Follow The Bouncing Balzac - Rated 
One of the major accomplishments of this biography is that it will make you want to go out and read all of Balzac. This is because Mr. Robb has sprinkled a liberal number of excerpts from the novels throughout his text. Balzac was both a keen observer and a tireless researcher, with an interest in, literally, everything. He was also tremendously sensitive. When you put all of these qualities together, you get prose that has great depth....resonating between the internal and the external. Mr. Robb, though a great admirer, is quick to admit that not everything that Balzac wrote was great or even good. He was obsessive....a writing machine churning out thousands of words per day. He was deeply in debt and had to write just about non-stop in an attempt to get himself out of debt. Mr. Robb maintains a nice balance. He obviously has a tremendous fondness for his subject but he doesn't let that blind him to the great man's faults and contradictions. Balzac was very open and childlike- he wore his heart on his sleeve and talked non-stop, rarely censoring himself. On the other hand, he was cunning and manipulative, using all sorts of "dodges" to flee from his numerous creditors. He also took advantage of other writers...creating a sort of writing factory- hiring young, admiring, ambitious writers to write novels on his behalf. He expected these "laborers" to have the same superhuman energy that he possessed and would drive them mercilessly. But, in counterpoint, Balzac never gave up trying to pay off his debts and frequently he did pay people everything he owed them. He also took a genuine interest in the young writers he had working for him...giving them worthwhile advice and he was also financially generous when he was in a position to be able to help. Balzac was a shrewd judge of human nature and was very intelligent. He could size up a person or a situation very quickly. His contemporaries commented that if a person read Balzac's novels and applied the vast amounts of information and wisdom to real life, they could make a fortune. But Balzac could not turn his genius into wealth. He would get himself into one harebrained scheme after another, and he could not control his profligate spending. No matter how hard he worked and how many books he wrote he was always getting himself deeper and deeper in debt. But he was an eternal optimist: the next scheme or best-selling novel was just around the corner, and then everything would be wonderful! Oftimes, once he had an idea for a book he considered it done. Forget the fact that he hadn't written a word. To Balzac, it was a concrete asset- just as good as money in the bank. He was a human dynamo and tremendously hard working. Balzac was of the opinion that he wore himself out and Mr. Robb agrees. No one could maintain that intensity forever. (Balzac was only 51 when he died.) He was a fascinating man, as interesting as any of his characters, and Mr. Robb has done a splendid job depicting him.
The best biography of Balzac in English since Stefan Zweig. - Rated
A superlative biography by Graham Robb, Balzac traces the life and career of the nineteenth-century novelist from his beginnings in the beautiful heart of the Loire Valley to his untimely death in 1850, only months after his marriage to the Polish Countess, Mme Hanska. Robb's portrait of the private man, tormented by debt and romantic frustration, is as compelling as his treatment of the literary genius. The result is an impressive, not to say monumental work that, unusually for a book of real academic integrity, is written in a witty, anecdotal style. This is undoubtedly the best biography of Balzac to appear in English since 1948.
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