During his stay at home, he was to suffer another disappointment. His
sister Laure, to whom he had confided all his secrets and longings,
was married to M. Surville in May, 1830, and moved to Bayeux. He was
thus deprived of her congenial companionship. The separation is
fortunate for posterity, however, since the letters he wrote to her
reveal much of the family life, both pleasant and otherwise, together
with a great deal concerning his own desires and struggles. Thus early
in life, he realized that his was a very "original" family, and
regretted not being able to put the whole group into novels. His
correspondence gives a very good description of their various
eccentricities, and he has later immortalized some of these by
portraying them in certain of his characters.
Continually worried by his irritable mother, feeling himself forced to
make money by writing lest he be compelled to enter a lawyer's office,
he produced in five years, with different collaborators, a vast number
of works written under various pseudonyms. He tutored his younger and
much petted brother Henri, but found his pleasures outside of the
family circle. It was arranged that he should give lessons to one of
the sons of M. and Mme. de Berny, and thus he had an opportunity of
seeing much of Madame de Berny, whose patience under suffering and
sympathetic nature deeply impressed him. On her side, she took an
interest in him and devoted much time in helping and indeed "creating"
him. Unhappy in her married life, she must have found the
companionship of Balzac most interesting, and realizing that the young
man had a great future, she acted as a severe critic in correcting his
manuscripts, and cheered him in his hours of depression. Her mother
having been one of the Queen's ladies in waiting, the Royalist
principles previously instilled in the mind of the young author were
reinforced by this charming woman, as well as by her mother, who could
entertain him indefinitely with her exciting stories of imprisonment
and hairbreadth escapes.
After a few years of life at Villeparisis, Balzac removed to Paris. He
had met an old friend, M. d'Assonvillez, whom he told of the conflict
between his family and himself over his occupation, and this gentleman
advised him to seek a business that would make him independent, even
offering to provide the necessary funds. Balzac took the advice, and
with visions of becoming extremely rich, launched into a publishing
career, proposing to bring out one-volume editions of various authors'
complete works, commencing with La Fontaine and Moliere. As he did not
have the necessary capital for advertising, however, his venture
resulted in a loss. His friend then persuaded him to invest in a
printing-press, and in August, 1826, he made another beginning. He did
not lack courage; but though he later manipulated such wonderful
business schemes in his novels he proved to be utterly incapable
himself in practical life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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