Béatrix: Difference between revisions

Béatrix
	Title page of Béatrix. Philadelphia: George Barrie & Son, 1897. The scene depicts Béatrix de Rochefide and Calyste du Guénic.
Author	Honoré de Balzac
Country	France
Language	French
Series	La Comédie humaine
Publication date	1839
Preceded by	Honorine (novel)
Followed by	Gobseck

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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.^[1]

Plot[edit]

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 marchioness Béatrix de Rochefide.^[2] 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.”^[1]

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.^[2] Calyste's efforts are ultimately a failure, and Béatrix is taken away by Gennaro Conti.^[2]

Calyste is devastated by his failure, but promises his dying father to get married.^[2] 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.^[2] 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.^[2]

Balzac describes Béatrix as follows:

She is slender and straight and white as a church taper; her face is long and pointed; the skin is capricious, to-day like cambric, to-morrow darkened with little speckles beneath its surface, as if her blood had left a deposit of dust there during the night. Her forehead is magnificent, though rather daring. The pupils of her eyes are pale sea-green, floating on their white balls under thin lashes and lazy eyelids. Her eyes have dark rings around them often; her nose, which describes one-quarter of a circle, is pinched about the nostrils; very shrewd and clever, but supercilious. She has an Austrian mouth; the upper lip has more character than the lower, which drops disdainfully. Her pale cheeks have no color unless some very keen emotion moves her. Her chin is rather fat; mine is not thin, and perhaps I do wrong to tell you that women with fat chins are exacting in love. She has one of the most exquisite waists I ever saw; the shoulders are beautiful, but the bust has not developed as well, and the arms are thin. She has, however, an easy carriage and manner, which redeems all such defects and sets her beauties in full relief.
— Honoré de Balzac, Béatrix^[3]

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b Samuel R. Crocker, Edward Abbott, Nicholas Paine Gilman, Madeline Vaughan Abbott Bushnell ("Mrs. C. E. Bushnell, "), Bliss Carman, Herbert Copeland, The literary world (S.R. Crocker, 1897), 177.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Carol de Dobay Rifelj, Coiffures: hair in nineteenth-century French literature and culture (University of Delaware Press, 2010), 143-4.
^ de Balzac, Honoré. Beatrix . Translated by Katherine Prescott Wormeley – via Wikisource.

[crocker-1] Samuel R. Crocker, Edward Abbott, Nicholas Paine Gilman, Madeline Vaughan Abbott Bushnell ("Mrs. C. E. Bushnell, "), Bliss Carman, Herbert Copeland, The literary world (S.R. Crocker, 1897), 177.

[Rifelj-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Carol de Dobay Rifelj, Coiffures: hair in nineteenth-century French literature and culture (University of Delaware Press, 2010), 143-4.

[balzac-3] Balzac, Honoré. Beatrix . Translated by Katherine Prescott Wormeley – via Wikisource.

[1]

[2]

[3]

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+{{Infobox book
-[[File: BalzacBeatrix01.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Title page of ''Béatrix''. Philadelphia: George Barrie & Son, 1897. The scene depicts Béatrix de Rochefide and Calyste du Guénic.]]
+| name          = Béatrix
-'''''Béatrix''''' is an 1839 novel by [[French people|French]] author [[Honoré de Balzac]] (1799-1850) and included in the ''Scènes de la vie privée'' section of his novel sequence ''[[La Comédie humaine]]''.
+| title_orig    =
+| translator    =
+| image         = BalzacBeatrix01.jpg
+| caption       = Title page of ''Béatrix''. Philadelphia: George Barrie & Son, 1897. The scene depicts Béatrix de Rochefide and Calyste du Guénic.
+| author        = [[Honoré de Balzac]]
+| illustrator   =
+| cover_artist  =
+| country       = France
+| language      = French
+| series        = ''[[La Comédie humaine]]''
+| subject       =
+| genre         =
+| publisher     =
+| pub_date      = 1839
+| english_pub_date =
+| media_type    =
+| pages         =
+| preceded_by   = [[Honorine (novel)]]
+| followed_by   = [[Gobseck]]
+}}
+'''''Béatrix''''' is an 1839 novel by [[French people|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]].<ref name=crocker>Samuel R. Crocker, Edward Abbott, Nicholas Paine Gilman, Madeline Vaughan Abbott Bushnell ("Mrs. C. E. Bushnell, "), Bliss Carman, Herbert Copeland, ''The literary world'' (S.R. Crocker, 1897), 177.</ref>
-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]].<ref name=crocker>Samuel R. Crocker, Edward Abbott, Nicholas Paine Gilman, Madeline Vaughan Abbott Bushnell ("Mrs. C. E. Bushnell, "), Bliss Carman, Herbert Copeland, ''The literary world'' (S.R. Crocker, 1897), 177.</ref>
 ==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 [[marchioness]] Béatrix de Rochefide.<ref name=Rifelj>Carol de Dobay Rifelj, ''Coiffures: hair in nineteenth-century French literature and culture'' (University of Delaware Press, 2010), 143-4.</ref>  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.”<ref name=crocker/>
+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 [[marchioness]] Béatrix de Rochefide.<ref name=Rifelj>Carol de Dobay Rifelj, ''Coiffures: hair in nineteenth-century French literature and culture'' (University of Delaware Press, 2010), 143-4.</ref>  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.”<ref name=crocker/>
+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.<ref name=Rifelj/>  Calyste's efforts are ultimately a failure, and Béatrix is taken away by Gennaro Conti.<ref name=Rifelj/>
+Calyste is devastated by his failure, but promises his dying father to get married.<ref name=Rifelj/>  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.<ref name=Rifelj/>   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.<ref name=Rifelj/>
-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.<ref name=Rifelj/>  Calyste’s efforts are ultimately a failure, and Béatrix is taken away by Gennaro Conti.<ref name=Rifelj/>
-Calyste is devastated by his failure, but promises his dying father to get married.<ref name=Rifelj/>  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.<ref name=Rifelj/>   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.<ref name=Rifelj/>
+[[Image:Balzac Beatrix Proof.jpg|thumb|left|First page of the first proofs of ''[[Béatrix (Balzac)|Béatrix]]'']]
 Balzac describes Béatrix as follows:
-{{Quotation| She is slender and straight and white as a church taper; her face is long and pointed; the skin is capricious, to-day like [[cambric]], to-morrow darkened with little speckles beneath its surface, as if her blood had left a deposit of dust there during the night. Her forehead is magnificent, though rather daring. The pupils of her eyes are pale sea-green, floating on their white balls under thin lashes and lazy eyelids. Her eyes have dark rings around them often; her nose, which describes one-quarter of a circle, is pinched about the nostrils; very shrewd and clever, but supercilious. She has an [[Austrian people|Austrian]] mouth; the upper lip has more character than the lower, which drops disdainfully. Her pale cheeks have no color unless some very keen emotion moves her. Her chin is rather fat; mine is not thin, and perhaps I do wrong to tell you that women with fat chins are exacting in love. She has one of the most exquisite waists I ever saw; the shoulders are beautiful, but the bust has not developed as well, and the arms are thin. She has, however, an easy carriage and manner, which redeems all such defects and sets her beauties in full relief.|Honoré de Balzac|Béatrix|<ref name=balzac>{{cite wikisource|title=Beatrix|first=Honoré|last=de Balzac|other=Trans. [[Katherine Prescott Wormeley]]}}</ref>}}
+{{Blockquote|text=She is slender and straight and white as a church taper; her face is long and pointed; the skin is capricious, to-day like [[cambric]], to-morrow darkened with little speckles beneath its surface, as if her blood had left a deposit of dust there during the night. Her forehead is magnificent, though rather daring. The pupils of her eyes are pale sea-green, floating on their white balls under thin lashes and lazy eyelids. Her eyes have dark rings around them often; her nose, which describes one-quarter of a circle, is pinched about the nostrils; very shrewd and clever, but supercilious. She has an Austrian mouth; the upper lip has more character than the lower, which drops disdainfully. Her pale cheeks have no color unless some very keen emotion moves her. Her chin is rather fat; mine is not thin, and perhaps I do wrong to tell you that women with fat chins are exacting in love. She has one of the most exquisite waists I ever saw; the shoulders are beautiful, but the bust has not developed as well, and the arms are thin. She has, however, an easy carriage and manner, which redeems all such defects and sets her beauties in full relief.|author=Honoré de Balzac|source=Béatrix<ref name=balzac>{{cite wikisource |title=Beatrix |first=Honoré |last=de Balzac |translator=[[Katherine Prescott Wormeley]]}}</ref>}}
-[[Image:Balzac Beatrix Proof.jpg|thumb|left|First page of the first proofs of ''[[Béatrix (Balzac)|Béatrix]]'']]
-{{wikisource|Beatrix}}
 ==References==
+{{wikisource|Beatrix|''Beatrix''}}
-<references />
-{{BalzacFooter}}
+{{reflist}}
+{{Honoré de Balzac}}
+{{Authority control}}
+{{DEFAULTSORT:Beatrix}}
 [[Category:Books of La Comédie humaine]]
 [[Category:Novels set in 19th-century France]]
-[[Category:1839 novels]]
+[[Category:1839 French novels]]
+[[Category:Novels about writers]]
+[[Category:Novels by Honoré de Balzac]]

v t e La Comédie humaine by Honoré de Balzac
List of titles
Scènes de la vie privée	La Maison du chat-qui-pelote Le Bal de Sceaux La Bourse La Vendetta Madame Firmiani Une double famille La Paix du ménage La Fausse Maîtresse Étude de femme Autre étude de femme La Grande Bretèche Albert Savarus Mémoires de deux jeunes mariées Une fille d'Eve La Femme de trente ans La Femme abandonnée La Grenadière Le Message Gobseck Le Contrat de mariage Un début dans la vie Modeste Mignon Béatrix Honorine Le Colonel Chabert La Messe de l'athée L'Interdiction Pierre Grassou
Scènes de la vie de province	Ursule Mirouët Eugénie Grandet Pierrette Le Curé de Tours La Rabouilleuse L'illustre Gaudissart La Muse du département La Vieille Fille Le Cabinet des Antiques Le Lys dans la vallée Illusions perdues
Scènes de la vie Parisienne	Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes Un prince de la bohème Un homme d’affaires Gaudissart II Les Comédiens sans le savoir Ferragus La Duchesse de Langeais La Fille aux yeux d'or Le Père Goriot César Birotteau La Maison Nucingen Les Secrets de la princesse de Cadignan Les Employés Sarrasine Facino Cane La Cousine Bette Le Cousin Pons Les Petits Bourgeois
Scènes de la vie politique	Une ténébreuse affaire Un épisode sous la Terreur Madame de la Chanterie L'Initié Z. Marcas Le Député d'Arcis
Scènes de la vie militaire	Les Chouans Une passion dans le désert
Scènes de la vie de campagne	Le Médecin de campagne Le Curé de village Les Paysans
Études philosophiques	La Peau de chagrin La Recherche de l'absolu Jésus-Christ en Flandre Melmoth réconcilié Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu L'Enfant maudit Gambara Massimilla Doni Les Marana Adieu Le Réquisitionnaire El Verdugo Un drame au bord de la mer L'Auberge rouge L'Elixir de longue vie Maître Cornélius Sur Catherine de Médicis Louis Lambert Les Proscrits Séraphîta
Études analytiques	La Physiologie du mariage Petites misères de la vie conjugale
Related	Eugène de Rastignac Vautrin
Related works by others	Fernand Lotte: Armorial de la Comédie Humaine