More Balzac

I've just finished another of Balzac's stories, this one an extended meditation on love and its frustrations. Interestingly, "The Duchess de Langeais" was my favorite of the stories I've read this year, despite being its longest and more complex. 

In the story, Balzac highlights his writerly powers - and ambitions. The structure of the tale is similar to his larger oeuvre: the introduction of a set of characters facing a crisis (or reconciliation); a rewind to the genesis of that crisis; and return to the characters at the final moment, but with increased insights into their motivations and condition. 

"The Duchess de Langeais" exemplifies that approach to storytelling - and does so with considerable success. The story begins and ends in a remote Spanish convent, with two French aristocrats confronting their love. It's the way they got there - the twists and turns that represent a true human comedy - which add a sense of gravity, and tragedy, to their reunion. 

It's that reunion, that moment of enlightenment and finality which represents the magic of Balzac's narrative, and which speaks to one of the underlying themes of this particular story: that the intensity of a man's "first love" - burning ever so bright - can only be matched by the maturity of a woman's "last." I don't know that I necessarily agree with that sentiment, but Balzac makes a case for it in the final 25 pages of the tale. 

No more Balzac for me this year at least. The last word is reserved for him:

"You see, I am so calm that I would fear I no longer loved you, if it were not for you that I am leaving this world."