DOCSLIB.ORG

Cap S- High Degree Ofsuspense About Their Resolution

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Cap S- High Degree Ofsuspense About Their Resolution 128 THE MELODRAMATIC IMAGINATION ALZAC: REPRESENTATION AND SIGNIFICATION 129 observation "penetrated the soul without neglecting the body; or .ospital of Incurables"; chairs are "dismembered," or, in a suite of rather, it seized so well the exterior details that it went at once ~djectives that moves from the objective to the fully animized, "old, beyond" (6:66). This is the power of extrapolation from the present to' '~racked, rotted, wobbly, gnawed, one-armed, one-eyed, invalid, the invisible, from surface to depth. From the plane of representation, ;expiring" (2:851-52).34 The very appearance of the boarders gives we begin to move into the tiers behind, which are themselves plural: ·~~the presentiment of dramas completed or continuing; not those some parts of the significant behind are more available--doser dramas played before the footlights, between painted drops, but living behind-than others." Metaphor works in essentially two ways: by 'and mute dramas, those icy dramas that touch the heart, perpetual creating transactions from part to part, and from surface to behind. It dramas." Then individual figures-Mile Michonneau, Poiret--Iead to hence both reorganizes, in a new provisional totality, and (sometimes more audacious interrogations of the dramatic past lying behind the the one is a consequence of the other) reveals, lays bare the causes and ravaged face: "What acid had stripped this creature of her female principles of the effects. Through the constructive play of metaphor, forms? ..."; "What work could have so shriveled him up? what one can at least accede to the immediate behind-from stage to passion had blackened his bulbous face? ..." (2:855-56). wings-to expose basic social structures and hidden controlling . The action of the plot, after the lengthy introduction of setting and powers. By constructing metaphors upon metaphors, one may reach characters, gets underway amidst darkness and mystery. Rastignac, still further back, until one approaches the realm of a true spiritual who has returned from his first ball in Society and is pursuing occult. Ifthis movement is doomed to a final falling-short of its goal, it ambitious reveries while attempting to study his law books, hears a is yet full of creative vitality in its approach toward the goal: it is the 'groan coming from Goriot's room and looks through the keyhole to very principle of movement, the underlying force-field of desire of the' find the old man twisting silver bowls into an ingot. The questions Comedie Humaine. A more detailed demonstration could work through ;\.raised by this operation are compounded by the phrase Goriot lets fall: one novel's thematization of this movement, to emerge with closer ,"Poor child!" (2:876). Then, as Rastignac is meditating this mystery, definitions of melodramatic technique. Thematically, Lucien de he hears two men coming up the stairs; a light goes on in Vautrin's Rubempre presents himself as the anti-image of the quest to move room, and he detects the clink of gold. Rastignac's first experience of .what are to be the principal lines of plot in which he will be through effects to causes, the very type of failure in the Comedie implicated comes, then, in the stage darkness, with all the mystery, of Humaine.e? The positive image whose career, fully as exemplary as 'an encounter with the villains of stage melodrama. The plot then Lucien's, offers the very type of success, is Eugene de Rastignac. develops as a series of melodramatic encounters that tie the lines tighter, both explicating positions and relationships and creating a II - Cap s- high degree ofsuspense about their resolution. Rastignac's temptation The narrative voice of Le Pere Goriot overtly adopts the breathless­ .' by Vautrin, and his interest in Victorine Taillefer, is brought to crisis ness of melodrama from the opening page, claiming for this tale the .' 'at the same moment as his courtship of Delphine de Nucingen and label of "drama" despite "the abusive and contorted manner in which also Vautrin's detection and arrest; Mme de Beauseant's ball, her it has been used in these times of painful literature" (2 :847).33 But the farewell to society, coincides with Goriot's death agony, Anastasie de drama, the narrator adds, is no exaggeration: "this drama is neither' Restaud's breakdown before her husband, and the final scene in fiction nor novel. All is true." This is explicitly to be the drama of the .. Rastignac's "education." Everything moves toward, prepares, a few real; and in the opening pages (as at the start of La Peau de chagrin) we . thunderous and decisive scenes. can observe the narrator working upon the details of the reality he has Melodramatic representation indeed touches on the central experi­ framed in his "frame of bronze," to make them release latent ence of the novel; it constitutes much of what the book is about. We significances. The famous furniture of the Pension Vauquer itself Can best grasp this through the first major "scene" presented; it occurs becomes the first token of the conflict: the furniture is "proscribed," when Rastignac, leaving behind him the sordid mysteries of the placed in the Pension "as the debris of civilization are put in the' fension, goes to wage combat for entry into "le monde." His first social call, at the hotel de Restaud, is structured on two verbal jurisprudence which, well learned and well practiced, leads to gestures, the first of which opens doors, produces a sense of belonging everything" (2:905-06). Yet the crudity of Balzac's rendering-the and a flood of light on society; the second, obscurity, rejection, and a excess of the comte's successive reactions, the rapidity of Rastignac's permanent barring of passages. If his arrival is obviously a nuisance to complete acceptance and complete rejection-make the labels of the Comtesse Anastasie de Restaud-who is receiving her lover, comedy of manners and social realism inadequate and misleading. If Maxime de Trailles-when the Comte de Restaud enters she nonethe­ we see the scene as such, we will be forced to conclude that it is bad less introduces Rastignac with the "magic" phrase that he is "related social realism: the gestures dramatized by Balzac are the motions of to Mme la Vicomtesse de Beauseant through the Marcillac": a the bull in the china closet; more is broken than need be to make the formulation which is a "stroke of the wand," opening "thirty "point" about Rastignac's social inexpertise (an image which the compartments" in Rastignac's brain, restoring to him "all his .narrator himself suggests when he comments that Rastignac is like prepared wit," and providing a "sudden light" to make him "see clear someone in a curiosity shop who has bumped into a cabinet of in the air of high society" (2:895-96). The comte is then all polite figurines and "knocked off three or four badly glued-on heads"). As attention and discusses ancestors until Rastignac announces his James indicated in his comment on the very similar scene of social acquaintanceship with someone he has just perceived leaving the rejection in Illusions perdues, Balzac's social gestures do not have the hotel de Restaud, Pere Goriot: "At the mention of this name, volume and opacity of those we find in the novel of manners. There, prettified with the title of pere, the comte, who had been attending to gestures are counters which have value in terms of a system, a social the hearth, threw his tongs into the fire as if they had burned his code which forms their context and assigns their meaning. If the first hands and stood up. 'Sir, you could have said Monsieur Goriot,' he "magic phrase," evoking Rastignac's relation to Mme de Beauseant, cried" (2:898). In a moment, Rastignac notes that there has again seems a reasonable equivalent to any social identification found in been a stroke of the wand, but this time with the "inverse effect" of Austen or Stendhal or Forster, his disastrous mention of Pere Goriot "related to Mme la Vicomtesse de Beauseant." The subject is cannot be assimilated to Emma's insult to Miss Bates, or Julien Sorel's changed, Rastignac's departure hastened; and upon his leaving the failure to change into silk stockings for dinner. These refer us to the hotel, we hear the comte give his valet the order that they will never code, in terms of which they are inappropriate, embarrassing, in again be at home to Monsieur de Rastignac. violation. Rastignac's gaffe is other, it is charged in a different An understanding of what has really gone on in this scene can lead manner. It is more than social: it is revolutionary and revelatory. To us to a clearer grasp of the kind ofdramatization that interests Balzac. understand how this is so is to see why Balzac is not writing a crude At first glance, Rastignac seems to have made (without his or our and uneven comedy of manners, but something very different, a quite knowing why) an impolite social gesture, what he qualifies as a melodrama of manners. "gaucherie." Such an outcome to a first venture into society by a The very "Parisian code" that Rastignac must master is only on the young provincial would appear normal to the point of banality. We surface a code of manners. This is indeed suggested by the preliminary might think we were in the medium of comedy of manners, witnessing circumstances of his visit to the Restauds, which we passed over. a scene that could be found, doubtless with much greater subtlety, in Seeking to show that he is a familiar of the house, Rastignac opens the Marivaux or Laclos or Stendhal, Jane Austen or E.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Inscriptive Masculinity in Balzac's Comédie Humaine
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Theses, Dissertations, Student Research: Modern Languages and Literatures, Department Modern Languages and Literatures of 4-20-2009 Inscriptive Masculinity in Balzac’s Comédie Humaine Alana K. Eldrige University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangdiss Part of the Modern Languages Commons Eldrige, Alana K., "Inscriptive Masculinity in Balzac’s Comédie Humaine" (2009). Theses, Dissertations, Student Research: Modern Languages and Literatures. 6. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangdiss/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Modern Languages and Literatures, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations, Student Research: Modern Languages and Literatures by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. INSCRIPTIVE MASCULINITY IN BALZAC’S COMÉDIE HUMAINE by Alana K. Eldrige A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor in Philosophy Major: Modern Languages and Literature (French) Under the Supervision of Professor Marshall C. Olds Lincoln, Nebraska May, 2009 INSCRIPTIVE MASCULINITY IN BALZAC’S COMÉDIE HUMAINE Alana K. Eldrige, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2009. Adviser: Marshall C. Olds This reading of La Comédie humaine traces the narrative paradigm of the young hero within Balzac’s literary universe. A dynamic literary signifier in nineteenth-century literature, the young hero epitomizes the problematic existence encountered by the individual in post-revolutionary France. At the same time, he serves as a mouth-piece for an entire youthful generation burdened by historical memory.
    [Show full text]
  • Money and Tragedy in the Nineteenth-Century Novel Clany Soileau Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2006 Money and tragedy in the nineteenth-century novel Clany Soileau Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Soileau, Clany, "Money and tragedy in the nineteenth-century novel" (2006). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1875. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1875 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. MONEY AND TRAGEDY IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY NOVEL A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Interdepartmental Program in Comparative Literature by Clany Soileau B.A., University of New Orleans, 1971 B.A., University of New Orleans, 1972 M.A., University of New Orleans, 1978 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1998 May 2006 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would particularly like to express my gratitude to Joseph Ricapito who over the past ten years has given me an inspiring example of what a scholar should be. I was fortunate to have him as a teacher and an inspiration beginning with my very first semester of graduate study at LSU and every year since. I would also like to thank the members of my committee, Bainard Cowan, John Pizer, and Adelaide Russo, for working with me on this project.
    [Show full text]
  • La Corruption Dans Les Romans De Balzac: Une Étude Des Personnages, Des Institutions Et Des Mœurs
    La Corruption dans les romans de Balzac: une étude des personnages, des institutions et des mœurs by Stacey Carolyn Latimer, B.A. A Thesis In FRENCH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Approved Dr. Christopher Bains Chair of Committee Dr. Carole Edwards Dr. Joseph Price Dominick Casadonte Interim Dean of the Graduate School May, 2013 Copyrighted 2013, Stacey Latimer Texas Tech University, Stacey Latimer, May 2013 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Above all, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to my Heavenly Father who has so often blessed me with the strength I have needed to complete this work. Without His sovereign grace in blessing me with the ability to learn a second language, this work would not have been possible. To Him be the glory. I wish to thank Dr. Christopher Bains for first inspiring me with the idea to do research involving the works of Balzac and for his willingness to share his expertise in this area. He has offered encouragement and support throughout my entire academic career in French at Texas Tech. I appreciate his patience and tireless efforts to go through this work critically and offer knowledgeable advice in order to improve both my literary analysis and my use of French. Additionally, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Carole Edwards for her confidence in me and her contribution to my development as a student in French both during this work as well as in my studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
    [Show full text]
  • Beatrix 1 Beatrix
    Beatrix 1 Beatrix **The Project Gutenberg Etext of Beatrix, by Honore de Balzac*** #89 in our series by Honore de Balzac Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! Please take a look at the important information in this header. We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and further information is included below. We need your donations. Beatrix by Honore de Balzac Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley November, 1999 [Etext #1957] **The Project Gutenberg Etext of Beatrix, by Honore de Balzac*** ******This file should be named btrix10.txt or btrix10.zip****** Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, btrix11.txt VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, btrix10a.txt Information about Project Gutenberg 2 Etext prepared by John Bickers, [email protected] and Dagny, [email protected] Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a copyright notice is included. Therefore, we do NOT keep these books in compliance with any particular paper edition, usually otherwise. We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance of the official release dates, for time for better editing.
    [Show full text]
  • Honoré De Balzac La Cousine Bette
    Honoré de Balzac La cousine Bette BeQ Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) Scènes de la vie parisienne La cousine Bette Les parents pauvres La Bibliothèque électronique du Québec Collection À tous les vents Volume 1103 : version 1.13 2 Du même auteur, à la Bibliothèque : Le père Goriot Eugénie Grandet La duchesse de Langeais Gobseck Le colonel Chabert Le curé de Tours La femme de trente ans La vieille fille Le médecin de campagne 3 La cousine Bette Édition de référence : Paris, Alexandre Houssiaux, Éditeur, 1855. 4 À don Michele Angelo Cajetani, prince de Téano. Ce n’est ni au prince romain, ni à l’héritier de l’illustre maison de Cajetani qui a fourni des papes à la Chrétienté, c’est au savant commentateur de Dante que je dédie ce petit fragment d’une longue histoire. Vous m’avez fait apercevoir la merveilleuse charpente d’idées sur laquelle le plus grand poète italien a construit son poème, le seul que les modernes puissent opposer à celui d’Homère. Jusqu’à ce que je vous eusse entendu, la DIVINE COMÉDIE me semblait une immense énigme, dont le mot n’avait été trouvé par personne, et moins par les commentateurs que par qui que ce soit. Comprendre ainsi Dante, c’est être grand comme lui ; mais toutes les grandeurs vous sont familières. Un savant français se ferait une réputation, gagnerait une chaire et beaucoup de croix, à 5 publier, en un volume dogmatique, l’improvisation par laquelle vous avez charmé l’une de ces soirées où l’on se repose d’avoir vu Rome.
    [Show full text]
  • Honoré De Balzac
    Honoré de Balzac Albert Keim and Louis Lumet Honoré de Balzac Table of Contents Honoré de Balzac.......................................................................................................................................................1 Albert Keim and Louis Lumet.......................................................................................................................1 GENERAL NOTE.........................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1. The Treatise on the Human Will..................................................................................................2 Chapter 2. The Garret.....................................................................................................................................8 Chapter 3. His Apprenticeship.....................................................................................................................14 Chapter 4. In Business.................................................................................................................................18 Chapter 5. The First Success........................................................................................................................23 Chapter 6. Dandyism....................................................................................................................................28 Chapter 7. The "Foreign Lady"....................................................................................................................35
    [Show full text]
  • For Love Or for Money
    For Love or for Money For Love or for Money Balzac’s Rhetorical Realism Armine Kotin Mortimer THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS | COLUMBUS Copyright © 2011 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mortimer, Armine Kotin, 1943– For love or for money : Balzac’s rhetorical realism / Armine Kotin Mortimer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8142-1169-4 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8142-9268-6 (cd) 1. Balzac, Honoré de, 1799–1850. Comédie humaine. 2. Realism in literature. 3. Love in literature. 4. Money in literature. I. Title. PQ2159.C72M57 2011 843'.7—dc23 2011019881 Cover design by James Baumann Text design by Juliet Williams Type set in Adobe Sabon Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Mate- rials. ANSI Z39.48–1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Chapter 1 Introduction: The Prime Movers 1 I Rhetorical Forms of Realism Chapter 2 Mimetic Figures of Semiosis 15 Chapter 3 From Heteronomy to Unity: Les Chouans 32 Chapter 4 Tenebrous Affairs and Necessary Explications 47 Chapter 5 Self-Narration and the Fakery of Imitation 63 Chapter 6 The Double Representation of the History of César Birotteau 80 Chapter 7 La Maison Nucingen, a Financial Narrative 94 II Semiotic Images of Realism Chapter 8 Myth and Mendacity: Pierrette and Beatrice Cenci 109 Chapter 9 The
    [Show full text]
  • DIMENSIONS of VAUTRIN by PENELOPE ANGELA HOLMES SHAW B.A., CARLETON UNIVERSITY, 1971
    DIMENSIONS OF VAUTRIN by PENELOPE ANGELA HOLMES SHAW B.A., CARLETON UNIVERSITY, 1971 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of FRENCH We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA MAY, 1974 i In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely avai• lable, for referance and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his represen• tative? It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Abstract This thesis is concerned with the early stirrings of Vautrin in Balzac's consciousness, his sources both literary and historical and the shaping of these early beginnings into the mesmeric figure as we know him today. Our aim will be to present a coherent and succinct view of the dominating forces which the master novelist has interwoven in his charac• ter. The first chapter traces the dominant literary trends relevant to Vautrin'sscreation. Mood and personality of the character as well as their meaning in the context of romantic literature are explored. An important question is whether Vautrin has a prototype. Answers to this question precede discussion of the extent to which Vautrin is Balzac's creation.. u Upon establishing Vautrin's sources in literature, we next consider his historical and contemporary roots.
    [Show full text]
  • Vidocq, Vautrin, Et La Naissance Du Genre Policier
    University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Master's Theses University of Connecticut Graduate School 5-10-2020 Vidocq, Vautrin, et la Naissance du Genre Policier Carrie Slayton [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/gs_theses Recommended Citation Slayton, Carrie, "Vidocq, Vautrin, et la Naissance du Genre Policier" (2020). Master's Theses. 1500. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/gs_theses/1500 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Connecticut Graduate School at OpenCommons@UConn. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of OpenCommons@UConn. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Vidocq, Vautrin, et la Naissance du Genre Policier Carrie E. Slayton B.A., Wheaton College, 2016 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Connecticut 2020 ii Copyright by Carrie E. Slayton 2020 iii APPROVAL PAGE Masters of Arts Thesis Vidocq, Vautrin, et la Naissance du Genre Policier Presented by Carrie E. Slayton, B.A. Major Advisor ________________________________________________ Jennifer Terni Associate Advisor _____________________________________________ Anne Berthelot Associate Advisor _____________________________________________ Roger Célestin University of Connecticut 2020 iv Acknowledgements I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to the Department of Literatures, Cultures and Languages at the University of Connecticut, particularly the faculty of the French section, with whom it has been an honor to work, and under whom it has been a privilege to learn. Thank you for believing in my potential, and for granting me the opportunity to pursue my passion.
    [Show full text]
  • B8 Redux.Pdf
    BALZ (ALBERT GEORGE ADAM). — Cartesian studies. 80 New York, 1951. 1941 Bal — Descartes and the modern mind. 80 New Haven, 1952. 1941 Bal ADDITIONS BALZ (CHARLES F .) and STARWOOD (RICHARD H.). — eds. Literature on information retrieval and machine translation. Comp. & cd. by C. F. B., H. H. S. Owego, New York, 1962. Computer Unit Lib. *** Mimeographed typescript. J>. -/Si* 2nd ed . (supplement to first ed.) Owego, N e w York, 1966. .01078 Bal. BALZ (HORST ROBERT). Methodische Probleme der neutestameetlichen Christologie. [Wiss. Mon. z. A. u. N.T. 25.] Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1967. New Coll. Lib. BALZAC (HONORÉ LE). Index Works 1 Two or more works 2 Beatrix 2a Cesar Birotteau 2h Chouans (Les) 2m Comedie (La) humaine 3 Contes (Les) drolatiques h Cousin (Le) Pons ha Dehut (ïïn) dans la vie 5 Église (L1) 6 Étude sur M. Beyle 7 Eugenie Grandet 8 Falthume 9 Gambara 9a Histoire des Treize 9b Illusions perdues 10 Letters 11 Louis Lambert 12 [Continued overleaf.] BALZAC (HONORÉ DE) [continued]. Index [continued] Lys (Le) dans la vallee 12a Massimilla Doni 12h Menage (Un) de garçon. See RABOUILLEUSE (LA) Paysans (Les) 13 Peau (La) de chagrin 1U Pere (Le) Goriot 15 Petits (Les) "bourgeois 15a Rabouilleuse (La) 15b Scen^es de la vie privée 16 Secret (Les) des Ruggieri l6h ✓ Stenie 17 Torpille (La) 18 ) / * * Traite de la vie elegante 18b Traite des excitants modernes 19 Trois (Les) clercs de sainct Nicholas 20 Ursule Mirouet 21 Vieille (La) fille 22 Sélections 23 Appendix 2b [Continued overleaf.] ADDITIONS BALZAC (HONORÉ DE). INDEX Le médecin de campagne. 12m.
    [Show full text]
  • Realism's Empire
    Realism’s Empire Baker_Final 4 Print.indb 1 6/25/2009 12:02:46 AM Baker_Final 4 Print.indb 2 6/25/2009 12:02:46 AM REALISM’S EMPIRE Empiricism and Enchantment in the Nineteenth-Century Novel • Geoffrey Baker The Ohio State University Press Columbus Baker_Final 4 Print.indb 3 6/25/2009 12:02:46 AM Copyright © 2009 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Baker, Geoffrey, 1973– Realism’s empire : empiricism and enchantment in the nineteenth-century novel / Geof- frey Baker. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8142-1098-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8142-1098-8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-8142-9196-2 (cd-rom) 1. Realism in literature. 2. English literature—19th century—History and criticism. 3. French literature—19th century—History and criticism. 4. German literature—19th century—History and criticism. 5. Balzac, Honoré de, 1799–1850—Criticism and interpreta- tion. 6. Trollope, Anthony, 1815–1882—Criticism and interpretation. 7. Fontane, Theodor, 1819–1898—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PN3340.B35 2009 809’.912—dc22 2009007632 This book is available in the following editions: Cloth (ISBN 978-0-8142-1098-7) CD-ROM (ISBN 978-0-8142-9196-2) Cover design by Laurence Nozik. Type set in ITC Century. Printed by Thompson Shore, Inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.49-1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Baker_Final 4 Print.indb 4 6/25/2009 12:02:46 AM CO N T en TS • Preface and Acknowledgments vii INTRODUCTION Empire and Remapping Realism (a) Space, Form, Content: The Fate of Distance 1 (b) Imperial Knowledge, Colonial Knowledge: The Fate of Difference 9 (c) The Problem with Progress: The Fate of Fiction 13 (d) Précis of Chapters 20 PART I.
    [Show full text]
  • H-France Review Vol. 19 (December 2019), No. 279 Allan H. Pasco
    H-France Review Volume 19 (2019) Page 1 H-France Review Vol. 19 (December 2019), No. 279 Allan H. Pasco, Balzac, Literary Sociologist. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. ix + 290 pp. Notes, bibliography, and index. 25.99€. (pb). ISBN 978-3-319-39332-2; 20.22€. (eb). ISBN 978-3-319- 39333-9. Review by Michael Tilby, Selwyn College, Cambridge. Allan Pasco’s latest book is a study of the section of La Comédie humaine entitled Scènes de la vie de province, a grouping of ten works of prose fiction of varying length and set for the most part, whether wholly or partly, in Touraine or reasonably nearby. They do not constitute all Balzac’s fictional narratives with provincial settings. Nor were they all originally designated “scenes of provincial life,” just as not all the stories finally classified as such were initially so described. In the Avant-Propos de la Comédie humaine, Balzac maintained that their homogeneity was rooted not in geography, but in their representation of a progression from the focus in his “scenes of private life” on “l’enfance, l’adolescence et leurs fautes” to one that examined “l’âge des passions, des calculs, des intérêts et de l’ambition.”[1] Pasco is a firm believer in the conformity of La Comédie humaine to a commitment to order, organization, and coherence, whereas other scholars are more inclined to treat Balzac’s categories and definitions as porous. From this latter perspective, it is difficult to subscribe fully to an enterprise that implies clear-cut authorial points of view, thereby sidestepping inconsistencies and contradictions.
    [Show full text]