The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1914-02-13
ROMANCE
MARKED LIFE OF
\ HONORE BALZAC
Famous French Author Waited
Seventeen Years for Wife
4 of Another Man
HIS LETTERS CHAPTER
4 IN HISTORY OF LIFE
After Long Wait He Lived But
But Short Time to Enjoy
FavOrs of Loved One

n 1 Neither a picture OF HOnore Balzac'
1hick set and heavy jOwled, nor reae-
a Ing of his books, wherein the seamy
aide OF life is portrayed with a gram
knd pitiless realism. would be likely
3 10 inspire one with the idea that thera
a WAS any very intimate connection De
4 stween Balzac and romance, Ana yet
4 Hthis great French writer was The hero
Nof a romance that Il years OF grimS
Hrouhle growing age and hope de-
4 klayed could not tarnish. Long AFTER
3bis bodily youth had fed, and when
he was a gray-haired, broken man, no
3clung TO the idol he had SET mp In his
Sown heart nor ever admitted TO him
4 3eelf for a moment that The years
Knight have dimmed her halo.
\ Al curious and characteristically
4 HFrench romance was this master pas
\ deiou OF Balzac's. Record OF IL has been
i spreserved 10 us In the numberless let
4 tiers which he wrote to the object OF
shis affections, Nine. Hanska, wife OF
Ian elderly, duh and kindly Polish no
&bleman.
81 II began in 1893 when Balzac. al
!. Aready something OF parsonage in
n 8literary circles, received a letter from
NNme. Hanska whom he had never
fseen. Probably authors then. as
hnow, were in the habit OF receiving al
3sorts of letters from folk whose adj
kmiration had been reused By their
4 RMritings. but evidently this was a let
Ater out OF the ordinary, for it stirred
4 4Balzac to a swift reply He wrote 10
4her again within the month and by
1.-THE time he was ready 70 send third
AepistIe he was openly loverlike in his
3tone toward this woman be had never
Hseen.
Htx"T love you.- unknown one he
wrote, land this so strange thing is
d but the natural outcome OF an empty.
tnphappy life, life filed only with
fIdeas. it's misfortunes alleviated by
{dreamed-of joys. I am like some pris-
Toner hearing in his cell a sweet. far
9o6 woman's voice The influence of
that voice possesses his entire being.
After long hours devoted 10 Teverie
and hope, after imaginary journeys in
search OF the young, beautiful dream
3woman, to find her would be JOY be-
{yond mortal endurance. All this you
may look upon as madness. but 1t is
\ the truth and more than the truth"
But IL was more than a year before
I Balzac saw his dream woman In the
|8 Aesh Even then Il was she who
T PLANNED the meeting. She would be
In Neuchatel upon a certain day-she
n and her husband and her daughter,
her darling Anna. Balzac must be
there. too. He came, OF course. and
IN found her all he had dreamed
IN Handsome aristocratic. exquisitely
GDwned. she fitted we'll with Balzac's
I've OF the luxurious. 1t was fitting
tnat "tbe Princess Eve" should be well
~ Gowned; a ragged Cinderella would
not have been TO the .novelist's liking.
The Husband Didn't Count.
Al Neither Balzac nor Nine Hanska
IN nnems to have felt the least qualm OF
fconscience with regard to VI. De Han
v rrn. Balzac met him. and the amiable
AMI old Polish gentleman seems to
nave been much impressed by the
i charms OF the novelist. Hanska was
Il anable OF no entertaining converse
4 Ron himself, but 1t pleased him 10
4 lfaten TO Balzac's sparkling table talk
md to watch his wifes pleasure ia
Their guests society. Indeed, when
N two love letters afterward fell into
\ his hands. his wife and Balzac per
+ shaded this simple old person that it
\ vas all Joke and that the letters
were meant to be read by him
Y During the long years Of corTespon-
dence that followed the meeting at
n Eeuchatel. Balzac and his dream WON
m met hut seldom. There was one re-
t,rniou at Geneva family affair this,
1oo--in the course OF which Nine.
Isl Hanska promised TO marry Balzac in
the event that she became a widow.
n A. q matter OF fact, Balzac seems to
have been more in love with her than
y nhe with him. We have only his let
B f1re TO Judge from--the novelist APP
sarently destroyed eevry line that his
3 b6loved wrote him lest the letters
Il ftll into unfriendly hands. But Nine
n Hanska seems To have been more in
love with the idea of having a great
nk1thor at her feet than with Balzac
himself.
But Bsizac never wayered. There
MAS bigness, "a devotion in his love
which makes il seem great and admir-
able. despite the fact that she was
welded to another man. BalZac, har-
y He'd by creditors, grieved at the fail
\ ure of one after another Of his plans,
both literary and commercial. never
for moment doubted his Northern
1rfar." There was a child-like quality
about the man, for all his knowledge
Of life.
Thus we find him writing OF n walk
4 fnx stick of his which all Paris Ia
<cnatfering about, stick with head
<n1sid with turquoise. Everybody
Avs Balaz must be immensely
noaIthy 10 carry such cane, and so
4 ~ buys gold buttons for his coat. II Is
1|kt Atting that a man who is the own
~ Of a cane worthy OF Louis XIV
nnould deface his coat with ordinary
lnchbeck buttons.
Fortune always eluded him.
Always nc is on the point OF max
~ his fortune, so that Il Will no long
~ be necessary for him to write.
low Il is TO be geld mine in Sar-
71nla- Some enterprising promoters,
kowever. hearing OF the scheme, hur.
"a TO Sardinia before him and
oueht up all the mining properties.
1nxt Il was a pineapple garden out
- Paris--within easy access OF the
no1tAl, itswould only cost 10 sous 10
1870 the trip and vast sums would
"a IN from the sale OF the pineap-
80. But somehow they didn't. and
nehow. when his royalties grew
gsr. hfs debts managed TO more
- keep pace with them
1orf ne ouOfee Hamlet etitbusias.