Women in the Life of Balzac/Author's Note
The steady rise of Balzac's reputation during the last few decades has been such that almost each year new studies have appeared about him. While the women portrayed in the Comedie humaine are often commented upon, no recent work dealing in detail with the novelist's intimate association with women and which might lead to identifying the possible sources of his feminine characters in real life has been published.
The present study does not undertake to establish the origin of all the characters found in the Comedie humaine, but is an attempt to trace the life of the novelist on the side of his relations with various women,—a story which is even more thrilling than those presented in many of his novels,—in the hope that it will help explain some of the interesting enigmas presented by his work. So far as the writer could find the necessary evidence, many of the women in Balzac's novels have been here identified with women he knew in the course of his life; and while giving due weight to the suggestions of various writers, and indicating some of the most striking resemblances, she has tried to avoid a mere promiscuous identification of characters.
In the case of many novelists such an investigation would not be worth while, but Balzac's place in literature is so transcendent and his life and writings are so closely and fascinatingly interblended, that it is hoped that the following study, in which the writer has striven to maintain correctness of detail, may not be unwelcome, and that it will throw light on Balzac's complex character, and help his readers better to understand and appreciate some of his most noted women characters. It is believed that this study will show that the influence of women on Balzac was much wider and his acquaintance with them much broader than has previously been supposed.
Apropos of remarks made by Sainte-Beuve and Brunetiere regarding Balzac's admission to the higher circles of society, Emile Faguet has this to say:
"I would point out that the duchesses and viscountesses at the end
of the Restoration were known neither to Sainte-Beuve nor to
Balzac, the former only having begun to frequent aristocratic
drawing-rooms in 1840, and Balzac, in spite of his very short
liaison with Madame de Castries, having become a regular
attendant only a few months before that date. Sainte-Beuve himself
has told us that the Faubourg Saint-Germain was closed to men of
letters before 1830, and since it had to spend a few years
becoming accustomed to their admittance, Sainte-Beuve's testimony
is not at all valid as regards the great ladies of the
Restoration, even at the end."
Perhaps it is due partly to the above statement and partly to the fact that Balzac tried to give the impression that he led a sort of monastic life, that it is generally believed the novelist never had access to the aristocratic society of his time, and never had an opportunity of observing the great ladies or of frequenting the marvelous balls and receptions that fill so large a place in his writings. Whether he made a success of such descriptions is not the question here, but the following pages will at least furnish proof that he not only had many social opportunities, but that his presence was sought by many women belonging to high life and the nobility.
In presenting in the following pages a somewhat imposing list of duchesses, countesses and women of varying degrees of nobility, it is not intended to picture Balzac as a preux chevalier, for he was far from being one. Even in the most refined of salons, he displayed his Rabelaisian manners and costume, and remained the typical author of the Contes drolatiques; but to maintain that he never knew women of the upper class or never even entered their society, involves a misapprehension of the facts. Neither would the present writer give the impression that this was the only class of women he knew or associated with, for he certainly was acquainted with many of the bourgeoisie and of the peasant class; but here it is difficult to make out a case, since his letters to or about women of these classes are rare, and literary men of his day have not given many details of his association with them.
From Balzac's youth, his most intense longings were to be famous and to be loved. At times it might almost be thought that the second desire took precedence over the first, but it was not the ordinary woman that this future Napoleon litteraire was seeking. His desire was to win the affection of some lady of high standing, and when urged by his family to consider marriage with a certain rich widow of the bourgeoisie, it can be imagined with what a sense of relief he wrote his mother that the bird had flown. An abnormal longing to mingle with the aristocracy remained with him throughout his life; and during his stay at Wierzchownia, after having all but made the conquest of a very rich lady belonging to one of the most noted families of Russia, he flattered himself by exaggerating her greatness.
Not being crowned from the first with the success he desired, Balzac needed encouragement in his work. For this he naturally turned to women who would give him of their time and sympathy. In his early years, he received this encouragement and assistance from his sister Laure, from Madame de Berny, Madame d'Abrantes, Madame Carraud and others, and in his later life he was similarly indebted to Madame Hanska. They gave him ideas, corrected his style, conceived plots, furnished him with historical background, and criticized his work in general. Is it surprising then that, having received so much from women, he should have accorded them so great a place in his writings as well as in his personal life?
While Balzac did not, as is often stated, create the "woman of thirty," this characteristic type having already appeared in Madame de Stael's Delphine, in Benjamin Constant's Adolphe, and in Stendhal's Le Rouge et le Noir, he must be credited with having magnified her charms and presented her advantages and superiority to a much higher degree than had been done before. Women indeed play in general an important role in his work, many of his novels bear their names; about one-third of the stories of La Comedie humaine are dedicated to women; and while not quite so large a proportion of the characters created are women, they are numbered among the most important personages of his prolific fancy.
If we are to believe his own testimony, his popularity among women was by no means limited to his Paris environment, for he writes: "Fame is conveyed to me through the post office by means of letters, and I daily receive three or four from women. They come from the depths of Russia, of Germany, etc.; I have not had one from England. Then there are many letters from young people. It has become fatiguing. . . ."
It was only a matter of justice that women should show their appreciation thus, for Balzac rendered them a gracious service in prolonging, by his enormous literary influence, the period of their eligibility for being loved. This he successfully extended to thirty years, even to forty years; with rare skill he portrayed the charm of a declining beauty—as one might delight in the glory of a brilliant autumn or of a setting sun. At the same time, and on the one hand, he depicted the young girl of various types, and women of the working and servant class. And since his own life is so reflected throughout his work, it is of interest to become acquainted with the inner and intimate side of his genius, which has left us some of the greatest documents we possess concerning human nature.
Balzac knew many women, and to understand him fully one should study his relations with them. If he has portrayed them well, it is because he loved them tenderly, and was loved by many in return. These feminine affections formed one of the consolations of his life; they not only gave him courage but helped to soften the bitterness of his trials and disappointments.
While an effort has been made in the following work to solve the questions as to the identity of the Sarah, Maria, Sofka, Constance-Victoire, Louise, Caroline, and the Helene of Balzac's dedications, and to show the role each played, no attempt has here been made to lift the tightly drawn veil which has so long enveloped one side of Balzac's private life. Whoever wishes to do this may now consult the recent publication of the late Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, or the Mariage de Balzac by the late Count Stanislas Rzewuski. It is far more pleasant—even if the charges be untrue—to think as did the late Miss K. P. Wormeley, that no supporting testimony has been offered to prove anything detrimental to the great author's character. Though doubtless much overdrawn, one prefers the delightful picture of him traced by his old friend, George Sand.