Balzac, Honoré de
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1799-1850) French author whose enormous oeuvre – currently assembled in the Pléïade series in an edition over 20,000 pages long [not listed below] – is like Jules Verne a bibliographer's nightmare. Of his numerous early sensational novels, few translations seem to exist, and his later supernatural fiction appears in very various and chameleon guises. But some titles are of genre interest: Le Centenaire: ou les deux Behringeld (1822 4vols as by Horace de Saint-Aubin; trans George Edgar Slusser as The Centenarian, or The Two Behringelds 1976) [for further details see Checklist below], Melmoth Reconcilé (1835; trans Ellen Marriage in coll The Unknown Masterpiece 1896), a Sequel by Other Hands to Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Maturin. The thirty stories assembled as Contes Drolatiques [for full title see Checklist] (coll 1832-1837 2vols; trans anon as Droll Stories Collected from the Abbeys of Touraine 1874) [further translations exist, not all complete; they are not listed below] include supernatural tales and other grotesqueries, often scatological.
Balzac is of course best known for the immense series of nonfantastic novels in the overall sequence known as La comédie humaine ["The Human Comedy"], which occupied most of his career. Some seemingly anomalous tales have been included in less important subdivisions of the overall structure, including"Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu" (1831 L'Artiste; rev 1831 and subsequently; full trans Anthony Rudolf as Gillette or the Unknown Masterpiece 1988 chap), a concentrated dramatic meditation on the unknowability of the work of art once representation has been dissolved; "Séraphita" (1836; trans anon 1889; new trans Clara Bell 1990), an occult romance; and a supernatural tale, Le Peau de Chagrin: roman philosophique (1831 2vols; trans as Luck and Leather: A Parisian Romance 1842; various vts; new trans Katharine Prescott Wormeley as The Magic Skin 1888), about a magic talisman which grants wishes until it is worn out. In this vast sequence his Proto-SF story, "La recherche de l'absolu" (in Études de moeurs au XIXe siècle, coll 1834; trans as The Philosopher's Stone 1844; vt Balthazar, or Science & Love 1859; vt The Alchemist 1861; vt The Alkahest 1887; vt The Quest of the Absolute 1895; vt The Tragedy of a Genius 1912; new trans Ellen Marriage as The Quest of the Absolute 1989) fits somewhat dissonantly. The protagonist, Balthazar Claes, invests everything into his search for a kind of universal element that lies at the base of all other elements, but fails. [JC]
see also: Money; Scientists.
Honoré de Balzac
born Tours, France: 20 May 1799
died Paris: 18 August 1850
works (selected)
There is no attempt here to exhaustively represent the bibliographical maze of Balzac's oeuvre.
- Le Centenaire; ou les Deux Behringeld (Paris: Pollet, 1822) as by Horace de Saint-Aubin [pb/]
- "The Centenarian" (27 October-17 November 1917 All-Story Weekly) [trans by Florence Crewe-Jones of the above: mag/]
- The Centenarian; or The Two Behringelds (New York: Arno Press, 1976) [trans of above by George Edgar Slusser: hb/uncredited]
- The Centenarian; or The Two Behringelds (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2005) [rev with Danièle Chatelain of the above trans: the 1976 text is unacknowledged: with additional notes: hb/from various images]
- La Dernière fée, ou La Nouvelle Lampe merveilleuse (Paris: J N Barba, 1823) as by Horace de Saint-Aubin [binding unknown/]
- The Last Fay (Lewiston, New York: E Mellen Press, 1996) [trans Eric H Du Plessis of the above: hb/]
- The Last Fay (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, 2016) [trans by Brian Stableford of the above: pb/Mike Hoffman]
- Le Peau de Chagrin: roman philosophique (Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1831) [published in two volumes: binding unknown/]
- The Magic Skin (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1888) [trans anon of the above: hb/]
- The Wild Ass's Skin (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2012) [trans by Helen Constantine of the above: pb/]
- "Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu" (1831 L'Artiste) [first appeared in two parts, "Maître Frenhofer" and "Catherine Lescault": rev in Romans e contes philosophiques (coll 1831): frequent further revs: mag/]
- Gillette or the Unknown Masterpiece (London: The Menard Press, 1988) [first complete modern trans, by Anthony Rudolf, of the above: many translations preceded, including that in The Unknown Masterpiece (coll 1896) below: pb/Julia Farrer]
- "La recherche de l'absolu" ["The Search for the Absolute"] (in Études de moeurs au XIXe siècle, coll 1834)
- The Quest of the Absolute (Sawtry, Cambridgeshire: Dedalus Books, 1989) [new trans by Ellen Marriage of the above: for list of earlier translations see text above: pb/]
- The Philosopher's Stone (New York: J Winchester, 1844) [trans of above: hb/]
- Balthazar, or Science & Love (London: Warne and Routledge, 1859) [vt of above trans: binding unknown/]
- The Alchemist; Or, the House of Claes (New York: Rudd and Carleton, 1861) [vt of above trans: binding unknown/]
- The Alkahest; Or, the House of Claes (Boston, Massachusetts: Roberts Bros, 1887) [vt of above trans: binding unknown/]
- The Quest of the Absolute (London: J M Dent, 1895) [vt of above trans: binding unknown/]
- The Tragedy of a Genius (London: Greening and Co, 1912) [vt of above trans: binding unknown/]
- The Quest of the Absolute (xxxx, 1890) [new trans of above by Ellen Marriage as part of her multi-vol trans of The Human Comedy, also including the volume with Melmoth as below: binding unknown/]
- Melmoth Réconcilié (Paris: Allardin, 1835) [pb/]
collections
- Les Cent Contes drolatiques colligez ès abbaïes de Touraine et mis en lumière par le sieur de Balzac: Premier Dixain (Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1832) [coll: first volume: binding unknown/]
- Les Cent Contes drolatiques colligez ès abbaïes de Touraine et mis en lumière par le sieur de Balzac, pour l'esbattement des Pantagruelistes et non aultres: Second Dixain (Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1833) [coll: second volume: binding unknown/]
- Les Cent Contes drolatiques colligez ès abbaïes de Touraine et mis en lumière par le sieur de Balzac, pour l'esbattement des Pantagruelistes et non aultres: Troisième Dixain (Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1837) [coll: third volume: binding unknown/]
- Droll Stories Collected from the Abbeys of Touraine (London: John Camden Hotten, 1874) [coll: trans anon of the above three: illus/hb/Gustave Doré]
- The Unknown Masterpiece (London: J M Dent, 1896) [coll with several supernatural fictions including Melmoth Réconcilié (see above), all trans by Ellen Marriage: hb/]
about the author
- V S Pritchett. Balzac (London: Chatto and Windus, 1973) [nonfiction: hb/]
links
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