{"id":328,"date":"2010-04-14T04:04:57","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T04:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=328"},"modified":"2017-10-19T11:34:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T09:34:45","slug":"sarrasine-honore-de-balzac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/sarrasine-honore-de-balzac\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarrasine!"},"content":{"rendered":"

F\u00e9licitations<\/em>, Bill Penn! Congratulations to our commentateur <\/em>for guessing that l\u2019\u00e9crivain<\/em> I hinted at last week was Honor\u00e9 de Balzac<\/strong>. Ce soir (this evening), we\u2019ll discuss une petite nouvelle <\/em>(a novella) by Balzac, qui s\u2019appelle <\/em>(which is called) Sarrasine<\/em><\/strong>. Links to the texte int\u00e9grale <\/em>(full text ) in French and English can be found at the end of this post.<\/p>\n

I almost can\u2019t explain why I like Sarrasine <\/em>so much, mais je l\u2019ai relu<\/em> (but I reread it- lire<\/em>, to read; relire<\/em>, to reread!) ce week-end<\/em> and it all came back. Cette nouvelle<\/em> is so gorgeously written it could take your breath away. Every sentence is a polished diamond; every thought is its own captivating reverie. The English is fine, but the French will change your life. It\u2019s also, at just 57 pages in my edition, a manageable entr\u00e9e <\/em>into Balzac\u2019s c\u00e9l\u00e8bre Com\u00e9die humaine.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sarrasine a \u00e9t\u00e9 publi\u00e9 <\/em>(was published) en <\/em>1830, as part of une s\u00e9rie <\/em>(a series) intitul\u00e9e <\/em>Sc\u00e8nes de la vie priv\u00e9e (Scenes from Private Life).<\/em> Sc\u00e8nes de la vie priv\u00e9e<\/em> became the first part of the Etudes de Moeurs au XIXe si\u00e8cle<\/em> (Study of Manners in the 19th<\/sup> Century), which was in turn the first part of La Com\u00e9die humaine<\/em>. \u00a0The Com\u00e9die humaine <\/em>evolved over Balzac\u2019s lifetime (1799-1850) to include 95 complete works and 48 unfinished works, shaping an imagined society in which characters reappear in different works, and placing a microscope to society \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9poque <\/em>(in that time). Think J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s Lord of the Ring cycle, mais en fran\u00e7ais, <\/em>not Elvish.<\/p>\n

Sarrasine <\/em>begins at a party, as a man observes \u201cd\u2019une fen\u00eatre\u201d <\/em>(from a window) the snow-blanketed city before him, while on the other side of the window \u201c\u2026fourmillaient, s\u2019agitaient et papillonaient les plus jolies femmes de Paris, les plus riches, les mieux titr\u00e9es, \u00e9clatantes, pompeuses, \u00e9blouissantes de diamants!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The English translation by Clara Bell gives that sentence as: \u201cThere the loveliest, the wealthiest women in Paris, bearers of the proudest titles, moved hither and thither, fluttered from room to room in swarms, stately and gorgeous, dazzling with diamonds!\u201d C\u2019est hallucinant<\/em> in any language, but I think you can tell that the translation is not word-for-word, and I beg you to faire l\u2019effort <\/em>with the French.<\/p>\n

Beyond les joies du langage<\/em>, Balzac\u2019s social observations en valent la peine <\/em>(are worth it) on their own merits. A party guest is \u201csombre comme un Espanol, ennuyeux comme un banquier<\/em>\u201d: dark like a Spaniard, boring like a banker. Balzac speaks of \u201cles sommes qui vous sont \u00e9gales<\/em>\u201d, the sums (of money) that you are equal to, or your personal wealth; what better way to evoke l\u2019importance de la richesse<\/em>? \u00a0Sarrasine<\/em> is an excellent introduction<\/em> to Balzac\u2019s critique sociale<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It is also une histoire fascinante<\/em>, sinistre, <\/em>surprisingly familiar in its emotions despite its subject matter. Je ne vous r\u00e9v\u00e9lerai rien<\/em>\u2014I won\u2019t give anything away, but la r\u00e9v\u00e9lation des s\u00e9crets <\/em>is un th\u00e8me r\u00e9current de la nouvelle<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Voici les liens<\/em>\u2014here are the links. Bonne lecture!<\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n

En<\/em> fran\u00e7ais: Sarrasine sur Google Books<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

In English: Sarrasine on Project Gutenberg<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

To buy from Amazon: Sarrasine (Garnier-Flammarion)<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

F\u00e9licitations, Bill Penn! Congratulations to our commentateur for guessing that l\u2019\u00e9crivain I hinted at last week was Honor\u00e9 de Balzac. Ce soir (this evening), we\u2019ll discuss une petite nouvelle (a novella) by Balzac, qui s\u2019appelle (which is called) Sarrasine. Links to the texte int\u00e9grale (full text ) in French and English can be found at…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8329,8330,8328,8327,8326],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-balzac","tag-comedie-humaine","tag-nouvelle","tag-novella","tag-sarrasine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28172,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/28172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}