Balzac is often seen like Hugo as one the greatest writer of the French literature. However, contrary to Hugo who had an incomparable style, Balzac was more renowned for the scenario of his books. The way he elaborated his books was extremely complex. Balzac was also known for his extraordinary sense of observation. As Hugo represent the greatest achievement of stylish work in French literature, Balzac is on the contrary the best representer of the scenario that is led to a brilliant level.
Balzac was not on the basis made for literature. We he was young, when he presented a work he made, he was advised to do everything except literature. But he developed several characteristics that made him, through a great deal of hard work, one of the greatest French writers of all times.
First he was a great observer. He had a brilliant insight of human nature and his books showed descriptions of people with a remarkable level of detail. For instance in his book Eugenie Grandet he elaborated how the Father Grandet made a lot of successful businesses and planned a lot of deals. To this extend he had the ability to describe all the tendencies of human nature, and made characters with typical characteristics : for instance Rastignac as the figure of ambition or Vautrin as devil.
Second he was a remarkable scenarist. His style was not as brilliant as the one of Hugo but he had the ability to elaborate extraordinary stories. Many books could relate to each other like artworks in museums. You could find Rastignac in many different novels, such as Father Goriot, everyone depicting what was described and often denounced in the society of his time. For instance Lost illusions is criticizing the cynicism of the press at his time. Balzac, who bankrupted in his youth and lived a lot of time in his life in debts, had the ability to have a very accurate description of the business life of his time.
Last, in many was, he was a great thinker. He had the ability to have a very sharp analysis of human nature, and motivations like ambition, money, power… His body of work “the Human Comedy” is a great representation of that. But he was also a brilliant critic of the bad sides of his time. As he wrote in the beginning of the industrial revolution, with no real implemented rules as a new order, which was capitalist and led by the bourgeoisie instead of feudal and led by aristocracy, the world was to the hand of rapacious and malicious minds, even if it has been a great time of innovation and invention ; it was also an extraordinary period of literary, philosophical and artistic creation. As Balzac is denouncing the numerous vices, cruelty of his time, he was also saying that this period was an occasion to express extraordinary traits of characters. To this extend he agreed with Marx who, despite a lifelong criticism of capitalism, thought that this order was better than feudalism as it fought mediocrity and stimulated work. The paradox of Balzac was a denunciation of this emerging extreme form of liberalism but as well an admiration for this new order, which was not authoritarian like monarchy, who was able, thanks to the ability to express creativity and hard work, to express the potential genius of mankind.
Balzac was a fascinating author, and was as original in his behavior as in his extraordinary ability of hard work. He is often seen, rightly in my opinion, as a genius. He is also proving that greatly succeeding in literature can be made in many ways, and he is also a symbol of the virtues of observation, application and perseverance.
The observer 