Tell me more about 19th century French lit (especially Balzac and Zola)

November 5, 2019 7:46 PM

I'm currently in a Zola and Balzac phase and would love to hear recommendations about books, podcasts, videos, academic articles (I am grad student with access to jstore) about these authors and their novels (and other 19th century authors). Also if there are any books that link the art world with the literary world, share those too. My reading knowledge of French is low intermediate so English resources are preferred.
posted by bigyellowtaxi to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

Zola's essay "The Experimental Novel" is an important read, explaining the basis of Naturalism. I'd also suggest reading the three stories from Les Soirées de Médan that have been translated into English, because they include a good example of Zola's work and also connect him to his writing circle and their experience of the Franco-Prussian War:

• Joris-Karl Huysmans, 1880, "Sac-au-dos," a.k.a. "Backpack" (a satirical yet realistic perspective on soldiering--far from the battlefield)
• Guy de Maupassant, 1880, "Boule de suif," a.k.a. "Ball of Tallow" (Wikipedia; the story from Les Soirées de Médan that launched Maupassant's career uses the Prussian occupation as a backdrop to generate sympathy for a sex worker and offer a critique of 'polite' French society; Maupassant wrote well over a dozen other stories set during the war, so this was a big deal for him--incidentally, the semiotician A.J. Greimas dissected one of those very short Franco-Prussian War stories in a book-length study)
• Émile Zola, 1880, "The Attack on the Mill" ("Naturalism" still turns out fairly melodramatic in this story that revolves around a plot point about non-combatant loved ones that he would later use in his novel, La Débâcle, which incidentally has a comic book version if you decide to skip it)

For Balzac, I suggest reading "Sarrasine," the novella included as an appendix of the much-more-famous book-length dissection S/Z by Roland Barthes. TBH I haven't read much more by him (just Père Goriot), but you may find this Suggested Reading Order of the Human Comedy useful.
posted by Wobbuffet at 8:16 PM on November 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

'Bohemian Paris: Culture, Politics, and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life 1830-1930' by Jerrold Seigel is a swell non-fiction book about the history of 19th century French writers hanging out with artists and musicians and being all decadent and drinking absinthe, within a context of various shifts in French society & politics of the times.
posted by ovvl at 8:23 PM on November 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

Not sure where it fits in the current academic scheme of things, but I found Graham Robb's 1994 biography of Balzac enlightening and enjoyable.

Weird movies based on Balzac fiction:
La belle noiseuse (modern setting)
La duchesse de Langeais
posted by lagomorph at 7:09 AM on November 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Eugene Atget’s photos cover the end of the era (and are great).
posted by clew at 9:21 AM on November 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you everyone for your wonderful suggestions! Off to read and learn!
posted by bigyellowtaxi at 6:53 PM on November 13, 2019