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In middle age, Balzac became even more debauched, and he circled among many women, gossiping.
Here he told his sister that he had an illegitimate child, and he wrote to Mrs. Hanska to express his loyalty: "For three years, my life has been as chaste as a virgin."
He had a brief relationship with Lady Hanska and at the same time tangled with the Countess of De Visconti.
The Countess of Visconti was an Englishman whose husband came from one of Italy's most prominent aristocratic families.
She was beautiful and open-minded, often taking Balzac home when he was being chased by his creditors and arranging for him to travel to Italy.
During the trip, Balzac also brought Madame Mabuti, dressed as a man, who was the wife of a high-ranking judicial official, but the Italians thought she was Giorgio San, and this private affair made headlines.
Balzac was busy hunting, but neglected his old lover, Madame Bernie, who was seriously ill and wanted to see him before she died, but was unable to do so.
In 1936, Mrs. Bernie died.
Between 1835 and 1841, Balzac completed 16 novellas, 10 novellas, and 8 short stories, the most notable of which was the novel Disillusionment, which exposed the inside story of the newspaper.
Outside of writing, he invested in silver mines, real estate, and other projects, all of which failed.
At the age of 42, his debt reached 200,000 francs.
He could only hope that Mrs. Hanska's husband would die early, while desperately writing to pay off the debt.
At this stage, there were only two types of people in his family, one was a fierce creditor, and the other was a distraught publisher.
To this end, he had to move frequently, and rented a house with a back door, so that he could slip away when someone came to the door to force a debt.
In 1842, he began to publish the Comedy of Man systematically.
In the same year, Mrs. Hanska's husband finally died.
Balzac immediately set out for Ukraine, demanding that Madame Hanska honor her promise to marry him.
Madame, on the other hand, offered to dissolve the marriage because she knew of his affair.
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The duck in hand looked like it was going to fly, and Balzac was naturally not satisfied.
In order to reconquistinate Madame Hanska, he did his best, constantly wrote letters to express his heartfelt feelings, flew to Ukraine three times, and accompanied him throughout Europe.
The kung fu paid off, and Madame re-accepted him.
But she was too busy dealing with her husband's inheritance and seeking a home for her daughter, and once again postponed the marriage.
Balzac spent four months in Ukraine and returned to France, where he published Aunt Becky and Uncle Bunce, which won unanimous acclaim.
These two books were later supplemented as the seventeenth volume of The Comedy of Man, and at this point, the structure of his novel universe was finally completed.
However, he was not satisfied, and while he was ill, he drew up a larger plan for "The Comedy of Man", preparing to add forty works in another eight years.
Unfortunately, years of overloaded mental work, a debauched private life, and an excess of coffee have left him with a deteriorating health.
In 1846, Madame Hanska's daughter was married.
He traveled thousands of miles to Ukraine again, and due to the long distance and harsh climate, his tracheitis recurred, and he also caused pneumonia and heart disease.
Out of sympathy, Madame Hanska married him in March 1850.
At the wedding, the 51-year-old groom was breathless, and the 50-year-old bride had a rheumatic attack and was struggling.
After the marriage, the two returned to France, and on the way, Balzac fell ill again, nearly blind, unable to read or write, and the letters could only be ghostwritten by his wife, and he muttered to himself in a coma: "If Biloan (Who is a character in the Comedy of Man) were here, he would surely save me." ”
Balzac died on 18 August 1850 at the age of 51.
His body was buried in the Pervez Cemetery, where his good friend Hugo gave a speech at the funeral: "Among the greatest men, Balzac is at the top, and among the best, Balzac is one of the best." His life was short, yet fulfilling, with more works than years. ”
Hugo also prophesied: "The name Balzac will remain in our time and will be passed on to future generations..."
Not long after Balzac's death, Hugo's prophecy became a reality.
Balzac's works have been translated, republished, adapted into film and television dramas, and circulated all over the world.
The poet Mu Xin called him "the uncle of literature" and commented with respect: "French novelists want to talk about greatness, and Balzac is the first." ”
Proust said: "Balzac expressed the same subject twenty times in a variety of different ways, and demanded a certain sense of depth, subtlety, power, novelty, intensity, like Monet's painting of fifty Lu pleiades and forty water lilies. ”
Zweig also wrote a biography of him: "Balzac's work is immeasurable. In his eighty-volume Comedy of Men, there is an era, a world, a generation. ”
Marx wrote in a footnote to the first volume of Capital: "Balzac has done a thorough study of all kinds of greed. ”
Engels said that he was the writer who understood the relationship between reality the most profoundly: "Balzac, I think he is a master of realism who is much greater than all the writers of the past, the present and the future... I learned more from here, even in the economic details ( such as the redistribution of movable and immovable property after the revolution ) than I learned from all the professional historians, economists and statisticians of the time. ”
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Many people say that Balzac's life was a tragedy.
He built a fiction universe, but the real world did not reciprocate anything from him; he pursued women, who either rejected him or made him wait for 18 years; he married Bai Fumei as he wished, and before he could enjoy life, he came to the end of his life; he built a mansion, and the mansion was confiscated by mortgage; he ran a newspaper, and the newspaper collapsed; he opened a printing house, a lead factory, developed silver mines, invested in real estate, and finally became heavily indebted; he wanted to enter the national parliament and make a difference in politics, but people did not choose him He wanted to join the upper class, but the high society refused to accept him; he wanted to enter the French Academy of Sciences through his works, but the Academy of Sciences rejected him.
His whole life has been struggling in vain in the mud of class leaps, hitting the wall in the dead cycle of "I want to make a lot of money" - "I owe a bunch of debts" - "trying to pay off debts".
In the eyes of the literary circle, this turtle owes a bunch of debts and pretends to be a big guy, looks ugly and chases after white and rich beauty, and brags all day that he is an aristocrat, which is really insulting to Sven.
In the eyes of high society, this dead fat man has a mind to go to the pile of nobles, and wearing a dragon robe does not look like a prince, which is really a bit funny.
What is even more depressing is that after each of his businesses is taken over by others, others immediately become rich.
But from another dimension, as a businessman who loses money, as a writer to get the best return, he turned the lessons of business failure into writing inspiration, portrayed human nature, desire, vanity vividly, leaving a masterpiece that has been passed down for hundreds of years, and his life is not a tragedy.
On the contrary, it is the woman next to him who is the tragedy of the whole thing.
He complained that his mother was indifferent to him, but he did not understand her anxiety about her situation.
The misfortune of marriage makes this woman who relies on men to live with all her attention on the pursuit of money and ignores her son.
When her son grew up, she saved money and tried all her life to get her son back on the normal track, but she never got her wish.
Her son opened a printing house, she took out all her savings to support him, her son owed a huge debt of one hundred thousand francs, she did what she could to remedy, her son fell ill and died, she has been guarding and caring.
Isn't this love and what is it?
Balzac, on the other hand, lost his debts to his mother and went abroad in a luxury carriage to be happy.
When his mother asked him for help without money, he coldly refused.
Isn't that selfish and what is it?
For Madame Hanska, on the surface, he had waited for her for eighteen years, and this emotion was earth-shattering, but in fact, he only loved her money and status, otherwise, he would not have sworn to her while all kinds of sleeping powder and stirring up trouble.
In his last days, Madame Hanska accompanied him and took care of him, and she herself suffered from gout, and in a letter to a friend she mentioned that her illness had become more serious because of the long-term care of Balzac.
After his death, she remained in Paris, where she sorted out manuscripts for him, paid off his great debts, published his complete works, and for more than thirty years continued to live in the house he had prepared for her, until his death.
In this relationship, it is clear that Mrs. Hanska is giving more.
Madame Bernie was even more miserable, she did not ask for anything in return for Balzac, selflessly paid, when she invested in industry, lent him money, unblocked relations for him, and applied for a license. When the business fails, persuade him to write with peace of mind, help him review manuscripts, and proofread.
He called her "eternal lover", saying that "she made me a writer, gave me comfort as a young man, taught me noble tastes." ”
However, when she was old and sick, he hid her from other women.
At the last meeting, Mrs. Bernie told him that she had heart failure and that time was running out.
Before she died, she came to Balzac's house in the hope of saying a final goodbye to him, only to find that he had gone abroad to meet Madame Huska, and that by the time he had returned to Paris after three weeks in the gentle countryside, Madame Bernie had died of despair and sadness.
The critic Brandeis once described him in The Literary Mainstream of the Nineteenth Century: "With the fierce posture of a male wild boar, he wandered through the vast expanse of marriage, both attractive and hateful, stretching out his nose to sniff everything." ”
Zweig, who wrote a biography of him, after listing his various deeds of covetous vanity and pedaling N ships, could not help but sigh: "He is really too hypocritical." ”
His love history tells women that in the eyes of self-motivated men, love, beauty, far less social status, aristocratic blood, property, titles are as fascinating.
As Rousseau said in the Confessions: "The seamstresses, the handmaidens, and the little peddlers do not make me very impressed." What I need is Miss Noble. ”
Therefore, men's emotions can be converted into money, and talent is only a façade.
Their self-motivation, saying that the good point is called inspirational, and saying that the ugly point is called desire is greater than ability.
They seem to be full of passion and ambition, but in fact they are fragile and lack willpower, and they will only keep the luxury enjoyment to themselves, and leave the huge debts and troubles to the women around them.
They may be the clever pig killer and top phoenix man, such as Yu Xiaodong in the Thai pregnant woman falling off a cliff, such as Xu Guoli in the Hangzhou wife murder case.
So, women who only ask men to be self-motivated, are you sure you have the ability to pay for men's self-motivation?
If you have to be self-motivated, why can't you be self-motivated yourself, and you have to hope for a man's self-motivation?