La Comédie Humaine


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Balzac and the Model of Painting


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Texts about paintings, painters and sculptors are obvious test cases for issues of representation. A significant corpus of artist stories is scattered through Honore de Balzac's Commedie humaine which, from Marx to Lukacs to Roland Barthes's enormously influential S/Z (1970), has been a key literary work for critical debates around French realism. In a series of close readings, Diana Knight explores Barthes's 'model of painting' - the metaphorical code of painting and sculpture that underpins realist discourse - in the context of Balzac's fictional representations of the relation between artists, their models and their works of art. Whereas critics have tended to denounce Balzac's realist aesthetic as complicit with the misogyny of the society he portrays, Balzac and the Model of Painting takes the artist-model relationship, variously gendered in these stories, as the focus of the author's powerful realist critique of the sexual politics of prostitution and marriage in nineteenth-century France.




La Comédie Humaine


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Theatre in Balzac's La Comédie Humaine


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This study of Balzac's work examines theater in La Comedie humaine both as a theme in itself and for its influence on Balzac's techniques and modes of presentation in his novels, and demonstrates the symbiotic influence of novel and stage on Balzac's work as a playwright and novelist. Gives an account of his experience in theater, and examines the history of his portrayal of the theater world and how this portrayal serves his narrative purpose. Demonstrates how and why Balzac relies on the theater for metaphor and expressive devices, and shows how he brought scrutiny of the capitalist ethos to the stage. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR







Balzac's Concept of Genius


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A Daughter of Eve


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Marie-Angélique and Marie-Eugénie are two sisters raised in a very strict household, who marry very different men: the former a cutthroat banker, the latter a man who has given his wife everything she needs save money, but who lacks any adventure in his spirit. In short, he’s boring. This leads Marie-Eugénie to make some bad decisions, and it will take quick thinking and bold action if she is to be saved from certain disaster. Although one of Balzac’s shorter novels, A Daughter of Eve is full of the richly-drawn characters that are his hallmark, and demonstrates less of the cynicism that is common in his Human Comedy. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.




Ursule Mirouet


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La Comedie Humaine of Honore De Balzac; Volume 1


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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.




The comedie humaine


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