Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1899-05-30


principal cities, at least, OF that republic.
At Balzac's birthplace, Tours, the cele
bration will be conducted without the Of
fetal sanction of the municipal authori
ties, and for queer reason. His con-
tempt for the populace is everywhere APP
parent in his published works, and the
city government of Tours is at present
conducted by representatives of the pop
ulSt element, who naturally decline to
participate in the bestowal Of honors up
on this enemy though nearly fifty years
dead Yet there is no doubt that the
demonstrations at Tours will be as eff
fuSive as elsewhere, Notwithstanding
their unofficial character.
AS it was long after Shakespeare's
death that the beauty and worth of the
prince Of dramatiStS began to win APP
probation in France, SO it has only been
within the last decade that people of
English speech have evinced any general
sentiment of recognition for the work of
the French master of fiction. Before
Miss Kate Prescott Wormeley's Ameri-
can translation of BalZacs novels, there
had been nothing like complete repro
duction of the Coincide Humane in the
English language, although detached vol
umes had been translated by very eff
c1ent hands, including the Chouans, Eu-
genie Grandet, Pere Goriot and many
of the shorter stories. That they should
have found Scant favor among those of
our reading public who were not much
acquainted with French literature is not
to be wondered at. They had been writ
ten from the standpoint of a Frenchman,
so that their good characters. morally
speaking, appeared at the<first bush like
fools, while the bad ones were so highly
Objectionable as to be extremely distaste-
full to us, to say the least The lately
published Investigations into the history
OF the family of the last Prince de Condo
have proved cOnclusively, however. that
Balzacs portraitures of continental high
life IN the early years of the Nineteenth
century were not at all exaggerated in
their main features, though touched in
their details with the coiors of genius.
A complete English edition of the
Coincide has been in the course of DubIi-
cation Tor the past two or three years.
and IS now just completed, under the
superintendent of Prof. George Saints
bury, who furnishes PREDATORY introduce
tons to the several novels which are in
Guided in the scheme. This edition is
also reprinted by q PHILADELPHIA house
In thirty-two sumptuous volumes Neither.
OF the two TRANSACTIONS can be considered
as defnitive. Miss Wormeley took more
liberties with the author than she was
entitled to do, and Saintsbury's transIa-
tors have not been so careful with their
English id'om as they ought to have
either of these editions fairly satisfac-
tory if he is not able to read the originals.
tory if he is not able TO read the ORIGINAL.
In France cheap editions of Balzac are
almost as common as those of Shakes
peare in this country, and it is proba bIe
that fewer Frenchmen proportionally of
those who can read at all are unacquaint-
ed with Pere Goriot, than Englishmen
or Americans who have not studied his
great prototype, King Lear. There is,
indeed, a considerable resemblance be-
tween the Lear and Goriot families.
though the placing of such women
as Goneril and Regain in the midst of
Nineteenth century high life is apt to
give painful qualms to the unaccustomed
reader.
Balzac's imagination may properly be
called magnificent. Though he claims to
have constructed his gigantic work upon
a foundation made 'by drawing up an in
ventOry of virtues and vices, by collect
ing the chief facts of the passions, by de,
picting characters, by choosing the prin-
cipal incidents of social life. and by COM
posing types out of a combination of re-
lated characters it cannot be denied
that his development of situations for the
more striking exhibitions Of these vir-
tues, vices, facts, characters and types,
has in many instances passed the bounds
of the marvellous, and given cause for
wonder.
He has no pity or aversion toward his
creations. Of two bright and open-heart-
ed young fellows from the provinces, Eu-
gene de Rastignac and Lucien de Ru-
bempre, he makes the former become a
member of the French cabinet, and the
latter prisoner hanging himself in his
cell and dead when the news is being
brought to him that he has fallen heir
to millions. At the same time Vautrin,
the chief malefactor of the Comede is
retiring to the pursuits of peaceful old
age, with the respect of that society
which he has SO greatly injured. The
most of his friends in his lifelong search
after the absolute first principle in ma
ture, dies just as he makes the final dis
covery, and without being able to COM
municate it to any other. The two BIZ
rotteaus, priest and perfumer, both de-
sirous of doing good in the world, are
coolly dashed from the summit Of rea-
sOnable prosperity into abysses of misery
destroyers remain rich and honored be-
fore the world. Madame Graslin ac-
composites wonderful results in the i'm
provement of social and sanitary copdi
tlOns on her vast estate, while her life
is being eaten away by consuming dis
ease, and her soul tortured with the dread
of future punishment for an error of her
youth which French ethics would hardly
class as an error
Love, in Balzacs world, does not often
attain the dignity which is accorded it
by writer's in the English language. AL
though he gives examples which are up
to the highest standard of Anglo-Saxon