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Who wrote shagreen leather. Literary parallels in the images of heroes

Written in 1830-1831, the novel Shagreen Skin is dedicated to the problem of the collision of a young, inexperienced person with a society corrupted by numerous vices, as old as the world.

The protagonist of the work, the young, impoverished aristocrat Rafael de Valantin, goes through a difficult path: from wealth to poverty and from poverty to wealth, from a passionate, unrequited feeling to mutual love, from great power to death. The story of the character's life is drawn by Balzac both in the present tense and in retrospect - through Raphael's story about his childhood, years of studying the art of law, acquaintance with the Russian beautiful Countess Theodora.

The novel itself begins with a turning point in Raphael's life, when, humiliated by his beloved woman and left without a single sous in his pocket, the young man decides to commit suicide, but instead acquires a wonderful talisman - a small, fox-sized piece of shagreen leather. Containing the seal of Solomon and a number of warning inscriptions on the reverse side, they say that the owner of an unusual item gets the opportunity to fulfill all desires in exchange for his own life.

According to the owner of the antiquities shop, no one before Raphael dared to “sign” under such a strange contract, which actually resembles a deal with the devil. Having sold his life for unlimited power, the hero, along with it, gives up his soul to be torn to pieces. Raphael's torment is understandable: having received the opportunity to live, he watches with trepidation how the precious minutes of his existence are flowing away. What until recently was of no value to the hero suddenly became a real mania. And life became especially desirable for Raphael when he met his true love - in the person of a former student, now a young and rich beauty, Pauline Godin.

Compositionally, the novel Shagreen Skin is divided into three equal parts. Each of them is a constituent element of one large work and, at the same time, acts as an independent, complete story. In The Talisman, the plot of the whole novel is outlined and at the same time a story is given about the miraculous salvation from the death of Raphael de Valentin. In "A Woman Without a Heart" the conflict of the work is revealed and it tells about unrequited love and an attempt to take his place in society with the same hero. The title of the third part of the novel, "Agony", speaks for itself: it is both a climax and a denouement, and a touching story about unfortunate lovers separated by an evil chance and death.

The genre originality of the novel "Shagreen Skin" consists of the features of the construction of its three parts. "The Talisman" combines the features of realism and fantasy, being, in fact, a gloomy romantic tale in the Hoffmannian style. In the first part of the novel, the themes of life and death, games (for money), art, love, and freedom are raised. "A Woman Without a Heart" is an exceptionally realistic narrative imbued with a special, Balzacian psychologism. Here we are talking about true and false - feelings, literary creativity, life. "Agony" is a classic tragedy, in which there is a place for strong feelings, and all-consuming happiness, and endless grief, ending in death in the arms of a beautiful lover.

The epilogue of the novel draws a line under the two main female images of the work: pure, tender, sublime, sincerely loving Polina, symbolically dissolved in the beauty of the world around us, and cruel, cold, selfish Theodora, who is a generalized symbol of a soulless and prudent society.

The female images of the novel also include two secondary characters, who are persons of easy virtue. Raphael meets them at a dinner at Baron Taifer, a well-known patron of young scientists, artists and poets. The majestic beauty Akilina and her fragile friend Euphrasia lead a free life because of their disbelief in love.

The first girl's lover died on the scaffold, the second - does not want to tie the knot. Euphrasia in the novel takes the same position as Countess Theodora: they both want to save themselves, just at different prices. Poor Euphrasia agrees to live as she wants, and to die useless in the hospital. The rich and noble Theodora can afford to live according to her needs, knowing that her money will give her love at any stage - even in the most severe old age.

The theme of love in the novel is closely related to the theme of money. Rafael de Valantin admits to his friend Emile that in a woman he appreciates not only her appearance, soul and title, but also wealth. The charming Polina does not attract his attention until she becomes the heir to a large fortune. Until this moment, Rafael suppresses all the feelings that a young student evokes in him.

Countess Theodora kindles his passion with everything she has: beauty, wealth, impregnability. Love for her for the hero is akin to conquering Everest - the more difficulties Raphael meets on the way, the more he wants to solve the riddle of Theodora, which in the end turned out to be nothing more than emptiness ...

The Russian countess, in her hardness of heart, is not in vain correlated by Balzac with high society: the latter, like Theodora, strives only for contentment and pleasure. Rastignac wants to get married profitably, his literary friend wants to become famous at someone else's expense, the young intelligentsia wants to, if not cash in, then at least eat in the house of a wealthy philanthropist.

The true realities of life, such as love, poverty, illness, are rejected by this society as something alien and contagious. There is nothing surprising in the fact that as soon as Raphael begins to move away from the world, he immediately dies: a person who knows the true values of life cannot exist inside deception and lies.

Several decades before Wilde, Honore de Balzac published the philosophical parable Shagreen Skin. It tells the story of a young aristocrat who took possession of a piece of leather covered with old letters, which has the magical ability to do whatever the owner wishes. However, at the same time, it shrinks more and more: each wish fulfilled brings the fatal end closer. And at that moment, when almost the whole world lies at the feet of the hero, waiting for his commands, it turns out that this is a worthless accomplishment. Only a tiny piece of the all-powerful talisman remained, and the hero now "could do everything - and did not want anything."

Balzac told a sad story about the corruption of a soul that is easily deceived. In many ways, his story echoes Wilde's pages, but the very idea of retribution takes on a more complex meaning.

This is not retribution for the thoughtless thirst for wealth, which was synonymous with power, and therefore its human solvency for Raphael de Valentin. Rather, one should speak of the collapse of an exceptionally attractive, but still fundamentally false idea, of a daring impulse not backed up by moral firmness. Then other literary parallels immediately arise: not Balzac, but Goethe, his Faust, in the first place. I really want to identify Dorian with the warlock doctor from the old legend. And Lord Henry will appear as Mephistopheles, while Sibyl Vane can be perceived as a new Gretchen. Basil Hallward will be the Guardian Angel.

But this is too straightforward an interpretation. And yes, it's not entirely accurate. It is known how the idea of the novel arose - not from reading, but from direct impressions. Once, in the workshop of a friend, a painter, Wilde found a sitter who seemed to him perfection itself. And he exclaimed: “What a pity that he cannot escape old age with all its ugliness!” The artist noticed that he was ready to repaint the portrait he had begun at least every year, if nature was satisfied that her destructive work would be reflected on the canvas, but not on the living appearance of this extraordinary young man. Then Wilde's fantasy came into its own. The plot took shape on its own.

This does not mean that Wilde did not remember his predecessors at all. But really, the meaning of the novel is not limited to a refutation of that "deeply selfish thought" that captivated the owner of Raphael's shagreen leather. He is also different when compared with the idea that completely owns Faust, who does not want to remain an earthworm and longs - although he cannot - be equal to the gods who decide the future of mankind.

Wilde's heroes have no such pretensions. They always would only like to keep youth and beauty enduring - contrary to the ruthless law of nature. And this would be least of all a boon for mankind. Dorian, and even more so Lord Henry, is self-centeredness personified. They are simply incapable of thinking about others. Both realize quite clearly that the idea that inspired them is unrealistic, but they rebel against this very ephemeralism, or at least are unwilling to take it into account. There is only the cult of youth, refinement, art, impeccable artistic flair, and it does not matter that real life is infinitely far from the artificial paradise that they set out to create for themselves. That in this Eden the criteria of morality are, as it were, abolished. That he is, in fact, only a chimera.

Once this chimera had undeniable power over Wilde. He also wanted to taste all the fruits that grow under the sun, and did not care about the price of such knowledge. But there was still a significant difference between him and his characters. Yes, the writer, like his heroes, was convinced that "the purpose of life is not to act, but simply to exist." However, having expressed this idea in one essay, he immediately clarified: “And not only to exist, but to change.” With this amendment, the idea itself becomes completely different from the way both Dorian and Lord Henry understand it. After all, they would like imperishable and frozen beauty, and the portrait was supposed to serve as its embodiment. But he turned out to be a mirror of the changes that Dorian was so afraid of. And he couldn't escape.

Just as he could not avoid the need to judge what is happening according to ethical criteria, no matter how much they say about their uselessness. The murder of an artist remains murder, and the guilt for the death of Sibylla remains guilt, no matter how, with the help of Lord Henry, Dorian tries to prove to himself that by these actions he only protected the beautiful from the encroachments of the rough prose of life. And in the end, the results, which turned out to be catastrophic, depended on his choice.

Dorian strived for perfection, but did not achieve it. His bankruptcy is interpreted as the collapse of the selfish. And as a retribution for apostasy from the ideal, expressed in the unity of beauty and truth. One is impossible without the other - Wilde's novel speaks of just that.

So, in the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" Henry Wotton appears before us as a "demon-tempter". He is a lord, an aristocrat, a man of extraordinary intelligence, an author of elegant and cynical statements, an esthete, a hedonist. In the mouth of this character, under the direct "guidance" of which Dorian Gray took the path of vice, the author put a lot of paradoxical judgments. Such judgments were characteristic of Wilde himself. More than once he shocked the secular public with bold experiments on all sorts of common truths.

Lord Henry charmed Dorian with his elegant but cynical aphorisms: “A new hedonism is what our generation needs. It would be tragic if you didn’t have time to take everything from life, because youth is short”, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it”, “People who are not selfish are always colorless. They lack personality."

Having mastered the philosophy of "new hedonism", chasing after pleasures, after new impressions, Dorian loses all idea of good and evil, tramples on Christian morality. His soul is becoming more and more corrupted. He begins to have a corrupting influence on others.

Finally, Dorian commits a crime: he kills the artist Basil Hallward, then forces the chemist Alan Campbell to destroy the corpse. Alan Campbell subsequently commits suicide. The egoistic thirst for pleasure turns into inhumanity and crime.

The “guardian angel” appears before us in the novel by the artist Basil Hallward. In the portrait of Dorian, Basil put his love for him. Basil's lack of a fundamental distinction between art and reality leads to the creation of such a life-like portrait that his revival is only the last step in the wrong direction. Such art naturally, according to Wilde, leads to the death of the artist himself.

Turning to Honore de Balzac's novel Shagreen Skin, we can conclude that the antiquary appears to us in the image of the "tempter demon", and Polina appears as the "guardian angel".

The image of the antiquarian can be compared with the image of Gobsek (the first version of the story was created a year earlier by Shagreen Skin), and we have the right to consider the antiquarian as a development of the image of Gobsek. The contrast between senile decrepitude, physical helplessness and exorbitant power, which gives them the possession of material treasures, emphasizes one of the central themes of Balzac's work - the theme of the power of money. Surrounding people see Gobsek and the antiquarian in a halo of peculiar grandeur, on them - reflections of gold with its "limitless possibilities".

The antiquary, like Gobsek, belongs to the type of philosophizing money-grubbers, but is even more alienated from the worldly sphere, placed above human feelings and unrest. In his face "you would read ... the bright calmness of a god who sees everything, or the proud strength of a man who saw everything." He did not harbor any illusions and did not experience sorrows, because he did not know joys either.

In the episode with the antiquarian, lexical means are selected by Balzac with extreme care: the antiquarian introduces the theme of shagreen leather into the novel, and his image should not be out of harmony with the image of the magical talisman. The author's descriptions and Raphael's perception of the antiquary emotionally coincide, emphasizing the importance of the main theme of the novel. Rafael was struck by the gloomy mockery of the old man's imperious face. The antiquarian knew the "great secret of life", which he revealed to Raphael. “A man exhausts himself with two actions that he performs unconsciously - because of them, the sources of his being dry up. All forms of these two causes of death are reduced to two verbs - to desire and to be able ... To desire burns us, and to be able destroys ... ".

The most important principles of life are taken here only in their destructive sense. Balzac brilliantly comprehended the essence of the bourgeois individual, who is captured by the idea of a merciless struggle for existence, the pursuit of pleasures, a life that wears out and devastates a person. To wish and to be able - these two forms of life are realized in the practice of bourgeois society outside of any moral laws and social principles, guided only by unbridled egoism, equally dangerous and destructive for the individual and for society.

But between these two concepts, the antiquarian also names a formula accessible to the sages. It is to know, it is the thought that kills desire. The owner of an antique shop once walked “through the universe as if through his own garden”, lived under all sorts of governments, signed contracts in all European capitals and walked through the mountains of Asia and America. Finally, he "had everything because he was able to neglect everything." But he never experienced “what people call sadness, love, ambition, vicissitudes, sorrows - for me these are just ideas that I turn into a dream ... instead of letting them devour my life ... I amuse myself with them , as if they were novels that I read with the help of my inner vision.

It is impossible to ignore the following circumstance: the year of publication of "Shagreen Skin" - 1831 - is also the year of the end of "Faust". Undoubtedly, when Balzac made Raphael's life dependent on the cruel condition of fulfilling his desires with shagreen leather, he had associations with Goethe's Faust.

The first appearance of the antiquarian also brought to mind the image of Mephistopheles: “The painter ... could turn this face into the beautiful face of the eternal father or into the caustic mask of Mephistopheles, for sublime power was imprinted on his forehead, and an ominous mockery on his lips.” This rapprochement will prove to be sustainable: when Raphael meets the old man again in the Favar theater, who has abandoned his wisdom, he will again be struck by the similarity “between the antiquary and the ideal head of Goethe’s Mephistopheles, as painters paint it.”

The image of the "guardian angel" in the novel is Pauline Godin.

Freed from everyday motives, created by an "unknown painter" from the shades of a blazing fire, a female image arises, like a "flower that blossomed in a flame." “An unearthly creature, all spirit, all love…” Like a word you search in vain, it “hovers somewhere in your memory…” Maybe the ghost of a medieval Beautiful Lady who appeared to “protect her country from the invasion of modernity”? She smiles, she disappears, "an unfinished, unexpected phenomenon, too soon or too late to be a beautiful diamond." As an ideal, as a symbol of perfect beauty, purity, harmony, it is unattainable.

To Pauline Godin, the daughter of the owner of a modest boarding school, Raphael is attracted by the best sides of his nature. To choose Polina - noble, hardworking, full of touching sincerity and kindness - means to give up the convulsive pursuit of wealth, to accept a calm, serene existence, happiness, but without bright passions and burning pleasures. "Flemish", motionless, "simplified" life will give its joys - the joys of a family hearth, a quiet measured life. But to remain in a patriarchal little world where humble poverty and uncomplicated purity reigns, "refreshing the soul", to remain, having lost the opportunity to be happy in the sense generally accepted in Raphael's environment - this thought revolts his selfish soul. “Poverty spoke in me the language of selfishness and constantly stretched out an iron hand between this good creature and me.” The image of Polina in the novel is an image of femininity, virtue, a woman with a soft and gentle disposition.

Thus, having analyzed the images of the “tempter demon” and “guardian angel” in both novels, we can see vivid literary parallels between the images of “demons” by Henry Watton and the antiquarian, and between the images of “angels” by Basil Hallward and Pauline Godin.

Composition

The clearest example of philosophical stories is "Shagreen Skin", which the author called "the formula of our present century, our life, our egoism", he wrote that everything in it is "myth and symbol". The French word Le chagrin itself can be translated as "shagreen", but it has a homonym almost known to Balzac: Le chagrin - "sorrow, grief." And this is important: the fantastic, almighty pebbled skin, having given the hero freedom from poverty, actually caused even more grief. She destroyed the desire to enjoy life, the feelings of a person, leaving him only egoism, born as long as possible to extend his life flowing through his fingers, and, finally, his owner himself.

That is why Balzac forced the wealthy banker Taifera, having committed a murder, to be one of the first to greet Raphael de Valentin with the words: “You are ours. "The French are equal before the law" - now for him the lie with which the charter begins. He will not obey the laws, but the laws will obey him.” These words really contain the formula of life in France in the 19th century. Depicting the rebirth of Raphael de Valentin after receiving millions, Balzac, using the conventions allowed in the philosophical genre, creates an almost fantastic picture of the existence of a man who has become a servant in the midst of wealth that has turned into an automaton. The combination of philosophical fantasy and the depiction of reality in the forms of life itself constitutes the artistic specificity of the story.

Linking the life of his hero with fantastic shagreen skin, Balzac, for example, describes with medical accuracy the physical suffering of Raphael, who is ill with tuberculosis. In Shagreen Skin, Balzac presents a fantastic case as the quintessence of the laws of his time and, with its help, discovers the main social engine of society - monetary interest that destroys the individual. This goal is also served by the antithesis of two female images - Polina, who was the embodiment of a feeling of kindness, selfless love, and Theodora, in whose image the soullessness, narcissism, vanity and deadly boredom inherent in society are emphasized.

One of the most important figures of the story is the image of an antiquarian, whose judgments reflect Balzac's thoughts that human life can be well defined by the verbs "to wish", "to be able" and "to know".

“Wishing burns us,” he says, “and being able destroys us, but knowing gives our weak organism the opportunity to remain forever in a calm state.” In a state of "desire" are all ambitious people, scientists and poets - Rastignac, Séchard and Valentin. The state of "to be able" is achieved only by those who know how to adapt to a society where everything is bought and sold. Only one Rastignac himself becomes a minister and marries the heiress of millions. Raphael gets shagreen, which works no worse than the convict Vautrin. In a state of "know" are those who, despising other people's suffering, managed to acquire millions - this is the antiquary himself and Gobsek. However, in fact, they also turned into servants of their treasures, into people like automata (the antiquary is 102 years old!). If, like Nusingen, they suddenly find themselves obsessed with desires that are not connected with the accumulation of money (passion for the courtesan Esther), then they themselves become figures, both sinister and comical, because they leave their social role

With the novel "Lost Illusions", completed at the time of the greatest artistic maturity (1837), Balzac created a new type of novel - a novel of disappointment, the inevitable destruction of life ideals, when they collide with the rough reality of capitalist society. The theme of the collapse of illusions appeared in the novel long before Balzac: "Red and Black" by Stendhal, "Confession of the Son of the Century" by Musset. The theme was in the air, it was generated not by literary fashion, but by the social development of France, a country where it was clearly visible where the political evolution of the bourgeoisie was heading. The heroic time of the French resolution and Napoleon awakened and mobilized the dormant energy of the "third estate". The heroic period made it possible for its best people to realize their ideals, to live and die heroically in accordance with these ideals. After the fall of Napoleon, after the Restoration and the July Revolution, this whole era came to an end. Ideals have become mere ornaments, high civic enthusiasm, a necessary product of the previous era, has become socially unnecessary.

Balzac saw with manly clarity the true character of his time. He says: “There was no other phenomenon that would more clearly testify to what kind of helots the Restoration turned the youth into. Young people who did not know what to apply their strength to, spent them not only on journalism, on conspiracies, on literature and art. but also for the most extraordinary excesses; Being industrious, this beautiful youth craved power and pleasure; imbued with an artistic spirit, coveted treasures; in idleness tried to revive their passions; by all means she sought to find a place for herself, and politics did not allow her to find a place anywhere ".

"Lost Illusions" towers like a cliff above all French literature of that time. Balzac is not limited to observing and depicting tragic or tragicomic social situations. He sees deeper.

He sees that the end of the heroic period of bourgeois development in France marks at the same time the beginning of a broad upsurge of French capitalism. "Lost Illusions" shows one side of this process. The theme of the novel is the commodification of literature, and with it other areas of ideology. Balzac presents us with this process of turning literature into a commodity in all its expanded and complete fullness: everything, from the production of paper to the writer's convictions, thoughts and feelings, becomes part of the commodity world. And Balzac does not stop at ascertaining, in a general form, the ideological consequences of the domination of capitalism, but reveals this concrete process at all its stages, in all its areas (newspaper, theater, publishing house, etc.). "What is glory?" asks the publisher Doria: "12,000 francs for articles and a thousand crowns for dinners." Writers do not lag behind publishers: “So you value what you write?” Vernu told him mockingly. “But we trade in phrases and live by this industry.

When you want to write a great and beautiful work, in a word, a book, then you can put your thoughts, your soul into it, become attached to it, defend it; but articles read today, forgotten tomorrow, in my opinion, are worth exactly as much as they are paid for.

Journalists and writers are exploited: their abilities, commodified, are the object of speculation for capitalists who sell literature. But these exploited people are corrupted by capitalism: they strive to become exploiters themselves. When Lucien de Rubempre begins his career as a journalist, his colleague and mentor Lousteau instructs him like this: "In a word, my dear, the key to literary success is not to work, but to use someone else's work."

The friendship of David Sechard with Lucien de Rubempre, the shattered illusions of their dreamy youth, the interaction of the contradictory characters of both of them, form the main contours of the action. Balzac creates images in which the essence of the theme is manifested in the clash of human passions, individual aspirations: the inventor David Sechard finds a new cheap way to make paper, but he is deceived by the capitalists; the poet Lucien is forced to sell his most refined lyrics in the market of Paris. On the other hand, the contrast of characters with amazing plasticity represents a variety of spiritual reactions: David Sechard is a stoic puritan, while Lucien is the embodiment of an exaggerated thirst for sensual pleasures, the unbridled and refined Epicureanism of a whole generation.

In contrast between the two central figures, the two main types of people's spiritual reaction to the commodification of cultural products and human genius are perfectly expressed. Sechard's line is resignation, reconciliation with one's fate. On the contrary, Lucien throws himself into Parisian life and wants to achieve power and recognition there. This puts him in a number of numerous images of the youth of the Restoration - young men who died or made a career, adapting to a dirty, heroic era (Julien Sorel, Rastignac, de Marsais, Blonde, etc.). Lucien occupies a peculiar place in this series. Balzac, with amazing sensitivity and bold foresight, portrayed in him a new, specifically bourgeois type of artist: a weak character and devoid of any definiteness, a tangle of nerves.

The internal contradiction between poetic talent and life spinelessness makes Lucien a toy. It is this combination of spinelessness, ambition, striving for an honest and pure life, an immense but indefinite thirst for fame, exquisite pleasures that makes possible Lucien's dazzling success, rapid self-corruption and shameful failure.

Balzac never moralizes about his heroes. He objectively depicts the dialectic of their rise and fall, motivates both by the interaction between characters and a set of objective conditions. Thus, the main thing that binds this novel into one whole is the social process itself. The deepest meaning of Lucien's personal death lies in the fact that this death is a typical fate of the poet in the era of the developed bourgeois system.

D'Artez - Balzac says in "Lost Illusions": "What is art? Nothing but condensed nature." But this condensation of nature is never a formal "device" for him; it represents the elevation of the social, human content of a given situation to a higher level.
Lucien, at the beginning of his career, has to write an article about Nathan's novel that delighted him. In a few days he is to speak out against him in the second article. This task initially confuses Lucien, a newly minted journalist. But first Lousteau, then Blondet explain to him what his task is, they give reasonings so cleverly supported by references to the history of literature and aesthetics that they must seem convincing not only for the readers of the article, but also for Lucien himself. After Balzac, many writers portrayed the shamelessness of journalists and talked about how articles are written that contradict the beliefs of their authors. But only Balzac reveals the full depth of journalistic sophistry. Depicting the giftedness of writers corrupted by capitalism, he also shows how they bring to virtuosity the craft of sophistry, the ability to deny and affirm any position with such persuasiveness as to make one believe that they have expressed their true views.

The height of artistic expression turns the stock exchange depicted by Balzac, on which they speculate in spiritual life, into a deep tragicomedy of the bourgeois class.

Lost Illusions was the first "disillusionment novel" of the 19th century. Balzac depicts the era, so to speak, of primitive capitalist accumulation in the field of spiritual life; the followers of Balzac, even the greatest among them (for example, Flaubert), had to deal with the already accomplished fact of the subjugation of everyone by capitalism without the withdrawal of human values. In Balzac, therefore, we find a tense tragedy showing the formation of new relations, and in his successors - a dead fact and a lyrical or ironic sadness about what has already happened.

Honore de Balzac conceived and almost brought to life a daring plan: to write a cycle of novels and stories in which a literary model of contemporary France would be created. He called the main creation of his life "The Human Comedy", by analogy with the "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. The writer hoped that it would become as significant for the 19th century as the creation of the great Florentine for the Middle Ages. The anthology was supposed to contain 144 works connected by transitional characters, a single style and issues. However, Balzac managed to write only 96 of them. "Shagreen Skin" (1831) is also included in this cycle and is in the "Philosophical Studies" section.

This novel deals with the conflict of the individual with society, which was the focus of contemporary literature (for example, in Stendhal's "Red and Black"). However, the philosophy of this book and the multiplicity of meanings make it look like a parable with a deep meaning. “Shagreen leather”, a summary of which boils down to a truly Buddhist conclusion that desires kill, nevertheless carries a life-affirming message: happiness is possible without a “magic wand”, it can be found in selfless love and the desire to give, and not take and own.

The main character of the work is Rafael de Valantin, an impoverished educated aristocrat. For several years he drags out the existence of a poor man in the attic of a small hotel, unaware that the owner's daughter, Polina, is in love with him. He himself became interested in the brilliant socialite - Countess Theodora, and for her sake he began to play in a casino, madly spend money on gifts, after which there was only one way out for his honor - suicide. Thus begins the novel Shagreen Skin.

For lack of better ideas, the hero enters an antique shop, where he acquires a piece of donkey skin, on the back of which the inscription is embossed in some oriental language: “When you take possession of me, I will take possession of you. I will fulfill your desires, but with each of them I will decrease - just like your life. Therefore, measure your desires.” Not believing in the effectiveness of what was written, Raphael thinks of a spree, and immediately meets his friends who invite him to drink. He traces the contours of his talisman in ink and wishes to receive great wealth. The next morning, the lawyer informs him that his uncle died in India and bequeathed to the young de Valentin all his considerable savings. Raphael reaches into his pocket and pulls out the antique dealer's gift. Shagreen leather shrank in size!

The subsequent narrative unfolds rapidly: believing in the effectiveness of the talisman, Rafael tries to give up desires. But the accidentally dropped phrase of politeness “I wish you happiness”, attraction to the woman he loves and the thirst to win in a duel quickly nullify his days.

Shagreen skin decreases in size, no physical experiments can stop this process. In the end, the hero dies in his luxurious house in the arms of Polina, who loves him without any miracles and talismans.

It seems that the whole work is a parable about desires that burn the soul, symbolized by shagreen leather. Analysis of the style of the novel nevertheless shows that Balzac works in a narrative style and builds on the romanticism of his predecessors, writers of the early 19th century, using very realistic details, coupled with a colorful and dynamic composition. The hero describes the story of the ruin of his family in such a way that anyone who knows the economic and political realities of France at the end of his reign will not doubt the veracity of his words. The sincerity of this novel, despite the fantastic plot, puts it among the best works of classical realism.

Preparing and holding a press conference.

Preliminarily, a conversation is held with the participants, in which the organizer briefly introduces the main facts of life. Explains how the event will take place. Recommends literature for participants to read, offers to read the works of the poet. Think about the topics that the poet covered. Learn your favorite poem or excerpts from the work by heart. Answer the questions: “What interested in the poetry of Honore de Balzac? What did the works make you think about?

Participants are divided into several creative groups and prepare in advance for a press conference.

1 group of participants. Let's call them leading (creativity researchers). They study the facts of the poet's life, select material for the script.
2 group. Readers . Poems are selected and read by heart.
3rd group. Graphic designers . They publish a newspaper, select musical accompaniment. Write posters with quotes.
4 group. Journalists (two) Covering the course of the press conference. They write short notes, which are read out at the end.
5 group. Librarians (two). They are preparing a review of books about the poet and his collections
6 group. Correspondents (two). Questions about the life and work of the poet are prepared in advance and asked to the participants.

A responsible person is assigned who control over the press conference . At the end of the event, he evaluates and reviews the work of each participant.

Making a press conference.

Exhibition of books and collections of poems, recordings of songs, poster:

Honore de Balzac ((06/22/1746-06/19/1829]) ...

If you don't believe in yourself, you can't be a genius.

Newspaper dedicated to the work of the poet.

Posters with quotes about creativity.

For the participants of the press conference, seats are allocated at separate tables with name cards. In the center of the hall, the presenter and correspondents.

Script for a press conference.

Leading: Today we are holding a press conference: “Meeting with the poet Honore de Balzac”, which is attended by correspondents and guests.

Creativity Explorers (hosts) and readers answer the questions of correspondents, they sit at tables No. 1, No. 2.

At table number 3 - graphic designers (names names), who designed the newspaper and posters.
At table number 4 - journalists. They will cover the course of the press conference and share their notes.
At table number 5 there are librarians who have prepared an exhibition and will introduce us to a review of the literature on the topic.

(The song sounds quietly. After the first verse, the music stops).

Reader 1:

In the mornings, the chill cuts through the skin,
And Moscow, as before, does not believe in tears.
Honore de Balzac, heavily addicted to coffee,
Heard nothing about Riga Balsam...

Eh, turkey-fate ... I would sit in a Russian sleigh,
Having overshadowed the sweeping Russian cross -
No, he desperately needs a Polish lady
With a double chin and a haughty finger.

But he could have been a gentleman, a blackthrope for game ...
A pack of frisky greyhounds and an obsequious kennel...
No, Monsieur dragged himself to get married in Berdichev,
And the vodka was poured for him by a local tavern maker.

And the villain ran through her veins like fire
And she killed the sufferer ... And there would be a balm -
He would drink it with pani - and he would live happily,
And Balzac would have finished his Comedy.

Purpose of the press conference.

Lead teacher: We cannot invite the poet Honore de Balzac for a conversation, so we will walk with you along his life poetic path, part of whose life is connected with French soil, with Tura. Let us listen to his word, discover for ourselves a poet with a piercing voice and a lofty soul of a citizen and patriot.

Correspondent 1: What losses did Balzac have to go through as a child?

Presenter 1 Honoré de Balzac was born in Tours in the family of a peasant from Languedoc, Bernard Francois Balssa (Balssa) (06/22/1746-06/19/1829). Balzac's father made a fortune by buying and selling confiscated noble lands during the years of the revolution, and later became assistant to the mayor of the city of Tours. Has no relation to the French writer Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654). Honore's father changed his surname and became Balzac, and later bought himself a de particle. Mother Anne-Charlotte-Laura Salambier (1778-1853) was the daughter of a Parisian merchant.

The father prepared his son for advocacy. In 1807-1813, Balzac studied at the College of Vendome, in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, at the same time he worked as a scribe for a notary; however, he abandoned his legal career and devoted himself to literature. Parents did little for their son. He was placed at the College Vendôme against his will. Meetings with relatives there were forbidden all year round, with the exception of the Christmas holidays. During the first years of his studies, he repeatedly had to be in a punishment cell. In the fourth grade, Honore began to come to terms with school life, but he did not stop mocking teachers ... At the age of 14, he fell ill, and his parents took him home at the request of the college authorities. For five years, Balzac was seriously ill, it was believed that there was no hope of recovery, but soon after the family moved to Paris in 1816, he recovered.

Correspondent 2: The works of the poet were an illustration of his memoirs, and how did he write them?

Lead 2 In 1829 Balzac returned to writing. He established a truly “army” regime for himself: he slept in the evenings, and woke up around midnight, again took up the pen, supporting his strength with the help of numerous cups of strong black coffee. Balzac worked at an incredible speed - he could write several goose feathers in a day. After the release of the book "Chuans" finally received the deserved attention of Honore de Balzac, his works began to be published. Hard labor was rewarded, and after the release of the novel Shagreen Skin, the young writer began to be called a fashionable writer at all. Inspired by the success, he decided to create the epic "The Human Comedy". But this plan was not destined to be fully realized - Balzac managed to write only about a hundred books. The whole life of the heroes appeared before the eyes of the reader: their birth, growing up, falling in love, marriage and children. The publication of the novel from the cycle "The Human Comedy" brought the writer the fame of an unsurpassed novelist, so desired for him.

Reader 3: Honore de Balzac

Victor Nikulin

Balzac Honore, you know, was not simple:
His literary growth was too rapid,
But I'll tell you everything in order,
I'll put everything on your knowledge bed.

Honore has been unlucky since childhood:
His young mother without unnecessary coquetry
The nurse pushed her son away for three years -
There was then, believe me, such a "fashion".

And he was bad at school:
I'll tell you without a catch
That he was short of money
So I dined - kukish with or without butter.

Everyone laughed at him for this.
The answer is: "I'll be famous!",
Balzac was already vulnerable to such an idea,
Becoming famous and rich quickly is his gambit.

The path to this, as he believed, was a literary work,
Parents gave their son a couple of years to do this,
And they promised to support him within his means,
To this parting word - work as an athlete;
Everything worked out for him - wizards do not lie:
They all do what they say.

Of course, Honore also had a hand in the miracle:
Balzac worked, lived without regret,
Even then he was addicted to coffee,
We will return to him when he became a “pro”.

To better study the customs of the people,
In a tattered outfit, he went to him,
He was not a pioneer in this - here you are right,
But there he found his heroes for books.

Until the age of twenty, Balzac was afraid of women -
After all, his appearance "gave a lot of cracks",
But taking eloquence to help, as if in pincers,
Any woman he could catch
To tell you in a simple way means to "chat".
And even with his grandmother he had and won a bet:
He conquered one of the bright women with which Paris thunders.

When Balzac became terribly famous
When his star rose to its zenith,
He found that his pockets did not ring again,
But for the reason previously opposite:
It is so difficult to get away from waste and luxury -
He himself ate and drank, fed countless friends,
In short, he did not consider his limit,
And he always asked the publishers for a loan.

After all, even his cane, and all Paris chatted about it,
(Decorated with turquoise, with a naked beauty)
Was borrowed by them "direct fire",
So his tribute was successfully collected by his arrogance.

But he kept his working room in simplicity:
Table, candlestick and wall cabinet,
He was superstitious - he carried a table with him,
When he moved from apartment to apartment.

All the women tirelessly whispered
(It was known that he was a magnificent lover -
He is not a thin pamphlet, but a multi-volume one),
They dream that a rally will go with him to love,
Thousands of letters were written to him,
All this, believe me, without signs of being tired,
They lent money and hinted
That with him we are ready for conditions, for everything -
Such was our Honoré, our monsieur.

Now back to coffee - remember I promised
(This is terrible then it will turn out to be a sling),
He cooked it himself
The strongest, black, mixing three varieties only:
Bourbon, Martinique and Mocha,
Dozens of cups a day he drank -
The mighty oak of that life style fell down like a tornado;

Judge for yourself - 15 thousand cups of coffee
Him, know, "Human - cost - a comedy",
Things are bad, it's close to disaster:
It is dangerous to live both vodka and coffee for a drinker,
Stomach pains began to torment him,
So he ended up in such a sad role,
A steep craving for a stimulant turned into such a tragedy.

No longer brought joy and a chic apartment,
And the fact that the woman he loved for a long time,
Agree to perform the deeds of marital duty,
And so it seemed, after all, that the time of happiness had come.

What should be the final
All the things he told you about?
Death is an ambulance from women, food, coffee satiety,
Although he had excellent health from his father
(That milk immeasurably absorbed cow's milk) -
Only fifty plus two years of his candle was burning.

And he was buried in a cemetery with the name Pere Lachaise -
Known for the great place of eternal rest,
He died, but he did not disappear from our memory:
Knew his own and knows our generation.

Lead teacher:

What thoughts, feelings, memories come up when you hear these lines? What makes you think about?

- About the difficult military and orphan childhood of the poet.
- Feeling of loneliness.
– Feeling of the way, movement. The traveler came and went on.
- Interest in the fate of the people.
- A sense of belonging, gratitude for a good deed.

Correspondent 1: What was the fate of the poet in love and work in the middle of his career?

Lead 3: The writer is especially popular among women who are grateful to him for penetrating into their psychology (Honore de Balzac was helped in this by his first lover, a married woman 22 years older than him, Laura de Berni). Balzac receives enthusiastic letters from readers; one of these correspondents, who wrote him a letter in 1832 signed "Foreigner", was a Polish countess, a Russian subject Evelina Ganskaya (née Rzhevuska), who became his wife 18 years later.

Despite the huge success that Balzac's novels enjoyed in the 1830s and 40s, his life was not calm. The need to pay off debts required intensive work; every now and then Balzac started adventures of a commercial nature: he went to Sardinia, hoping to buy a silver mine there on the cheap, he bought a country house, for the maintenance of which he did not have enough money, twice he founded periodicals that did not have commercial success

Correspondent 1: When was the birth of the poet Honore de Balzac? Can you name the exact date?

Presenter 7: How an elusive turn occurs, turning an ordinary writer into a real poet, it is impossible to answer in one word. In the years 1816-19, he studies at the School of Law and serves as a clerk in the office of a Parisian lawyer, but then refuses to continue his legal career. 1820-29 -search for oneself in literature. Balzac publishes action-packed novels under various pseudonyms, composes moralistic "codes" of secular behavior. The period of anonymous creativity ends in 1829, when the novel Chouans, or Brittany in 1799 is published. At the same time, Balzac was working on short stories from modern French life, which, starting from 1830, were published in editions under the general title Scenes of Private Life. These collections, as well as the philosophical novel Shagreen Skin (1831), brought Balzac great fame. Balzac is an apologist for the will, only if a person has a will, his ideas become an effective force. On the other hand, realizing that the confrontation of egoistic wills is fraught with anarchy and chaos, Balzac relies on the family and the monarchy - social institutions that cement society.

Presenter 7: In Shagreen Skin, one can find images and intonations characteristic of a mature Balzac, perception of the world, understanding of Russian fate. Past, present and future exist in his works simultaneously.

Host 8:“Many different divas” Balzac saw in his wanderings around our land, and yet he was drawn to his homeland, home, any reminder returned there, caused aching melancholy and understanding that the homeland is the starting point of everything in your life:

Host 8: Anyone who has ever left their father's house, who remembers the warmth of mother's hands, understands the feelings conveyed in the poem “My Quiet Homeland”.

Reader 6:

Quiet my home
I didn't forget anything.
My school is wooden!
The time will come to leave
The river behind me is foggy
Will run and run.
With every hut and cloud,
With thunder ready to fall
I feel the most burning
The very death penalty.

Lead teacher:

- What does the poem “My Quiet Homeland” make you think about?
– Why can it be read only quietly and penetratingly?
What feelings and images pop up in your memory? What pictures of the Motherland do you see?

(The facilitator calls for a conversation in which the participants share their impressions).

Correspondent 2: What can be said about the musicality of the poet Honore de Balzac?

Host 11: Balzac's works are melodious and melodious, composers turn to them, and then amazingly sincere songs are born.

(A song sounds to the words of Balzac "Gobsek").

Host 11: The French novelist F. Marceau writes in his book about Balzac: "Balzac is a whole world ... Just as Dostoevsky said:" We all came out of the "Overcoat", three-quarters of French writers could say: "We are all sons" Father Goriot. Is there anything that Balzac has not already discovered?

soul and nature become orphans
Because - shut up! - so no one will express them ...

Conclusion.

Lead teacher: Poetry has always been a tool that educates the soul and feelings of a citizen. The task of the reader is to again and again cling to the pure spring of Nikolai Rubtsov's poetry, to draw his strength from it.

Today we talked about love for the Motherland, about the beauty of native nature, about the ability to warm others, to give them a piece of your soul and thereby become richer and more sincere.

I would like to express my confidence that the star of poetry of the great French poet Honore de Balzac will always shine for you. And this meeting will be followed by others.

The word is given Librarians who will review the literature on the topic.

“I really enjoyed the press conference. The works of Balzac strongly take the soul and make you think about our Motherland, about the good that we have. And even if we still can’t understand everything, feel it in his works, but we can join and think about his thoughts and feelings…”

Symbolism in the work

Shagreen leather. Balzac's "symbol" is a broad concept, one of the central and most stable in his aesthetics. He also refers to his own types or those created by other artists as symbols.

The talisman, created by Balzac's imagination, has become a common symbol and has the widest appeal. It is constantly found in various contexts, in speech and literature, as a commonly understood image of necessity and an inexorable objective law. What exactly does the talisman embody in the novel? The symbol is far from unambiguous, and many very different answers have been given to this question. So, F. Berto sees in shagreen leather only the embodiment of consumption, devouring Raphael, turning the symbolism of the novel into an allegory of a fable type; B. Guyon is a symbol of the fundamental depravity and immorality of civilization, of any social system. M. Shaginyan and B. Raskin connect the power of the skin with "things", the power of things over people. I. Lileeva highlights the following idea in the novel: “In the form of shagreen leather, a generalization of bourgeois life is given, subordinated only to the pursuit of wealth and pleasure, a generalization of the power of money, the terrible power of this world, devastating and crippling the human person.” Most of the proposed solutions are not mutually exclusive and find their basis in the text of the novel, which, thanks to its artistic richness, naturally lends itself to many interpretations. All decisions have one common premise: shagreen leather is a symbol of the immutability of the objective law, against which any subjective protest of the individual is powerless. But what is the law according to the author's intention? What did Balzac see as the problematic axis of his novel? There is an Arabic inscription on the shagreen, the meaning of which is explained by the antiquarian: “All forms of two reasons are reduced to two verbs to desire and to be able ... to desire burns us, and the ability destroys us.” Longevity is achieved by a vegetative or contemplative existence, excluding debilitating passions and actions. The more intensively a person lives, the faster he burns out. Such a dilemma leaves a choice, and the essence of man is determined by this choice between opposite solutions.

A game. Rafael's visit to a gambling house and the loss of the last gold is an image of the ultimate despair caused by need and loneliness. The gambling house in all its squalor is a place where "blood flows in streams", but is invisible to the eyes. The word "game" is twice highlighted in the text in large print: the image of the game symbolizes the reckless self-squandering of a person in excitement, in passion. This is how the old wardrobe manager lives, losing all his earnings on the day of receipt; such is the young Italian player, whose face blew "gold and fire"; so is Rafael. In the sharp excitements of the game, life flows out like blood through a wound. The state of the hero after the loss is conveyed by the question: "Was he not drunk on life, or, perhaps, on death?" - a question that is in many ways the key to the novel, in which life and death are constantly and with all sharpness correlated with each other.

Antique shop. The antique dealer's shop confronts the roulette scene as a symbolic representation of a different way of life. On the other hand, the shop is a hyperbolic collection of values, opposites collide in the museum world, contrasts of civilizations are outlined. Raphael's thought, when examining the shop, seems to follow the development of mankind, he refers to entire countries, centuries, kingdoms. The shop fully reflects the mutual influence of verbal and fine arts. One of the symbolic meanings is that the shop represents a compressed image of world life of all ages and in all its forms. Also, the antique shop is called "a kind of philosophical garbage dump", "a vast marketplace for human follies." The law inscribed on the skin must appear as substantiated by the experience of centuries, therefore an antique dealer's shop is a worthy environment for a talisman.

Orgy. The next of the main symbolic scenes of the novel is a banquet on the occasion of the founding of the newspaper. An antique shop is the past of mankind, an orgy is a living modernity, which puts the same dilemma in front of a person in an aggravated form. Orgy - the fulfillment of Raphael's first requirement for a talisman. In the romantic literature of the thirties, descriptions of feasts and revelry were common. In Balzac's novel, the orgy scene has many functions in his "analysis of the sores of society". An excess of luxury expresses the reckless waste of vital forces in sensual passions and pleasures. Orgy - a review of the skepticism of the era in the main issues of social and spiritual life - in the "mass stage", where the characters of the interlocutors are clearly drawn in the replicas and the author's remarks. Balzac mastered the art of creating an image with the help of one or two replicas, one gesture.

Shagreen leather”, analysis of the novel by Honore de Balzac

Written in 1830-1831, the novel Shagreen Skin is dedicated to the problem of the collision of a young, inexperienced person with a society corrupted by numerous vices, as old as the world.

The protagonist of the work- the young, impoverished aristocrat Raphael de Valantin, goes through a difficult path: from wealth to poverty and from poverty to wealth, from a passionate, unrequited feeling - to mutual love, from great power - to death. The life story of the character is drawn by Balzac both in the present tense and in retrospect - through the story of Raphael about his childhood, years of studying the art of law, acquaintance with the Russian beautiful Countess Theodora.

The novel itself begins with a turning point in Raphael's life, when, humiliated by his beloved woman and left without a single sou in his pocket, the young man decides to commit suicide, but instead acquires a wonderful talisman - a small, fox-sized piece of shagreen leather. Containing the seal of Solomon and a number of warning inscriptions on the reverse side, they say that the owner of an unusual item gets the opportunity to fulfill all desires in exchange for his own life.

Compositionally The Shagreen Skin novel is divided into three equal parts. Each of them is a constituent element of one large work and, at the same time, acts as an independent, complete story. In The Talisman, the plot of the whole novel is outlined and at the same time a story is given about the miraculous salvation from the death of Raphael de Valentin. In "A Woman Without a Heart" the conflict of the work is revealed and it tells about unrequited love and an attempt to take his place in society with the same hero. The title of the third part of the novel, "Agony", speaks for itself: it is both a climax and a denouement, and a touching story about unfortunate lovers separated by an evil chance and death.

Genre originality The novel "Shagreen Skin" consists of the features of the construction of its three parts. "The Talisman" combines the features of realism and fantasy, being, in fact, a gloomy romantic tale in the Hoffmannian style. In the first part of the novel, the themes of life and death, games (for money), art, love, and freedom are raised. "A Woman Without a Heart" is an exceptionally realistic narrative imbued with a special, Balzacian psychologism. Here we are talking about true and false - feelings, literary creativity, life. "Agony" is a classic tragedy, in which there is a place for strong feelings, and all-consuming happiness, and endless grief, ending in death in the arms of a beautiful lover.

Women's images novels also include two minor characters, who are persons of easy virtue. Raphael meets them at a dinner at Baron Taifer, a well-known patron of young scientists, artists and poets. The majestic beauty Akilina and her fragile friend Euphrasia lead a free life because of their disbelief in love.

Love Theme in the novel is closely connected with the theme of money. Rafael de Valantin admits to his friend Emile that in a woman he appreciates not only her appearance, soul and title, but also wealth. The charming Polina does not attract his attention until she becomes the heir to a large fortune. Until this moment, Rafael suppresses all the feelings that a young student evokes in him.

Countess Theodora kindles his passion with everything she has: beauty, wealth, impregnability. Love for her for the hero is akin to conquering Everest - the more difficulties Raphael encounters on the way, the more he wants to solve the riddle of Theodora, which in the end turned out to be nothing more than emptiness ...

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