WITH PAPER-KNIFE AND PEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1265, 28 May 1896, Page 12

WITH PAPER-KNIFE AND PEN.

The Works of Honour de Balzac. Edited by George Saintsbury. Macmillan's Colonial Library. (London : Macmillan and Co. Wellington : 3. and W. Maokay.)

In a general essay in appreciation of Balzac’s famous Comrdie Humaine, “ published under the heading of “ Paper-Knife and Pen,” some two months ago we dealt with the chief characteristics of Balzac’s genius, and specified certain of his novels which we considered to fairly rank amongst his host works. Amongst these were two novels, “The Wild. Ass’s Skin ” (La Peau do Chagrin), and “ Old Goriot ’’ (Lo Pore Goriot), which now lie on our table, together with “Eugenie Grandet,” one of the “Scenes of Provincial Life;” “The Chouaus,” a story of military adventure, and a collection of minor, short stories under the title of “At the Sign of the Cat and Racket” (La Maison du Chat qui Pelote).

Of the forty or more separate volumes of which the famous “Human Comedy ” is composed in the latest French edition, “ Old Goriot,” has long been accounted, both by French and English critics, as one ef Balzac’s greatest achievements in analysis of the human emotions. The plot of the story, if plot it can properly be called, is simple enough. Old Goriot, a retired tradesman who has amassed a snug fortune by long years of industry and economy, is living in a Parisian boarding house of the third or fourth class, the home of minor Government employes, provincial adventurers seeking fame and fortune in Paris and not over-burdened with cash, and one or two dingy females of a past which is more than dubious. Gradually it becomes apparent that the old man is growing more penurious and slowly but surely ho marches steadily down the path which leads, alas for him, to abject poverty and a pauper’s grave. Tho reason for this, and on this hinges tho whole story, is tho selfish, the unnatural, nay, the absolutely muiderous conduct of daughters, both married to men in good positions. Both being vain, spendthrift and immoral, do not hesitate to bleed their father

of Ins savings, tho demands being more and more greedy and heartless, until the final tragedy is reached and the French Lear finds rest in the grave. To an English point of view, there is something peculiarly nauseous and unsavoury in the spectacle of tho father encouraging and pandering to tho illicit loves of his daughters, foroach woman has a lover tho French “ lover ” and each vies with the other in squandering the wretched parent’s money in extravagant, evil living. Nevertheless, ugly as is the picture, it is impossible, so great is Balzac's genius, so consummate his art, to feel no regret and pity for the wretched father, who, to provide for tho extravagances of his daughters, dooms himself to a life of squalid penury and denudes himself of everything he possesses in their behalf. The Pension Vanquer, tho boardinghouse where ho lives, where ho has daily to encounter tho jibes and sneers, all tho hundred and one petty cruelties which his low-bred fellow lodgers inflict upon his sensitive and tortured spirit, will always remain one of Balzac’s greatest creations. Professor Saintsbury compares it to a Dutch painting, so marvellous is the minuteness of detail. A notable character in tho hook is Rastignac, a young provincial who has come up to Paris, as do so many of his fellows, to conquer tho great city and force it to furnish him with gaiety, wealth and luxury. In his ambition to bo taken up and aided in his battle with society, through the good services of some great lady, Rastignac has furnished a type, a model, from which dozens of French novelists since Balzac’s day have copied with more industry than art. His is an ugly character,

the only relieving feature being the man’s kindness to the poor self-deluded Goriot, The daughters ate mercilessly drawn, but the jargon of fashionable society, although pei haps faithfully done by the novelist, is apt to boro the English reader. Yautrih, an ex-forcat, or convict, is also a prominent 1 character, lie is somewhat melodramatic, and smacks more of Eugene Sue’s thoroughpaced and weirdly “stagey ” villains than we should expect from Balzac. The translation of "Le Pero Goriot ” into English—the “Englishing ” of it, as the new literary euphemism goes—has been done by Miss Ellen Marriage. To English readers of Balzac “ La Beau do Chagrin ” —“ The Wild Ass's Skin” it is called in this edition—is fairly familiar, for several previous translations have appeared. In this story Balzac employs the mystical and supernatural with weird and striking effect. A young man upon whom fortune had refused to smile is given a curious old skin, the possession of which j confers upon the owner the power of at , onco gratifying any desire—it is the magic lamp of Aladdin over again. But as each desire is gratified, the skin gradually shrinks, and with it the physical power and length of life of the owner undergoes a corresponding diminution. In the story before us the owner gratifies desire after desire, heaps up wealth and indulges in every kind of luxury, the magic skin shrinking all the time, until it disap- ! pears altogether, and the man dies. The moral of the story is, as Professor Saintsburv puts it in an admirable preface the “ The Law of Nemesis—the law that every extraordinary expansion or satisfaction of heart or brain or will is paid for—paid for inevitably, incommut- I ably, without tire possibility of putting off or transferring the payment,” or in other words, “put religiously,” “ Know that for all these tilings God will bring thee into judgment.” Much of the detail in this story of tho desires and their accomplishment of tho hero, Eaphael, will be highly repugnant to many English readers, notably the description of an orgio in which Haphaol’s journalist friends take part, hut on the other hand tho book contains passages of great beauty and unexceptionable morality, and the lesson of the story is undeniably good. Tho “ Beau do Chagrin” in its present form should attract many readers, and tho value of this particular volume of the series is enhanced by the fact that it contains a lengthy and most interesting essay by Professor Saintsbury on the “ Comedie Uuinaine ” as a whole, and a brief hut informative and very readable account of die main incidents in Balzac’s career.

“At the Sign of the Cat and .Racket ” is a collection of some of Balzac’s short stories, which may be perused by English readers without any fear of their moral susceptibilities being in the least shocked. The title story deals with the marriage of a Parisian tradesman’s daughter with an artist, and is a clever study of bourgeois life and character. The “ Vendetta ”is a very powerful little story,dealing with the famous Corsican institution of family feuds; and other stories, notably Madame Eirmiani, though slight, not to say a little then in interest, are well written, and, like all Balzac’s work, abound in brilliant touches.

“ Eugenio Gran dot,” one of the “ studies of provincial life,” which form a separate section of the 1 Human Comedy, is one of the best known of Balzac’s works, especially to English readers. The story of Eugenie’s pure love, sacrificed to the abominable greed of an avaricious father, is one of the most pathetic tilings Balzac ever wrote. The father, Grandet, is terrible in his subservience to liis love of gold. Professor Saintsbury says: “In him (Grandet) Balzac, a Frenchman of Frenchmen, lias boldly depicted perhaps the worst and commonest vice of the French character—the vice which is the most common, and certainly worse than either the frivolity 01 the license with which the nation is usually charged—the pushing, to wit, of thrift to the loathcsomo excess of an inhuman avarice.” Several English critics, notably Mr Leslie Stephen, have considered Eugenie Grandet to be one of the best of Balzac's stories, but, although the pathos of the heroine’s trials will strongly appeal to the sentimentalist, the .almost diabolical greed of the father is, to oar minds, 30 repellant as to seriously dott.ict from the pleasure of the story as a whole.

In “The Chouans,” a story of the Yendeeaus, Balzac, it has been assorted, was copying Scott. He was ttying the novel of adventure, and certainly there are many of the elements of first-class romance in the book, especially in the military scenes; but the long coiiversalions so liberally introduced spoil the rapid cont inuity which should always bo a feature of this class of fiction, and it is only by a judicious employment of flic “art of skipping” that we can get through a book which possesses many great merits, notably in the descriptions of its female characters. The heroine, Mdlle. do Verneuil, especially, is a piquant, charming woman. “The Chouans" was one of the author’s earliest works, and we must confess that in the French novel of adventure wo much prefer Dumas to Balzac. Summing up the various volumes to which we have briefly referred above, wo may recommend those who wish to render themselves conversant with some of Balzac’s strongest and best work to read “ Father Guriot” and “The Wild Ass’s Skin.” To those who bow ihe knee before that ancient British goddess, Daniel Gundy, “ Eugenie Grandet” may ho recommended. “The Chouans” should lie read by those who wish to compare Balzac with Scott or Dumas, and “At the Sign of tho Cat and Racket ” should satisfy those who are simply pleased with short, well-written, though not unduly exciting, scraps of fiction. C. Wilson,