Unconcious Comedians

La Comédie Humaine #50

by Honoré de Balzac

Large format for easy reading. Work from the 'La Comedie Humaine' series from the man hailed as the 'Charles Dickens of France' and one of the founding fathers of French Realist writing.

Genres: French Literature, Classics, Literature, Fiction, France, Humor

68 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1846

About the author

French writer Honoré de Balzac (born Honoré Balzac), a founder of the realist school of fiction, portrayed the panorama of society in a body of works, known collectively as La comédie humaine .

Honoré de Balzac authored 19th-century novels and plays. After the fall of Napoléon in 1815, his magnum opus, a sequence of almost a hundred novels and plays, entitled, presents life in the years.

Due to keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation, European literature regards Balzac. He features renowned multifaceted, even complex, morally ambiguous, full lesser characters. Character well imbues inanimate objects; the city of Paris, a backdrop, takes on many qualities. He influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles John Huffam Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac as well as important philosophers, such as Friedrich Engels. Many works of Balzac, made into films, continue to inspire.

An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac adapted with trouble to the teaching style of his grammar. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. Balzac finished, and people then apprenticed him as a legal clerk, but after wearying of banal routine, he turned his back on law. He attempted a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician before and during his career. He failed in these efforts From his own experience, he reflects life difficulties and includes scenes.

Possibly due to his intense schedule and from health problems, Balzac suffered throughout his life. Financial and personal drama often strained his relationship with his family, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; five months later, he passed away.

Reviews

[Ionuț Anastasiu · Rating 3 out of 5]

O satiră aparte în universul Comediei Umane și aceasta deoarece acțiunea propriu-zisă se desfășoară într-o singură zi. Probabil că este ceva atât inedit, cât și singular în ansamblul operei lui Balzac, însă, întrucât nu am citit-o integral, nu pot decât să speculez în legătură cu acest lucru.
Pe de altă parte, tema nuvelei nu are cum să nu trezească interesul cititorilor pasionați de Balzac și nu numai deoarece este vorba despre Paris, sau, mai exact spus, despre modul în care este prezentat Parisul unui provincial ce nu are deloc o impresie bună despre capitală. Parisul este descris adesea de Balzac ca fiind un oraș infernal și nu ai cum să nu te gândești că această nuvelă este un fel de parafrază a Infernului lui Dante. Însă pe un ton radical diferit.
Domnul Sylvestre Palafox-Castel-Gazonal (zis pur şi simplu Gazonal), vărul lui Léon de Lora, "celebrul nostru peisagist", ce și-a făcut apariția sub numele de Mistigris în Un debut în viață, savurosul roman publicat în 1842, sosește la Paris pentru a intenta un proces prefectului din Pirineii Occidentali. Aici îi face o vizită vărului său faimos, iar pictorul, alături de alți artiști, printre care se află Bixiou, decide să-i prezinte diverse ipostaze ale "faunei" pariziene: "Ca să-ţi arătăm imensitatea morală, politică şi literară a Parisului, noi facem ca ghidul roman care îţi arată la Saint-Pierre degetul mare al statuii ce credeai că e în mărime naturală şi constaţi că el singur are un picior lungime. N-ai măsurat încă niciunul dintre degetele mari de la piciorul Parisului!…" În paranteză fie spus, episodul cel mai amuzant din punctul meu de vedere este acela în care bietul Gazonal este dus la doamna Fontaine, ghicitoare în cărți și în orice altceva. Cu mențiunea că și deznodământul aventurii aceluiași Gazonal este savuros. Lectură plăcută!

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

One doesn't frequently associate Balzac with humor, but stories like The Unconscious Comedians can make one change one's mind. This novelette is the story of a manufacturer from Roussillon named Gazonal who seeks help from his cousin Leon de Lora, a successful painter, in a lawsuit that is going badly. Along with fellow wag Bixiou, Leon de Lora shows his cousin from the provinces what Paris is really like.

As Gazonal becomes increasingly confused by the seeming madness of how influenced is curried in Paris, the painter tells him:

"You don't know anything about Paris. Ask it for a hundred thousand francs to realize an idea that will be useful to humanity,—the steam-engine for instance,—and you'll die, like Salomon de Caux, at Bicetre [the lunatic asylum where the Marquis de Sade was imprisoned]; but if the money is wanted for some paradoxical absurdity, Parisians will annihilate themselves and their fortune for it. It is the same with systems as it is with material things. Utterly impracticable newspapers have consumed millions within the last fifteen years. What makes your lawsuit so hard to win, is that you have right on your side, and on that of the prefect there are (so you suppose) secret motives."

Or, to paraphrase Ecclesiastes, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

This is one of Balzac's most approachable stories. Although it involves a couple dozen regular characters from the Comédie Humaine, it is easily understood by newbies and does not require any previous knowledge. Just sit back and enjoy.

[Jaime Fernández Garrido · Rating 3 out of 5]

La cuadragésimo segunda escena de "La comedia humana" nos deja con ganas de más, de mucho más. Este breve relato titulado "Los comediantes", o "Los comediantes sin saberlo" (que es realmente mejor título y no sé por qué no se ha respetado en la edición de Hermida Editores) repasa algunos de los caracteres del mundo parisino: las actrices de la Ópera, la policía, un sombrerero, una revendedora de ropa, un portero, un usurero, un peluquero, un pintor, un congresista, una echadora de cartas... A algunos tipos de seres humanos ya los conocíamos por anteriores obras de Balzac, pero algunos como el peluquero o la echadora de cartas son un simple apunte que darían para muchísimo más, y nos gustaría ver una novela larga dedicada a ellos, sin ninguna duda.

Balzac nos deja con la miel en los labios y nos vuelve un poco locos, con tanta información en tan poco espacio (apenas setenta páginas) al igual que le ocurre al protagonista, un fabricante de provincias al que le llevan dos años dando vueltas en los juzgados y que en tan solo un día resuelve su pleito gracias a la ayuda de dos conocidos que buscan tanto echarse unas risas como ayudar, realmente, al provinciano.

De hecho, el final, que parece que va a ser un desastre para el pobre Sylvestre Gazonal, se arregla cuando quedan (literalmente) cinco líneas, con lo que Balzac muestra una compasión hacia este personaje que no suele tener a lo largo de su obra.

[Gláucia Renata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publicado em 1845, faz parte de Estudos de Costumes - Cenas da Vida Parisiense. O título da primeira edição era O Provinciano em Paris e se trata exatamente disso.
Essa novela é composta por uma série de cenas, onde Gazonal vem de uma cidade provinciana a fim de resolver um pendência burocrática em Paris. Léon de Lora, seu primo e um famoso paisagista serve de cicerone e vai mostrando a ele a verdadeira Paris, a que se esconde numa fina superfície de aparências onde nada nem ninguém é exatamente quem ou como se mostra. Encontraremos aqui vários tipos e personagens dessa grande galeria que é a CH apresentados e descritos pelo humor peculiar de León de Lora. Cortesãs, burocratas, videntes, cabeleireiros, advogados, agiotas, operários, aristocratas... estão todos aqui. E o jovem Gazonal achava que conhecia Paris.



Histórico de leitura
14/04/2018


"Em Paris tudo é possível, tanto para o bem como para o mal, para o justo e o injusto. Aqui tudo se faz, tudo se desfaz, tudo se refaz."

"Léon de Lora, nosso célebre pintor de paisagens, pertence a uma das mais nobres famílias do Roussillon, de origem espanhola e que, se se recomenda pela antiguidade da raça, está, faz cem anos, votada à proverbial pobreza dos Hidalgos. "

[Sarah Alami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pas un livre à lire quand on est fatigué! J'ai mis un moment à comprendre le principe, pourtant simple, de la déambulation dans Paris à la recherche de types curieux à observer. Et il y a plein d'histoires de sous difficiles à comprendre, comme souvent chez Balzac. Mais c'est sympa, une fois qu'on se laisse conduire!

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Unconscious Mummers" or "The Unconscious Comedians" (1846) was published the same year as Cousin Bette, the latter one of the better-known works in Honoré de Balzac's La Comédie humaine. And for those who have read a bit of Balzac she or he will find that this slim short story is a compendium of the characters and themes encountered elsewhere in the immense 90+ works that comprise the Human Comedy. Here one finds no fewer than 27 characters who appear in some two or three dozen other Balzac works, plus themes like corruption, greed and occultism that one finds elsewhere.

And in no other work that I have encountered so far by Balzac is there such a strong similarity to Dante's Divine Comedy, to which Balzac was alluding with the title for his masterwork, with Bixiou and Léon de Lora playing the part of Virgil to Gazonal's Dante, the two of them showing the latter the ins and outs of the infernal city of Paris.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balzac's "Unconscious Comedians" brings a whole cast of Parisian characters, in small parts played to show a providential what makes the wheel turn in Paris. Many of these characters have had other parts in "La Comedie Humane", so it is interesting revisiting them and meeting new beings. The comedy is more satirical.

Story in short- A manufacturer comes to Paris to deal with a lawsuit but he is lost without help of his cousin.

I did not read this edition but from a Delphi Collection of his work which in the below.

"Published initially in 1846, Les Comédiens sans le savoir is another short story that draws on Balzac’s favourite themes of the lives of artists and the corruption of the legal system. In the narrative, Leon de Lora is an impoverished artist, who made his fortune in Paris, being recognised as one of the great geniuses of French landscape painting. As Mistigris, Schinner’s pupil, he featured in the previous tale A Start in Life (from Scenes from Private Life), but at the time of this story he is now 36 years old. "


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Leon de Lora is a famous artist in 1845; named also Mistigris in "A Start in Life" has a southern providence cousin visit him while lawsuit trouble in Paris, the case is given for loss. Gazonal, the cousin finds Leon with Bixioux and the men have breakfast where Gazonal witty remarks win friendship who show him the seamy side of Paris. A large cast of known characters are set out on display. The men tell Gazonal that they can fix the lawsuit for him to win. How unjust the legal system is when one has pull. He end up winning with their help but Cardone, uses her feminine powers and the manufacturer not having anything left, for he has signed the notes. Leon and Bixiou tell of his winning the lawsuit but the unhappy penniless Gazonal is cheered up when the notes returned and he is to return home. I had to comment on Rastignac who is in his mid forties, married to his lover's daughter now and laughing like a young boy during sessions. I look forward to seeing how he is able to finagle that marriage, if it be told. I remember his Papa Goriot days in the pension, his wanting to find a mistress and dressing like a dandy, whereas his sisters bleed themselves for some money to give. Many characters, I like or dislike with the change of the story.

[Jeffrey Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the section of "La Comedie humaine" entitled Scenes de la vie parisienne, after the monumental "Splendeurs et miseres des courtisanes," Balzac placed four rather slight works, "Un prince de la Boheme," "Esquisse d'homme d'affaires," "Gaudissart II," and "Les Comediens sans le savoir." They are all satirical, light (by Balzacian standards) pieces about amoral, corrupt, and superficial Parisian society. Many of characters from elsewhere in "La comedie" make cameo appearances, but I found them tedious and far from memorable. Instead of putting together his vast edifice of novels by putting virtually everything he ever wrote in it, Balzac should have been judicious and constructed something less monumental out of his strongest and most interesting works. But that wouldn't have been Balzac, would it?

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Working my way through...

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This late work summarizes everything he'd written about Paris in the previous gazillion novels Ask me how I know.

[Virginie Dolléans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Savoureux portrait des figures parisiennes en 1845. Deux compères mystifient gentiment un Provincial qui découvre la capitale.

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nuevamente nos encontramos con viejos conocidos en este relato que no me resultó demasiado entretenido.

[myriam kisfaludi · Rating 3 out of 5]

C’est plus une nouvelle qu’un roman où l’on découvre un provincial à Paris en proie à la corruption et autres filouterie s

[Steve R · Rating 4 out of 5]

My translation was entitled The Unconscious Mummers. At just over sixty pages in length, this novella is a charming extended joke carried out by two native Parisians on their country cousin from the Pyrenees. At the same time, it is Balzac's sincere effort to show the intricacies of Parisian life in the mid-nineenth century, where 'there is no such thing as a small trade; everything is done on a large scale, be it frippery or matches.'

Endeavoring to settle a lawsuit which it appears he is about to lose, the provincial is taken on a tour to meet a series of various Parisian types: a journalist, a haberdasher, a money lender, a detective, a doorman, a financial agent, a hairdresser, an artist, a government minister, two politicians, a chiropodist, an actress and a courtesan. Aghast at the rampant speculation, greed, duplicity and unbridled self interest he sees, he concludes that while 'the poor country district is... an honest girl, the Parisian is a prostitute, rapacious, deceitful, artificial.' After all, as the omniscient narrator observes, the Parisian's two eternal strings [are] Self interest and Vanity'.

Of course, the sightseeing novice becomes entranced with the actress, with somewhat predictable but also strange consequences to both his past and present financial difficulties, all of which are resolved in a manner which made me laugh out loud.

Unlike a lot of Balzac's rather heavy handed depictions in his longer novels of the sordid and immoral treatment of good people, this work had a lightness and a joie-de-vivre quality showing that while he was appalled at the nefariousness of most Parisian practices, especially the financial ones, Balzac really loved his fellow citizens.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

My summary of this story is at http://balzacbooks.wordpress.com/2012...

[Sladjana Kovacevic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esej o umetnicima Pariza,Parizu,Provinciji,Parižanima...samo da je malo duži...