Béatrix
Encyclopedia
Béatrix is an 1839 novel by French
author Honoré de Balzac
(1799-1850) and included in the Scènes de la vie privée section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine
.
It first appeared in the periodical Le Siècle
in August 1839, and appeared in volume form the same year. Balzac based the characters in this novel on real figures: Félicité des Touches, a celebrated musician and writer, is based on George Sand
. Béatrix de Rochefide is based on Marie d'Agoult
(who wrote under the pen name of Daniel Stern); Gennaro Conti is based on Franz Liszt
; Claude Vignon is based on Gustave Planche.
Béatrix de Rochefide. Béatrix is a beautiful but selfish woman; one critic remarked in 1897 in regards to Béatrix that “for cold-blooded cruelty and vulgarity she is unexampled, and her efforts to keep her youth and her hold over men are drawn in Balzac’s heaviest and most pitiless manner.”
Béatrix had already had an affair with Gennaro Conti, and Calyste has an additional rival in the form of Claude Vignon. Félicité des Touches (Camille Maupin) tries to help Calyste win Béatrix’s heart, thus sacrificing her own. Calyste’s efforts are ultimately a failure, and Béatrix is taken away by Gennaro Conti.
Calyste is devastated by his failure, but promises his dying father to get married. Félicité des Touches enters a convent, but before she does, she uses her fortune to arrange a marriage for Calyste with a woman named Sabine de Grandlieu. When Calyste encounters Béatrix again in Paris, his wife Sabine struggles to win back her husband’s affections after Calyste falls for Béatrix again. Subsequently, through the intercession of Count Maxime de Trailles, Béatrix falls for another young man, and Calyste comes to his senses.
Balzac describes Béatrix as follows:
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
author Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
(1799-1850) and included in the Scènes de la vie privée section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine
La Comédie humaine
La Comédie humaine is the title of Honoré de Balzac's multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and stories depicting French society in the period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy .-Overview:...
.
It first appeared in the periodical Le Siècle
Le Siècle
Le Siècle was a newspaper that was published from 1836 to 1932 in France.In 1836, Le Siècle was founded as a paper that supported constitutional monarchism. However, when the July Monarchy came to an end in 1848, the paper soon changed its editorial stance to one of republicanism. Le Siècle...
in August 1839, and appeared in volume form the same year. Balzac based the characters in this novel on real figures: Félicité des Touches, a celebrated musician and writer, is based on George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
. Béatrix de Rochefide is based on Marie d'Agoult
Marie d'Agoult
Marie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny, Vicomtesse de Flavigny , was a French author, known also by her married name and title, Marie, Comtesse d'Agoult, and by her pen name, Daniel Stern....
(who wrote under the pen name of Daniel Stern); Gennaro Conti is based on Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
; Claude Vignon is based on Gustave Planche.
Plot
A handsome young man named Calyste du Guénic is in love with the older woman, Félicité des Touches, a famous writer who uses the pen name of Camille Maupin. Félicité at first does not reciprocate Calyste’s feelings, and Calyste falls in love with the blonde marchionessMarchioness
Marchioness could refer to:*A noblewoman with the rank of Marquess, or the wife of a Marquess.*The Marchioness, a pleasure boat that was sunk on the River Thames in 1989....
Béatrix de Rochefide. Béatrix is a beautiful but selfish woman; one critic remarked in 1897 in regards to Béatrix that “for cold-blooded cruelty and vulgarity she is unexampled, and her efforts to keep her youth and her hold over men are drawn in Balzac’s heaviest and most pitiless manner.”
Béatrix had already had an affair with Gennaro Conti, and Calyste has an additional rival in the form of Claude Vignon. Félicité des Touches (Camille Maupin) tries to help Calyste win Béatrix’s heart, thus sacrificing her own. Calyste’s efforts are ultimately a failure, and Béatrix is taken away by Gennaro Conti.
Calyste is devastated by his failure, but promises his dying father to get married. Félicité des Touches enters a convent, but before she does, she uses her fortune to arrange a marriage for Calyste with a woman named Sabine de Grandlieu. When Calyste encounters Béatrix again in Paris, his wife Sabine struggles to win back her husband’s affections after Calyste falls for Béatrix again. Subsequently, through the intercession of Count Maxime de Trailles, Béatrix falls for another young man, and Calyste comes to his senses.
Balzac describes Béatrix as follows: