Last name: Balzac
Name/names: Honoriusz
Also known as: Honoré de Balzac, Balzac
Born: 20 maj 1799 (Tours, France)
Died: 18 August 1850 (Paris, France).
Honorius Balzak – He was born 20 V 1799 r. w Tours. Despite the noble name, he was not a nobleman. His father, Director of the Administrative Hospital and Deputy Mayor at Tours, He was the son of a peasant named Balsa. The father changed them to Balzac, and de Balzac signed on solemn occasions.
After graduating from school in the province, the writer studied at school in Paris, and then he studied law while performing an apprenticeship at a lawyer. Already after obtaining the diploma, he decided to devote himself to literature. This decision was a surprise for his family and friends. From now on, Balzak was struggling with constant financial problems. His novels were not popular, and the interests (he tried to make a fortune on issuing French classics, He founded a printing house and a font founder) They ended in a financial disaster. Rozgłos przyniosła Balzakowi dopiero powieść Sink wydana w 1829 r.
W 1831 r. ukazała się powieść pt. Saurian gorąco przyjęta przez krytykę. Balzak was more and more known, He was admitted to the showrooms, and yet he was still in financial trouble. He wrote a lot, and during the breaks he conducted observations of Paris streets, alleys, restaurants and devoted future novels. He could often be found during such a journey: “damaged clothes,…, Shots not cleaned, all pants in the mud, the hat crushed and remedied” opisuje jego wygląd jeden z ówczesnych pamiętnikarzy.
Balzak also conducted rich correspondence. Calculated, that he had twelve thousand strangers. Especially women wrote to him, The die -hard readers of his novel. A Polish woman was also among the authors of the letters, Ewelina Hańska – Balzak's great love, with which after 18 years of acquaintance he got married. The wedding took place 14 III 1850 r. in Berdyczów. The journey affected the writer's health very negatively, heart disease deepened (Balzak was a great enthusiast of coffee, which he drank in unlimited quantities). Wedding emotions, A long journey from Poland to Paris exhausted him. Already in April he got seriously ill and died after a few months. The funeral was more than modest.
The work of Balzak's life is a cycle 97 utworów pt. Human comedy, in which the writer included his thorough observations of society and the customs of France of the modern times. He was passionate about the legal code and the figures of court officials, who are often the heroes of his novel, Like the figures of the scanty, whose exact studies he included in many songs. Balzak is considered the greatest representative of European realism. W. Hugo said about his work: “… great book…, where we see all modern civilization”. The outstanding translator of Balzak's works into Polish was T. Boy-Żeleński.