that in reality the best manifestations of human nature are present - generosity, honesty, selflessness, creative abilities, high impulses of spirit. He specifically dwells on this in the preface: “In the picture that I create, there are more virtuous persons than blameworthy ones.” The writer explains this by saying that he believes in the potential perfection of man himself, which manifests itself, if not in each individual, then in the general perspective of the evolution of humanity. At the same time, Balzac does not believe in the endless improvement of society. Therefore, the focus of the writer’s attention is on man not as a “complete creature,” but as a being in a state of continuous formation and improvement.

Starting to create a giant canvas, Balzac declares objectivity as his aesthetic principle. “The historian itself was supposed to be French society; I could only be its secretary.” At the same time, he does not consider himself a simple copyist. He believes that a writer should not only depict vices and virtues, but also teach people. “The essence of a writer is what makes him a writer and... I’m not afraid... to say that makes him equal to a statesman, and maybe even superior to him - this is a certain opinion about human affairs, complete devotion to principles.” Therefore, we can talk about the strict conceptuality of Balzac’s great creation. Its essence was already determined by 1834, although it would undergo changes as the artist’s worldview and aesthetic principles evolved.

The implementation of a hitherto unprecedented plan required a huge number of characters. There are more than two thousand of them in The Human Comedy. The writer provides everything necessary about each of them: he gives information about their origin, parents (and sometimes even distant ancestors), relatives, friends and enemies, past and present occupations, gives exact addresses, describes the furnishings of apartments, the contents of wardrobes, etc. P. The stories of Balzac's heroes, as a rule, do not end in the finale of a particular work. Moving on to other novels, stories, short stories, they continue to live, experiencing ups and downs, hopes or disappointments, joys or torments, since the society of which they are organic particles is alive. The interconnection of these “returning heroes” holds together the fragments of the grandiose fresco, giving rise to the polysyllabic unity of the “Human Comedy”.

In the process of working on the epic, Balzac's concept of the typical, which is fundamental to the entire aesthetics of realistic art, crystallizes. He noted that a “history of morals” can only be created through selection and generalization. “By compiling an inventory of vices and virtues, collecting the most striking cases of manifestation of passions, depicting characters, selecting the most important events from the life of society, creating types by combining individual traits of numerous homogeneous characters, perhaps I could write a history forgotten by so many historians - the history of morals.” . “A type,” Balzac argued, “is a character that generalizes in itself the characteristic features of all those who are more or less similar to it, an example of a species.” At the same time, type as a phenomenon of art is significantly different from the phenomena of life itself, from its prototypes. “Between this type and many persons of this era” one can find points of contact, but, Balzac warns, if the hero “turned out to be one of these persons, it would be a condemnation of the author, for his character would no longer become a discovery.”

It is important to emphasize that the typical in Balzac’s concept does not at all contradict the exceptional, if in this exceptional they find a concentrated expression of the laws of life itself. Like Stendhal's, almost all of the heroes of The Human Comedy are exceptional individuals to one degree or another. All of them are unique in the concreteness and liveliness of their character, in what Balzac calls individuality. Thus, the typical and individual in the characters of “The Human Comedy” are dialectically interconnected, reflecting the dual creative process for the artist - generalization and concretization. The category of the typical extends in Balzac both to the circumstances in which the heroes act and to the events that determine the movement of the plot in novels (“Not only people, but also the most important events are cast in typical images.”)

Fulfilling his intention to depict in an epic two or three thousand typical people of a certain era, Balzac carried out a reform of the literary style. The fundamentally new style he created is different from the educational and romantic. The main essence of Balzac's reform is to use all the riches of the national language. Many of his contemporaries (in particular, such a serious critic as Sainte-Beuve, and later E. Faguet, Brunetiere and even Flaubert) either did not understand or did not accept this essence. Referring to Balzac's verbosity, roughness, and vulgar pathos, they reproached him for his bad style, which allegedly reflected his impotence as an artist. However, already at that time voices were heard in defense of Balzac’s linguistic innovation. T. Gautier, for example, wrote: “Balzac was forced to forge a special language for his needs, which included all types of technology, all types of argot, science, art, behind-the-scenes life. That is why superficial critics began to say that Balzac does not know how to write, whereas he has his own style, excellent, fatally and mathematically corresponding to his idea.” The principle of “polyphony”, unprecedented in literature, noted by Gautier, is the main feature of Balzac’s style, which was a true discovery for all subsequent literature. Zola, who believed that this style always remained Balzac’s “own style,” spoke superbly about the organic connection of this style with the artist’s very method of working on “The Human Comedy.”

It should be noted that the Preface to The Human Comedy reflects the writer’s contradictions. Along with a deep thought about the “social engine”, about the laws governing the development of society, it also sets out the author’s monarchical program, expressing views on the social benefits of religion, which, from his point of view, was an integral system of suppressing the vicious aspirations of man and was “ the greatest foundation of social order." Balzac's fascination with the mystical teachings popular in French society of that time, especially the teachings of the Swedish pastor Swedenborg, also manifested itself in the Preface.

Balzac's worldview, his sympathies for the materialistic science of nature and society, his interest in scientific discoveries, and his passionate defense of free thought and enlightenment sharply diverge from these positions. indicating that the writer was the heir and continuer of the work of the great French educators.

Balzac devoted two decades of intense creative life to the “Human Comedy”. The first novel in the cycle, “The Chouans,” dates from 1829, the last, “The Underside of Modern Life,” was published in 1848.

From the very beginning, Balzac understood that his plan was exceptional and grandiose and would require many volumes. According to less implementation of plans, the expected volume The “human comedy” is growing more and more. Already in 1844, compiling a catalog including written and what is to be written, Balzac, in addition to 97 works, will name 56 more. After the writer’s death, studying his archive, French scientists published the titles of another 53 novels, to which can be added more than a hundred sketches existing in the form of notes.

^ 3. Balzac’s story “Gobsek” Depiction in the work of the French nobility and bourgeoisie of the Restoration era.

As noted earlier, researchers distinguish three stages in Balzac’s complex creative development. The early period of Balzac’s work - the 20s - was marked by proximity to the romantic school of the so-called “violent”.

In the first half of the 30s, the great realistic art of Balzac took shape.

Balzac's critical articles of the early 30s - "Romantic Masses", a review of V. Hugo's play "Ernani", "Literary Salons and Eulogies" - indicate that the writer increasingly and more consciously criticizes French romanticism in its most varied manifestations . The young writer acts as an opponent of romantic effects, a romantic preference for historical subjects, and a romantically elevated and verbose style. During these years, Balzac followed the development of scientific knowledge with great interest: he was captivated by the discussion about the origin of the animal world on earth, which unfolded in 1830 between Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier, and he was fascinated by the debates going on in French historical science. The writer comes to the conclusion that truthful art, which gives a scientifically accurate picture of reality, requires, first of all, a deep study of modernity, penetration into the essence of the processes taking place in society.

The desire to depict reality accurately, based on certain scientific data - historical, economic, physiological - is a characteristic artistic feature of Balzac. Problems of sociology, so widely represented in the writer’s journalism, occupy a huge place in his art. Already in the early 1930s, Balzac's realism was deeply and consciously social.

At the same time, in Balzac's creative method of this period, the realistic method of depiction is combined with romantic artistic means. While speaking out against certain schools of romantic French literature, the writer does not yet abandon many of the artistic means of romanticism. This can be felt in his works of the early 30s, including in the story, which was originally called “The Dangers of Dissipation” (1830).

Later, Balzac would again turn to this story in order to rework it, deepen its meaning and give it a new title: “Papa Gobsek” (1835), and later, in 1842, simply “Gobsek”.

From the first to the second version, the story underwent an evolution from an edifying moral description to a philosophical generalization. In The Perils of Dissipation, the central figure was Anastasi de Resto, the unfaithful wife of the Comte de Resto; her vicious life had devastating consequences not only for her own moral consciousness, but also for her children, for the family as a whole. In "Gobsek" a second semantic center appears - the moneylender, who becomes the personification of the power that dominates bourgeois society.

The work has a unique composition – a story within a story. The narration is told on behalf of lawyer Derville. This form of narration allows the author to create a certain “angle of view” on events. Derville not only talks about individual episodes from the life of Gobsek and the de Resto family, but also evaluates everything that happens.

Balzac's realism is manifested in the story primarily in the disclosure of characters and phenomena typical of French society during the Restoration era. In this work, the author sets himself the goal of showing the true essence of both the nobility and the bourgeoisie. The approach to depicting the surrounding life in “Gobsek” becomes more analytical, since it is based primarily on the study of real life phenomena through art, and its conclusions regarding society as a whole follow from this analysis.

The artist shows the decline and decay of the old French aristocracy, (Maxime de Tray, Resto family). De Trai is shown as an ordinary gigolo, a man without honor and without conscience, who does not hesitate to profit at the expense of the woman who loves him and his own children. “You have dirt in your veins instead of blood,” the moneylender contemptuously throws in Maxime de Tray’s face. Count Resto is much more likable, but even in him the author emphasizes such an unattractive trait as weakness of character. He loves a woman who is clearly unworthy of him, and, not having survived her betrayal, he falls ill and dies.

For Gosbeck, Comte de Resto is one of those French aristocrats whose decline the writer observed with deep regret, perceiving it as a national tragedy. But, being a realist writer, Balzac, even pitying the hero, showed the doom of the old nobility, its inability to defend its rights, capitulation under the pressure of bourgeois relations. The appearance of the triumphant Gobsek in the ruined and empty house of Count de Resto is dramatic: it is money itself that bursts into the chambers of the old noble mansion as a sovereign owner.

Criticism of the morals of the aristocracy is combined in Gobsek with an anti-bourgeois beginning. The main character of the story, a millionaire usurer, is one of the rulers of the new France. A strong, exceptional personality, Gobsek is internally contradictory. “Two creatures live in him: a miser and a philosopher, a vile creature and a sublime one,” says lawyer Derville about him, on whose behalf the story is told.

Usury is the main area of ​​practical activity of Gobsek. By lending money at high interest rates, he actually robs his “wards,” taking advantage of their extreme poverty and complete dependence on him. The usurer considers himself the “lord of life”, as he instills fear in his debtors - rich spendthrifts. Reveling in power over them, he lustfully waits until the time comes to remind the wasters of life that it is time to pay for the pleasures obtained with the help of his money. He considers himself the personification of punishing fate. “I appear as retribution, as a reproach of conscience” - he revels in this thought, stepping with dirty shoes on the luxurious carpets of the aristocratic living room.

Pedantic and soulless (“automatic man”, “bill man”), Gobsek for Balzac is the living embodiment of that predatory force that persistently makes its way to power. Inquisitively peering into the face of this force, the writer seeks to penetrate into the origins of its power and unshakable self-confidence. This is where Gobsek turns his other side to the reader. The practical moneylender gives way to the bourgeois philosopher, the insightful analyst. Exploring the laws of the modern world, Gobsek discovers that the main engine that determines social life in this world is money. Therefore, whoever owns gold rules the world. “What is life if not a machine driven by money? (...) Gold is the spiritual essence of the entire current society,” this is how the “thinking” moneylender formulates his ideas about the world. Realizing this, Gobsek became one of the rulers of the country. “There are ten people like me in Paris: we are the rulers of your destinies - quiet, unknown to anyone,” - with these words Gobsek defines the position in society that he and his like occupy.

“Gobsek” was an innovative, realistic work. At the same time, the fundamentally realistically convincing image of Gobsek also contains romantic signs. The past of Gobsek is vague, perhaps he was a corsair and traveled all the seas and oceans, trading in people and state secrets. The origin of the hero's untold wealth is unclear. His real life is full of mysteries. The personality of Gobsek, who has an exceptionally deep, philosophical mind, is almost global. The romantic exaggeration of the mystery and power of Gobsek - a predator and lover of money - gives him the character of an almost supernatural being, standing above mortals. The entire figure of Gobsek, who personifies the power of gold, acquires a symbolic character in the work.

At the same time, the romantic beginning inherent in Gobsek’s character does not at all obscure the realistic features of this image. The presence of individual romantic elements only emphasizes the specificity of Balzac's realism at the early stage of its development, when the typical and exceptional appear in dialectical unity.

Sharply criticizing in his work representatives of the degrading aristocracy and the bourgeoisie that is replacing it, the author contrasts them with simple, honest workers. The author's sympathies are on the side of people who honestly earn their living - Fanny Malvo and Derville. Drawing a simple girl - a seamstress and a noble lady - Countess de Resto, the author clearly gives preference to the first of them. In striking contrast to Gosbeck, a creature gradually losing all human qualities and traits, is Derville, a successful lawyer making a career in the salons of the Parisian nobility. It outlines Balzac’s favorite image of an intelligent and active commoner, who owes everything only to himself and his work. This man with a clear and practical mind stands immeasurably higher than the clan nobility and representatives of the new monetary aristocracy, like Gobsek.

It should be noted that in Balzac's later novels, moneylenders and bankers no longer appear, like Gobsek, in the romantic aura of mysterious and omnipotent villains. Delving into the essence of the laws that govern the life of society and the destinies of people, the writer will learn to really see the new masters of France in their truly funny and pitiful appearance.

^ 4. Novel “Père Goriot”.

The novel “Père Goriot” (1834) is the first work created by Balzac in accordance with the general plan of the epic he conceived. It was during the period of work on this novel that Balzac finally formed the idea of ​​​​creating a single cycle of works about modern society and including much of what was written in this cycle.

The novel “Père Goriot” becomes the “key” novel in the planned “Human Comedy”: it clearly expresses the most important themes and problems of the cycle, in addition, many of its characters have already appeared in the author’s previous works and will appear in them again in the future.

“The plot of “Père Goriot” is a nice man – a family boarding house – 600 francs of rent – ​​depriving himself of everything for the sake of his daughters, each of whom has 50,000 francs of rent, dying like a dog,” reads the entry in Balzac’s album, made even before the idea was conceived "Human Comedy" (probably in 1832). Obviously, according to the original plan, it was assumed that the work would tell a story about one hero. However, having begun to create the novel, Balzac frames Goriot's story with many additional plot lines that naturally arise in the process of implementing the plan. Among them, the first is the line of Eugene de Rastignac, a Parisian student, like Goriot, staying at the Vauquer boarding house. It is through the perception of the student that the tragedy of Father Goriot is presented, who himself is not able to comprehend everything that is happening to him. “Without Rastignac’s inquisitive observations and without his ability to penetrate into Parisian salons, the story would have lost those true tones that it owes, of course, to Rastignac - his perspicacity and his desire to unravel the secrets of one terrifying fate, no matter how hard the perpetrators themselves tried to hide them , and her victim,” writes the author.

However, Rastignac's function is not limited to the simple role of a witness. The theme of the fate of the young generation of the nobility, which was included with him in the novel, turns out to be so important that this hero becomes no less significant a figure than Goriot himself.

“Life in Paris is a constant battle,” says the author of the novel. Having set the goal of depicting this battle, Balzac faced the need to transform the poetics of the traditional novel, which, as a rule, is based on the principles of chronicle linear composition. The novel proposes a new type of novel action with a pronounced dramatic beginning. This structural feature, which appeared later in other works of the writer, will become the most important sign of the new type of novel that Balzac introduced into literature.

The work opens with an extensive exposition typical of Balzac the novelist. It describes in detail the main scene of action - the Voke boarding house - its location, internal structure. The boarding house dining room with its motley random furniture and strange table settings, with its tense atmosphere of alienation, which they try to hide with external politeness, is not only an ordinary talbot of a cheap Parisian boarding house, but also a symbol of French society, where everything is shuffled and mixed by recent turbulent historical events.

The exhibition also fully describes the mistress of the house, her servants and guests. The action in this part of the novel flows slowly and eventlessly. Everyone is busy with their own worries and pays almost no attention to their neighbors. However, as the action progresses, the disparate lines of the novel come together, ultimately forming an indissoluble unity. After a detailed exposition, events pick up a rapid pace: a collision turns into a conflict, a conflict reveals irreconcilable contradictions, and a catastrophe becomes inevitable. It occurs almost simultaneously for all characters. Vautrin is exposed and captured by the police, having just arranged the fate of Victorine Taillefer with the help of a hired killer. Viscountess de Beauseant, devoted to her lovers, leaves the world forever. Ruined and abandoned by Maxime de Tray, Anastasi de Resto appeared before the court of her angry husband. Madame Vauquer's boarding house is emptying, having lost almost all of its guests. The finale ends with Rastignac’s remark, as if promising a continuation of the “Human Comedy” begun by the writer.

The main plot lines of the novel are determined by the writer's desire to deeply and comprehensively reveal the social mechanism of bourgeois society of the 1810-1820s. Having collected many facts that should convince the reader of the selfish, hypocritical, self-interested nature of social relations that were everywhere established in Europe during this period, the writer seeks to give their generalized and sharply revealing characteristics. The work combines three storylines (Goriot, Rastignac, Vautrin (under his name is the escaped convict Jacques Colin, nicknamed Deception-Death)), each of which has its own problem.

The life stories of his daughters are initially connected with Goriot - Anastasi, who became the wife of the nobleman de Resto, and Delphine, who married the banker Nucingen.

New storylines are included in the novel with Rastignac:

– Viscountess de Beauseant (who opens the doors of the aristocratic suburb of Paris and the cruelty of the laws under which it lives to the young provincial);

– “Napoleon of Hard Labor” by Vautrin (in his own way, continuing the “training” of Rastignac, tempting him with the prospect of quick enrichment through a crime committed by someone else);

– medical student Bianchon, who rejects the philosophy of immoralism;

– Victorine Taillefer (she would have brought Rastignac a million-dollar dowry if, after the violent death of her brother, she had become the sole heir of the banker Taillefer).

The storyline associated with the story of Father Goriot - a respectable bourgeois, whose money helped his daughters make a secular career and at the same time led to a complete alienation between them and their father - is the leading one in the novel. All the threads ultimately converge on Goriot: Rastignac becomes the lover of one of his daughters and therefore the fate of the old man acquires unexpected interest for him; Vautrin wants to make Rastignac his accomplice and therefore everything that interests the young man, including Goriot’s family affairs, becomes important to him. This creates a whole system of characters directly or indirectly connected with Goriot as a kind of center of this system, which includes the owner of the Vauquer boarding house with all her boarders, and representatives of high society visiting the salon of the Viscountess de Beauseant.

The novel covers a variety of layers of social life - from the noble family of Count de Resto to the dark bottom of the French capital. French literature has never known such a wide and bold coverage of life.

Unlike previous works, where the secondary characters were characterized by the writer very superficially, in “Père Goriot” each has his own story, the completeness or brevity of which depends on the role assigned to him in the plot of the novel. And if Goriot’s life path finds its completion, the stories of the remaining characters remain fundamentally unfinished, since the author intends to return to them in other works of the epic.

The principle of “return of characters” is not only the key that opens the way to the future world of Balzac’s epic. It allows the author to include into the “Human Comedy”, his beginning literary life, characters who appeared in works previously published. Thus, in “Gobsek” the story of the de Resto family was told, in “Shagreen Skin” the names of not only Taillefer, but also Rastignac appeared for the first time. In “The Abandoned Woman,” de Beauseant is the heroine, who left high society and imprisoned herself in the family estate. In the future, the stories of a number of heroes will be continued.

The novel reflected the intertwining of psychological and social planes characteristic of Balzac the realist. The writer explained the psychology of people and the motives of their actions by the social conditions of life; he tried to show the development of relations between people against the broad background of the life of Parisian society.

The dominance of money and its corrupting influence are shown by Balzac in typical and at the same time deeply individual images. The tragedy of Father Goriot is presented in the novel as a particular manifestation of the general laws that determine the life of post-revolutionary France, as one of the most striking manifestations of the drama of bourgeois everyday life. Balzac uses a fairly well-known plot (almost a Shakespearean story), but interprets it in a unique way.

Goriot's story, for all its tragedy, is devoid of the features of exclusivity characteristic of the “furious literature” of the 1830s. The daughters, idolized by the old man, having received everything he could give them, having completely tormented him with their worries and troubles, not only left him to die alone in the miserable kennel of the Vauquer boarding house, but did not even come to the funeral. But these women are not monsters or fiends at all. They are, in general, ordinary people, nothing special, not particularly violating the laws established in their midst. Goriot himself is just as common in his environment. What is unusual is his exaggerated sense of fatherhood. It prevailed in Gorio over all the bad traits of a hoarder and money-grubber, which he had in abundance. In the past, a vermicelli worker who made a considerable fortune through clever speculation in flour, he profitably marries his daughters, one to a count, the other to a banker. Since childhood, indulging all their desires and whims, Goriot later allowed them to ruthlessly exploit their paternal feelings.

Father Goriot is in many ways similar to the hero of Balzac's previous novel, Grande. Like Grandet, Goriot rose to prominence by cleverly and unscrupulously using the revolutionary situation of 1789 and profiting from speculation. But unlike old Grandet, Goriot is full of love for his daughters, which clearly raises him above that environment where money and personal gain are placed above all else.

The daughters never learned to be grateful to Goriot. For Anastasi and Delphine, corrupted by permissiveness, the father turns out to be only a source of money, but when his reserves have dried up, he loses all interest for his daughters. Already on his deathbed, the old man finally sees the light: “Money can buy everything, even daughters. Oh my money, where is it? If I left treasures as an inheritance, my daughters would follow me and treat me.” In the tragic life and lamentations of Goriot, the true basis of all connections - even blood connections - is exposed in a society where immense selfishness and soulless calculation reign.

One of the most important problems in Balzac's work - the depiction of the fate of a young man beginning his life's journey - is associated with Eugene de Rastignac. This character, who was already encountered in “Shagreen Skin,” will appear in other works of the writer, for example, in the novels “Lost Illusions” (1837 – 1843), “The Banking House of Nucingen” (1838), “Beatrice” (1839). In "Père Goriot" Rastignac begins his independent life path.

A representative of an impoverished noble family, law student Rastignac came to the capital to make a career. Once in Paris, he lives in a wretched boarding house of Madame Vauquer on meager money, which, denying themselves everything, is sent to him by his mother and sisters, vegetating in the provinces. At the same time, thanks to belonging to an ancient family and ancient family ties, he has access to the highest spheres of noble-bourgeois Paris, where Goriot cannot get. Thus, with the help of the image of Rastignac, the author connects two contrasting social worlds of post-revolutionary France: the aristocratic Saint-Germain suburb and the Vauquer boarding house, under whose roof the outcast and impoverished people of the capital found refuge.

Returning to the theme first posed in “Shagreen Skin,” the writer this time reveals more deeply and comprehensively the evolution of a young man who enters the world with good intentions, but gradually loses them along with youthful illusions that are shattered by the cruel experience of real life.

The story of Goriot, unfolding before Rastignac's eyes, becomes perhaps the most bitter lesson for him. The author, in fact, depicts the first stage in Rastignac’s “education of feelings,” his “years of learning.”

Not the least role in the “education of feelings” of Rastignac belongs to his original “teachers” - the Viscountess de Beauseant and the escaped convict Vautrin. These characters are opposite to each other in every way, but the instructions they give to the young man turn out to be surprisingly similar. The Viscountess teaches the young provincial life lessons, and her main lesson is that success in society must be achieved at any cost, without skimping on means. “You want to create a position for yourself, I will help you,” says the Viscountess, stating with anger and bitterness the unwritten laws of success in high society. “Explore the depth of the depravity of women, measure the degree of pathetic vanity of men... the more cold-bloodedly you calculate, the further you will go.” Strike mercilessly, and they will tremble before you. Look at men and women as post horses, drive them without sparing them, let them die at every station, and you will reach the limit in realizing your desires.” “I thought a lot about the modern structure of our social structure,” says Rastignac Vautrin. “Fifty thousand lucrative jobs don’t exist, and you’ll have to devour each other like spiders in a jar.” Nothing can be achieved by honesty... They bow to the power of genius, and they try to denigrate him... Corruption is everywhere, talent is rare. Therefore, corruption has become the weapon of mediocrity that has filled everything, and you will feel the edge of its weapon everywhere.” “There are no principles, but there are events,” Vautrin teaches his young protégé, wanting to convert him to his faith, “there are no laws, there are circumstances; a high-flying man himself applies himself to events and circumstances in order to lead them.” Gradually, the young man begins to understand the cruel truth of the Viscountess, who became a victim of high society, and the immoralist Vautrin. “Light is an ocean of mud, where a person immediately goes up to his neck, as soon as he dips the tip of his foot into it,” the hero concludes.

Balzac considered “Père Goriot” one of his saddest works (in a letter to E. Ganskaya he called this novel “a monstrously sad thing”), not only because Rastignac’s future depressed him no less than the tragic fate of old Goriot. Despite all the dissimilarity of these characters, their destinies highlight all the “moral filth of Paris.” An inexperienced young man soon discovers that the same inhuman laws, greed, and crime dominate society at all levels - from its “bottom” to the highest “light.” Rastignac makes this discovery for himself after another instructive advice from Vautrin: “He roughly, bluntly told me what Madame de Beauseant put into an elegant form.”

Having accepted as true that success is higher than morality, Rastignac, nevertheless, in his real actions is not immediately able to follow this principle. Rastignac's initially inherent honesty, intelligence, nobility, sincerity and youthful idealism come into conflict with the cynical instructions that he hears from both the Viscountess de Beauseant and Vautrin. In “Père Goriot,” Rastignac still confronts the secular “ocean of dirt,” as evidenced by his refusal of Vautrin’s proposal to captivate Victorine. The hero, who still retains a living soul, refuses such a deal without hesitation. Therefore, he ends up on the side of society's victims; the viscountess, whom her lover abandoned for the sake of concluding a profitable marriage deal, and especially the abandoned Goriot. He takes care of a hopelessly ill old man together with Bianchon, and then buries him with his pittance.

At the same time, there is evidence in the novel that the hero is ready to enter into a deal with the world and his own conscience. Particularly symptomatic in this regard is the relationship with Delphine Nucingen, born of calculation, which opens the way for him to millions and a future career.

The fact that the hero intends to follow this path to the end is suggested by the final episode, where Rastignac seems to say goodbye to the noble dreams of his youth. Shocked by the story of old Goriot, having buried the unfortunate father betrayed by his daughters, Rastignac decides to measure his strength with the arrogant and greedy Paris. The last argument that persuaded him to take this step was that he did not have even twenty sous to tip the gravediggers. His sincere tears, caused by sympathy for the poor old man, were buried in the grave with the deceased. Having buried Goriot and looking at Paris, Rastignac exclaims: “And now - who will win: me or you!” And he goes to the rich quarters of Paris to win his place in the sun.

This symbolic touch at the end of the novel seems to sum up the first “act” of the hero’s life. The first real victory is on the side of society, ruthless and immoral, although morally Rastignac has not yet allowed himself to be defeated: he acts in obedience to his inner moral feeling. At the end of the novel, the hero is ready to transgress the prohibitions of conscience that he previously obeyed. Challenging Paris and not doubting success, he simultaneously commits an act of moral surrender: after all, in order to succeed in society, he is forced to accept its “rules of the game,” that is, first of all, to abandon simplicity, spontaneity, honesty, and noble impulses.

In the novel “Père Goriot,” the author’s attitude towards the young hero turns out to be ambivalent. Often in his descriptions there is deep sympathy. Balzac, as it were, justifies the young man, explains his moral decline with his youth and love of life, the thirst for pleasure that boils in Rastignac.

In the following novels of the cycle, the author's attitude towards the hero changes. Rastignac consciously chooses this path, which requires him to become familiar with the art of secular intrigue and absolute unscrupulousness. From subsequent works (“Lost Illusions”, “The Trading House of Nucingen”, “The Splendor and Poverty of Courtesans”, etc.), the reader learns that Rastignac eventually makes a brilliant career and achieves a lot: he becomes a millionaire, marries the daughter of his mistress, as a relative in the income of Nusingen, receives the title of peer of France and enters as a minister into the bourgeois government of the July Monarchy. All this will be obtained by the hero not only at the cost of the lost illusions of youth, but also through the loss of the best human qualities. With the degradation of Rastignac, Balzac connects the most important theme for the entire epic: the moral capitulation of the French nobility, which trampled upon the original principles of chivalry and ultimately merged with the bourgeoisie hated by the writer. Obviously, the study of the patterns of life of the young nobleman Rastignac leads Balzac to the loss of his own legitimist illusions regarding the hereditary aristocracy, in which he would like to see the support of the monarchy.

Along with Father Goriot and Rastignac, a significant place in the work is occupied by the image of Vautrin, with whom another of the most important problems of the novel is connected - the problem of crime.

Balzac believes that crime is born from the individual’s natural desire for self-affirmation. Resisting crime is a self-protective function of society. This function is carried out the more successfully, the stronger the power, which knows how to direct individual abilities and talents for the common good, otherwise they become destructive for society as a whole. Such a dangerous, destructive principle is embodied in Vautrin.

Vautrin - a strong, bright, demonic personality - embodies the revolt of the outcasts against the powers that be. He embodies the rebellious nature characteristic of a freedom-loving and rebellious romantic robber or pirate. But Vautrin’s rebellion is very specific, based on predatory aspirations and therefore naturally fits into the struggle of man against everyone, characteristic of modern society. Vautrin's ultimate goal is not wealth, but power, understood as the ability to command while remaining independent of anyone's will.

For all his exclusivity, Vautrin is a typical figure, since his fate is determined by the cohesion of the laws of life in modern society, as Balzac understands it. In this sense, the criminal - “Napoleon of hard labor” - can be compared with the “usurer-philosopher” Gobsek, with the only difference that the latter is completely devoid of authorial sympathies, while a person like Vautrin, distinguished by highly extraordinary abilities and a spirit of rebellion, always aroused Balzac's sympathetic interest.

The story of Jacques Colin (Vautrin) passes through a number of works by Balzac and finds its natural conclusion in the novel “The Splendor and Poverty of the Courtesans.” This work depicts the finale of Vautrin’s duel with society. In the end, Vautrin realizes the futility of his rebellion, and the former convict joins the police. The criminal genius turns into a guardian of public order; now he zealously serves those who pay him. This plot twist is far from straightforward. It contains the idea of ​​the futility of confronting society, the inevitable victory of the social principle over the individual, and one more touch to the picture of Paris with its “moral filth”: the criminal world and the world of law enforcement officers merge there.

Honore de Balzac - famous French novelist, was born on May 20, 1799 in Tours, died on August 18, 1850 in Paris. At the age of five he was sent to primary school in Tours, and at age 7 he entered the Vendôme Jesuit College, where he stayed for 7 years. In 1814, Balzac moved with his parents to Paris, where he completed his education - first in private boarding schools, and then in Sorbonne, where I listened to lectures with enthusiasm Guizot, Cousin, Willeman. At the same time, he studied law to please his father, who wanted to make him a notary.

Honore de Balzac. Daguerreotype 1842

Balzac's first literary experience was the tragedy in verse "Cromwell", which cost him a lot of work, but turned out to be worthless. After this first failure, he abandoned tragedy and took up the novel. Prompted by material need, he began to write one after another very bad novels, which he sold for several hundred francs to various publishers. Such work for a piece of bread was extremely burdensome to him. The desire to get out of poverty as quickly as possible involved him in several commercial enterprises, which ended in complete ruin for him. He had to liquidate the business, taking on more than 50,000 francs in debt (1828). Subsequently, thanks to new loans to pay interest and other monetary losses, the amount of his debts increased with various fluctuations, and he languished under their burden all his life; Only shortly before his death he finally managed to get rid of his debts. In the early 1820s, Balzac met and became close friends with Madame de Bernis. This woman appeared as the kind genius of his youth during the most difficult years of struggle, hardship and uncertainty. By his own admission, she had a huge influence on both his character and the development of his talent.

Balzac's first novel, which was a resounding success and set him apart from other aspiring writers, was “The Physiology of Marriage” (1829). Since then, his fame has been growing continuously. His fertility and tireless energy are truly amazing. In the same year he published 4 more novels, the next – 11 (“A Thirty-Year-Old Woman”; “Gobsek”, “Shagreen Skin”, etc.); in 1831 – 8, including “Country Doctor”. Now he works even more than before, finishing his works with extraordinary care, redoing what he wrote several times.

Geniuses and villains. Honore de Balzac

Balzac was more than once seduced by the role of a politician. In his political views, he was strict legitimist. In 1832, he stood as a candidate for deputy in Angoulême and on this occasion expressed the following program in one private letter: “The destruction of all nobility, with the exception of the House of Peers; separation of the clergy from Rome; natural borders of France; full middle class equality; recognition of true excellence; cost savings; increasing revenues through better tax distribution; education for all."

Having failed in the elections, he took up literature with renewed zeal. 1832 11 new novels were published, among other things: “Louis Lambert”, “The Abandoned Woman”, “Colonel Chabert”. At the beginning of 1833, Balzac entered into correspondence with Countess Hanska. From this correspondence arose a romance that lasted 17 years and ended in marriage a few months before the novelist's death. A monument to this novel is a voluminous volume of letters from Balzac to Madame Ganskaya, later published under the title “Letters to a Stranger.” During these 17 years, Balzac continued to work tirelessly, and in addition to novels, he wrote various articles in magazines. In 1835 he began to publish the magazine “Paris Chronicle” himself; this publication lasted for just over a year and as a result brought him a net deficit of 50,000 francs.

From 1833 to 1838 inclusive, Balzac published 26 stories and novels, among them “Eugenie Grande”, “Père Goriot”, “Seraphite”, “Lily of the Valley”, “Lost Illusions”, “Cesar Birotteau”. In 1838 he again left Paris for several months, this time for commercial purposes. He dreams of a brilliant enterprise that can immediately enrich him; he goes to Sardinia, where he plans to exploit silver mines, known during Roman rule. This enterprise ends in failure, since a more clever businessman took advantage of his idea and blocked his way.

Until 1843, Balzac lived almost constantly in Paris, or in his estate Les Jardies, near Paris, which he bought in 1839 and turned into a new source of constant expenses for him. In August 1843, Balzac went to St. Petersburg for 2 months, where Mrs. Ganskaya was at that time (her husband owned extensive estates in Ukraine). In 1845 and 1846 he traveled twice to Italy, where she and her daughter spent the winter. Urgent work and various urgent obligations forced him to return to Paris and all his efforts were aimed at finally paying off his debts and organizing his affairs, without which he could not fulfill the cherished dream of his whole life - to marry the woman he loved. To a certain extent, he succeeded. Balzac spent the winter of 1847 - 1848 in Russia, on the estate of Countess Ganskaya near Berdichev, but a few days before the February Revolution, financial affairs called him to Paris. He remained, however, completely alien to the political movement and in the fall of 1848 he again went to Russia.

In 1849 - 1847, 28 new novels by Balzac appeared in print (“Ursula Mirue”, “The Country Priest”, “Poor Relatives”, “Cousin Pons”, etc.). Since 1848, he has been working little and publishing almost nothing new. A second trip to Russia turned out to be fatal for him. His body was exhausted by “excessive work; This was joined by a cold, which attacked the heart and lungs and turned into a long, protracted illness. The harsh climate also had a detrimental effect on him and interfered with his recovery. This state, with temporary improvements, lasted until the spring of 1850. On March 14, the marriage of Countess Ganskaya to Balzac finally took place in Berdichev. In April, the couple left Russia and headed to Paris, where they settled in a small hotel, bought by Balzac several years earlier and decorated with artistic luxury. The novelist's health, however, kept deteriorating and finally, on August 18, 1850, after a severe 34-hour agony, he died.

The importance of Balzac in literature is very great: he expanded the scope of the novel and, being one of the main founders realistic and naturalistic movements, showed him new paths, which in many ways he followed until the beginning of the 20th century. His basic view is purely naturalistic: he looks at every phenomenon as the result and interaction of certain conditions, a certain environment. According to this, Balzac's novels are not only a depiction of individual characters, but also a picture of the entire modern society with the main forces that govern it: the general pursuit of the blessings of life, the thirst for profit, honors, position in the world, with all the various struggles of large and small passions. At the same time, he reveals to the reader the entire behind-the-scenes side of this movement in the smallest detail, in his everyday life, which gives his books the character of burning reality. When depicting characters, he highlights one main, predominant trait. According to Faye’s definition, for Balzac, every person is nothing more than “some kind of passion, which is served by the mind and organs and which is counteracted by circumstances.” Thanks to this, his heroes receive extraordinary relief and brightness, and many of them became household names, like the heroes of Moliere: thus, Grande became synonymous with stinginess, Goriot with fatherly love, etc. Women occupy a large place in his novels. With all his merciless realism, he always puts a woman on a pedestal, she always stands above those around her, and is a victim of a man’s selfishness. His favorite type is a woman 30–40 years old (“Balzac age”).

The complete works of Balzac were published by himself in 1842 under the general title " Human Comedy”, with a preface where he defines his task as follows: “to give a history and at the same time a criticism of society, an investigation of its ills and a consideration of its beginnings.” One of the first translators of Balzac into Russian was the great Dostoevsky (his translation of “Eugenia Grande”, made before hard labor).

(For essays on other French writers, see the “More on topic” block below the article text.)

Composition

The role of money in modern society is the main theme in Balzac's work.

When creating "The Human Comedy", Balzac set himself a task that was still unknown in literature at that time. He strove for truthfulness and a merciless show of contemporary France, a show of the real, actual life of his contemporaries.

One of the many themes heard in his works is the theme of the destructive power of money over people, the gradual degradation of the soul under the influence of gold. This is especially clearly reflected in two famous works by Balzac - "Gobsek" and "Eugene Grande".

Balzac's works have not lost their popularity in our time. They are popular both among young readers and among older people, who draw from his works the art of understanding the human soul, seeking to understand historical events. And for these people, Balzac's books are a real storehouse of life experience.

The moneylender Gobsek is the personification of the power of money. The love of gold and the thirst for enrichment kill all human feelings in him and drown out all other principles.

The only thing he strives for is to have more and more wealth. It seems absurd that a man who owns millions lives in poverty and, collecting bills, prefers to walk without hiring a cab. But these actions are determined only by the desire to save at least a little money: living in poverty, Gobsek pays 7 francs in tax with his millions.

Leading a modest, inconspicuous life, it would seem that he does not harm anyone and does not interfere with anything. But with those few people who turn to him for help, he is so merciless, so deaf to all their pleas, that he resembles some kind of soulless machine rather than a person. Gobsek does not try to get close to any person, he has no friends, the only people he meets are his professional partners. He knows that he has an heir, a great-niece, but does not seek to find her. He doesn’t want to know anything about her, because she is his heir, and Gobsek has a hard time thinking about heirs, because he cannot come to terms with the fact that he will someday die and part with his wealth.

Gobsek strives to expend his life energy as little as possible, which is why he does not worry, does not sympathize with people, and always remains indifferent to everything around him.

Gobsek is convinced that only gold rules the world. However, the author also gives him some positive individual qualities. Gobsek is an intelligent, observant, insightful and strong-willed person. In many of Gobsek’s judgments we see the position of the author himself. Thus, he believes that an aristocrat is no better than a bourgeois, but he hides his vices under the guise of decency and virtue. And he takes cruel revenge on them, enjoying his power over them, watching them grovel before him when they cannot pay their bills.

Having turned into the personification of the power of gold, Gobsek at the end of his life becomes pitiful and ridiculous: accumulated food and expensive art objects are rotting in the pantry, and he haggles with merchants for every penny, not yielding to them in price. Gobsek dies, looking at a huge pile of gold in the fireplace.

Papa Grande is a stocky "good-natured man" with a moving bump on his nose, a figure not as mysterious and fantastic as Gobsek. His biography is quite typical: having made a fortune for himself in the troubled years of the revolution, Grande became one of the most eminent citizens of Saumur. No one in the city knows the true extent of his fortune, and his wealth is a source of pride for all residents of the town. However, the rich man Grande is distinguished by his outward good nature and gentleness. For himself and his family, he regrets an extra piece of sugar, flour, firewood to heat the house; he does not repair the stairs because he is sorry for the nail.

Despite all this, he loves his wife and daughter in his own way, he is not as lonely as Gobsek, he has a certain circle of acquaintances who periodically visit him and maintain good relations. But still, due to his exorbitant stinginess, Grande loses all trust in people; in the actions of those around him, he sees only attempts to make money at his expense. He only pretends that he loves his brother and cares about his honor, but in reality he only does what is beneficial to him. He loves Nanette, but still shamelessly takes advantage of her kindness and devotion to him, mercilessly exploits her.

His passion for money makes him completely inhuman: he is afraid of his wife’s death because of the possibility of division of property.

Taking advantage of his daughter’s boundless trust, he forces her to renounce the inheritance. He perceives his wife and daughter as part of his property, so he is shocked that Evgenia dared to dispose of her gold herself. Grande cannot live without gold and at night she often counts her wealth, hidden in her office. Grandet's insatiable greed is especially disgusting in the scene of his death: dying, he snatches a gilded cross from the hands of the priest.

Honore de Balzac began writing novels to earn money. And very quickly he surprised the world with the absolute maturity of his style. “Chouans, or Brittany in 1799” - the first work of Balzac, signed with his real name, includes all the components of the work of the writer, who began as the author of commercial novels about vampires (The Birag Heiress, The Hundred-Year-Old Man) and suddenly decided to create serious novel. Balzac took Scott and Cooper as his teachers. Scott was attracted to the historical approach to life, but did not like the dullness and schematism of the characters. The young writer decides to follow Scott’s path in his work, but to show readers not so much a moral example in the spirit of his own ethical ideal, but to describe passion, without which a truly brilliant creation does not exist. In general, Balzac’s attitude towards passion was contradictory: “the murder of passion would mean the murder of society,” he said; and added: “passion is an extreme, it is evil.” That is, Balzac was fully aware of the sinfulness of his characters, but did not even think of abandoning the artistic analysis of sin, which interested him very much and, practically, formed the basis of his work. In the way Balzac was interested in human vices, one can certainly feel a certain part of the romantic thinking that was always characteristic of the great realist. But Balzac understood human vice not as evil, but as the product of a certain historical era, a certain period of the existence of a country and society. The world of Balzac's novels carries within itself a clear definition of the material world. Personal life is very closely connected with official life, so big political decisions do not descend from the sky, but are thought out and discussed in living rooms and notary offices, in the boudoirs of singers, and collide with personal and family relationships. Society is explored in Balzac's novels in such detail that even modern economists and sociologists study the state of society behind his novels. Balzac did not show the interaction between people against the background of God, as Shakespeare did, he showed the interaction between people against the background of economic relations. For him, society appears in the form of a living being, the only living organism. This creature is constantly moving, changing, like the ancient Proteus, but its essence remains unchanged: the stronger eat the weaker. Hence the paradoxical nature of Balzac's political views: the global realist never hid his royalist sympathies and sneered at revolutionary ideals. In the essay “Two Meetings in One Year” (1831), Balzac disrespected the revolution in 1830 and its achievement: “After a fight comes victory, after victory comes distribution; and then there are many more winners than those who were seen at the barricades.” Such an attitude towards people in general is characteristic of a writer who studied humanity the way biologists study the animal world.

One of Balzac's most serious passions, starting from childhood, was philosophy. At school age, he became a little distraught when, at a Catholic boarding school, he became acquainted with the ancient monastery library. He did not begin serious writing until he had studied the works of all the more or less outstanding philosophers of old and new times. That is why the “Philosophical Etudes” (1830 - 1837) arose, which can be considered not only works of art, but also quite serious philosophical works. The novel “Shagreen Skin”, fantastic and at the same time deeply realistic, also belongs to the “Philosophical Etudes”. Fiction, in general, is a phenomenon characteristic of Philosophical Studies. It plays the role of a deus ex machine, that is, it serves as the central plot premise. Like, for example, a piece of old, dilapidated leather, which the poor student Valentin accidentally gets in an antique shop. Covered with ancient inscriptions, a piece of shagreen fulfills all the desires of its owner, but at the same time it shrinks and thereby shortens the life of the “lucky one”. “Shagreen Skin,” like many other Balzac novels, is dedicated to the theme of “lost illusions.” All of Raphael's wishes were fulfilled. He could buy everything: women, valuable things, exquisite surroundings, he only did not have a natural life, natural youth, natural love, and therefore had no meaning to live. When Raphael learns that he has become the heir of six million, and sees that his shagreen skin has shrunk again, hastening his old age and death, Balzac notes: “The world belonged to him, he could do everything - and no longer wanted anything.” “Lost illusions” can be considered both the search for an artificial diamond, to which Walthasar Claes sacrifices his own wife and children (“Search for the Absolute”), and the creation of a super-work of art, which takes on the meaning of manic passion for the artist Frenhofer and is embodied in a “chaotic combination of strokes "

Balzac said that Uncle Toby from L. Stern's novel Tristram Shandy became for him a model of how to sculpt a character. Uncle Toby was an eccentric, he had a strong point - he did not want to get married. The characters of Balzac's heroes - Grande ("Eugenia Grande"), Gobsek ("Gobsek"), Goriot ("Father Goriot") are built on the "horse" principle. In Grande, such a hobby (or mania) is the accumulation of money and jewelry, in Gobsek it is the enrichment of one’s own bank accounts, for Father Goriot it is fatherhood, serving daughters who demand more and more money.

Balzac described the story “Eugene Grande” as a bourgeois tragedy “without poison, without a dagger, without bloodshed, but for the characters more cruel than all the dramas that took place in the famous family of Atrides.” Balzac feared the power of money more than the power of feudal lords. He looked at the kingdom as the only family in which the king is the father, and where there is a natural state of affairs. As for the rule of bankers, which began after the revolution in 1830, here Balzac saw a serious threat to all life on earth, because he felt the iron and cold hand of monetary interests. And the power of money, which he constantly exposed, Balzac identified with the power of the devil and contrasted it with the power of God, the natural course of things. And here it’s hard to disagree with Balzac. Although Balzac's views on society, which he expressed in articles and sheets, cannot always be taken seriously. After all, he believed that humanity is a kind of fauna, with its own breeds, species and subspecies. That is why he valued aristocrats as representatives of the best breed, which was supposedly bred on the basis of the cultivation of spirituality, which neglects benefit and worthless calculation. Balzac in the press supported the insignificant Bourbons as the “lesser evil” and promoted an elitist state in which class privileges would be inviolable, and the right to vote would extend only to those who have money, intelligence and talent. Balzac even justified serfdom, which he saw in Ukraine and was fond of. The views of Stendhal, who valued the culture of aristocrats only at the level of aesthetics, seem much more fair in this case.

Balzac did not accept any revolutionary actions. During the revolution in 1830, he did not interrupt his vacation in the province and did not go to Paris. In the novel “The Peasants,” expressing regret for those who are “great through their hard lives,” Balzac says about the revolutionaries: “We poeticized the criminals, we had mercy on the executioners, and we almost created an idol out of the proletarian!” But it is no coincidence that they say: Balzac’s realism turned out to be smarter than Balzac himself. A wise person is one who evaluates a person not according to his political views, but according to her moral qualities. And in Balzac’s works, thanks to an attempt at an objective portrayal of life, we see honest republicans - Michel Chrétien (“Lost Illusions”), Nizron (“The Peasants”). But the main object of study of Balzac’s work is not they, but the most important force of today - the bourgeois, the same “angels of money” who acquired the significance of the main driving force of progress and whose morals Balzac exposed, exposed in detail and not fussily, like a biologist, which I study the habits of a certain subspecies of animals. “In commerce, Monsieur Grandet was like a tiger: he knew how to lie down, curl up into a ball, look closely at his prey for a long time, and then rush at it; opening the trap of his wallet, he swallowed another fate and again laid down, like a boa constrictor that digests food; He did all this calmly, coldly, methodically.” The increase in capital looks like something like an instinct in Grande’s character: before his death, with a “terrible movement” he grabs the golden cross of a priest who is bending over a fainting man. Another “knight of money” - Gobsek - acquires the significance of the only god in whom the modern world believes. The expression “money rules the world” is vividly realized in the story “Gobsek” (1835). A small, inconspicuous, at first glance, man holds the whole of Paris in his hands. Gobsek executes and pardons, he is fair in his own way: he can drive almost to suicide someone who neglects piety and because of this gets into debt (Countess de Resto), or he can let go of a pure and simple soul who works day and night. night, and finds himself in debt not through his own sins, but through difficult social conditions (the seamstress Ogonyok).

Balzac liked to repeat: “French society itself must be the historian. All I can do is serve as his secretary.” These words indicate the material, the object of study of Balzac’s work, but they conceal the means of processing it, which cannot be called “secretary”. On the one hand, in the process of creating images, Balzac relied on what he saw in real life (the names of almost all the heroes of his works can be found in newspapers of that time), but based on the material of life, he deduced certain laws behind which there existed, and, to Unfortunately, there is a society. He did this not as a scientist, but as an artist. Therefore, the technique of typification (from the Greek typos - imprint) acquires such significance in his work. A typical image has a specific design (appearance, character, fate), but at the same time it embodies a certain trend that exists in society at a certain historical period. Balzac created typical grievances in different ways. He could be aimed only at typicality, as, for example, in the “Monograph on the Rentier”, but he could sharpen individual character traits or create aggravated situations, as, for example, in the stories “Eugene Grande” and “Gobsek”. Here, for example, is a description of a typical rentier: “Almost all individuals of this breed are armed with a reed or a snuff box. Like all individuals of the human genus (mammals), he has seven valves on his face and most likely has a complete skeletal system. His face is pale and often onion-shaped, it lacks character, which is his defining characteristic.” But the fireplace full of spoiled canned goods, never lit, in the house of the millionaire - Gobsek, is, of course, a sharpened feature, but it is precisely this sharpness that emphasizes typicality, exposes the tendency that exists in reality, the ultimate expression of which is Gobsek.

in 1834 - 1836 Balzac publishes a 12-volume collection of his own works, which is called “Studies on the Morals of the 19th Century.” And in 1840-1841. a decision is ripening to summarize Balzac’s entire creative work under the title “Human Comedy,” which is often called the “comedy of money.” Relationships between people in Balzac are predominantly determined by monetary relations, but they were not the only ones that interested the author of The Human Comedy, who divided his gigantic work into the following sections: “Etudes on Morals”, “Physiological Etudes” and “Analytical Etudes”. Thus, the whole of France appears before us, we see a huge panorama of life, a huge living organism that is constantly moving due to the incessant movement of its individual organs.

The feeling of constant movement and unity, the synthetic nature of the picture, arises due to the characters who return. For example, we will first meet Lucien Chardon in Lost Illusions, and there he will try to conquer Paris, and in The Splendor and Poverty of the Courtesans we will see Lucien Chardon, who was conquered by Paris and turned into meek instruments of the devilish ambition of Abbot Herrera-Vautrin (also one cross-cutting character). In the novel "Père Goriot" we first meet Rastignac, a kind guy who came to Paris to receive an education. And Paris provided him with an education - a simple and honest guy turned into a rich man and a member of the cabinet, he conquered Paris, understood its laws and challenged him to a duel. Rastignac defeated Paris, but destroyed himself. He deliberately killed the guy from the province who loved to work in the vineyard and dreamed of getting a law education to improve the life of his mother and sister. The naive provincial turned into a soulless egoist, because otherwise there was no way to survive in Paris. Rastignac went through various novels of the “Human Comedy” and acquired the meaning of a symbol of careerism and the notorious “social success”. Maxime de Tray, the de Resto family constantly appear on the pages of various works, and we get the impression that there are no points at the end of individual novels. We are not reading a collection of works, we are looking at a huge panorama of life. “The Human Comedy” is a striking example of the self-development of a work of art, which never diminishes the greatness of the work, but on the contrary, gives it the greatness of something provided by Nature. It is precisely this kind of powerfulness, far exceeding the personality of the author, that is the brilliant work of Balzac.