Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-07-28
From "All the Year Round"
HOW BALZAC DID HIS LITERARY LABOR.

w men lle ldu OUCe Uldue up MS mind to
produce new book, Bazac's first proceeding
was to think it out thoroughly before he mt
pen to paper. He was not satisfied with pos
sessing himself of the main idea mainly he
followed 1t mentally into its minutest ramifica-
tons, devoting to the process Just that amount
of patient hard labor and self sacrifice which
no interior writer ever has the common sense
or the courage to bestow on his work With
his notebook ready i'll his hand Bazac studied,
his scenes and characters straight from life.
General knowledge of what he wanted to de-
scribe was not enough for this determined re-
allst III he found himself in the least at fault
he would not hesitate to take long journey
merely to insure truth to- nature in-describing
the street of country Stown, or in painting
some minor peculiarly Of rustic character In
Paris he was perpetually about the streets, per-
petually penetrating into all classes of society,
to study the human nature about him in its
mnuteSt varieties. Day by day, and week by
week, his notebook and his brains were hard
at work together, before he thought OF sitting
down to his desk to begin. When he had f.
nally amassed his materials in this laborious
manner, he at last retired to his study and
from that time, till his book had gone to press,
society saw him no more.
His house door was now closed to every
body except the publisher and the printer; and
his costume changed to loose white
robe of the, sort, which is worn by the Domin-
lean monks. bis singular writing dress was
fastened around the waist by chain of Vene-
tan gold, to which hung little pliers and scis-
sors and red morocco slippers embroidered
with gold, covered his legs and feet On the
day when he sat down to his desk, the light of
Heaven was shut out, and he worked by the
light of candles in superb silver scenes. Even
letters were not allowed to reach him. They
were all thrown, as they came into Japan
vase. and not opened, no matter how impor-
taht they might be, till this work was all over.
He rose to begin writing at two in the morn
ing, continued, with extraordinary rapidity,
till six then took his bath and stopped in it,
thinking. for an hour or more. AT o'clock
his Servant brought him up cup of coffee.
Before nine his publisher was admitted to car
ry away what he had done. From nine till
noon he wrote again, always at the top of his
speed. AT noon he breaktasted on eggs, with
a glass of water and second cup OF coffee
From one O'Clock till six he returned to work.
At six he dined lightly, only allowing himself
one glass of wine. From seven till eight he
received his publisher again, and at eight
o'clock he went to bed. This life he led, while
he was writing his books, for two months to-
gether, without intermission. Its effect on his
health was such that when he appeared once
more among his. friends, he looked, in the
popular phrase like his own ghost. Chance
acquaintance would hardly have known him
again.
1t must not be supposed that this life of res
dilute seclusion and fierce hard toll ended with
the completion of the first draught of his man
uscript. AT the point where, i'll the instances
of most men, the serious part of the work
would have come to an end it had only begun
for Balzac. In spite of all the preliminary
studying and thinking, when his pen had
scrambled its way through to the end OF the
book, the leaves were all turned back again,
and the first manuscript was altered into sec
ond with uncomfortable patience and care. In
Vulnerable corrections and interlinings, to be-
gin with, led in the end to transposltlons and
expansions which metamorphosed the entire
work. Happy thoughts were picked out of
the beginning of the manuscript and inserted
where they might have a better effect at the
end Others at the end would be moved to
the beginning, or the middle. In one place,
chapters would be expanded to three or four
times their original length in another, abridg-
ed to few paragraphs i'll third, taken out
altogether, or shifted to new positions With
all this mass of alterations in every page, the
manuscript was at last ready for the printer.
Even to the sharp experienced eyes in the
printing office it was now all but illeglble.
The deciphering it, and setting it up in a mod
erately correct form, cost an amount OF pa
thence and pains which wearied out all the best
men in the office, one after another, before the
first series of proofs could be submitted 10 the
authors eye. When these were at last COM
pete, they were sent in on large slips, and the
interchangeable Balzac Immediately set to work
to re-write the whole book for the third time
He now covered with fresh corrections, fresh
alterations, fresh expansions OF this passage,
and fresh abridgements of that, not only the
margins of the proofs all round but even the
little intervals of white space between the para
graphs Lines crossing each other in indie
scribable confusion were supposed to show the
bewildered printer the various places at which
the multitude of new insertions were to be
slipped in. nlegible as Balzac's original manu-
scripts were, his col rected proofs were more
hopeessly pulling still. The picked men in
the office, to whom alone they could be en-
trusted, shuddered at the very name of Bazac
and relieved each other at intervals Of an hour
beyond which time no one printer could be go
to continue at work on the universally exc
Grated and universally unintellgibe proofs
The "revses"--that is to say, the proofs EN-
bodying the new alterati0ns-were next pulled
to pieces in their turn. Two, three, and some
times four separate sets of them were required
before the authors leave could be got to sent
the perpetually rewritten book to press at last
and so have done with it. He was literally thu
terror of all printers and editors; and he him
self described his process of work as misior
tune, to be the more deplored because il was
in his case, an intellectual necessity 81 TOT
sixteen hours out of the twenty -four, he said
"over the elaboration of my unhappy style
and am never satisfied myself, when all |
DONE"