BALZAC, Honore de

BALZAC, Honore de
(1799-1850)
   French writer best known for La comedie humaine ("The Human Comedy"), an immense series of novels into which his PROTO-SCIENCE-FICTION story, La recherche de l'absolu (in Etudes de moeurs au XIXe siecle, coll 1834; trans as The Philosopher's Stone 1844 US; vt Balthazar, or Science \& Love 1859; vt The Alchemist 1861; vt The Alkahest 1887; vt The Quest of the Absolute 1895 UK; vt The Tragedy of a Genius 1912; new trans Ellen Marriage as the Quest of the Absolute 1990 UK) fits somewhat dissonantly. Balthazar Claes invests everything into his search for a kind of universal element that lies at the base of all other elements, but fails. Other works: HdB is, like Jules VERNE, a bibliographer's nightmare. Of his numerous early sensational novels, few translations seem to exist, and his later supernatural fiction appears in very various and chameleon guises. But some titles are of genre interest: Le Centenaire: ou les deux Behringeld (1822 as by Horace de Saint-Aubin; trans George Edgar SLUSSER as The Centenarian, or The Two Behringelds 1976 US), a horror novel; La Peau de chagrin (1831; trans as Luck and Leather: A Parisian Romance 1842 US; various vts; new trans Katharine Prescott Wormeley as The Magic Skin 1888 US), a fantasy; "Seraphita" (1836; trans anon 1889 US; new trans Clara Bell 1990 US), an occult romance; "Melmoth Reconcile" (in Etudes philosophiques, coll 1836; trans in coll The Unknown Masterpiece 1896 UK), a sequel to Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles MATURIN.
   About the author: Balzac (1973) by V.S.Pritchett.
   See also: MONEY; SCIENTISTS.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Encyclopedia. . 2011.

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  • Balzac, Honoré de — ► (1799 1850) Novelista francés. Fue un autor de extraordinaria fecundidad literaria. El fracaso de su primer drama, Cromwell (1820), motivó su dedicación a la novela. Las dos primeras fueron La heredera de Biraque (1822) y El vicario de las… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • BALZAC, HONORÉ DE —    native of Tours, in France; one of the most brilliant as well as prolific novelwriters of modern times; his productions remarkable for their sense of reality; they show power of observation, warmth and fertility of imagination, and subtle and… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

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  • Honoré de Balzac — Honoré Balzac Daguerreotypie von Louis Auguste Bisson, 1842 Honoré de Balzac [ɔnɔʁe də balˈzak] (* 20. Mai 1799 in Tours; † 18. August 1850 in Paris) war ein französischer Schriftsteller. Er gilt den Franzosen neben Molière …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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