Balzac, Literary Sociologist

by Allan H. Pasco

Overview

Melding the fields of literature, sociology, and history, this book develops analyses of the ten novels in Balzac's Scènes de la vie de province. Following the order of the novels projected in La Comédie humaine, Allan H. Pasco investigates how Balzac used art as a tool of social inquiry to obtain startlingly accurate insights into the relationships that defined his turbulent society. His repeated claim to be an "historian of manners" was more than an empty boast. Though Balzac was first and foremost a great novelist, he was also a trailblazing sociologist, joining Henri de Saint-Simon and the subsequent Auguste Comte in considering the relationships that represent society as an interacting, interlocking web. Using a methodology that combines close analysis with a broad cultural context, Pasco demonstrates that Balzac's sociological vision was extraordinarily pertinent to both his and our days.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319818689
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	06/16/2018
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2016
Pages:	290
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Allan H. Pasco is Hall Distinguished Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Kansas, USA.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. Through the Glass Darkly, Ursule Mirouët.- 3. A "Divine" Comedy, Eugénie Grandet.- 4. The Geronracy and Youth, Pierrette.- 5. The Tangible and the Intangible, Le Curé de Tours.- 6. The Dying Patriarchy, La Rabouilleuse.- 7. Nascent Capitalism, "L'Illustre Gaudissart".- 8. A Provincial Muse, La Muse du département.- 9. Empty Wombs, La Vieille Fille.- 10. Restoration Boneyard, Le Cabinet des antiques.- 11.Aeries and Muck, Illusions perdues.- 12. Conclusion.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Balzac, Literary Sociologist, the most important English-language book on Balzac in years, has at last given this author the place he deserves as a social historian. This impressive study will be an eye-opener for generations of readers.” (Armine Kotin Mortimer, Professor Emerita, Research Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and author of “For Love or for Money”)

 

“Stethoscope in hand, the eminent Balzacian Allan H. Pasco examines a radically changed France depicted throughout the Scènes de la vie de province. Balzac, a sociologist before the formal advent of sociology, examines French ‘private life’ in detail and diagnoses its profound uneasiness. With remarkable finesse, Pasco discerns in closely read texts the symptoms caused by the noxious atmosphere of the Restoration and July Monarchy, with which he composes a masterful clinical chart that allows peering into today's social problems.” (Anne-Marie Baron, President, Les Amis de Balzac, and author of “Balzac occulte: Alchimie, magnétisme, sociétés secretes”)

“Allan H. Pasco’s latest book is a fine, well-researched, eminently readable survey, The quality and originality of the individual chapters—on money, wasted youth, the Paris-provinces dichotomy and, refreshingly, Balzacian onomastics—are enhanced by being incorporated into a presentation of Balzac as a proto-sociologist. Highly recommended to students, academics, and readers of the nineteenth-century novel.” (Owen Heathcote, Honorary Visiting Reader in Modern French Studies, University of Bradford, UK, and author of “Balzac and Violence: Representing History, Space, Sexuality and Death in “La Comédie humaine””)

Editorial Reviews

"Eminently readable, this landmark publication shows like no other how Balzac used art as a tool of social inquiry to obtain startlingly accurate and relevant insights into his turbulent society and our own." (Juliana Starr, The French Review, Vol. 92 (1), October, 2018)

“Balzac, Literary Sociologist is a significant contribution to Balzac studies, especially for its fine-grained and richly erudite readings of an under-analyzed section of La Comédie humaine. The book artfully combines history, social science, and literary analysis to bring new clarity to Balzac’s view of provincial France and is destined to have broad appeal to expert researchers and novice undergraduates alike.” (Nineteenth-Century French Studies, ncfs-journal.org, Vol. 47 (1–2), 2018)

“This collection of essays devoted to La Comédie humaine, Balzac’s monumental corpus of interconnected novels and stories depicting French society in the first half of the 19th century, appears at an interesting cultural moment. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” (W. Edwards, Choice, Vol. 55 (7), March, 2018)

From the Publisher