ABSTRACT
One of the most celebrated and influential short assessments of Balzac as a writer is that provided by Baudelaire in the course of the long essay on Gautier that he contributed to L'Artiste in 1859. Baudelaire's categorization of Balzac as a visionary has established itself as the origin of a distinguished tradition within Balzac criticism that includes the writings of Albert Beguin. The appellation visionary had itself been attached to the author of La Comedie humaine by Armand de Pontmartin, though in this critic's terminology, it was an indication of the exaggerated quality of Balzac's writing. In short, everyone in Balzac's world, even his portresses, possesses genius. Every soul is like a fire-arm loaded to the muzzle with will-power. Such is Balzac himself. Since every being in the external world appeared to his inner eye with a powerful relief and a strikingly hideous expression, his fictional figures are duly shown in convulsion.
