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The Physiology of Marriage (1829) is a book length essay by French writer Honoré de Balzac. Written from the point of view of an author who has overheard scandalous conversations between two women, The Physiology of Marriage is both a critique of the institution of marriage and a satirical attempt to scientifically explain the cause and frequency of marital infidelity. The essay was an early success for Balzac, gaining him a reputation as a talented writer and creative critic of contemporary French society.
The essay consists of a series of meditations that approach marriage through a variety of scientific, philosophical, and anecdotal methods. Arguing that marriage is an institution that runs counter to human nature, the author uses questionable mathematics to calculate the number of married women in France who are likely to seek out affairs in order to feel a passion denied to them. Describing the likely signs of marital infidelity—standoffishness, a change in dress, lack of romance—he claims that French men have grown far too accepting of their wives’ affairs. Rather than reject the institution altogether—he sees it as integral to upholding the social order—the author suggests that young women be allowed a certain amount of freedom to explore their romantic inclinations and to prepare themselves for the banality of married life. The Physiology of Marriage finds satire in treating seriously and scientifically the often hidden and always complex matters of the heart, as well as through its suggestion that women, not men, are to blame for the proliferation of infidelity in France.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Honoré de Balzac’s The Physiology of Marriage is a classic of French literature reimagined for modern readers.
Editore : Mint Editions (14 gennaio 2021)
Lingua : Inglese
Copertina rigida : 300 pagine
ISBN-10 : 151321909X
ISBN-13 : 978-1513219097
Peso articolo : 454 g
Dimensioni : 12.7 x 2.06 x 20.32 cm
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This was a disappointment as the print is way way too fine and its very difficult to read. And the text is just all condensed in this book on big pages. Just don’t buy it. it’s a waste of money.
This book, which made Balzac’s reputation after he wrote many adventure stories (and, reportedly, some pornography), stands outside of “The Human Comedy.” It is a send-up of the many Guides to Behavior that appeared in France in the 19th century. And it is incredibly funny—lots of “advice” to husbands as to how to keep their wives from committing adultery—while acknowledging that this is an impossible task! It reminds me of Sterne’s “Tristram Shandy” because it is filled with digressions—in fact, Sterne is invoked several times. The book is filled with funny, witty aphorisms—and, even today, some of them ring true—“the wife is what her husband has made her”—she is loving, spiteful, cruel, based on how he has treated her. Oh so true. Nobody gets off free from Balzac’s penetrating eye. Truly, a great book.
A consideration of marriage among the upper classes, with particular focus on how to prevent your wife being unfaithful. Balzac turns from the pseudo-scientific (eg his calculations that prove there is a ‘floating mass’ of at least fifteen hundred thousand illegitimate passions in France) to the philosophical to the anecdotal. Dry in parts, elsewhere very funny and had me thinking ‘how true’. Here the husband will find advice on how to avoid being one of the ‘fore-ordained’ (guaranteed to be cuckolded); how to arrange your house so that Madame have no opportunity to conceal a lover… I love Balzac’s thoughts on sharing a bed with one’s beloved: ‘if you knew that one of your rivals had found a way of placing you, in full view of the woman who is dear to you, in a situation in which you must appear sublimely ridiculous:- for example with your mouth all distorted like that of a mask, or with your eloquent lips dribbling…’.Balzac’s ‘meditations’ begin with the general, move on to ‘internal and external means of defence’ and culminate in a section on ‘civil war’ (chapters here include ‘various weapons- a) the headache b)the nerves’ and ‘on relations and other allies’.) Throughout he peppers his work with little aphorisms. My favourite has to be ‘a lover only tells a woman that which may raise her self esteem; a husband, even a loving husband, can never refrain from giving advice, and he always conveys it with an idea of reproach’. How true! And amazing to think Balzac drafted this work of wisdom and insight aged only 25
A series of Meditations on marriage focusing on a very small segment of upper class 19th c society. Balzac uses the fable of the Minotaur and Labyrinth throughout his discourses to indicate the dangers inherent in marriage, specifically indiscretions on the part of the wife, which minotaurize the husband. It is not surprising he did not marry until the final months of his life given his marital perspectives. 19th c marriage conventions aside, Balzac exhibits an overreaching need to control the relationship in all its aspects; so perhaps this work reveals more about the man Balzac than the marriage conventions of his time. Truly, a work for ardent Balzac devotees.
Worth reading for modern feminists to get an irate insight of traditional French more’s, Style was stilted and far from easy reading.