In Gao Lao Tou, Balzac reveals the iron law of bourgeois society-money is supreme with cruel facts. This iron law rules all the characters in the apartment building, and Rasty Nie, a college student, can't avoid it.
Rasty Nie, the son of a poor little aristocrat from other provinces, came to Paris University from his hometown to study law. At first, he was "like an ordinary college student". "Usually he only wears an old coat, a thick vest and a crappy old black tie and buckles it". But the materialistic and money-oriented life soon attracted him like a magnet, and he began a "money dream". He asked how his dream came true. One of his distant cousins, Viscount Buseron, taught him the first lesson in life. "The more ruthless you are, the higher you will rise. You should hit people mercilessly and make people afraid of you. You can only treat men and women as post horses, ride exhausted, and leave them at the station, so that you can reach the peak of your desire. " It's really like an awakening. He understands the mystery of this society: for the rich, law and morality do not exist, only property is the golden rule.
Fortolin, a convict, taught Rasty a second lesson in life: "If you want to make a lot of money, you must do it boldly, otherwise everything will be fine." This is similar to the teaching of Viscount Busion: one denies morality and the other denies law-as long as you can get money and power.
The death of Lao Gaoman taught Rasty the third lesson in life. He thoroughly saw through the cruelty, malice and ruthlessness of the whole society. He warned himself from the painful life lesson: eat people instead of being eaten by others. With the burial of Lao Gaoman, he also "buried the last tear of his youth"; "His burning eyes stopped between the dome of the King's Square and the Valrit Palace. That's the upper-class area he yearns for. "He no longer has any courtesy and shame. He abandoned all honesty and naivety, and went to the money empire he yearned for, like a fly chasing the stench, and embarked on the road of bourgeois individual careerists.
In other human comedy novels, Rasty's character has been further developed: in the frivolous woman, he became the Deputy Secretary of State; In The Unknown Actor, he became a member of the House of Lords. In Congressman of Alsi, he abandoned Mrs. Nuchingen and married her daughter. In the "New Haven Bank" and the "petty bourgeoisie", he gambled on the exchange. He pursued the principle of money first to the extreme. (Li Chunlin)
Mo Luoya, a famous French biographer, called Honoré de Balzac Prometheus. Compared with Prometheus, a giant who molded human beings with clay, Balzac molded human beings with paper and pen. His masterpiece "Human Comedy" shows the life picture of the whole French society in the first half of the19th century through 9/kloc-0 novels and over 2,400 characters. It is a realistic work with unprecedented scale and rich content in the history of world literature.
Balzac
Balzac was born on May 20, 1999 in a city with developed industry and commerce. His father was born as a farmer and went to town in his early years. During the Great Revolution and the Empire, he was good at finding a job and eventually became a bourgeois. His mother comes from a wealthy bourgeois family and firmly believes that "property is everything today". Such a bourgeois family plays an important role in the formation of Balzac's world outlook. Balzac is in the rising period of the French bourgeoisie. When he was less than five years old, he went to school in suburban Saint-Cyr, and his family moved to Paris in 18 14. Balzac witnessed the end of the Napoleonic Empire, the Hundred Days Period and the establishment of the Restoration Dynasty in Paris.
From 18 16 to 18 19, Balzac studied law and worked as an intern in litigation agent and notary office according to family arrangements. Balzac saw a series of inside stories about the property struggle here. But Balzac was addicted to literature and got a bachelor's degree in literature. In the young Balzac's study, there is a small statue of Napoleon, and the scabbard of the statue is engraved with the words: "What he failed to do with his sword, I will do with a pen." He finally realized this oath through 20 years of hard work. Despite the opposition of his family, he began to devote himself to literary creation. However, the initial creation was not successful, and Balzac fell into financial difficulties. He turned to business to try his luck. From 1825 to 1827, he published the works of classical writers, set up a printing house, and cast movable type. As a result, he was heavily in debt, which dragged him on all his life. He personally experienced the cruel reality of capitalist free competition and returned to creation.
From 18 19 to 1829, Balzac experienced the restoration period, and the rise and fall of history and fierce class struggle had a great influence on his thought. He paid attention to the real society and read a lot of works on philosophy, economics, history and natural science. Politically, Balzac formed the idea of opposing the financial bourgeoisie from the standpoint of the middle and small bourgeoisie; In literature, he embarked on the road of realism. On this basis, Shuang Dang was published in 1829, which is the first work of human comedy.
1830, Balzac founded the Supplement to Political Newspaper, and published a collection of short stories, private life scenes (1830) and philosophical research (183 1). After gaining a literary reputation, he began to set foot in the aristocratic upper class. 183 1 At the end of the year, he joined the royalist party because he opposed the financial bourgeoisie that came to power after the July Revolution. After becoming famous, Balzac contracted the bad habit of living in Paris and pursued a luxurious life, which made him constantly in debt. Therefore, he must try to avoid being chased by creditors and often live in seclusion in remote places. Paris News was founded on 1836. 1838, he went to Sardinia to try to mine the abandoned silver mine. Paris Review was first published on 1840. At the same time, he insisted on writing.
Balzac is a talented novelist and a diligent novelist. He often works 18 hours a day, once wrote the famous novel "Father of Toure" 10 days, and wrote the immortal masterpiece "The Old Man" for 3 days and 3 nights ... Until 65,438+0842, Balzac has created more than 70 works, which is more than half of his long-term brewing and eventually named "Human Comedy". He wrote a preface for this human comedy, and divided the whole work into three parts: custom research, philosophy research and analytical research. In addition, Balzac also wrote several plays, such as Votolan (1840) and Stepmother (1848).
Balzac often works around the clock for more than ten hours, stimulating his tired body and mind with strong black coffee, making him break down from constant overwork. 1850, he married his rich widow, Mrs. Hansgar, for less than half a year, and finally fell ill. He died on August 18 of that year at the age of 5 1.
Eugenie Grandet is one of Balzac's representative works. The novel successfully created the image of the world-famous miser Grandet. He is a clever and self-made collaborator. Through him, the novel vividly exposes the greedy nature of the bourgeoisie and the evils of capitalist society. Balzac once called this novel "one of the best paintings".
Disillusionment is another masterpiece of Balzac, which tells the disillusionment of two young people living in Paris. Lv Xian, the hero, is a famous poet in other provinces. When he came to Paris full of ideals, he was influenced by the bad atmosphere of the press in Paris and gradually became a shameless newspaper thief, eventually losing his reputation. His brother-in-law David Xia Sai used to be a hard-working inventor. Persecuted by his peers, he had to give up his invention patent and his ideal of scientific research. These two young people in Balzac's works are of typical significance. Through them, the author vividly exposed the decay, darkness and distortion of human nature in Paris society. Balzac clearly declared in the preface that this novel is "the most important work so far" in the study of customs, and it "fully shows our times".