Thanks, Lisa. I collected the pics over the years. Also have some statues to put up plus lots of pics of various people in Balzac’s life. I think I started the Balzac group around 1999, so fifteen years or so.
I look forward to that:)
I was very excited when I saw a café called Balzac in Berlin, but I found out later (maybe from you?) that he’d never been there.
BTW I just finished reading Seaphita – do you know if Balzac ever went to Norway? It’s an amazingly vivid travelogue if he didn’t…
I have an interior photo of a Cafe Balzac (in Canada I think) with a large portrait of Balzac on the wall. No, it must have been someone that told you he’d never been to Berlin. I don’t know, but am guessing that Balzac never went to Norway. He enjoyed Italy, of course went to Russia to visit the Hanskas and Switzerland too if I recall correctly.
I love the initial scene in Seraphita when the two are going up the mountain. Maybe he got all the snow knowledge from Russia, lol. Sadly that is about all I loved about Seraphita.
As an aside, I think it was Radcliffe who never traveled but wrote amazing scenes of faraway places. She read books and studied paintings.
Actually I feel really cheated by reading the last three in LCH (Physiology, Petty Troubles and Seraphita). It’s a good thing they’re last in the collection because – my word, they would put people off Balzac for life – but they’re not a good note to end on, especially not those sour ones about marriage.
There has been debate about whether or not Physiology and Petty Troubles should be included in La comedia. Really I don’t think they should. Dreadful. Well, a couple of cute anecdotes, but that was all. Of course I read all the works when John and I prepared the etexts and my favorites of the biggies, I’ve probably read at least three times each since I can never resist a new translation. When we did the group read, I managed to reread Seraphita (and it fared better for me on second reading, perhaps due to skimming instead of close reading for proofing), but I couldn’t face a reread of the other two. I think I started on the first one, but gave up.
I can’t really claim to have read them. I simply surfed over the pages and stopped when anything looked remotely interesting or outrageously irritating!
La Comedie Humaine by Balzac 
This is brilliant, Dagny:) Where did you find them all?
LikeLike
Thanks, Lisa. I collected the pics over the years. Also have some statues to put up plus lots of pics of various people in Balzac’s life. I think I started the Balzac group around 1999, so fifteen years or so.
LikeLike
I look forward to that:)
I was very excited when I saw a café called Balzac in Berlin, but I found out later (maybe from you?) that he’d never been there.
BTW I just finished reading Seaphita – do you know if Balzac ever went to Norway? It’s an amazingly vivid travelogue if he didn’t…
LikeLike
I have an interior photo of a Cafe Balzac (in Canada I think) with a large portrait of Balzac on the wall. No, it must have been someone that told you he’d never been to Berlin. I don’t know, but am guessing that Balzac never went to Norway. He enjoyed Italy, of course went to Russia to visit the Hanskas and Switzerland too if I recall correctly.
I love the initial scene in Seraphita when the two are going up the mountain. Maybe he got all the snow knowledge from Russia, lol. Sadly that is about all I loved about Seraphita.
As an aside, I think it was Radcliffe who never traveled but wrote amazing scenes of faraway places. She read books and studied paintings.
LikeLike
Actually I feel really cheated by reading the last three in LCH (Physiology, Petty Troubles and Seraphita). It’s a good thing they’re last in the collection because – my word, they would put people off Balzac for life – but they’re not a good note to end on, especially not those sour ones about marriage.
LikeLike
There has been debate about whether or not Physiology and Petty Troubles should be included in La comedia. Really I don’t think they should. Dreadful. Well, a couple of cute anecdotes, but that was all. Of course I read all the works when John and I prepared the etexts and my favorites of the biggies, I’ve probably read at least three times each since I can never resist a new translation. When we did the group read, I managed to reread Seraphita (and it fared better for me on second reading, perhaps due to skimming instead of close reading for proofing), but I couldn’t face a reread of the other two. I think I started on the first one, but gave up.
LikeLike
I can’t really claim to have read them. I simply surfed over the pages and stopped when anything looked remotely interesting or outrageously irritating!
LikeLike