Talk:Honoré de Balzac

message: I've added a citation needed tag to the bit about Truffaut's considering Balzac and Proust the greatest of French writers. Though Balzac is featured prominently in The 400 Blows, I've never run into this statement in anything I've read on Truffaut. --Bateau (talk) 21:09, 10 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  François Truffaut's opinion 

message: Someone suggested retitling this to Honoré de Balzac on wikipedia:votes for deletion
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I suspect some characters for accented letters were corrupted with my May 20th edit. Anyone able to help fix them?
Andrew Sly 08:19, 20 May 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: older entries 

message: The comparision with Dickens ( "...making him [Balzac] the Charles Dickens of the french literature" ) is bad ;Balzac is better and more famous than Dickens...it would make sense to say about Dickens that he is "the Balzac of the british literature" , but not the other way around.Please,remove the comparision from the text.
Stefan Udrea 13:05, 31 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  The comparision with Dickens 

message: La Comédie humaine is in great need of its own detailed page with discussion of the different versions, repeating characters and so forth (if "Doctor Who can get twenty pages, what are we Balzac lovers waiting for?).  I started the page by using your discussion of the work.  If the Balzacian wikipedians are happy with the idea, then the C.H. section should be removed from this page. -- NYArtsnWords 00:57, 21 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I went ahead and made the delete of the CH section from this page with a link to the Comédie Humaine page.  Hope people are fine with it. NYArtsnWords 22:55, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comédie humaine page 

message: Anyone notice Jon Lovitz looks like this guy?
Ron Jeremy too.
* Heh, the hedgehog. That's classic. —ExplorerCDT 01:05, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sort of looks like.... 

message: Honoré de Balzac was born "Honoré Balzac" (without aristocratic particle) and not "Balssa". Stephan Zweig quotes his birth certificate in his biography : "Aujourd'huy, deux Prairial, an sept de la République française, a été présenté devant moi Pierre Jacques Duvivier, officier public soussigné, un enfant mâle par le citoyen Bernard François Balzac, propriétaire, demeurant en cette commune, rue de l'Armée d'Italie, section du Chardonnet n°25, lequel m'a déclaré que ledit enfant s'appelle Honoré Balzac, né d'hier à onze heures du matin, au domicile du déclarant..."
It was Honoré's father (Bernard François) who was born "Balssa". He changed his name in "Balzac" between 1773 and 1783.
* The article also fails to mention when Balzac started to use the "de" as a part of the name and why. Pavel Vozenilek 17:30, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Balzac/Balssa 

message: Indeed the comparison with Dickens is not appropriate, not only because Balzac is a better writer, but also because their works are very different. Balzac shows a complete panorama of the French society during the Restoration on the topic of the "illusions perdues", but strictly speaking it is not a social work. Dickens could rather be compared to another great French novelist, who wrote later a social criticism, Emile Zola.
:Personally, I think the best modern-day comparison would be Adam Corolla  Zena Dhark…·°º•ø®@» 20:22, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I wouldn't compare Dickens to Zola : whereas Zola painted a truthful, almost a pitiless picture of the society and nature humaine, Dickens tended to sentimentality and would create black-and-white characters.Constanz - Talk 06:30, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: lawl Shimo1989 (talk) 01:49, 12 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  The comparison with Dickens 

message: This article needs some serious work. Take a look at Henry James for how it should be done. 128.220.30.139 17:42, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Original research and lack of references 

message: ...is getting ridiculous. Not a day goes by without someone adding yet another entry; I can't think of any other major cultural figure whose article has a similar section. In particular, there are numerous entries which aren't really references to Balzac at all, just weak puns on the supposed similarity between his name and the phrase "ball sac": perhaps these could be reduced to one more concise entry, if not excised altogether.  I am so uptight that I can't even spell "ballsack" the right way.  No amount of lubricant could facilitate removal of the enormous stick up my ass for the suction is too great. Ajcounter 15:47, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sir, if I may chip in a few thoughts, I believe it is most preposterous to say that the name "Balzac" and the vulgar slang "ball sac" do not sound amazingly similar. It baffles me to think that anyone could hear this name and respond to it in a serious manner. The comparison is most certainly not "supposed" at all. As for the popular culture section, it is quite large, like Balzac himself, and should be trimmed a bit, also like Balzac. Aaрон Кинни (t) 03:51, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've re-orged the pop culture section to be roughly chronological, and segregated the ball sack entries to their own subsection. I'm remarkably pleased to have been able to legitimately title an encyclopedia section "Scrotum puns". Don't any of you bowdlerize it! I don't believe in trimming data; if the section gets too big, split it to an article on Balzac's influence on pop culture, or at least move it to a list. If other cultural figures don't have pop culture sections on their ongoing influence over time, they should. -- Akb4 05:57, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  I've offloaded the whole section to leaf article Honoré de Balzac in popular culture. This is the only practical way to keep the main body of the text on topic. Pavel Vozenilek 17:27, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Since the article has been deleted, I wonder if there's any way for me to view an archive of the page? I'm curious to know if it's possible to resurrect it in some responsible manner. (Every Simpsons reference must be honred.) -- Scartol 12:53, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

text: Is Henry James on Balzac actually true? When he says that Balzac was immense, but hung together? Seems a little too perfect to me... 86.72.150.46 (talk) 17:51, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: If only there were a book to which that quote is referenced.. Then we could find that book and check to make sure the quote is accurate. =) Yes, the quote is real, exceedingly perfect as it may seem. Scartol • Tok 18:46, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Popular culture" section... 

message: I've noticed that the all the titles of Balzac's works are listed in their original French, and those that link to independent articles also lead to articles under the original French titles as well.
As per Wikipedia's Naming Conventions, it was my understanding that these should be translated to English. Is there a reason that the native French has taken precendence over English? --Todeswalzer|Talk 23:07, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: What are you talking about? Your response has no bearing to anything in this discussion. --User:Adasta 16:34, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

text: You're right, the titles should be given in English -- could you see to this? I think the reason the titles have been given in French so far is that there's sometimes more than one published translation, and some of the well-known titles (The Wild Ass's Skin, A Harlot High and Low, The Black Sheep) are either weak or arbitrary. But there's nothing we can do about that. And yes, relevant linking articles should be moved as well. And I think "Cedar Frost" is referring to the spurious Balzac/Ball-sack similarity which has been referenced with tiresome regularity on this page, and which has, if memory serves, been entirely removed... Ajcounter 08:54, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  French Titles 

message: If you can read french, I suggest you might translate a few sources and references from de french version of subject Honoré de Balzac. Just go to [].
* and please , note that his novels are not farcical, most of them are dramas or philosophical tales or analytic studies. You can find me on the french side under the user's name L'Oursonne.See you later.--82.123.252.161 00:21, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I changed Louis to louis as it is usually referred to in English. Yes, it is a coin named after King Louis; but the *coin* is not capitalized. (Ref:  which cites a bunch of sources on that.) Also I changed "short stories and plays" in the opening section to "short stories and novels." Balzac's plays are not considered good (or even by him, in some cases) and it's his novels that make up the Comédie Humaine. I'm going to try to translate some of the French Wiki article for info here. Evangeline (talk) 00:03, 23 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  references and sources 

message: I'm looking for the date this work was originally published and the date it was originally translated into English by Katharine Prescott Wormeley. I've found 1896 or 1846 for the French publication but for the English I can only find that Katharine Prescott Wormeley lived from 1830 to 1908. Can anybody please provide or confirm these dates? — Hippietrail 08:40, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comediens sans le savoir / Unconscious comedians 

message: What a wonderful improvement! I am so impressed! You must have had so much fun living and breathing Balzac for two days. Without question, the article is GA. I am adding a list of tiny, nit-picky things that you can address at your leisure. I would encourage you to take this to FAC after spending some time tweaking it and getting a peer review from some trusted editors at the Balzac WikiProject.
Additional material:
*Could you describe the difference between realism and naturalism in the "Legacy" section? Most readers, I think, will not know that.
Organization:
*I would integrate the material from "Political and religious views" into the article. People rarely have one view on something, so I think it is best to show their views changing in the biography.
*I would try to find a place for the "de" material in the "Biography". Such a little section seems trivial when, in reality, the information in it is not.
Lead:
*I think that the lead could probably be expanded. It is Balzac, after all, and the article is long enough to merit a more detailed introduction.
*His magnum opus, a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie Humaine, is a broad panorama of French society in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte. - Can an opus be a panorama? It seems like there should be an "about" clause or something. It just sounds a little off...
*Balzac is regarded as a founding father of realism in European literature. - I think "one of the" or "the" would sound better - whichever is accurate.
*Balzac had trouble fitting into the society of his grammar school - I wonder if we are elevating grammar schools a bit by giving them "societies"?
*His fiction reflects the difficulties he faced in real life, and he often included scenes taken directly from his experience. - Present and past tense in the same sentence - I think the "literary present" would work well here, don't you?
*due largely to his breakneck work schedule - "breakneck" is a little slangy, I think
Infobox:
*Infoboxes are optional. I, myself, do not think that they add much to the article. If you want to retain the box, I would suggest removing all of the information that is subjective such as "Influences" and "Genres". That information is generally best conveyed in the article. Also, it has been known to cause edit wars, unfortunately.
Small things:
*His father, born Bernard-François Balssa, was one of eleven children born to a poor family in the southern region of Tarn. - mentioning the country at the beginning of the article proper is probably a good idea
*Could you tell the reader who V.S. Pritchett and George Saintsbury are? Scholar? Biographer? (Same goes for other people you introduce.)
*so named after Saint Honoré of Amiens, whose day had recently passed - By the time we get to this sentence, Balzac's birth is behind us by a paragraph, so perhaps explaining "whose day had recently passed" a bit more and its relationship to Balzac's birth?
*exactly one year previous, Louis-Daniel had been born - To the day?
*I wonder if mentioning that wet-nursing was common among the middle and upper classes in France at that time would be a good idea?
*Anytime you mention a text, it is a good idea to give the date it was first published. It offers the reader context.
*His father, seeking to instill the same hardscrabble work ethic which had vaulted him into the esteem of society - Can someone be vaulted into esteem? It seems like a different word would work better.
*his time alone gave the boy ample freedom to plow through every book which came his way - "plow" might be a bit unencyclopedic, although it wonderfully evocative
*But though his mind was receiving nourishment, the same could not be said for Balzac's body. - wonderfully poetic, but some editors might complain
*This was by all accounts a fairly unhappy time in his life, punctuated by a suicide attempt on a bridge over the Loire River. - the "by all accounts" is probably unnecessary
*In 1816 Balzac entered the Sorbonne - The colon in this paragraph suggests that all three professors are going to be listed in the same sentence. Could you rearrange it somehow, either so they are or the colon is removed?
*Although it is — as are many early works by accomplished writers — of negligible quality - the phrase inside the dashes seems superfluous and hard to support
*he tried again as a printer and then as a typefounder - I think we need another verb here "tried to [insert verb]"
*In 1832 (after writing several of the novels in it), Balzac spawned the idea for an enormous series of books painting an enormous portrait of "all aspects of society." - It is awkward to have an unreferenced "it" at the beginning of a section.
*his monumental contribution to global literature - this will have to be sourced
*It established his style as an author of note - doesn't quite follow - "author of note" isn't really a "style" (except perhaps for Oscar Wilde)
*fable-like tale about a despondent young man named Raphaël de Valentin, who finds an animal skin promising (then, as if by magic, delivering — until finally destroying) great power and wealth - a bit awkward
*In 1833, Balzac struck gold - a bit unencyclopedic, I think
*but in Balzac's case there was no telling how long they would end up - a bit unencyclopedic, I think
*Balzac's work habits were legendary - "were" or "are"?
*some texts which are really only works-in-progress, such as Les employés (The Government Clerks, 1841), are of real interest - "of real interest" is a little vague
*He grouped the books by subject matter, rather than an absolute timeline - awkward
*The second to last paragraph of "Legacy" repeats "Balzac" a lot.
Small/medium things:
*I see that you have used quotations from Balzac's works to illustrate his life (for example, his time at school). I assume biographers do this as well? I don't think we can take those kinds of liberties ourselves, as much as we might want to.
*These books were potboiler historical novels in the manner of Walter Scott and Ann Radcliffe. - Do your sources say this? I find it an odd pairing, since Radcliffe was knowon for Gothic novels. Although they were set in the past, they were not really "historical". Scott is usually considered the inventor of the historical novel (as I'm sure you are aware).
*There are a lot of quotations from critics in "First literary efforts" - is there any way to reduce this?
MOS:
*Sometime, when you have nothing to do (!), you could check the links. There are some that repeat within a section (such as "Vendome" in the early sections) and some that need to be added (such as La Comedie Humaine in the early sections).
*Why is "alcove" in quotation marks the first time and italicized the second time?
*Anything linked in the article does not have to be listed in the "See also" section (some editors, by the way, are very against "see also" sections).
*If you decide to submit the article to FAC, I would spend a day perusing the WP:MOS and checking the article rigorously, otherwise the FAC could turn into style session (which is very unpleasant, I can tell you from experience).
 
By the way, I love that you have actually used the word "haberdashers"! This is really a wonderful article - it is such a pleasure to read a well-written article. You have done a marvelous job of evoking Balzac's perspective. Have you checked out the French wikipedia article on Balzac to see if there are any nuggets to add here? I hope that you continue to work on Balzac articles. Literature articles (apart from those on American bestsellers) are sadly neglected on wikipedia. Awadewit | talk 18:06, 25 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: GA pass

message: Hi, I'm probably going to have to review this article piece-meal, so this section is for thought that occur to me as I look the article over (and over and over... ;) I'm no Balzac expert, so please forgive my lapses.
* I would offer more details about Balzac's adult life, after he rejected law as a profession.  The lead refers to "difficulties entering society", but there doesn't seem to be much about that.  The coverage about his various professions is good as is, though.
* The 3rd and 4th paragraphs of the lead should probably be combined, no?
* The final two sections, "Writing style and themes" and "Legacy", have a lot of good material, but the various short paragraphs seem a little scattershot, don't they?  I think you should take this flock of wild birds in hand and tame them. ;)  Find maybe 3 major themes for each section, write vividly on them near the beginning, and then put the sundry extras near the end.
* I made a few re-wordings in the lead that may not be exactly accurate, although I tried to render what I was understanding.  Would you be so kind as to check them and correct them, if necessary?
:Yeah, they're generally spot-on. (Thanks especially for the de-gendered language; I can't believe I missed that one.) I changed the wording of one so that we don't have two sentences in a row with the same first word, and another to remove the pattern with "film".
Anyway, that's it for now.  In general, please group the main ideas into larger, connected arcs, to give the article a stronger current that draws the reader in and along. Good luck! :)  Willow 23:43, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you kindly. I'll get to work on these as soon as I have some more time to crack the books. Cheers. — Scartol · Talk 00:24, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Okay, I've done another reorganization of the lead, Style, and Legacy. I changed the wording in the lead about fitting into society; it didn't really belong in the article. His failures had to do with business, not social circles. Those other flocks are whipped into shape. – Scartol · Talk 22:22, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Stray thoughts from Willow

message: *Fernquest, Jon. Reader's Guide: Themes in the Novels of Balzac. Balzac's World. Retrieved on 23 August 2007.
I'm a little bit concerned about this source. Do you have any reason to believe that Fernquest has any other credentials than an interest in Balzac or that his site is peer-reviewed? It looks self-published to me. Since you don't use it much, perhaps more authoritative sources could be used? Awadewit | talk 00:02, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: You're right. I found a spot in Rogers which makes the point and changed the note. Should we put Fernquest back into the External Links? Scartol · Talk 00:12, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Sure. Awadewit | talk 01:11, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Source

message: *Oratory of Saint Philip Neri - either the wikipedia page is incomplete (shock) or this is the wrong link Awadewit | talk 03:10, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not sure, so I removed the link. I'll probably do the same for the others. Scartol · Talk 11:20, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Link(s) to check

message: There were a number of discussion elements on the talk page here not long ago. Now they appear to have merged into the WikiProjects metabanner. Does anyone know what happened and why and how to fix it? – Scartol · Talk 14:17, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Even somebody's discussion under the "Vanishing discussion" header below has been gobbled up somehow.  I'm posting this above the other cruft so it can be see.  For some strange reason, putting it here makes the rest of the discussions show up on my preview page, anyway, don't know what will happen when I save. Fix it, please.  Gene Nygaard 15:09, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It looks like there may have been a problem with the  template. I've done previews where everything looks okay here. If I save it and it's not, I'll change it again. – Scartol · Talk 19:27, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vanishing discussion? 

message: Recalling the sculptures by Rodin I saw in Philadelphia a few years ago, I added a small piece of information to the article.  What I did not mention was another sculpture I saw, not by Rodin, but a parody of his work on Balzac.  Does anyone know what I'm talking about?  The piece resembles Rodin's depictions, except that Balzac is a walrus.  MagnesianPhoenix (talk) 00:40, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  He is the walrus 

message: I don't know how the wiki works, so I apologize for my lack of understanding, however in the first main paragraph of the article it reads "Harry Balzac"? Surely this is a joke (I don't know enough to say for certain, and leave that to another to decide)
:No, it's vandalism, say it out loud to get the joke. You can tell because the title (and EVERYWHERE ELSE) reads Honore. We get rid of these quickly. 169.229.98.68 (talk) 20:56, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Harry Balzac? 

message: How about translating the titles of the works into English and giving the English titles in paranthesis? Not everyone reads French. --RossF18 (talk) 02:44, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: There's a lot of debate about this. You might want to read WP:BALZAC. – Scartol · Talk 11:54, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Works section

message: I hope it's not just me: The sentence "While some of his books never reached a finished state, some – such as Les employés (The Government Clerks, 1841) – are still noted by critics." reads a bit confusing. -- 213.6.11.23 (talk) 10:57, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: What's confusing to you about it? Books of his which were unfinished when he died are still considered important. Like Kafka's Amerika. – Scartol · Talk 11:53, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: This sentence confused me too. It's not clear that the second "some" refers to a subset of the first. I first interpreted it as "While some of his books were never finished, others were noted by critics", which is not what's intended. 131.111.129.141 (talk) 13:16, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Possibly needed clarification

message: I'd like to thank everyone who's been monitoring this page (which I helped bring to FA status) and reverting the constant vandalism it's endured during its TFA run. I tried to get some preventative semi-prot, but I was denied. I knew this would happen, and I'm thankful that you folks are so diligent and prepared. Cheers. – Scartol · Talk 11:52, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I notice that a lot of the vandalism concerns the guy's surname (which has been punned as "Ballsack"). I also noticed that my IP (a school IP) was blocked for mudkip-related vandalism. Ah well, keep up the good work (although I'm concerned that the mudkip vandal didn't get a warning before the block).  —  Rickyrab | Talk 15:18, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: That seems wrong, but I had nothing to do with it. All of this could be avoided if the admins would apply a semi-prot, which they still refuse to do. Grr. – Scartol · Talk 16:39, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vandalism is hilarious 

message: He was French and his name is French. Is it really relevant how English speakers mispronounce his name? So relevant, in fact, that it must be mentioned before the correct French pronunciation of his name? If pronunciation in other languages is really that relevant, why doesn't the article mention how his name is "pronounced in German", etc? --131.111.8.99 (talk) 15:53, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: you may notice this is english wikipedia.--Leladax (talk) 16:36, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: As a user who helped bring this article to FA status, I must say I don't really care for the English-version pronunciation, but I'm too busy reverting vandalism to care very much one way or another. – Scartol · Talk 16:40, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  The different pronunciations serve different purposes.  If the question is 'how did our friend Mr. Ballsack pronounce his name?' then, yes, the French.  If the question is, 'how should I, Mr. English-speaker at the English Wikipedia, pronounce his name in regular conversation?'  then the English.  Yes, some people like to affect French accents when they use French words in English.  It's just that, an affectation, and if you're the sort of person who does that, you already know how it's pronounced anyways.  Does anyone seriously think it's correct to talk about Bah-REES YELTseen? --JayHenry (talk) 17:36, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: What in the world is the evidence that there is a distinct English pronunciation?  Only the Dictionary.com unabridged suggests such a thing, and its rather informal pronunciation terms make me somewhat dubious.  I'd also be interested to know if anyone could explain the actual difference between these pronunciations.  My limited command of IPA leaves me uncertain. john k (talk) 18:37, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Merriam-Webster supports differing pronunciations as well.  The first phonetic spelling is Ah-nuh-reh the second is ah-nah-ray.  Spoken quickly that'd be the same, the bigger issue is the stress on the last name.  In English it's acceptable to place a slight stress on Bal, whereas in French you'd stress the zac. --JayHenry (talk) 20:08, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

text: That's precisely why we also include the French. (Many foreign names don't have standard English pronunciations, but this one does.) As for the first writer's complaint about the English coming first, that's standard per the Manual of Style. Not saying it should be that way, but discussion should be taken up there, since it affects all of Wikipedia. kwami (talk) 20:22, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  To be clear, I didn't intend to suggest anything was "correct" and the only thing I meant to perpetuate was a faithful reading of what Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary said.    Indeed, I dream of the day where JayHenry is the ultimate arbiter of pronunciation in American English (that embarrassing day freshman year where I read indictment aloud as "in-DIKT-ment" would be absolved!) but alas in the meantime I defer to the dusty but trusty dictionary. --JayHenry (talk) 03:22, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

text: I agree with Ajcounter that the so-called "English" pronunciation is one that is used only in America. It's equivalent to calling Nietzsche "Neechee", and has no place in an encyclopedia. Malcolm Starkey (talk) 12:51, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pronounced... in English?? 

message: An IP pointed out a possible error:
:He indicates that Robert Louis Stevenson, who had read Balzac's earliest writing, tried to dissuade him from writing these books.Saintsbury, "Honoré de Balzac," xiv.
That can't possibly be correct, as Balzac died a few months before Stevenson was born.  Is it possible that this remark refers to a different Stevenson? --JayHenry (talk) 20:15, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: No, Stevenson tried to dissuade George Saintsbury from reading those works. If it's not clear in the article, I'll clarify it. Thanks, by the way, JH, for patrolling all this vandalism. – Scartol · Talk 20:57, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Sigh. Someone must have changed it to "writing" and then it made no sense and then you removed it, JH – your move made sense, but someone changing it to "writing" didn't know what they were doing and now it's a headache to put it back in grrr why did I ever want anything I'd ever worked on to be on the front page? growl hiss spit. – Scartol · Talk 21:00, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Aha, that makes a bit more sense!  Yeah, this front page business is really a mess.  Ah, the joy of wikipedia.  At least the vandalism bots catch anything blatant in a matter of seconds. --JayHenry (talk) 21:06, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Robert Louis Stevenson 

message: Just for fun I took a stroll through the  diffs. Here's the change between the 15th and right now.  Absolutely no vandalism "slipped through the cracks" and remained in the article.  So that's very positive.
While a featured article, Balzac received 150 edits, the majority of which were vandalism and reverts.  By my count, the article was vandalized 44 times.  Of this, 33 incidents were reverted in a minute or less.  In total, by my estimate, the article contained some vandalism for 48 minutes in the last two days, which (conveniently) works out to precisely one vandalized minute per hour.  And for the most part, the worse the vandalism the faster it was reverted.
There were a few outliers though.  The worst was a 12 minute stretch here.  The article received vandalism from two separate accounts in a minute.  The second edit was immediately reverted, but the first edit -- changing his name to Ballsack in the infobox -- remained in the article.  A third vandal struck the article repeatedly, and while his vandalism was instantly reverted, the ballsack in the infobox went unfixed for 12 minutes.
So not the worst I've seen but not exactly what I'd consider ideal either. --JayHenry (talk) 22:50, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: And all told, a pretty good argument for semi-protecting a page as prone to vandalism as this while it's TFA. Thanks again for your vigilance, Jay. You rock! – Scartol • Tok 03:40, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  We're lucky it was a Saturday.  Vandalism is supposedly much worse on school days.  It's an unfortunate byproduct of giving all them childrens computers to use in school. --JayHenry (talk) 07:19, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Post mortem 

message: Recently  made an edit changing the image at the top of the page from a color painting of Balzac to the original black-and-white daguerrotype. I believe that the color painting is much more appealing, and I'd advocate for a change back to the painting. Rather than risk an edit war by reverting, I'd like to seek consensus here and find out what other people think. – Scartol • Tok 13:46, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It's a tough call in my opinion, because they're both good and interesting images.  But it looks like there might be some copyright issues with the painting at the moment.  Would be good if we could resolve those.  It looks like the actual source/date of the image is a bit unclear.  (If the coloring was not actually done more than 70 years ago we might not be able to use that image in the first place.) --JayHenry (talk) 04:32, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, I see. I should have checked that myself; thanks for the tip. – Scartol • Tok 12:47, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Painting vs. daguerrotype - opinions please 

message: I reverted some edits from an IP but wanted to flag their claim that the summary of La Peau de chagrin was very vague ... not totally accurate.  Since it is sourced to Robb, and the IP simply removed the citation, I restored it.  The IP is from Oxford, but our Oxfordian friend also removed the non-controversial claim about Balzac's role as a major practitioner of realism. --JayHenry (talk) 22:37, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Wow, synchronicity. I'm actually reading Peau right now in preparation for attacking that page next. I think both summaries are correct; the one currently in the article doesn't mention the connection between the man's life and the skin's shrinking. However, the emphasis is definitely on the twists of life and the connections to Mesmer's theory, not so much the magic skin itself. And while I'm not totally sure, I don't think he marries Pauline; she's the wife of Louis Lambert. When I make more headway on the Peau article, I'll update this page too. – Scartol • Tok 00:25, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm a moron. Louis Lambert marries Pauline de Villenoix; Raphaël de Valentin in Peau marries Pauline Gaudin. My mistake. More to come. – Scartol • Tok 02:35, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vague summary? 

message: Legend has it that as Balzac was expiring, he called to his deathbed the great Doctor Horace Bianchon. Much to the amazement of those surrounding him. For they knew Horace Bianchon was a character invented by Balzac himself in La Comédie Humaine. And so in these last moments when life and death come to a blur, reality and fiction too were subtly dissolving into one another. Soon after, Balzac, Doctor Bianchon, and hundreds more, were reunited forever in the Legend.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.72.93.5 (talk) 08:39, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, I've come across this recently in other books I've read since this article became an FA. I'll add it one of these days. Thanks for the reminder! – Scartol • Tok 11:48, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Also, coffee? 86.41.91.196 (talk) 15:06, 17 April 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Not from what I can tell. He did drink lots and lots of coffee, and worked really hard all the time, but there's no evidence of a specific coffee connection to his death. Scartol • Tok 12:32, 18 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Death 

message: Looking at the page history, this article is constantly bombarded with anon vandalism. Would semi-protection be appropriate? Zazaban (talk) 21:58, 22 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Protection 

message: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/rodin-statue-stolen-from-israel-museum-during-recent-renovations-1.348006?localLinksEnabled=false
:Is this worth a mention here (under subject) or under the artist? Hcobb (talk) 22:15, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Naked Balzac walks 

message: I remember that Balzac wrote around 30 trivial novels in his early days, and there is almost zero reference to that in the text. So, could somebody find any info considering them? I tried to find some info in English, but there are not many informations available, so, perhaps, there is some info in French? HeadlessMaster (talk) 17:57, 11 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Early works 

message: Why this article makes no mention of this persona? She seems rather important. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk  16:35, 2 July 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Feel free to contribute to the article.Lestrade (talk) 14:45, 25 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Madame de Berny 

message: Some one has edited to change the age in the paragraph "At age eight Balzac was sent to the Oratorian grammar school in Vendôme, where he studied for seven years. His father, seeking to instill the same hardscrabble work ethic which had gained him the esteem of society, intentionally gave little spending money to the boy. This made him the object of ridicule among his much wealthier schoolmates."
Anyone know whether it should be eight or ten?--   🍺  Antiqueight confer 21:56, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  correct age 

message: The following sentence is unclear: "Marx's work Das Kapital also makes constant reference to the works of Balzac and urged Engels to read Balzac's work The Unknown Masterpiece." The implication here is that the text of Das Kapital (specifically) urged Engels (specifically) to read The Unknown Masterpiece. That seems possible but unlikely; more likely Marx elsewhere urged Engels to read it, and the sentence is just sloppily worded. 850 C (talk) 19:52, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Marx & Engels 

message: The opening sentence of the Legacy section currently says: "He has been compared to Charles Dickens and has been called one of Dickens' influences." There is no reference for the second part of this sentence. I am not aware of any definite evidence that Dickens ever read Balzac or was influenced by his work. 
--Michaelpeverett (talk) 11:45, 10 June 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: @Michaelpeverett but the aubergine is a great fruit Oreocooke (talk) 04:47, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Balzac and Dickens 

message: I check pages listed in :Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of :Honoré de Balzac's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.
Reference named "chancerel_pierrot":
From Maria Du Fresnay: 
From Ange Du Fresnay: 
I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 22:43, 23 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Orphaned references in [[:Honoré de Balzac]] 

message: Some old page history that used to be at the title "Honoré de Balzac" can now be found at Talk:Honoré de Balzac/Old history. Graham87 12:29, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Old page history 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Any objections to throwing this article into the pile of potential TFA reruns for this year and next? Any cleanup needed? If it helps, here's a list of dead or dubious links. - Dank (push to talk) 23:39, 10 September 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: (At the moment, the only dead link is the one at leschateauxdelaloire.org.) - Dank (push to talk) 18:59, 11 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  TFA rerun 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified