The power of money in Balzac's novels. Features of Balzac's realistic manner The theme of money and success in Balzac's novels

Glory was preceded by the legal era and the work of a journalist. Balzac even managed to open his own printing house, which eventually went bankrupt. He undertook to write novels for the sake of earning. And very quickly he surprised the world with the absolute maturity of his style. “The Last Chouan, or Brittany in 1800” (1829) and “Scenes of a Private Life” (1830) even provoked an idea: after these works, Balzac no longer grew as an artist, but simply released one work after another into the world, after two weeks creating another novel. Whatever it was, "The Last Chouan" - the first work of Balzac, signed by his real name, incorporates all the components of the work of the writer, who began as the author of purely commercial vampire novels ("The Birag Heiress", "Vicar of Arden", "Centenary old man") and suddenly decided to create a serious novel.

Balzac chose W. Scott and F. Cooper as his teacher. In Scott, he was attracted by the historical approach to life, but was not satisfied with the dullness and schematism of the characters. The young writer decides to follow Scott's path in his work, but to show readers not so much a moral model in the spirit of his own ethical ideal (as Scott did), but to paint passion, without which there is no truly brilliant creation. In general, Balzac's attitude to passion was contradictory: "the murder of passions would mean the murder of society," he said; and added: "passion is an extreme, it is evil." That is, Balzac was fully aware of the sinfulness of his characters, but did not even think of abandoning artistic analysis sin, which interested him very much and, in practice, formed the basis of his work.

The romantic Musset spoke of his focus on the study of evil. And in the way Balzac is interested in human vices, of course, one senses a certain fate of romantic thinking, which has always been inherent in a great realist. But Balzac, unlike the Romantics, understood human vice not as an ontological evil, but as a product of a certain historical era, a certain segment of the existence of a country, society. That is, vice for Balzac is a much more understandable phenomenon than for romantics.

The world of Balzac's novels carries a clear certainty material world. Private life is very closely connected with official life, since big political decisions do not descend from the sky, but are comprehended and discussed in living rooms and notary offices, in the boudoirs of singers, they collide with personal and family relationships. Society is studied in Balzac's novels in such detail that even modern economists and sociologists study the state of society from his novels. Balzac showed the interaction between people not against the background of God, as Shakespeare did, he showed the interaction between people against the background of economic relations. Society for him appears in the form of a living being, a single living organism. This creature is constantly moving, changing, like the ancient Proteus, but its essence remains unchanged: the stronger eat the weaker. Hence the paradoxical nature of Balzac's political views: the global realist once did not hide his royalist sympathies and sneered at revolutionary ideals. In the essay “Two Meetings in One Year” (1831), Balzac responded irreverently to the revolution of 1830 and its achievements: “After the battle comes victory, after the victory comes distribution; and then the winners turn out to be much more than those who were seen at the barricades. Such an attitude towards people in general is characteristic of a writer who studied humanity in the same way that biologists study animal world.

One of Balzac's most serious passions, starting from childhood, was philosophy. IN school age he almost lost his mind when he got acquainted with the old monastery library in a Catholic boarding school. He did not begin serious writing until he had studied the works of all the more or less eminent philosophers of old and new times. Therefore, the "Philosophical Studies" (1830 - 1837) arose, which can be considered not only works of art and rather serious philosophical works. The "Philosophical Studies" also includes the novel "Shagreen Skin" (1830-1831), fantastic and at the same time deeply realistic.

Fiction, in general, is a phenomenon characteristic of the "Philosophical Studies". It plays the role of a deus ex machine, that is, it performs the function of a central plot premise. Like, for example, a piece of old, dilapidated leather, which accidentally goes to a poor student Valentin in an antique dealer's shop. A piece of shagreen covered with old inscriptions fulfills all the wishes of its ruler, but at the same time shrinks and thereby shortens the life of the “lucky one”.

Shagreen Skin, like many of Balzac's other novels, is devoted to the theme of "lost illusions". All the wishes of Raphael were fulfilled. He could buy everything: women, valuables, exquisite surroundings, he did not have only a natural life, natural youth, natural love, and therefore there was no point in living. When Rafael learns that he has become the heir of six million, and sees that the shagreen skin has decreased again, accelerating his old age and death, Balzac notes: "The world belonged to him, he could do everything - and did not want anything anymore."

“Lost illusions” can be considered both the search for an artificial diamond, to which Balthasar Claes sacrifices his own wife and children (“Search for the Absolute”), and the creation of a super-work of art, which acquires the meaning of manic passion for the artist Frenhofer and is embodied in “a chaotic combination of strokes ".

Balzac said that Uncle Thebe from L. Rule's novel "Tristram Shandy" became for him a model of how to sculpt a character. Uncle Tebe was an eccentric, he had a "horse" - he did not want to get married. The characters of Balzac's heroes - Grand ("Eugenia Grand"), Gobsek ("Gobsek"), Goriot ("Father Goriot") are built on the principle of "horse". For Grand, such a strong point (or mania) is the accumulation of money and values, for Gobsek - enriching his own bank accounts, for Father Goriot - fatherhood, serving daughters who demand more and more money.

Balzac described the story "Eugenia Grande" (1833) as a bourgeois tragedy "without poison, without a dagger, without shedding blood, but for the characters more cruel than all the dramas that took place in the famous Atrid family."

Balzac feared the power of money more than the power of the feudal lords. He looked at the kingdom as a single family, in which the king is the father, and where the natural state of things exists. As for the rule of the bankers, which began after the revolution of 1830, here Balzac saw a serious threat to all life on earth, as he felt the iron and cold hand of monetary interests. And the power of money, which he constantly exposed, Balzac identified with the power of the devil and opposed it to the power of God, the natural course of things. And here it is hard to disagree with Balzac. Although Balzac's views on society, which he expressed in articles and letters, can not always be taken seriously. After all, he believed that humanity is a kind of fauna, with its own breeds, species and subspecies. Therefore, he valued aristocrats as representatives of the best breed, which allegedly emerged as the basis for the cultivation of spirituality, which neglects the benefits and low calculation.

Balzac supported the worthless Bourbons in print as a "lesser evil" and promoted an elitist state in which wealthy privileges would be intact, and suffrage would only apply to those who had money, intelligence and talent. Balzac even justified serfdom, which he saw in Ukraine and which he was fond of. The views of Stendhal, who valued the culture of aristocrats only at the level of aesthetics, look much more just in this case.

Balzac did not perceive any revolutionary speeches. During the revolution of 1830, he did not interrupt his vacation in the provinces and did not go to Paris. In the novel "Peasants", expressing sympathy for those who are "great because of their difficult life", Balzac says about the revolutionaries: "We poeticized the criminals, we admired the executioners, and we almost created an idol from the proletarian!".

^ 2. The concept of the "Human Comedy" and its implementation. Preface to the epic as Balzac's literary manifesto

In the work of Balzac, 3 stages are distinguished:

1. 1820s (the writer's proximity to romantic school)

2. The second half of the 1830s is the period of creative maturation of Balzac the realist (during this period, such works as “Gobsek”, “Shagreen Skin”, “Father Goriot”, etc.) are published.

3. mid-30s (the beginning of the stage is associated with work on Lost Illusions, the first volume of which was published in 1837) - the flowering of the writer's creative forces. 1837-1847 - the embodiment of the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe "Human Comedy".

As noted earlier, the idea of ​​combining works into an epic arises in Balzac after the publication of the novel "Eugene Grande". In 1834, he wrote to E. Ganskaya about his work on "a large collection of works." Under the general name "Social studies" "it will unite all these separate fragments, capitals, columns, supports, bas-reliefs, walls, domes - in a word, it will make a monument that will turn out to be ugly or beautiful ...".

At first, Balzac plans autonomous editions of the 19th Century Etudes of Morals (in October 1833, an agreement was signed on the release of 24 volumes) and Philosophical Studies (in July 1834, the writer undertook to submit 5 volumes to print by the end of the year). Obviously, at the same time, it becomes clear to him that the two main channels of his creative undertakings must merge into a single stream: a realistic depiction of morals requires philosophical reflection facts. Then the idea arises of "Analytical Studies", which will include "The Physiology of Marriage" (1829). Thus, according to the plan of 1834, the future epic should include three large sections, like three tiers of a pyramid, towering one above the other.

The basis of the pyramid should be the "Etudes of Morals", in which Balzac intends to depict all social phenomena so that for one life situation, not a single character, not a single stratum of society is forgotten. “Fictitious facts will not find a place for themselves here, because only what is happening everywhere will be described,” the writer emphasized. The second tier is “Philosophical Studies”, because after the consequences it is necessary to show the reasons, after the “review of society”, it is necessary to “deliver a sentence on it”. In Analytical Studies, the beginnings of things must be determined. “Morals are the spectacle, causes are the backstage and the mechanisms of the stage. The beginning is the author... as the work reaches the heights of thought, it, like a spiral, shrinks and condenses. If the Studies in Morals require 24 volumes, then the Philosophical Studies will need only 15 volumes, and the Analytical Studies only 9.

Later, Balzac will try to connect the birth of the concept of The Human Comedy with the achievements of contemporary natural science, in particular with the system of the unity of organisms by Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire. It was the acquaintance with these achievements (as well as with the achievements of French historiography of the 1820-30s) that contributed to the formation of his own system. In other words, in The Human Comedy, Balzac wanted, inspired by the works of the great naturalists, who had already come to the idea of ​​the interconnection of all life processes, of their unity in nature, to present the same unity of all the phenomena of social life. The many-sided and multidimensional world of the "Human Comedy" will be a Balzacian system of the unity of organisms, in which everything is interconnected and interdependent.

The idea of ​​​​the work matures gradually, its plan is basically drawn up by 1835.

By the time Lost Illusions is published, the idea of ​​creating a single cycle of works about modernity will be finalized. In 1832, at the time of drawing up the general plan of the epic, it did not yet have a name. It will be born later (by analogy with " Divine Comedy» Dante). From a letter to Ganskaya dated June 1, 1841, it is known that it was during this period that the writer decided how the cycle would be finally called.

In 1842, the Preface to The Human Comedy appears - a kind of manifesto of the writer, who is aware of the innovative nature of the ensemble of works he creates.

In the Preface, Balzac will outline the main provisions of his aesthetic theory, explain in detail the essence of his plan. It will formulate the main aesthetic principles on which Balzac relies when creating his epic, and tells about the writer's plans.

Balzac notes that, inspired by the works of the great naturalists, who came to the idea that all organisms and life processes are interconnected, he wanted to show the same connection of all the phenomena of social life. He points out that his work should "cover 3 forms of being of men, women and things, that is, people and people and the material embodiment of their thinking - in a word, depict a person and life."

The goal of a systematic and comprehensive study of reality dictates to the writer the method of artistic cyclization: within the framework of one novel or even a trilogy, it is impossible to realize such a grandiose idea. We need an extensive cycle of works on one topic (life modern society), which should be presented consistently in a variety of interrelated aspects.

The author of The Human Comedy feels like the creator of his own world, created by analogy with the real world. “My work has its geography, as well as its genealogy, its families, its localities, settings, actors and facts, it also has its armorial, its nobility and bourgeoisie, its artisans and peasants, politicians and dandies, its army - in other words, the whole world. This world lives on its own. And since everything in it is based on the laws of reality, in its historical authenticity it ultimately surpasses this reality itself. Because regularities are sometimes hardly distinguishable (because of the flow of accidents) in the real world, in the world created by the writer, they acquire a clearer and clearer form. The world of the "Human Comedy" is based on a complex system of relationships between people and events, which Balzac comprehended by studying the life of contemporary France. Therefore, one can fully understand the poetic world of the writer only by perceiving the entire epic in its multidimensional unity, although each of its fragments is an artistically completed whole. Balzac himself insisted that his individual works be perceived in the general context of the Human Comedy.

Balzac refers to parts of his epic as "etudes". In those years, the term "etude" had two meanings: school exercises or Scientific research. There is no doubt that the author had in mind the second meaning. Himself as a researcher modern life he had every reason to call him "doctor of social sciences" and "historian". Thus, Balzac, that the work of a writer is akin to the work of a scientist who carefully studies the living organism of modern society from its multi-layered, constantly moving economic structure to the high spheres of intellectual, scientific and political thought.

The “history of morals” that Balzac wants to write, he can create only through selection and generalization, “making an inventory of vices and virtues, collecting the most striking cases of the manifestation of passions, depicting characters, choosing major events from the life of society", creating types, by combining individual features of numerous homogeneous characters. "I needed to learn the basics or one common ground social phenomena, catch hidden meaning vast collection of types, passions and events. Balzac discovers this main "social engine" in the struggle of egoistic passions and material interests that characterize the public and private life of France in the first half of the 19th century. The author comes to the conclusion about the existence of dialectics historical process, marked by the inevitable change of the obsolete feudal formation by the bourgeois formation.

In his epic, Balzac seeks to trace how this basic process manifests itself in various spheres of public and private life, in the fate of people belonging to various social groups, from hereditary aristocrats to residents of the city and village.

As noted above, " human comedy”is subdivided into “Etudes on Morals” (“Etudes on Morals”), “Philosophical Studies”, “Analytical Studies”. The writer refers to the latter as "The Physiology of Marriage" and intends to write two or three more works ("The Pathology of Social Life", "Anatomy of a Pedagogical Corporation", "Monograph on Virtue"). “Philosophical Studies” gives the expression “the social engine of all events”, and Balzac considers the “destructive” boiling of human thoughts and passions to be such an “engine”. Finally, in the "Studies on Morals" one can trace numerous and varied chains of specific causes and motives that determine the private destinies of people. This group of works is the most numerous, it has 6 aspects:

“Scenes of Private Life” (“Gobsek”, “Father Goriot”, “Marriage Contract”, etc.);

"Scenes of Provincial Life" ("Eugenia Grande", "Lost Illusions", "Museum of Antiquities");

"Scenes of Parisian life" ("The brilliance and poverty of the courtesans", "the history of the greatness and fall of Caesar Birotto");

"Scenes of Military Life" ("Chuans", "Passion in the Desert");

"Scenes political life"("Dark matter", "Inside out modern history»),

"Scenes of Village Life" ("Village Priest", "Peasants"

In the Preface, the author explains the meaning of the title of the cycle. “The enormous scope of the plan, embracing at the same time the history and criticism of society, the analysis of its ulcers and the discussion of its foundations, I think, allows me to give it the name under which it appears now -“ The Human Comedy ”. Is it attractive? Or just right? It is up to the readers to decide when the work is finished.

The meaning of the name of the cycle can be "deciphered" in the following way. It should

- to emphasize the grandiose scope of the idea (according to the author, his work should have the same significance for modernity as Dante's great work "The Divine Comedy" for the Middle Ages);

- point out the writer's desire to oppose the divine - the earthly, the circles of Dante's hell - the social "circles" of human society;

- capture the main critical pathos of the work. According to the writer, modernity is a pathetic and at the same time cruel caricature of the revolutionary era. If the origins of bourgeois France are connected with the majestic and tragic events of the revolution of 1789, then the July Monarchy, in the perception of Balzac, is a pathetic and at the same time cruel caricature of the ideals of the leaders of this revolution. The tragedy of the 18th century was replaced by the comedy of the middle of the 19th century, a comedy that is played out - sometimes even unknown to themselves - by the real heirs of the great revolutionaries (hence the characteristic title of one of the works of the "Human Comedy": "Comedians unknown to themselves"). Calling his epic "The Human Comedy", Balzac, in essence, pronounced a sentence on the entire bourgeois-noble society of his time;

- the title also reflects the inner drama of the epic. It is no coincidence that its first part - "Etudes of Morals" was divided into scenes, as is customary in drama. Like a dramaturgic work, The Human Comedy is full of conflict situations that dictate the need for active action, a violent confrontation between antagonistic interests and passions, most often resolved tragically for the hero, sometimes comically, less often melodramatically. It is no coincidence that the author himself indicates in the preface that his work is "a drama with three to four thousand characters."

Balzac's vision of reality is distinguished by depth and versatility. Critical Assessment human vices and all kinds of manifestations social injustice, the imperfection of social organization as a whole is only one of the aspects of his analytical approach to the topic of modern life. The Human Comedy cycle is by no means a phenomenon of “pure criticism”. For the writer, the presence in reality of the best manifestations of human nature is also obvious - generosity, honesty, selflessness, creative abilities, high impulses of spirit. He specifically dwells on this in the preface: "In the picture that I create, there are more virtuous faces than reprehensible ones." The writer explains this by the fact that he believes in the potential perfection of man himself, which manifests itself, if not in every individual, then in the general perspective of the evolution of mankind. At the same time, Balzac does not believe in the endless improvement of society. Therefore, the focus of the writer's attention is on a person not as a “complete creation”, but as a being in a state of continuous formation and improvement.

Starting to create a giant canvas, Balzac declares objectivity as his aesthetic principle. “The French society itself was supposed to be the historian, I had only to be its secretary.” At the same time, he does not consider himself a mere copyist. He believes that the writer should not only depict vices and virtues, but also teach people. “The essence of a writer is what makes him a writer and. I’m not afraid ... to say, makes equal to a statesman, and maybe even higher than him - this is a certain opinion about human affairs, complete devotion to principles. Therefore, we can talk about the strict conceptuality of the great creation of Balzac. Its essence is determined already by 1834, although it will undergo changes as the worldview and aesthetic principles of the artist evolve.

The implementation of an unprecedented idea required a huge number of characters. There are more than two thousand of them in The Human Comedy. The writer tells about each of them everything necessary: ​​he gives information about their origin, parents (and sometimes even distant ancestors), relatives, friends and enemies, past and present occupations, gives exact addresses, describes the furnishings of apartments, the contents of wardrobes, etc. P. The stories of Balzac's heroes, as a rule, do not end at the end of a particular work. Moving on to other novels, stories, short stories, they continue to live, experiencing ups or downs, hopes or disappointments, joys or torments, as the society of which they are organic particles is alive. The interconnection of these “returning heroes” holds the fragments of the grandiose fresco together, giving rise to the polysyllabic unity of the “Human Comedy”.

In the process of working on the epic, the Balzacian concept of the typical, which is fundamental to the entire aesthetics of realistic art, crystallizes. He noted that the "history of morals" can only be created through selection and generalization. “Compiling an inventory of vices and virtues, collecting the most striking cases of the manifestation of passions, depicting characters, choosing the main events from the life of society, creating types by combining individual features of numerous homogeneous characters, perhaps I could write a story forgotten by so many historians - the history of morals” . “A type,” Balzac argued, “is a character that generalizes in itself the characteristic features of all those that are more or less similar to it, a model of the genus.” At the same time, the type as a phenomenon of art is significantly different from the phenomena of life itself, from its prototypes. “Between this type and many faces of this era” one can find common ground, but, Balzac warns, if the hero “turned out to be one of these persons, this would be a guilty verdict on the author, because his character would not have become a discovery.”

It is important to emphasize that the typical in Balzac's concept does not at all contradict the exceptional, if in this exceptional one finds a concentrated expression of the laws of life itself. Like Stendhal's, almost all the characters in The Human Comedy are exceptional personalities in one way or another. All of them are unique in the concreteness and liveliness of their character, in what Balzac calls individuality. Thus, the typical and the individual in the characters of The Human Comedy are dialectically interconnected, reflecting the twofold for the artist creative process- generalization and specification. The category of the typical in Balzac extends both to the circumstances in which the characters act and to the events that determine the movement of the plot in novels (“Not only people, but also the most important events are molded into typical images.”)

Fulfilling his intention to portray in the epic two or three thousand typical people of a certain era, Balzac carried out a reform of literary style. The fundamentally new style he created is different from the educational and romantic ones. Main essence Balzac's reforms - in the use of all the riches of the national language. Many of his contemporaries (in particular, such a serious critic as Sainte-Beuve, and later E. Fage, Brunethier and even Flaubert) either did not understand or did not accept this essence. Referring to the verbosity, roughness, vulgar pathos of Balzac, they reproached him for his bad style, which allegedly showed his impotence as an artist. However, already at that time voices were heard in defense of Balzac's linguistic innovation. T. Gautier, for example, wrote: “Balzac was forced to forge for his own needs special language, which included all kinds of technology, all kinds of slang, science, art, backstage life. That is why superficial critics started talking about the fact that Balzac does not know how to write, while he has his own style, excellent, fatally and mathematically corresponding to his idea. The principle of the "polyphony" noted by Gauthier, which is still unprecedented in literature, is the main sign of the Balzac style, which was a genuine discovery for all subsequent literature. The organic connection of this style with the very method of the artist's work on the "Human Comedy" was excellently said by Zola, who believed that this style has always remained " own style» Balzac.

It should be noted that the contradictions of the writer are reflected in the Preface to The Human Comedy. Along with a deep thought about the “social engine”, about the laws governing the development of society, it also outlines the author’s monarchical program, expresses views on the social benefits of religion, which, from his point of view, was an integral system for suppressing the vicious aspirations of man and was “ the greatest basis of social order." The Preface also showed Balzac's fascination with the mystical teachings that were popular in French society at that time - especially the teachings of the Swedish pastor Swedenborg.

Balzac's worldview, his sympathy for the materialistic science of nature and society, his interest in scientific discoveries, a passionate defense of free thought and enlightenment. testifying that the writer was the heir and successor of the work of the great French enlighteners.

"Human Comedy" Balzac gave two decades of intense creative life. The first novel in the cycle, The Chouans, dates from 1829; the last, The Reverse Side of Modern Life, was published in 1848.

From the very beginning, Balzac understood that his idea was exceptional and grandiose, and would require many volumes. By less than the implementation of plans, the estimated volume The "human comedy" is getting bigger and bigger. Already in 1844, compiling a catalog that included written and what is to be written, Balzac, in addition to 97 works, will name 56 more. After the writer’s death, studying his archive, French scientists published the titles of another 53 novels, to which more than a hundred sketches can be added that exist in the form of notes.

^ 3. Balzac's story "Gobsek" Image in the work of the French nobility and bourgeoisie of the Restoration era.

As noted earlier, in a complex creative development Balzac researchers distinguish three stages. The early period of Balzac's work - the 20s - passes under the sign of proximity to the romantic school of the so-called "violent".

In the first half of the 1930s, the great realistic art of Balzac took shape.

Balzac's critical articles of the early 30s - "Romantic masses", a review of the play by V. Hugo "Ernani", "Literary salons and laudatory words" - indicate that the writer is more deeply and consciously criticizing French romanticism in its most diverse manifestations . The young writer acts as an opponent of romantic effects, a romantic preference for historical plots, a romantically elevated and verbose style. During these years, Balzac followed the development of scientific knowledge with great interest: he was captivated by the discussion about the origin of the animal world on earth, which unfolded in 1830 between Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier, he was fascinated by the disputes going on in the French historical science. The writer comes to the conclusion that truthful art, which gives a scientifically accurate picture of reality, requires, first of all, a deep study of modernity, penetration into the essence of the processes taking place in society.

The desire to depict reality accurately, based on certain scientific data - historical, economic, physiological - is a characteristic artistic feature Balzac. The problems of sociology, which are so widely represented in the writer's journalism, occupy a huge place in his art. Already in the early 1930s, Balzac's realism was deeply and consciously social.

At the same time in creative method Balzac of this period, the realistic way of depiction is combined with romantic artistic means. Speaking against individual schools of romantic French literature, the writer still does not renounce many artistic means romanticism. This is felt in his works of the early 30s, including in the story, which was originally called "The Dangers of Debauchery" (1830).

Later, Balzac would turn to this story again in order to rework it, deepen its meaning and give it a new title: Papa Gobsek (1835), and later, in 1842, simply Gobsek.

From the first to the second version, the story has evolved from an instructive moral description to a philosophical generalization. In The Perils of Debauchery, the central figure was Anastasi de Resto, the unfaithful wife of the Comte de Resto; her vicious life had devastating consequences not only for her own moral consciousness, but also for her children, for the family as a whole. In Gobsek, a second semantic center appears - the usurer, who becomes the personification of the power that dominates bourgeois society.

The work has a peculiar composition - a story within a story. The story is told on behalf of Derville's lawyer. This form of narration allows the author to create a certain "perspective" on events. Derville not only tells about individual episodes from the life of Gobsek and the de Resto family, but also gives an assessment of everything that happens.

The realism of Balzac is manifested in the story primarily in the disclosure of characters and phenomena typical of the French society of the Restoration era. In this work, the author aims to show true essence and the nobility and the bourgeoisie. The approach to the depiction of the surrounding life in Gobsek becomes more analytical, as it is based primarily on the study of the phenomena of real life by means of art, and his conclusions about society as a whole follow from this analysis.

The artist shows the decline and decay of the old French aristocracy, (Maxime de Tray, Resto family). De Tray is shown as an ordinary gigolo, a man without honor and without conscience, who does not hesitate to profit at the expense of a woman who loves him and his own children. “In your veins, instead of blood, there is dirt,” the usurer throws contemptuously in the face of Maxime de Tray. Count Resto is much more sympathetic, but even in him the author emphasizes such an unattractive trait as a weakness of character. He loves a woman who is clearly unworthy of him, and, not having survived her betrayal, falls ill and dies.

Comte de Resto for Gosbeck is one of those French aristocrats whose decline the writer watched with deep regret, perceiving it as a national tragedy. But, being a writer - a realist, Balzac, even pitying the hero, showed the doom of the old nobility, his inability to defend his rights, capitulation under the onslaught of bourgeois relations. The appearance of the triumphant Gobsek in the devastated and deserted house of the Comte de Restaud is dramatic: it is the money itself that bursts into the chambers of the old noble mansion as a sovereign master.

Criticism of the mores of the aristocracy is combined in "Gobsek" with an anti-bourgeois beginning. Main character story of a millionaire usurer - one of the rulers of the new France. A strong, exceptional personality, Gobsek is internally contradictory. “Two creatures live in it: a miser and a philosopher, a vile creature and an exalted one,” says the lawyer Derville about him, on whose behalf the story is being told.

Usury is the main area practical activities Gobsek. By lending money at high interest, he actually robs his “wards”, taking advantage of their extreme need and complete dependence on him. The usurer considers himself "the ruler of life", as he inspires fear in his debtors - rich spenders. Reveling in power over them, he lustfully waits for the time to remind the playboys that it's time to pay for the pleasures received with the help of his money. He considers himself the personification of a punishing fate. “I appear as a retribution, as a reproach of conscience” - he revels in this thought, stepping with dirty shoes on the luxurious carpets of an aristocratic living room.

Pedantic and soulless (“man-automaton”, “man-promissory note”), Gobsek for Balzac is the living embodiment of that predatory force that persistently makes its way to power. Inquisitively peering into the face of this force, the writer seeks to penetrate into the sources of its power and unshakable self-confidence. It is here that Gobsek turns his other side to the reader. The usurer-practitioner gives way to the bourgeois-philosopher, the insightful analyst. Exploring the laws modern world, Gobseck discovers that the main engine that determines social life in this world is money. Therefore, whoever owns the gold rules the world. “What is life but a machine driven by money? (…) Gold is the spiritual essence of the entire present-day society,” this is how the “thinking” usurer formulates his ideas about the world. Realizing this, Gobsek became one of the rulers of the country. “There are ten people like me in Paris: we are the masters of your destinies - quiet, not led by anyone,” - with these words Gobsek defines the position in society that he and his kind occupy.

"Gobsek" was an innovative, realistic work. At the same time, Gobseck's realistically convincing image also carries romantic signs. Foggy past of Gobsek, perhaps a former corsair and plowed all the seas and oceans, traded in people and state secrets. The origin of the hero's untold wealth is unclear. His real life is full of mysteries. The scale of Gobsek's personality, which has an exceptionally deep, philosophical mind, is almost global. The romantic exaggeration of the mystery and power of Gobsek - a predator and money-lover - gives him the character of an almost supernatural being, standing above mortals. The whole figure of Gobsek, who is the personification of the power of gold, acquires a symbolic character in the work.

At the same time, the romantic beginning inherent in the character of Gobsek does not obscure the realistic features of this image. The presence of individual romantic elements only emphasizes the specifics Balzac realism at an early stage of its development, when the typical and the exceptional act in a dialectical unity.

Sharply criticizing in his work the representatives of the degrading aristocracy and the bourgeoisie coming to replace it, the author contrasts them with simple honest workers. The author's sympathies turn out to be on the side of people who honestly earn their living - Fanny Malvo and Derville. Drawing a simple girl - a seamstress and a noble lady - the Countess de Resto, the author clearly prefers the first of them. In striking contrast to Gosbek, a creature gradually losing all human qualities and traits, Derville turns out to be a successful lawyer who makes a career in the salons of the Parisian nobility. It outlines Balzac's favorite image of an intelligent and active commoner, who owes everything only to himself and his work. This man with a clear and practical mind is immeasurably superior to the tribal nobility and representatives of the new monetary aristocracy, like Gobsek.

It should be noted that in the later novels of Balzac, usurers and bankers no longer appear, like Gobsek, in the romantic halo of mysterious and omnipotent villains. Delving into the essence of the laws that govern the life of society and the fate of people, the writer will learn to really see the new masters of France in their genuinely ridiculous and pathetic appearance.

^ 4. The novel "Father Goriot".

The novel "Father Goriot" (1834) is the first work created by Balzac in accordance with the general plan of the epic he conceived. It was during the period of work on this novel that Balzac finally took shape the idea of ​​​​creating a single cycle of works about modern society and including much of what was written in this cycle.

The novel "Father Goriot" becomes the "key" in the conceived "Human Comedy": it clearly expresses the most important themes and problems of the cycle, in addition, many of its characters have already appeared in the author's previous works and will appear in them again in the future.

"The plot of Père Goriot is a nice man - a family boarding house - 600 francs of rent - having deprived himself of everything for the sake of his daughters, each of whom has 50,000 francs of rent, dying like a dog," reads an entry in the Balzac album, made even before the idea arose. "The Human Comedy" (probably in 1832). Obviously, according to the original plan, it was assumed that the story would be about one hero. However, starting to create a novel, Balzac frames the story of Goriot with many additional storylines that naturally arise in the process of implementing the plan. Among them, the first is the line of Eugène de Rastignac, a Parisian student, like Goriot, staying at the boarding house Vauquet. It is through the perception of the student that the tragedy of Father Goriot is presented, who himself is not able to comprehend everything that happens to him. “Without the inquisitive observations of Rastignac and without his ability to penetrate into the Parisian salons, the story would have lost those true tones that it owes, of course, to Rastignac, to his perspicacious him and his desire to unravel the secrets of one terrifying fate, no matter how hard the authors themselves tried to hide them. , and its victim,” the author writes.

However, Rastignac's function is not limited to the simple role of a witness. The theme of the fate of the young generation of the nobility, which entered the novel with him, turns out to be so important that this hero becomes no less significant a figure than Goriot himself.

“Life in Paris is a continuous battle,” says the author of the novel. Having set the goal of depicting this battle, Balzac faced the need to transform the poetics of the traditional novel, which, as a rule, is based on the principles of chronicle linear composition. The novel offers new type novel action with a pronounced dramatic beginning. This structural feature, which later appeared in other works of the writer, will become the most important sign of the new type of novel that Balzac introduced into literature.

The work opens with an extensive exposition, characteristic of Balzac the novelist. It describes in detail the main scene of action - the boarding house Voke - its location, internal arrangement. The dining room of the boarding house, with its colorful random furniture and strange table setting, with its tense atmosphere of aloofness, which they try to hide with outward politeness, is not only an ordinary talbot of a cheap Parisian boarding house, but also a symbol of French society, where everything is shuffled and mixed by recent turbulent historical events.

The exposition also characterizes the mistress of the house, her servants and guests quite fully. The action in this part of the novel flows slowly, eventlessly. Everyone is loaded with their own worries and pays almost no attention to their neighbors. However, as the action develops, the disparate lines of the novel converge, eventually forming an indissoluble unity. After a detailed exposition, events pick up a rapid pace: a collision is transformed into a conflict, the conflict exposes irreconcilable contradictions, a catastrophe becomes inevitable. It occurs almost simultaneously for all actors. Vautrin is exposed and captured by the police, having just arranged the fate of Quiz Typher with the help of a hired killer. The Vicomtesse de Beausean, devoted to her beloved, leaves the world forever. Ruined and abandoned by Maxime de Tray Anastasi de Resto, brought before the court of an angry husband. The boarding house of Madame Voke is emptying, having lost almost all of its guests. The finale ends with Rastignac's remark, as if promising a continuation of the "Human Comedy" begun by the writer.

The main storylines of the novel are determined by the writer's desire to deeply and comprehensively reveal social mechanism bourgeois society in the 1810s and 1820s. Having collected a lot of facts that should convince the reader of the selfish, hypocritical, self-serving nature public relations, which were universally established in Europe during this period, the writer seeks to give a generalized and sharply revealing description of them. The work combines three storylines (Goriot, Rastignac, Vautrin (under his name is the fugitive convict Jacques Colin, nicknamed Deceive-death)), each of which has its own problem.

Goriot was originally associated with the life stories of his daughters - Anastasi, who became the wife of the nobleman de Resto, and Delphine, who married the banker Nyusingen.

With Rastignac, new storylines enter the novel:

- Vicomtesse de Beausean (who opens the doors of the aristocratic suburb of Paris and the cruelty of the laws by which it lives before the young provincial);

- "Napoleon of penal servitude" Vautrin (in his own way continuing the "education" of Rastignac, tempting him with the prospect of quick enrichment due to a crime committed by someone else's hand);

- medical student Bianchon, who rejects the philosophy of immoralism;

- Quiz Tyfer (she would have brought Rastignac a millionth dowry if, after the violent death of her brother, she became the sole heiress of the banker Tayfer).

The storyline connected with the story of Father Goriot - a respectable bourgeois, whose money helped his daughters to make a secular career and at the same time led to a complete alienation between them and their father - is the leading one in the novel. All the threads converge in the end to Goriot: Rastignac becomes the lover of one of his daughters, and therefore the fate of the old man takes on an unexpected interest for him; Vautrin wants to make Rastignac his accomplice, and therefore everything that interests him becomes important for him. young man, including Goriot's family affairs. Thus, a whole system of characters is formed, directly or indirectly connected with Goriot as a kind of center of this system, which includes the hostess of the boarding house Vauquet with all her boarders, and representatives of the high society visiting the salon of the Vicomtesse de Beauseant.

The novel covers a variety of layers of social life - from the noble family of the Count de Resto to the dark bottom of the French capital. French literature has not yet known such a wide and bold scope of life.

Unlike previous works, where secondary characters were characterized by the writer very superficially, in "Father Goriot" everyone has his own story, the completeness or brevity of which depends on the role assigned to him in the plot of the novel. And if the life path of Goriot finds its end, the stories of the other characters remain fundamentally unfinished, since the author intends to return to them in other works of the epic.

The principle of the "return of the characters" is not only the key that opens the way to the future world of the Balzac epic. It allows the author to enter into the beginning of his literary life "The Human Comedy" characters that appeared in works that have already been published. So, in "Gobsek" the story of the de Resto family was told, in "Shagreen Skin" for the first time the names of not only Tyfer, but also Rastignac appeared. In "The Forsaken Woman" is the heroine de Beausean, who left the high society and imprisoned herself in the family estate. In the future, the stories of a number of heroes will be continued.

In the novel, the intertwining of psychological and social plans, characteristic of Balzac the realist, affected. The writer explained the psychology of people, the motives of their actions by the social conditions of life, he tried to show the development of relations between people against the broad background of the life of Parisian society.

The dominance of money, their pernicious influence is shown by Balzac in typical and at the same time deeply individual images. The tragedy of Father Goriot is presented in the novel as a private manifestation general laws that define the life of post-revolutionary France as one of the brightest manifestations of the drama of bourgeois everyday life. Balzac uses a fairly well-known plot (almost a Shakespearean story), but interprets it in a peculiar way.

The history of Goriot, for all its tragedy, is devoid of the features of exclusivity characteristic of the "violent literature" of the 1830s. The daughters idolized by the old man, having received everything that he could give them, completely tormenting him with their worries and troubles, not only left him to die alone in the miserable kennel of the Voke boarding house, but did not even come to the funeral. But these women are not monsters at all. They are generally ordinary people, unremarkable in any way, in no particular way violating the laws established in their midst. Just as common to his milieu is Goriot himself. Unusually only his exaggerated sense of paternity. It prevailed in Goriot over all the bad traits of the hoarder and hoarder, which he had in abundance. In the past, a vermicelli worker, who made a fair fortune on clever flour speculation, he profitably marries his daughters, one to a count, the other to a banker. Since childhood, indulging all their desires and whims, Goriot and later allowed them to ruthlessly exploit their paternal feelings.

Father Goriot is in many ways similar to the hero of Balzac's previous novel, Grande. Like Grande, Goriot exalted himself on the fact that he deftly and shamelessly used the revolutionary situation of 1789, profiting from speculation. But unlike the old Grande, Goriot is full of love for his daughters, which clearly raises him above the environment where money and personal gain are placed above all else.

The daughters never learned to be grateful to Goriot. For Anastasi and Delphine, corrupted by permissiveness, the father turns out to be only a source of money, but when his reserves are exhausted, he loses all interest for his daughters. Already on his deathbed, the old man finally begins to see clearly: “For money you can buy everything, even daughters. Oh my money, where is it? If I left treasures as a legacy, my daughters would follow me and heal me.” IN tragic life and Goriot's lamentations reveal the true basis of all ties - even blood ones - in a society dominated by immeasurable egoism and soulless calculation.

One of the most important problems of Balzac's work - the image of the fate of a young man starting his life path - is associated with Eugene de Rastignac. This character, which has already been seen in Shagreen Skin, will also appear in other works of the writer, for example, in the novels Lost Illusions (1837 - 1843), Nussingen's Banking House (1838), Beatrice (1839). In "Father Goriot" Rastignac begins his independent life path.

A representative of an impoverished noble family, a law student Rastignac came to the capital to make a career. Once in Paris, he lives in the miserable boarding house of Madame Vauquet on meager money, which, denying himself everything, is sent to him by his mother and sisters, living in the provinces. At the same time, due to belonging to ancient family and old family ties, he is given access to the highest spheres of the noble-bourgeois Paris, where Goriot cannot get. Thus, with the help of the image of Rastignac, the author connects two contrasting social worlds of post-revolutionary France: the aristocratic Faubourg Saint-Germain and the boarding house Vauquet, under whose shelter the outcast and semi-impoverished people of the capital found refuge.

Returning to the theme first introduced in Shagreen Skin, the writer this time more deeply and comprehensively reveals the evolution of a young man who enters the world with good intentions, but gradually loses them along with youthful illusions that are broken by the cruel experience of real life.

The story of Goriot unfolding before Rastignac's eyes becomes perhaps the most bitter lesson for him. The author, in fact, depicts the first stage in the "education of the senses" of Rastignac, his "years of study."

Not the last role in Rastignac's "education of feelings" belongs to his peculiar "teachers" - the Viscountess de Beausean and the fugitive convict Vautrin. These characters are in everything opposite to each other, but the instructions that they give to the young man turn out to be remarkably similar. The viscountess teaches the young provincial the lessons of life, and her main lesson is that success in society must be achieved at any cost, without embarrassment in means. “You want to create a position for yourself, I will help you,” says the viscountess, stating with anger and bitterness the unwritten laws of success in high society. “Explore the depths of the depravity of women, measure the degree of the pathetic vanity of men ... the more cold-blooded you calculate, the farther you will go. Strike mercilessly and you will be trembled. Look at men and women as mail horses, drive without regret, let them die at every station, and you will reach the limit in the fulfillment of your desires. “I have thought a lot about the modern structure of our social structure,” says Vautrin to Rastignac. - Fifty thousand profitable places does not exist, and you will have to devour each other like spiders planted in a jar. Nothing can be achieved with honesty... They bow to the power of a genius, and they try to denigrate him... Corruption is everywhere, talent is a rarity. Therefore, venality has become the weapon of mediocrity, which has filled everything, and you will feel the edge of its weapon everywhere. “There are no principles, but there are events,” Vautrin teaches, his young protege, wanting to convert him to his faith, “there are no laws - there are circumstances; a high-flying man himself applies himself to events and circumstances in order to direct them. Gradually, the young man begins to understand the cruel righteousness of the viscountess, who became a victim of high society, and the immoralist Vautrin. “Light is an ocean of mud, where a person immediately goes up to the neck, as soon as he puts the tip of his foot into it,” the hero concludes.

Balzac considered "Father Goriot" one of his saddest works (in a letter to E. Ganskaya, he called this novel "a monstrously sad thing"), not only because the future of Rastignac depressed him no less than the tragic fate of old Goriot. Despite the dissimilarity of these characters, all the "moral dirt of Paris" is highlighted in their destinies. An inexperienced young man soon discovers that the same inhuman laws, greed, crime dominate society at all levels - from its "bottom" to the highest "light". Rastignac makes this discovery for himself after another instructive advice from Vautrin: “He rudely, bluntly told me what Madame de Beauséant put on an elegant form.”

Having accepted as truth that success is above morality, Rastignac, nevertheless, is not immediately able to follow this principle in his real actions. Initially, Rastignac's inherent honesty, intelligence, nobility, candor and youthful idealism conflict with the cynical instructions that he hears from both the Vicomtesse de Beauséan and Vautrin. In Père Goriot, Rastignac still opposes the secular "ocean of mud", as evidenced by his refusal of Vautrin's offer to captivate Victorine. The hero, who still retains a living soul, refuses such a deal not without hesitation. Therefore, he is on the side of the victims of society; the viscountess, whom her lover abandoned for the sake of concluding a profitable marriage deal, and especially the abandoned Goriot. He takes care of a hopelessly ill old man with Bianchon, and then buries him on his miserable pennies.

At the same time, there is evidence in the novel that the hero is ready to make a deal with the world and his own conscience. Particularly symptomatic in this regard is the calculated connection with Delphine Nyusingen, which opens the way for him to millions and a future career.

The fact that the hero intends to follow this path to the end is suggested by the final episode, where Rastignac, as it were, says goodbye to the noble dreams of his youth. Shocked by the history of old Goriot, having buried his unfortunate father betrayed by his daughters, Rastignac decides to face off against the arrogant and greedy Paris. The last argument that persuaded him to take this step was the fact that he did not have even twenty sous "for tea" to the gravediggers. His sincere tears, caused by sympathy for the poor old man, were buried in the grave along with the deceased. After burying Goriot and looking at Paris, Rastignac exclaims: "And now - who will win: me or you!" And he goes to the rich quarters of Paris to win his place in the sun.

This symbolic stroke at the end of the novel sums up, as it were, the first "act" of the hero's life. The first real victory is on the side of society, ruthless and immoral, although morally Rastignac has not yet allowed himself to be defeated: he acts in obedience to his inner moral feeling. At the end of the novel, the hero is already ready to transgress the prohibitions of conscience, which he previously obeyed. Throwing down a challenge to Paris and not doubting his success, he simultaneously commits an act of moral surrender: after all, in order to succeed in society, he is forced to accept its "rules of the game", that is, first of all, to abandon simplicity, spontaneity, honesty, noble impulses.

In the novel "Father Goriot" the author's attitude towards the young hero is ambivalent. Often, deep sympathy sounds in his descriptions. Balzac, as it were, justifies the young man, explains his moral decline by his youth and love of life, the thirst for pleasures that boils in Rastignac.

In the following novels of the cycle, the attitude of the author to the hero changes. Rastignac consciously chooses this path, which requires him to become familiar with the art of secular intrigues and absolute unscrupulousness. From subsequent works ("Lost Illusions", "Nyusingen Trading House", "Shine and Poverty of Courtesans", etc.), the reader learns what Rastignac eventually does brilliant career and achieves a lot: he becomes a millionaire, marries the daughter of his mistress, joins as a relative in the income of Nusingen, receives the title of a peer of France and enters as a minister in the bourgeois government of the July Monarchy. All this will be obtained by the hero not only at the cost of the lost illusions of youth, but also through the loss of the best human qualities. With the degradation of Rastignac, Balzac connects the most important theme for the whole epic of the moral surrender of the French nobility, who trampled on the primordially chivalrous principles and ultimately merged with the bourgeoisie hated by the writer. Obviously, the study of the regularities of the life of the young nobleman Rastignac leads Balzac to lose his own legitimist illusions about the hereditary aristocracy, in which he would like to see the support of the monarchy.

Along with Father Goriot and Rastignac, the image of Vautrin occupies a significant place in the work, with which another of the most important problems of the novel is connected - the problem of crime.

Balzac believes that crime is born from the natural desire of the individual for self-affirmation. To resist crime is a self-protective function of society. This function is carried out the more successfully, the stronger the power, which is able to direct individual abilities and talents for the common good, otherwise they become destructive for society as a whole. Such a dangerous, destructive beginning is embodied in Vautrin.

Vautrin - a strong, bright, demonic personality - embodies the rebellion of the outcasts against those in power. It embodies the rebellious beginning, characteristic of a freedom-loving and rebellious romantic robber or pirate. But Vautrin's rebellion is very specific, based on predatory aspirations and therefore naturally fits into the struggle of man against everyone, which is characteristic of modern society. The ultimate goal of Vautrin is not wealth, but power, understood as the ability to command, remaining independent of anyone else's will.

For all his exclusivity, Vautrin is a typical figure, since his fate is determined by the cohesion of the patterns of life in modern society, as Balzac understands it. In this sense, the criminal - "Napoleon of penal servitude" - can be compared with the "usurer-philosopher" Gobseck, with the only difference that the latter is completely devoid of the author's sympathies, while a person like Vautrin, who differs in the highest degree outstanding abilities and a spirit of defiance, has always aroused the sympathetic interest of Balzac.

The story of Jacques Colin (Vautrin) passes through a series of works by Balzac and finds its natural conclusion in the novel "Shine and Poverty of the Courtesans". In this work, the final duel between Vautrin and society is drawn. In the end, Vautrin realizes the futility of his rebellion, the former convict comes to serve in the police. The genius of crime turns into a guardian of public order; now he zealously serves those who pay him. This plot twist is far from straightforward. It contains the idea of ​​the futility of confronting society, the inevitable victory of the social principle over the individual, and one more touch to the picture of Paris with its “moral filth”: the underworld and the world of law enforcement officers merge in it.

14. The theme of money and the image of a miser in the work of Balzac: "Gobsek", "Eugenie Grande", etc.

The theme of the power of money is one of the main ones in the work of Balzac and runs like a red thread in The Human Comedy.

"Gobsek" written in 1830 and included in Scenes of Private Life. This is a mini novel. It starts with a frame - the devastated Viscountess de Granlier was once helped by the lawyer Derville, and now he wants to help her daughter marry Ernest de Resto (the son of the Countess de Resto, ruined by his mother, but just the other day, according to Derville, entering into inheritance rights Already here is the theme of the power of money: a girl cannot marry a young man she likes, because he does not have 2 million, and if he had, she would have many applicants). Derville tells the viscountess and her daughter the story of Gobsek, the usurer. The protagonist is one of the rulers of the new France. A strong, exceptional personality, Gobsek is internally contradictory. “Two creatures live in it: a miser and a philosopher, a vile creature and an exalted one,” the lawyer Derville says about him.

The image of Gobsek almost romantic. Speaking surname: from French Gobsek is translated as "zhivoglot". It is no coincidence that clients turn to him only last, because he takes into account even the most unreliable bills, but takes hellish interest from them (50, 100, 500. Out of friendship, he can give 12%, this, in his opinion, is only for great merits and high moral). Appearance: " moon face, Facial features, motionless, impassive, like Talleyrand's, they seemed to be cast in bronze. Eyes, small and yellow, like those of a ferret, and almost without eyelashes, could not stand bright light.". His age was a mystery, his past is little known (they say that in his youth he sailed the sea on a ship and visited most countries of the world), there is one big passion - for the power that money gives. These features allow us to consider Gobsek as a romantic hero. Balzac uses more than 20 comparisons for this image: a man-promissory note, an automaton, a golden statue. The main metaphor, Gobsek's leitmotif is "silence, like in a kitchen, when a duck is slaughtered." Like Monsieur Grandet (see below), Gobsek lives in poverty, although he is terribly rich. Gobsek has his own poetry and philosophy of wealth: gold rules the world.

He cannot be called evil, because he helps honest people who come to him without trying to deceive him. There were only two of them: Derville and Comte de Restaud. But even from them he takes extortionate interest, explaining it very simply. He does not want their relationship to be bound by a feeling of gratitude, which can make even friends enemies.

The image of Gobsek is idealized, it is expressive, tends to the grotesque. He is practically asexual (although he appreciates feminine beauty), went beyond passions. He enjoys only power over the passions of other people: “I am rich enough to buy the conscience of other people. Life is a machine driven by money."

He dies like a true miser - alone, avarice reaches fantastic limits. He accepts gifts from his debtors, including food, tries to resell them, but is too intractable, and as a result, all this rots in his house. Everywhere - traces of crazy hoarding. Money falls out of books. The quintessence of this stinginess is a pile of gold, which the old man, for lack of a better place, buried in the chimney ash.

Balzac originally existed within the framework of the romantic movement, but the image of Gobseck is given with the help of the narrator - Mr. Derville, and the romantic exaggeration is objectified, the author is eliminated from it.

"Eugenia Grande" refers to the novels of the "second manner" (repetitions, comparisons and coincidences), is included in the "Scenes of Provincial Life", and it develops the theme of the power of money and has its own image of a miser - Felix Grande, father main character. The path to describing Eugenie's character begins with her setting: the home, the story of her father Grande, and his wealth. His stinginess, monomania - all this influenced the character and fate of the main character. The little things in which his stinginess is manifested: he saves on sugar, firewood, uses the edible stocks of his tenants, consumes only the worst of the products grown on his lands, considers 2 eggs for breakfast a luxury, gives Evgenia old expensive coins for birthdays, but constantly watches, so that she does not spend them, she lives in a poor dilapidated house, although she is fabulously rich. Unlike Gobsek, Father Grande is completely unprincipled in the accumulation of wealth: he breaks an agreement with neighboring winemakers, having sold wine at exorbitant prices before others, he even knows how to profit from the ruin of his brother, taking advantage of the fall in the price of bills.

The novel, seemingly devoid of deep passions, in fact, simply transfers these passions from the love sphere to the market. The main action of the novel is Father Grande's deals, his accumulation of money. Passions are realized in money and are also bought with money.

At papa grande- his values, views of the world, characterizing him as a miser. For him, it is not the loss of his father that is more terrible, but the loss of his fortune. He cannot understand why Charles Grande is so upset over his father's suicide, and not over the fact that he is ruined. For him, bankruptcy, intentional or unintentional, is the most terrible sin on earth: “To be bankrupt is to commit the most shameful of all acts that can dishonor a person. A robber from the main road - and that one is better than an insolvent debtor: the robber attacks you, you can defend yourself, he at least risks his head, but this one ... "

Papa Grande is a classic image of a miser, a miser, a monomaniac and an ambitious man. His main idea is to possess gold, to feel it physically. It is no coincidence that when his wife dies and he tries to show her all the tenderness, he throws gold coins on the blanket. Before his death, a symbolic gesture - he does not kiss the golden crucifix, but tries to grab it. From the love of gold grows the spirit of despotism. In addition to the love of money, similar to " of the miserly knight”, another of his traits is cunning, manifested even in appearance: a lump on his nose with streaks, which moved slightly when Grande's father was plotting some kind of trick.

Like Gobsek, at the end of his life, his stinginess takes on painful features. Unlike Gobsek, even at the moment of death he retains a sound mind, this person loses his mind. He constantly strives to his office, makes his daughter shift bags of money, all the time she asks: “Are they there?”

The theme of the power of money is the main one in the novel. Money controls everything: they play a major role in the fate of a young girl. They trample on all the moral values ​​of man. Felix Grande on his brother's obituary counts the profits. Evgenia is interesting to men only as a rich heiress. Due to the fact that she gave the coins to Charles, her father almost cursed her, and her mother died of a nervous shock on this basis. Even the actual engagement of Eugenia and Charles is an exchange of material values ​​(gold coins for a gold box). Charles marries by calculation, and when he meets Eugenia, he perceives more as a rich bride, although, judging by her lifestyle, he comes to the conclusion that she is poor. Eugenia's marriage is also a trade deal, for money she buys complete independence from her husband.

15. Character and environment in Balzac's novel "Eugene Grande".

"Eugenie Grandet" (1833) is a truly realistic stage in the work of Balzac. This is a drama, concluded in the simplest circumstances. Two of his important qualities appeared: observation and clairvoyance, talent - an image of the causes of events and actions, accessible to the artist's vision. In the center of the novel is the fate of a woman who is doomed to loneliness, despite all her 19 million francs, and her “life is the color of mold.” This work “does not resemble anything I have created so far,” the writer himself notes: “Here the conquest of absolute truth in art has ended: here the drama is contained in the simplest circumstances of private life.” The subject of the image in the new novel is bourgeois everyday life in its outwardly unremarkable course. The scene of action is the city of Saumur, typical of the French province. The characters are Saumur townsfolk, whose interests are limited to a narrow circle of everyday worries, petty squabbles, gossip and the pursuit of gold. The cult of the chistogan is dominant here. It contains an explanation of the rivalry between two eminent families of the city - Cruchot and Grassins, fighting for the hand of the heroine of the novel, Eugenia, heiress multi-million dollar fortune"Papa Grande". Life, gray in its miserable monotony, becomes the background of Eugenia's tragedy, a tragedy of a new type - "bourgeois ... without poison, without a dagger, without blood, but for the characters more cruel than all the dramas that took place in the famous Atrid family."

IN character Eugenie Grande Balzac showed the ability of a woman to love and be faithful to her beloved. This is an almost perfect character. But the novel is realistic, with a system of techniques for analyzing modern life. Her happiness did not take place, and the reason for this was not the omnipotence of Felix Grande, but Charles himself, who betrayed youthful love in the name of money and position in the world. So the forces hostile to Eugenia ultimately prevailed over the Balzac heroine, depriving her of what she was intended for by nature itself. The theme of a lonely disappointed woman, the loss of her romantic illusions.

In terms of its structure, the novel is of the “second manner”. One theme, one conflict, few actors. This is a novel that begins with everyday life, an epic of private life. Balzac knew provincial life. He showed boredom, everyday events. But something more is invested in the environment, things - it is Wednesday, which defines the character of the characters. Small details help to reveal the character of the characters: the father saving on sugar, the knock on the door of Charles Grandet, unlike the knock of provincial visitors, the chairman Cruchot, who wants to erase his surname, who signs "K. de Bonfons, as he recently bought the de Bonfons estate, etc. The path to the character of Eugenia consists of a description of everything that surrounds her: the old house, Grande's father and the history of his wealth, accurate information about the family, the struggle for her hand of two clans - Cruchot and de Grassins. Father - important factor the formation of the novel: the stinginess and monomania of Felix Grande, his power, to which Eugenia obeys, largely determines her character, later stinginess, the mask of her father’s indifference is transferred to her, although not in such a strong form. It turns out that the Saumur millionaire (formerly a simple cooper) laid the foundations of his well-being during the years of the French Revolution, which gave him access to the possession of the richest land expropriated by the republic from the clergy and nobility. During the Napoleonic period, Grande becomes mayor of the city and uses this post to run a "superior railway" to his possessions, thereby increasing their value. The former cooper is already called Mr. Grande, receives the Order of the Legion of Honor. The conditions of the Restoration era do not interfere with the growth of his well-being - it was at this time that he doubled his wealth. Saumur bourgeois is typical of France of those times. Grande, a simple cooper in the past, laid the foundations of his well-being during the years of the revolution, which gave him access to the possession of the richest land. During the Napoleonic period, Grande becomes the mayor of the city and uses this post to lead an "excellent road" to his possessions, thereby increasing their value. The former cooper is already called Mr. Grande, receives the Order of the Legion of Honor. The conditions of the Restoration era do not prevent the growth of his well-being - he doubles his wealth. Saumur bourgeois is typical of France of those times. It is in the discovery of the “roots” of the Grande phenomenon that historicism manifests itself in all its maturity. artistic thinking Balzac, which underlies the ever-increasing deepening of his realism.

The adventure and love that readers expect is missing. Instead of adventures - the stories of people: the story of the enrichment of Grande and Charles, instead of a love line - the deal of Grande's father.

The image of Eugenia. It has a monastic beginning and the ability to suffer. Another characteristic feature of her is ignorance of life, especially at the beginning of the novel. She does not know how much money is a lot, and how much is not enough. Her father doesn't tell her how rich she is. Eugenia, with her indifference to gold, high spirituality and natural desire for happiness, dares to come into conflict with Grande's father. The origins of the dramatic collision are in the heroine's nascent love for Charles. In the fight for Charlyon, he shows rare audacity, again manifested in “little truthful facts” (secretly from his father, he feeds Charles a second breakfast, brings him extra pieces of sugar, heats the fireplace, although it’s not supposed to, and, most importantly, gives him a collection of coins, although he has no right to dispose of them). For Grande, Eugenia's marriage to the "beggar" Charles is impossible, and he fuses his nephew to India, paying him the way to Nantes. However, even in separation, Eugene remains faithful to her chosen one. And if her happiness did not take place, then the reason for this is not the omnipotence of Felix Grande, but Charles himself, who betrayed youthful love in the name of money and position in the world. So the forces hostile to Eugenia ultimately prevailed over the Balzac heroine, depriving her of what she was intended for by nature itself.

The final touch: betrayed by Charles, who lost the meaning of life along with love, internally devastated Eugenia at the end of the novel by inertia continues to exist, as if fulfilling her father’s behest: “Despite eight hundred thousand livres of income, she still lives the same way as poor Eugenia Grande used to live , lights the stove in her room only on those days when her father would let her... Always dressed as her mother used to dress. Saumur house, without sun, without heat, constantly shrouded in shadow and filled with melancholy - a reflection of her life. She carefully collects income and, perhaps, could seem like a hoarder if she did not refute slander by the noble use of her wealth ... The greatness of her soul hides the pettiness instilled in her by her upbringing and skills of the first period of her life. Such is the story of this woman - a woman not of the world in the midst of the world, created for the greatness of her wife and mother and who did not receive a husband, children, or family.

16. The plot and composition of the novels "Father Goriot" and "Lost Illusions": similarities and differences.

both novels

Composition.

In Lost Illusions - the plot develops linearly, what happens with Lucien. Starting with a printing house - and then all the ups and downs

1. "Father Goriot"

Composition: His composition seems to be linear, chronicle. In fact many backstories, and they are very natural, as if one of the characters learns something about the other. This interaction is a mechanism of secrets and intrigues - Vautrin, Rastignac, betrayal - it seems to be a chronicle day after day. Nevertheless, this is a novel that allows you to open a wide picture of social life.

Balzac faced the need transformation of the poetics of the traditional novel, based, as a rule, on the principles of chronicle linear composition. The novel proposes a new type of novel action with pronounced dramatic beginning.

Plot:

Balzac uses a fairly well-known plot (almost Shakespeare's story of King Lear), but interprets it in a peculiar way.

Among the creative records of Balzac, called "Thoughts, plots, fragments", there is a brief sketch: “The old man - a family pension - 600 francs of rent - deprives himself of everything for the sake of his daughters, and both have 50,000 francs of income; dies like a dog. In this sketch, one can easily find out the story of Goriot's boundless paternal love, scolded by his daughters.

The novel shows the boundless, sacrificial love of the father for his children, which was not mutual. And which ultimately killed Goriot.

The story begins with the boarding house Voke, where Goriot lives. In the boarding house everyone knows him, they are extremely unfriendly and his name is none other than "Papa Goriot." Together with him, the young Rastignac also lives in the boarding house, who, by the will of fate learns the tragic fate of Goriot. It turns out that he was a small merchant who made a huge fortune, but squandered it on his adored daughters (Rastignac becomes the lover of one of them), and they, in turn, having squeezed everything they could out of their father, left him. And it was not about noble and rich sons-in-law, but about the daughters themselves, who, once in high society, began to be embarrassed by their father. Even when Goriot was dying, the daughters did not deign to come and help their father. They didn't show up at the funeral either. This story was the impetus for the young Rastignac, who decided to conquer Paris and its inhabitants at all costs.

SIMILARITIES: both of these works are parts of Balzac's "human comedy". One environment, approximately one society, And!!! a person encounters this society and, in fact, loses some kind of illusions, naivety, faith in goodness (we continue in the same spirit).

19. The image of Rastignac and his place in Balzac's Human Comedy.

The image of Rastignac in "Ch.K." - the image of a young man who wins his personal well-being. His path is the path of the most consistent and steady ascent. Loss of illusions, if it occurs, is relatively painless.

IN "Father Goriot" Rastignac still believes in goodness and is proud of his purity. My life is "clear as a lily". He is of noble aristocratic origin, comes to Paris to make a career and enter the law faculty. He lives at Madame Vaquet's boarding house on the last of his money. He has access to the salon of the Vicomtesse de Beauseant. Socially, he is poor. Rastignac's life experience is made up of the collision of two worlds (the convict Vautrin and the viscountess). Rastignac considers Vautrin and his views to be higher than aristocratic society, where crimes are small. “Nobody needs honesty,” Vautrin says. "The colder you count, the further you'll get." Its intermediate position is typical for that time. With the last money, he arranges a funeral for the poor Goriot.

Soon he realizes that his position is bad, will lead to nothing, that he must give up honesty, spit on pride and go to meanness.

In the novel "Banker's House" tells about the first business successes of Rastignac. With the help of the husband of his mistress Delphine, daughter of Goriot, Baron de Nucingen, he makes his fortune through a clever game of stocks. He is a classic fitter.

IN "Shagreen leather"- a new stage in the evolution of Rastignac. Here he is already an experienced strategist who has long said goodbye to all sorts of illusions. This is an outright cynic who has learned to lie and be hypocritical. He is a classic fitter. In order to prosper, he teaches Raphael, one must forge ahead and compromise all moral principles.

Rastignac is a representative of that army of young people who did not follow the path of open crime, but the path of adaptation carried out by means of a legal crime. Financial policy is a robbery. He is trying to adapt himself to the bourgeois throne.

20. The main conflict and arrangement of images of the novel "Father Goriot".

The novel is an important part of the writer's art history societies of the last century. Among the creative notes of Balzac, called “Thoughts, Plots, Fragments”, there is a brief sketch: “The old man - a family boarding house - 600 francs of rent - deprives himself of everything for the sake of his daughters, and both have 50,000 francs of income; dies like a dog. In this sketch, one can easily find out the story of Goriot's boundless paternal love, scolded by his daughters.

The image of Father Goriot, of course, if not the main one in the novel, then at least one of the main ones, since the whole plot consists of the story of his love for his daughters.

Balzac describes him as the last of all the "freeloaders" in Madame Vauquet's house. Balzac writes “... As in schools, as in broken circles, and here, among eighteen parasites, there turned out to be a wretched, outcast creature, a scapegoat, on which ridicule rained down (...) Next, Balzac describes the story of Goriot in a boarding house - how he appeared there, how he shot a more expensive room and was "Monsieur Goriot" as he began to rent rooms cheaper and cheaper until he became what he was at the time of the story. Further, Balzac writes: “However, no matter how vile his vices or behavior, hostility towards him did not reach the point of expelling him: he paid for the boarding house. In addition, he was also useful: everyone, ridiculing or bullying him, poured out his good or bad mood. Thus, we see how all the residents of the boarding house treated Father Goriot and what was their communication with him. As Balzac writes further about the attitude of the tenants towards Father Goriot, “He inspired disgust in some, pity in others.”

Further, the image of Goriot's father is revealed through his attitude towards his daughters, Anastasi and Eugene. Already through the description of his actions, it is clear how much he loves his daughters, how much he is ready to sacrifice everything for them, while they seem to love him, but do not appreciate him. At the same time, at first it seems to the reader that Goriot, behind his boundless love for his daughters, does not see this indifference to himself, does not feel that they do not value him - he constantly finds some explanation for their behavior, is content with what he can only out of the corner of his eye to see how his daughter drives past him in a carriage, can only come to them through the back door. He does not seem to notice that they are ashamed of him, does not pay attention to it. However, Balzac gives his point of view on what is happening - that is, outwardly Goriot does not seem to pay attention to how his daughters behave, but inside “... the poor man's heart was bleeding. He saw that his daughters were ashamed of him, and since they love their husbands, then he is a hindrance to the sons-in-law (...) the old man sacrificed himself, for that he is the father; he drove himself out of their homes, and the daughters were pleased; noticing this, he realized that he had done the right thing (...) This father gave away everything .. He gave his soul, his love for twenty years, and he gave his fortune in one day. The daughters squeezed the lemon and threw it into the street.”

Of course, the reader is sorry for Goriot, the reader is immediately imbued with compassion for him. Father Goriot loved his daughters so much that even the state in which he was - for the most part, precisely because of them - he endured, dreaming only that his daughters were happy. “Equating his daughters with angels, the poor fellow thus exalted them above himself; he loved even the evil that he suffered from them, ”Balzac writes about how Goriot raised his daughters.

At the same time, Goriot himself, realizing that his daughters are treating him unfairly, wrongly, says the following: “Both daughters love me very much. As a father, I am happy. But two sons-in-law behaved badly with me ”That is, we see that he does not blame his daughters in any way, shifting all the blame to his sons-in-law, who, in fact, are much less guilty than his daughters. »

And only when dying, when none of the daughters came to him, although both knew that he was dying, Goriot says aloud everything that the reader was thinking about, watching the development of the plot. “They both have hearts of stone. I loved them too much for them to love me,” Goriot says of his daughters. Here is what he did not want to admit to himself - “I have completely atoned for my sin - my excessive love. They cruelly repaid me for my feeling - like executioners, they tore my body with ticks (...) They don’t love me and never loved me! (…) I'm too stupid. They imagine that everyone has fathers like their father. You must always keep yourself in value.

“If fathers are trampled underfoot, the fatherland will perish. It is clear. Society, the whole world is supported by fatherhood, everything will collapse if children stop loving their fathers,” says Goriot, thus, in my opinion, voicing one of the main ideas of the work.

13. The concept and structure of the "Human Comedy" by Balzac.

1. Concept. In 1834, Balzac had the idea to create a multi-volume work that was to become the artistic history and artistic philosophy of France. Initially, he wanted to call it "Etudes of Morals", later, in the 40s, he decided to call this huge work " human comedy”, by analogy with the “Divine Comedy” by Dante. The task is to emphasize the comedy inherent in this era, but at the same time not to deny its heroes humanity. The "Cheka" was supposed to include 150 works, of which 92 were written, works of the first, second and third manners of Balzac. It was necessary not only to write new works, but also to significantly rework the old ones so that they correspond to the plan. The works included in the "Cheka" had the following features:

ü The combination of several storylines and the dramatic construction;

ü Contrast and juxtaposition;

ü keynotes;

ü The theme of the power of money (in almost all sections of the "Human Comedy");

ü The main conflict of the era is the struggle of man with society;

ü Shows his characters objectively, through material manifestations;

ü Pays attention to the little things - the path of a truly realistic writer;

ü The typical and the individual in the characters are dialectically interconnected. The category of the typical extends to the circumstances and events that determine the movement of the plot in novels.

ü Cyclization (the hero of the “Cheka” is considered as a living person who can be told more. For example, Rastignac appears, in addition to “Papa Goriot”, in “Shagreen Skin”, “Nuscingen's Banker's House” and barely flickers in “Lost Illusions”).

The intention of this work is most fully reflected in " Preface to The Human Comedy”, written 13 years after the start of the implementation of the plan. The idea of ​​this work, according to Balzac, "was born from comparison of humanity with the animal world”, namely from the immutable law:“ Everyone for himself on which the unity of the organism is based. Human society, in this sense, is similar to nature: “After all, Society creates from a person, according to the environment where he acts, as many different species as there are in the animal world.” If Buffon in his book tried to represent the whole animal world, why not try to do the same with society, although, of course, the description here will be more extensive, and women and men are completely different from male and female animals, since often a woman does not depend on men and plays an independent role in life. Moreover, if the descriptions of the habits of animals are constant, then the habits of people and their environment change at every stage of civilization. So Balzac was going to " cover three forms of being: men, women and things, that is, people and the material embodiment of their thinking - in a word, depict a person and life».

In addition to the animal world, the concept of The Human Comedy was influenced by the fact that there were many historical documents, and history of human manners was not written. It is this story that Balzac has in mind when he says: “Chance is the greatest novelist in the world; to be fruitful, one must study it. The French Society was to be the historian itself, and all I had to do was be its secretary.».

But not only to describe the history of manners was his task. To earn the praise of readers (and Balzac considered this the goal of any artist), " it was necessary to reflect on the principles of nature and discover in what way human Societies move away or approach eternal law, truth, beauty". The writer must have strong opinions in matters of morality and politics, he must consider himself a teacher of people.

The truthfulness of the details. The novel "would have no meaning if it were not truthful in detail". Balzac attaches as much importance to the facts, constant, everyday, secret or obvious, as well as to the events of personal life, their causes and motives, as much as historians have hitherto attached to the events of the public life of peoples.

Realization of the plan required a huge number of characters. There are more than two thousand of them in The Human Comedy. And we know everything we need about each of them: their origin, parents (sometimes even distant ancestors), relatives, friends and enemies, previous and present incomes and occupations, exact addresses, apartment furnishings, wardrobe contents, and even the names of the tailors who made the suits. The history of Balzac's heroes, as a rule, does not end at the end of a particular work. Moving on to other novels, stories, short stories, they continue to live, experiencing ups or downs, hopes or disappointments, joys or torments, as the society of which they are organic particles is alive. The interrelation of these "returning" heroes also holds together the fragments of the grandiose fresco, giving rise to the polysyllabic unity of the "Human Comedy".

2. Structure.

Balzac's task was to write a history of the customs of France in the 19th century - to depict two or three thousand typical people of this era. Such a multitude of lives required a certain framework, or "gallery". Hence the whole structure of The Human Comedy. It is divided into 6 parts:

· Scenes of private life(this includes "Papa Goriot" - the first work written in accordance with the general plan of the "Cheka" , "Gobsek"). « These scenes depict childhood, youth, their delusions»;

· Scenes of provincial life (« Eugenia Grande" and part " Lost illusions- "Two poets"). " Mature age, passions, calculations, interests and ambition»;

· Scenes of Parisian life (« Nucingen Banking House»). « A picture of tastes, vices and all the unbridled manifestations of life caused by the mores peculiar to the capital, where extreme good and extreme evil meet at the same time.»;

· Scenes of political life. « Life is completely special, in which the interests of many are reflected - a life that takes place outside the general framework. One principle: there are two morals for monarchs and statesmen: big and small;

· scenes of military life. « A society in a state of extreme tension, out of its usual state. Least complete piece of work»;

· Scenes of rural life. « The drama of social life. In this section there are the purest characters and the realization of the great principles of order, politics and morality.».

Paris and the provinces are socially opposed. Not only people, but also the most important events differ in typical images. Balzac tried to give an idea of ​​the various regions of France. "Comedy" has its own geography, as well as its genealogy, its families, settings, actors and facts, it also has its coat of arms, its nobility and bourgeoisie, its artisans and peasants, politicians and dandies, its army - in other words, the whole world.

These six sections are the foundation of The Human Comedy. Above it rises the second part, consisting of philosophical studies, where the social engine of all events finds expression. This main "social engine" Balzac discovers in the struggle of egoistic passions and material interests that characterize social and privacy France in the first half of the 19th century (" Shagreen leather"- connects the scenes of morals with philosophical studies. Life is depicted in a fight with Desire, the beginning of any Passion. fantastic image pebbled leather does not come into conflict with the realistic method of depicting reality. All events in the novel are strictly motivated by a natural confluence of circumstances (Raphael, who has just wished for an orgy, having left the antique dealer’s shop, suddenly runs into friends who take him to a “luxurious feast” in Tyfer’s house; at the feast, the hero accidentally meets a notary who has been looking for the heir to the deceased millionaire, who turns out to be Raphael, etc.). Above the philosophical analytical studies(for example, "Physiology of marriage").

On August 18, 1850, in Paris, the classic of French literature, the brilliant writer Honore de Balzac, died, not having lived even six months from the moment the main dream of his life came true - marrying his beloved woman, widowed Evelina Ganskaya.

A great writer working 15-16 hours a day published at least 5-6 books a year. And what books! Each is detailed in the smallest details of one or another class, profession, about which Balzac undertook to tell in this work. In his famous cycle"The Human Comedy", composed of 137 novels, Balzac left to posterity a vast panorama of French society (Parisian, provincial, military, rural) during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy.

A great connoisseur of hidden and obvious human motives, virtues and vices, he created vivid characters, forcing his heroes either to fight with hostile circumstances or with their own passions. And survive, win in the works of the master, as a rule, two categories of people: strong, strong-willed, capable of everything in order to achieve goals, and those who have love for their neighbor as their goal. It's just that the weak and weak-willed in Balzac's novels are doomed. They have no place in the hard world created by the great realist writer.

We have a great opportunity to read quotes from the works of Honore de Balzac to find out how, in the opinion of his heroes, it was possible to become a person capable of taking a worthy place in society two centuries ago.

"Father Goriot"

(A novel, 1835, about a father's boundless love for his children, whose ingratitude drives an unfortunate parent to the grave.)

with those who hurts you quite consciously, you continue to meet and, perhaps, are afraid of them, and if a person inflicts a wound, not knowing its full depth, then they look at such a fool, at a simpleton, incapable of benefiting from anything and everyone treats him with contempt.

Do you want to create position, I will help you. Explore the depths of the depravity of women, measure the degree of the miserable vanity of men. I carefully read the book of light, but it turned out that I did not notice some pages. Now I know everything: the more coolly you calculate, the further you will go. Strike mercilessly and you will be trembled. Look at men and women as mail horses, drive without regret, let them die at every station, and you will reach the limit in the fulfillment of your desires. Remember that you will be nothing in the world if you don't have a woman to take part in you. And you need to find one that combines beauty, youth, wealth. If a genuine feeling arises in you, hide it like a jewel so that no one even suspects its existence, otherwise you are lost. When you stop being an executioner, you become a victim. If you love, keep your secret sacred! Do not believe it until you truly know the one to whom you open your heart. You do not yet have such love, but you must protect it in advance, so learn not to trust the light.

Do you know how making their way here? The brilliance of genius or the art of bribery. It is necessary to crash into this human mass with a cannonball or penetrate like a plague. Honesty achieves nothing. They bow before the power of a genius and hate him, they try to denigrate him because a genius takes everything without division, but while he stands firm, they exalt him - in short, they worship him, kneeling down when they cannot trample into the mud. Corruption is everywhere, talent is rare. Therefore, venality has become the weapon of mediocrity, which has flooded everything, and you will feel the edge of its weapon everywhere.

I will never finish, if I take it into my head to tell you what deals are made for the sake of rags, lovers, children, for household needs or out of vanity, but, you can be sure, rarely - for good intentions. That is why an honest man is the enemy of all. But what do you think an honest person is? In Paris, an honest man is one who acts in silence and does not share with anyone. I leave aside the miserable helots, who drag the line everywhere, never receiving a reward for their labors; I call them the Brotherhood of God's Fools. There is virtue in all the bloom of its stupidity, but there is also need. I can see from here what faces these righteous people will have if God plays with them. bad joke and suddenly cancel the Last Judgment. So, if you want to quickly make a fortune, you must either already be rich or appear to be. To get rich, you need to play the game with big jackpots, and if you are stingy in the game - write wasted! When ten people have quickly achieved success in the field of one hundred professions available to you, the public immediately calls them thieves. Draw a conclusion from here. Here is life as it is. All this is no better than the kitchen - the stink is just as much, and if you want to cook something, get your hands dirty, only then be able to wash off the dirt well; that is the whole morality of our age.

Success in Paris Everything is a pledge of power. As soon as women admit that you have talent and intelligence, men will believe it if you do not dissuade them yourself. Then everything will become available to you, you will be able to move everywhere. Then you will know that the world is made up of deceivers and simpletons. Do not join either one or the other. Don't get lost in this maze...

"Marriage contract"

(History of the weak-willed Paul de Manerville, 1835)

Man at under any circumstances, he must be able to approach the matter in such a way as to present it to himself from various points of view - otherwise he is mediocre, weak-willed and may perish.

Those who have exalted soul, prefer solitude; weak and sensitive natures leave the scene, only strong ones remain, like boulders, capable of withstanding the pressure of the sea of ​​\u200b\u200blife, which beats them against each other, grinds them, but cannot destroy them.

The whole secret social alchemy, my friend, is to take as much as possible from life, no matter what age we are, to pluck all the greenery in the spring, all the flowers in the summer, and all the fruits in the fall.

Outstanding envy induces a person to competition, pushes him to great deeds; in the case of insignificant people, envy turns into hatred.

Fear my dear, is one of the foundations of society and an excellent means to achieve success, especially for those who do not lower their eyes to anyone. I have never experienced fear and value life no more than a cup of donkey's milk; but I noticed, my dear, the striking influence of this feeling on modern mores. Some are afraid of losing the pleasures that have become familiar to them, others are afraid of the prospect of parting with the woman they love. The bold morals of the past, when life was tossed around like a worn shoe, have long since disappeared. The courage of most people is nothing more than a subtle calculation based on the fact that their opponents will be seized by fear.

run Doesn't that mean letting gossip take over? A player who rushes for money in order to continue the game will lose for sure.

What do they mean money compared to our grand designs? Sheer nonsense, trifle! What does woman mean? Are you going to be a student forever? What does life become, my dear, if everything is concentrated in a woman? In a ship not controlled by anyone, given to the will of all winds, obedient to a magnetic needle directed towards the pole of madness, in a real galley in which a man is serving hard labor, obeying not only the laws of society, but also the unpunished arbitrariness of the overseer. Ugh!

"Shagreen leather"

(A novel, 1831, about how a person's egoism, materialized in a piece of shagreen leather, devours his life with the fulfillment of each subsequent desire).

Worth the young a man to meet a woman who does not love him, or a woman who loves him too much, and his whole life is distorted.

Error gifted people lies in the fact that they waste their early years wishing to become worthy of the mercy of fate. While the poor are accumulating strength and knowledge so that in the future it will be easy to bear the burden of power that eludes them, intriguers, rich in words and devoid of thoughts, snoop around, hooking on the bait of fools, get into the confidence of simpletons; some study, others advance; those are modest - these are resolute; a man of genius hides his pride, an intriguer flaunts it, he will certainly succeed. Those in power have such a strong need to believe in merit that strikes the eye, insolent talent, that on the part of a true scientist it would be childish to hope for human gratitude. Of course, I am not going to repeat the commonplaces about virtue, that song of songs that unrecognized geniuses forever sing; I just want to logically deduce the reason for the success that mediocre people so often achieve.

"Gobsek"

(A story, 1830, about the usurer Gobsek - the “golden idol”)

I am you now Let me summarize human life. Whether you are a vagabond traveler, whether you are a homebody and do not part for a century with your fire and with your wife, the age will still come when all life is just a habit to your favorite environment. And then happiness consists in the exercise of one's abilities in relation to everyday reality. And besides these two rules, all the rest are false.

No on earth nothing lasting, there are only conventions, and in each climate they are different. For someone who, willy-nilly, was applied to all social standards, all your moral rules and beliefs are empty words. Only one single feeling, embedded in us by nature itself, is unshakable: the instinct of self-preservation. In the states of European civilization, this instinct is called self-interest. Here you live with me, you will learn that of all earthly blessings there is only one reliable enough to make it worth a person to chase after him, This is ... gold. All the forces of mankind are concentrated in gold. I traveled, I saw that all over the earth there are plains and mountains. The plains are boring, the mountains are tiring; in a word, in what place to live - it does not matter. As for morals, a person is the same everywhere: everywhere there is a struggle between the poor and the rich, everywhere. And it is inevitable. So it’s better to push yourself than to allow others to push you. Everywhere muscular people work, and skinny people suffer. Yes, and the pleasures are the same everywhere, and everywhere they exhaust the forces in the same way; only one joy survives all pleasures - vanity. Vanity! It is always our "I". And what can satisfy vanity? Gold! Streams of gold.

Life is a complex, difficult craft, and one must make an effort to learn it. When a person recognizes life, having experienced its sorrows, the fibers of his heart will be hardened, strengthened, and this allows him to control his sensitivity. Nerves then become no worse than steel springs - they bend, but do not break. And if, in addition, digestion is good, then with such preparation a person will be tenacious and long-lived.

Gold is the spiritual essence

All of today's society.

O. de Balzac. gobsek

How many examples in the history of mankind, when People, overestimating the power of money, became their slaves, losing everything that they had before: moral principles, family, friends. People themselves have turned capital, wealth into a monster, a monster ruthlessly swallowing human souls, feelings, destinies.

With the corrupting power of money, we are also faced with the example of many heroes from Honore de Balzac's novel "Father Goriot".

Terrible is the fate of Goriot himself, who was betrayed by his beloved daughters. A former vermicelli worker who, with his dexterity, thrift, enterprise, and hard work, managed to make a decent capital for himself in his youth, Goriot infinitely loved his wife, after whose death he transferred this feeling to his daughters. The happiness of these girls became the only goal in my father's life, however, in my opinion, he misunderstood the meaning of this happiness, which for him consisted in the satisfaction of all whims and desires, public honors. From an early age, Goriot's daughters did not lack anything, any of their whims were fulfilled immediately. And so they grew up, not knowing the value of money, accustomed only to take, but not to give, seeing in their father only a source of wealth, incapable of appreciating human affection and devotion.

Father Goriot gave his daughters everything he had, everything he once cherished: money, love, soul, all his life. And he died poor, lonely, sick, among strangers. Two poor students bury him for the last pennies, and the daughters, who sucked the life out of the old man, not only did not give a penny for medicine and the funeral, but did not even come to see their father on his last journey: "The daughters squeezed the lemon, and threw the peel into the street ". Of course, they were very busy when Father Goriot was dying - they were preparing for the ball. And after the ball, one of them dealt with her husband, who had been deceived by her, and the other, having caught a cold, was afraid to get sick even more. It seems that everything human in these people died when money took the throne in their souls.

Eugene Rastignac, who grew up in an impoverished aristocratic family, to which he was affectionately, with all his heart, also faced the destructive power of wealth and capital. The relatives of a young man brought up in the provinces "had to doom themselves to severe hardships" in order to give him the opportunity to live and study in Paris. Great hopes were placed on Eugene, on whose success the happiness and well-being of the whole family depended.

Understanding and appreciating the dedication of his relatives, Rastignac believes that diligence, abilities, perseverance will help him make a career, achieve material prosperity, and save his family from further impoverishment.

However, life in Paris quickly dispelled his hopes of an opportunity to get rich by honest work. Eugene understands that without connections, initial capital, deceit and hypocrisy, one cannot succeed in this cruel world. While he is young, often naive and simple-hearted, honest with himself, capable of sincere manifestations of sympathy and mercy, and this compares favorably with most representatives of the high society, where he was introduced by a noble relative. But how long will his virtue last, will he not forget about his own family in pursuit of success and prosperity, if, amazed and indignant at the calculated cruelty of the "light", he challenges him at the end of the novel, declares war, and does not return to study and work .

It seems to me that, fighting injustice and lack of spirituality with the same methods, a person cannot emerge victorious from the battle, but only lose those moral values ​​that he had before.