New-York tribune., 1880-09-26
BALzACS WOYDERFrL IND DUSTRY.
From The Pail Mall Gazette.


Bazac has been dead some thirty years, and ms
name and example are among the most inlluential
In modern letters. Among his stories are several Oh
the acknowledged masterpieces of fiction HIS IN
fuence. identical with the exact, positive egoistlc
tendency of the century, appears to deepen year by
year. Even his sternest critics acknowledge nls
incompatible power; while to his worshppers he
is one of the few who are worthy or place Deside
Shakespeare. His biography has been written; MS
letters have been published the sma lest scraps ne
printed have been sought after and reproduced
there has grown up about him whole literature OF
comment and criticism. of explanation and analysis
and history he is, in his way. well nIgh as iegen-
dary as Napoleon Bonaparte. His personality is
coarse and vulgar, but 1t Is large, vigorous ana
energetic and TO be conemptuous OF 1t, or even IN
different to it, is impossible. He was "a braggart,
a charlatan, very Paracesus OF the pen he ruined
his publishers; he broke faith with his editors; he
blinded his printers ne was ts stary of S' hi:
life is one of patience. constapcy laborionsness,
self-helpfulness almost unparalleled. At first glance
it is incredible that the author OF "Gorlot" and
"La Rabouilleusen should only have made himself
a writer by hard work and sheer force or VIII
but there is evidence to spare IN ali e he
would have produced little OF nothing worth pres
eryation The resolution condensed into his work
is something fabulous. NJ. de LoyenJonl gives a
bibliographicaI sketch of upward of 269 separate
works by him: and we know 1t for a fact that III
many cases his manuscript changed Its shape ten
or dozen times over ere t was sent Ior.n ln'o & r
his published matter a critical supervision as NIL
mute and active as that of the most fastldious oil
poets 1t Is aSSureGly q great anu sDcnulu achieNo
ment to have conceived the "COmedie humane:
bur to have done it as Balzac had to do 1T Is one
greater or splendid still.
In thinking of Balzac We are apt to lose sight OF
this: the work is forgotten in the artist. he has
shelf to himself IN the library, and, his critics nor
withstanding-in spite of the masterly satire OF
Sainte- Beuve and of the pitful and clever pas
ouinades of Jules Janin-he IS studied wherever
French is understood But his books have become
classics we are accustomed to them as we are ac-
cnstOmed to Notre Dame and 1ltians portraits,
and G do not ourselves with the manner OF
their proc uctOn There they are, and that Is enough
Hulof and Marneffe Fronbert and Philippe Bridau,
Fedora and Corentm, Fraisier and Gobseck and
Grandet, Brotteau and Madame Nourisson, and a
good MANY others of the two thousand pefs0nages
for whose beng Balzac is responsible are far too
interesting in themselves to leave time OF leisure
for speculation to how much they may have cost
in the making. Once fairly set down TO the adven-
lures of the terrible Ferragus OF Bathaser Claess
heroic search for the Absolute. or the tremendous
exercises III corruption of Vautrin, reader Is dis
posed to pause and consider how many days and
nights of furious bodily and mental effort what ecs-
tacies of creation and what frances of votion with
the imagination so concentrated and intensified as
to have become halucinatiOn, were necessary TO
their contrivance AS set forth by NJ. de LovenJ0ul
all this is somehow brought home to us. The
Histore" is a tabuation, concise and pracucal, OF
the results of Balzac's lifetime of application and
production, statement in detalo of his account with
letters and his operations in art. 10 pernse 1t Is To
have our admiration and respect Tor Baizac very
largely increased for II enfOrces. perhaps more
vigorously than the Comedie Humane" itself, the
conclusion that he was one of the greatest workers
and strongest wills ever known in literature