New-York tribune., 1907-12-28
BALZAC.
Some Strange Gossip about His
Mdry1age and Death.

The well remembered romance which IL
lumined the last years of Balzacs life seems to
have kind of baleful attraction for some Of his
readers. They are not content to accept the
known facts at their face value.-his long devo-
tion to Nine Hanska, their marriage in 1850,
and his death in the same year. They must
read into the tragic story morbid significance
which ii is impossible TO harmonize with the
authentic records Of the great Frenchman's
character and career The latest contributor
to the mass of gossip which has accumulated
around the subject is NJ, Octave Mirbeau He
has recently published volume commemorating
a tour in automobile. In the course OF this
tour he paused at Cologne, and, buying there a
copy Of the Correspondence Ge BaIzac" he re-
read the letters and was moved thereby to put
upon paper some recollections OF his own. These
recollections. from which citations have re-
Gently been made in lie Temps" really
based upon conversations with Barley d'Aure-
Willy and the painter Jean Gigoux. They are
piquant but hardly convincing.
According to NJ Mirbeau, when Balzac re-
turned from Russia bringing his bride with him.
things went wrong from the very start in that
famous house in the Avenue Fortunee which the
novelist had had prepared with SO much enthus-
iasTn against his happy homecoming In the
misconduct Of a servant. which for time made
TO have recognized a bad omen, and It is as
serted that eight days after their arrival IN
Paris she and her husband, though living under
the same roof, were living apart, not meeting
even at meals. We asked TO believe that
each made the discovery of having been the
dupe Of the other IN regard to money matters.
This is astonishing, TO say the least inasmuch
as Balzac's own correspondence clearly shows
that Nine. Hanska knew before she married
him all about his heavy debts. and that he was
familiar with, and warmly approved, the heroic
resolution. prompted by her sublime maternal
affection, of giving all her fortune to her daugh-
ter, reserving only income for herself" But
the most fantastic of NJ. Mirbeau's tales is the
one ne gives about the novelist's DEATH ac-
cepting without question what was communi-
Gated to him by NJ. Gigoux
In this recital Baizac is represented as being
alone with his physician. Nacquart. and ignor-
ing his wife though, for him, she did not
exist. The dying man asks the doctor to tell
him the truth about his condition. and is tear
fully informed that the end is at hand. Where
upon. his mind reverting to Horace Bianchon.
that brilliant doctor who figures effectively
in the pages Of more than one of his stories. the
gasping and wandering author cries pathetically
for this creature of his imagination, the only
one who can save him. Meanwhile, what Of
Balzac's wife? She remains in another room,
giving way TO hysteical and vulgar emotion.
passionately desiring to be anywhere save at
the bedside of her dying husband. and indeed,
wildly crying to be taken back to Russia Only
when 1t is all over does she selfshly pull her
self together and face the world sorrowing
figure. tres digne, tres noble, tres douloureuse.
tres ntteraire Andromaque eIle-meme, quand
ellie perdit Hector"
We know with what feeling Nine Balzac car
ried herself in her grief. Only the other day,
for example a hitherto unpublished letter OF
Champfleury's, printed In Figaro" presented
her once more in the most sympathetic light.
living in isolated widowhood. But the strong
est evidence we have against the likelihood Of
there having been any estrangement between the
Balzac lies IN the whole tenor OF that voiumi-
nous correspondence which forms monument
10 their love Students of the subject are aware
of the fact that the history of that love has
been dealt with by different hands in very diff
ferent moods. Miss Wormeey' In her trahsia-
ton Of the Letters to Nine. Hanska," lum1-
uously traverses the points at issue in the mat
ter raised by NJ. Spoelberch de LovenJoul In
TIN Roman d'Amour." The details were long
ago tbrashed out in this place. and need not be
accumulated again. II Is sufficient to state
tba. minute scrutiny of Balzacs relations with
his wife before and after their marriage only
daenens the conviction that in them he pre-
served the hneness Of character which is per-
csntible in all the essentials OF his career. Why,
wa wander must men Of genius, long in their
graves ALWAYS be the objects Of Ill natured
gossip?