4/14/22

Well-written biography of a unique personality and perhaps the greatest French writer. ( )

Golden sparks of playful good humor flashed from his dark eyes as he boasted, scoffed, laughed and intoxicated himself and his listeners. When he was able to scatter his bounty there was nobody to compare with Balzac.

This baggy biography is a joyful mess, but one explained in a postscript by Zweig's friend Paul Friedenthal. The manuscript was still inchoate at the time of Zweig's death in Brazil. There is something timeless and human in the ambition of both Balzac and Zweig. It is easy for the modern reader to point out their respective hasty myopia but, then, who exactly is above such? There isn't much textual analysis in this hefty tome. It isn't unduly ribald either. The work does portray a symphony of errors throughout Balzac's life from his youthful hubris of penning a verse tragedy on Cromwell through his abortive involvement/investment in publishing, the stock market, art collecting and his much ridiculed rustic sanctuary where the retaining walls kept collapsing. Balzac was doomed in love as well and Zweig pulls no punches in his characterization of Balzac's wife Madame Eve De Hanksa: a bored snob who wanted to shag celebrity.

4.6 stars rounded up ( )

1192. Balzac, by Stefan Zweig (1 Nov 1972) This is probably not the definitive biography of Balzac, but I found it enjoyable reading. Balzac was a fantastic person. While one certainly cannot approve of the immoral life he led, nor Zweig's occasional approval thereof, I took a certain satisfaction that he had such an unhappy life--he reaped the wages of sin. But his life reads like a novel. ( )

One of the best biographies on Balzac ( )