I am a literary giant in Russia

Chapter 164 He can write whatever he wants, as long as he wants to.

In France during this period, if a person's name contained the character "德" (De), it often indicated that the person was a true member of the old Paris Plain White Banner. Even if they were not so authentic now, their ancestors were certainly authentic. For this reason, even after the French Revolution, many nobles were still very proud of the "德" in their names, and ordinary citizens were even more eager to have that character.

So, was Honoré de Balzac a true member of the old Paris Plain White Banner?

No, brother, no.

Around the age of thirty, Balzac suddenly announced publicly that his name was not Honoré de Balzac, but Honoré de Balzac, and that he had long retained all the privileges and titles of this noble title.

But all of this started simply because his father made a boast within his closest family circle, and he only dared to make such a boast within the family circle. The gist of it was that he might be related to the ancient knight Balzac de Ontrag family by some distant kinship.

Balzac's father was basically just making a drunken boast, but Balzac exaggerated this vague conjecture into an undeniable fact.

For example, he signed "de Balzac" on his letters and writings, and even painted the coat of arms of the de Ontrag family on his carriage. Once, he even traveled to Vienna in this carriage. Whenever his impolite colleagues ridiculed his arrogance, he would answer them with his own name with a frank and shameless attitude.

Unfortunately, when Balzac was fantasizing about being an aristocrat, he forgot that there is such a thing as a birth certificate.

Thus, in the column for "May 21, 1799," Thurs's clerk recorded it clearly and coldly:
"Today, the second day of the first month of the seventh year of the French Republic, citizen Bernard-François Balzac, head of household, reports the birth of a son. The aforementioned Balzac declares that the son's name is Honoré Balzac, and he was born at home at 11:00 this morning."

Even so, Balzac's burning, creative, and powerful will, while both making and destroying him, also granted him the brilliant power to change reality.

Admittedly, no French king ever granted him or any of his ancestors a noble title, yet when people are asked about the surname of this greatest French novelist, they always follow his advice and answer "Honoré de Balzac" rather than "Honoré Balzac".

Balzac made his surname an immortal symbol in the history of French literature through his own efforts.

But at this time, Turgenev certainly didn't know that there were so many twists and turns involved. When he heard the man's name, he wasn't surprised by the "De" in his name. It was nothing to a top aristocrat like Turgenev. But as a writer, Balzac was a name that Turgenev had heard of for a long time.

By this time, Balzac had clearly reached the peak of his writing career. He was not only a renowned top writer in France, but also had a great influence in Russia.

Belinsky called him a "genius of social anatomy," and Herzen later pointed out in his exile that "Balzac's Paris is our Moscow." The greed of the bourgeoisie and the exploitative nature of the Russian aristocratic landowners in his writings are undeniable.

Gogol's works were also influenced by Balzac, while the young Dostoevsky, before becoming famous by publishing "Poor Folk," hoped to earn his first fortune by translating "Eugénie Grandet."

As for Turgenev, he actually met Balzac in 1843 through an introduction. When the two met, the study was filled with manuscripts, proofs and coffee cups. Balzac, dressed in a robe similar to a monk's robe, stood there and shouted: "My creditors are more terrible than Napoleon's army!"

The meeting was so brief that Turgenev remarked at the time, "He talked about debt and 'The Human Comedy' like a volcanic eruption, but didn't ask a single question about Russian literature."

Now, it seems the great writer has forgotten him, but Turgenev didn't seem to mind too much and quickly brought it up in a tactful way.

After a moment's reflection, Balzac realized that it seemed to be true. While he felt embarrassed, the displeasure in his eyes lessened considerably.

However, to be honest, Balzac's dissatisfaction wasn't with Turgenev, but with that mysterious Russian writer he had never met. As for why, simply put, because of his heavy debts, Balzac was always jealous of novelists who were more fortunate than him, and no matter who it was, his heart was filled with pain.

As for the reasons for his mounting debts, besides his extravagant spending, it's naturally because Balzac, when he had money, liked to start small businesses, run small factories, grow small pineapples, publish small magazines, and collect small antiques.
After a while, Balzac actually killed himself.

If it weren't for his frantic writing to pay off the debts incurred from starting his business, Balzac might have lived another two years.

To pay off his debts, Balzac wrote all sorts of things in his early years, including vulgar erotic pieces. Even after 1840, when he was once again desperate due to debt, unable to raise enough money, he had a sudden inspiration. He first signed a lucrative contract with a publisher, which required him to provide two long articles. Then what? Balzac subcontracted these two articles to two writers who were asking for lower prices. Crucially, one of the ghostwriters failed to complete the work on time.

All I can say is that Balzac lived a rather humorous life at times.

If Mikhail were to meet Balzac, he would first certainly pay homage to this literary giant. Then, Mikhail would probably quite like to ask his teacher Balzac about his business acumen and how to appraise antiques. And then, Balzac would likely confidently launch into a long, detailed explanation to Mikhail.
However, Balzac was indeed quite jealous of Mikhail, who was far away in Russia. After all, he had heard of or even read the recently popular novel "Around the World in Eighty Days," and could roughly estimate how much profit the work could bring to the author.

so
Is this reasonable? !
I've spent most of my life drinking coffee and writing articles to get to where I am today, and you, a young foreigner, start so high?! And you don't even have any debt!

Moreover, according to rumors, he was incredibly carefree, able to flirt with the Tsar and come and go as he pleased with noble ladies and young women, as if they were in his own home.
For Balzac, who was middle-aged and burdened with debt, just hearing about all this would cause his blood pressure to spike, so it's understandable that he didn't like Mikhail.

However, even from a purely literary aesthetic point of view, Balzac did indeed dislike novels that were too popular or catered to the market. He believed that Dumas' novels pursued thrilling and bizarre plots to the point of sacrificing the depth of social critique.

In his view, novels should be reports on social pathology, not entertainment products.

With this in mind, after chatting with Turgenev for a while, Balzac also expressed his views on the writer named Mikhail quite directly:

"I must admit, I was completely shocked when I saw the French version of 'The Necklace' and the translated Russian short stories. Before that, I almost thought that there was no literature in Russia, and of course, I hadn't paid much attention to it. But I did see the brilliance of Russian literature in those stories."

But what about now? What's with this ongoing serialized novel? It's filled with absurd and bizarre ideas. In its pursuit of plot twists, all the valuable elements of its previous novels have been completely lost. Has that Russian writer stagnated and can only write novels like this now?

"Dear Sir."

Faced with Balzac's passionate words, which were both truthful and tinged with jealousy, Turgenev tried to recall what Mikhail had once said: "He said that these works also have their value, and that he can write whatever he wants, as long as he wants to."

If Mikhail heard this, he would be like: "?"

I didn't say that.
Unfortunately, Mikhail could not hear it, but Balzac could hear it clearly at this moment.

Balzac: "???"

When did Russia produce such a figure?

Madness!

Upon hearing this, Balzac felt his blood rushing to his head. After a moment of dizziness, he finally managed to squeeze out a sentence: "A solid novel cannot be written with just words."

"So he recently sent me another novel."

Turgenev pulled out a prepared manuscript and continued, "A pure French novel, which he said was both inspired by your work and a prophecy about bourgeois society."

"Then I'll probably have to listen to it carefully."

Faced with this series of events, even though the young man was still far away in Russia, Balzac somehow felt that he could sense the other man's presence. But now was definitely not the time to listen to a story, so Balzac could only take a deep breath to calm himself down and wait for the literary salon to begin.

Some writers nearby had overheard the entire conversation between Turgenev and Balzac. While they were astonished by the arrogance of the writer far away in Russia, they couldn't help but anticipate the contents of the French novel.
(End of this chapter)