ABSTRACT

This canon of French literature, Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) is also a major European figure in the development of realism. His work is dominated by an inter-related sequence of novels and short stories, La Comedie Humanine, which charts the idiosyncrasies of French society from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the 1840's. Among the most famous of these are Le Pierre Goriot and La Cousine Bette. Iin this study, Dr Tilby concentrates on the main approaches in practice and discusses some of the earliest responses to Balzac's work. His introduction and headnotes set Balzac's work in context. This book will be of interest to students of French language and literature and also to those studying French in combined studies or humanities courses.

chapter |20 pages

Introduction

part One|45 pages

Contemporary and other Nineteenth-Century Views

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|4 pages

Sainte-Beuve – an early detractor*

chapter 4|3 pages

Gautier on Balzac the ‘seer’*

chapter 5|7 pages

Taine – towards a scientific view*

chapter 6|2 pages

Baudelaire on Balzac the ‘visionary’*

chapter 7|5 pages

Zola

chapter 9|2 pages

Leslie Stephen on Balzac and Shakespeare*

part Two|81 pages

Humanist Readings

chapter |2 pages

Introduction

chapter 13|6 pages

Alain on Balzac’s style*

chapter 14|14 pages

Erich Auerbach on Balzac’s realism*

part Three|48 pages

Marxist Readings

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

chapter 17|27 pages

Georg Lukács on Les Paysans *

chapter 18|16 pages

Pierre Macherey on Les Paysans *

part Four|64 pages

Psychoanalytic Readings

chapter |2 pages

Introduction

chapter 19|20 pages

Marthe Robert on the Oedipal Family Romance*

chapter 20|27 pages

Fredric Jameson on La Cousine Bette *

chapter 21|13 pages

Peter Brooks on La Peau de chagrin *

part Five|23 pages

A Feminist Reading

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

chapter 22|18 pages

Shoshana Felman on Adieu *

part Six|51 pages

Structuralist, Formalist, and Post-Structuralist Readings