Balzac in the collective consciousness and publishing practices of the “belle époque”

Today, Honoré de Balzac is perceived as an undisputed classic of French and world literature. This article examines the formation of this perception during the “belle époque”, a period when the reputation of the “French Shakespeare” was still ambiguous (despite the fact that Hippolyte Taine’s essay on Balzac, which greatly stimulated the transformation of the author of The Human Comedy into a classic, was published as early as 1858). His individual works as well as collected editions were published extremely intensively, catering to different budgets, while Parisian and provincial newspapers reprinted Balzac’s novels and stories in the dedicated “feuilleton” section (“sous-sol”). There was no shortage of studies on Balzac’s personality and his works, yet his roots in Romantic culture and his scrupulous, impartial description of social problems were often held against him. The author of the article does not seek to describe the research situation around Balzac in the “belle époque”, the image of Balzac in the cultural consciousness is analyzed primarily within the context of the active formation of mass literature. The role of two anniversary dates (the centenary of his birth – 1899, and the half-century since his death – 1900) in revitalizing the topic of Balzac is noted. The article examines the conflict surrounding the Paris monument to Balzac, the scandal around the publication of Octave Mirbeau’s essay on the circumstances of the writer’s death, and finally, the opening of the Balzac house-museum in Passy as stages in the formation of the Balzac myth. Special attention is dedicated to theatrical versions (mostly ephemeral) of his novels created during the “belle époque” as a phenomenon of mass stage culture. The article makes extensive use of the press from the 1880s to 1910s.