Philosophical Studies from The Human Comedy (La Comedie Humaine). Contains The Calvinist Martyr, The Ruggieri's Secret and The Two Dreams. By the French author, who, along with Flaubert, is generally regarded as a founding-father of realism in European fiction. His large output of works, collectively entitled The Human Comedy (La Comedie Humaine), consists of 95 finished works (stories, novels and essays) and 48 unfinished works. His stories are an attempt to comprehend and depict the realities of life in contemporary bourgeois France. They are placed in a variety of settings, with characters reappearing in multiple stories.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
'as calculating and cold as Reason itself',
By sally tarbox (aylesbury bucks uk) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Catherine de' Medici (Dodo Press) (Paperback)
I read this immediately after completing Frieda's excellent biography of Catherine de Medici and was glad to have a familiarity with her life while reading this. This is not another biography, however, nor a treatise on the lady.
The first (main) part of the book is a narrative of an idealistic young Calvinist, Christophe Lecamus, who is a willing participant in the Prince de Conde's plan to gain access to Catherine with communications from the Protestant faction. I found this section really brought history to life from Balzac's descriptions of 16th century Paris to the personalities at court. Certainly his take on some situations is vastly different from that of Frieda; he imagines huge antipathy between Catherine and her young daughter-in-law Mary (later Queen of Scots) whereas Frieda describes a warm relationship. Similarly Catherine's determination to remove Mary (and her hated Guise relatives) causes her to refuse her son a life-saving trepanning operation. Frieda considers it absurd propaganda that she would have let her son die. Who knows? The second piece is set a little later - Catherine's second son, Charles IX, is now on the throne, an unwell and unhealthy young man, ever distrustful of his mother and her poisons. He brings in her alchemists, the Ruggieris, for questioning. I found the discussion on their craft somewhat over my head but the historic picture of this king was fascinating. Third and finally we are transported to an aristocratic party in 1786. One guest claims to have seen and debated with Catherine over the events in her life. She sums up 'to leave two hostile principles at work in a government with nothing to balance them...is sowing the seed of revolution' and continues 'a revolution which is still progressing and which you may achieve.Yes, YOU, who hear me.' Only in the last sentence is it revealed that the two guests are Robespierre and Marat. Very interesting read, totally interesting to any history book on the subject
4 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Drama Galore!,
By Godspark (Imperial, PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Catherine de Medici (Paperback)
Balzac guided European fiction away from the overriding influence of Walter Scott and the Gothic school, by showing that modern life could be recounted as vividly as Scott recounted his historical tales, and that mystery and intrigue did not need ghosts and crumbling castles for props. Maupassant, Flaubert and Zola were writers of the next generation who were directly influenced by him, and Marcel Proust (that other weaver of a great tapestry) acknowledged his influence.
He is worth reading for pleasure as well as for his influence on European literature.
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