Anka Muhlstein - Balzacs Omelette: A Delicious Tour of French Food and Culture with Honorede Balzac

1799 Birth of Balzac in Tours on May 20. Napoleon, following a coup dtat, becomes first consul at the head of a new French government, putting an end to the Directory regime (17951799), which had been established under the constitution enacted by the Revolutionary Convention (17921795). The Consulate lasted from 1799 to 1804.

1804 Napoleon crowns himself emperor at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on December 2. The period of the First Empire lasts until June 1815, with an interruption from April 1814 to March 1815.

1812 Napoleon invades Russia. The campaign will end after six months. The French suffer devastating losses.

1814 Paris falls in March to the anti-French coalition of Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden, and England.

Napoleon abdicates in April; the Bourbon king, Louis XVIII, is restored, and Napoleon is exiled to Elba, an island between Corsica and northwestern Italy.

Balzac comes to live in Paris with his parents, two sisters, and younger brother.

1815 Napoleon escapes from Elba on March 1 and lands in France. The army rallies to him. Louis XVIII flees to Ghent on March 20. Napoleon regains control of the government but faces the same enemy coalition. On June 18 he is defeated at Waterloo and the Hundred Days of his return to power ends. With Napoleon exiled to St. Helena, Louis XVIII is restored for the second time.

181519 Balzac studies law and works in an attorneys office.

182225 Balzac writes mediocre novels under various pseudonyms. He starts a publishing company, then enters the printing business with borrowed funds. Financial success eludes him.

1822 Victor Hugo publishes his first volume of verse.

1824 Death of Louis XVIII. He is succeeded by his brother, Charles X.

1829 Balzac publishes Les Chouans under his own name. For the next twenty years he will publish each year novels, short stories, and articles.

1830 Charles X is overthrown by the July Revolution. His cousin, Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans, is crowned king of the French.

Stendhal publishes The Red and the Black.

1832 Balzac meets the love of his life, the Polish countess Madame Hanska.

Death of Sir Walter Scott, considered by Balzac to be his only rival.

1835 Publication of Father Goriot, the first book in which Balzac uses characters who have appeared in his previous works. This practice will continue throughout what will become The Human Comedy.

1841 Death of Count Hanski. Balzac and Madame Hanska are free to travel together. They visit Russia, Germany, Italy, and spend some time together in Paris, but will be separated for long periods of time.

1847 Balzac spends several months with Madame Hanska in Poland. In preparation for their marriage, he buys a house in Paris.

1848 A revolution in February forces Louis-Philippe to flee to England. The Second Republic is established. In December, Louis-Napoleon, the nephew of Napoleon I, is elected president.

1849 The French Academy rejects Balzacs candidacy. He travels to Poland.

1850 Balzac marries Madame Hanska on March 14 and returns with her to Paris in May.

He dies on August 18. Victor Hugo pronounces a superb graveside eulogy at the Pre-Lachaise cemetery.

INTRODUCTION

D epending on how a Balzac text is interpreted, various unifying threads can be detected, threads chosen by the author as he carried out his studies of behavior. The most tenuous is a glove, the most common and robust money, and the most unexpected food.

Tell me where you eat, what you eat, and what time of day you eat, and I will tell you who you are. This utterly original preoccupation has no precedent among previous novelists. Do we picture the Princess of Cleves dunking a finger of bread into her boiled egg? It never occurs to Laclos to describe Madame de Merteuils supper menu. A novelist as attentive to detail as Jane Austen takes more interest in the pattern on a plate than the food on it. On the other hand, you only need a whiff of the appalling, watery bean soup made by Madame Marneffes maid in Cousin Betty to gauge how negligent she is in her role as mistress of the house, while the aroma from the hearty limpid stock that Jacquotte serves her master in The Country Doctor implies a perfectly run household. White stock is a sign of thriftiness, but only a miser of Monsieur Grandets scope would give orders to make stock from a crow.

Balzac goes way beyond interiors. His era saw the advent of restaurants, and he plunged eagerly into this inexhaustible source of new material. Balzacs characters are defined as much by the caf they choose, and their regular eatery or restaurant, as by their voice, their behavior, and their clothes.