Papa Goriot aka Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac is included on the list of 100 Greatest Books of All Time, a previous look at this chef d’oeuvre is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/10/one-of-uncontroversial-masterpieces.html where you can find a few thousand reviews, and a few more on Honore de Balzac - The Reader as King

 

Papa Goriot aka Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac is included on the list of 100 Greatest Books of All Time, a previous look at this chef d’oeuvre is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/10/one-of-uncontroversial-masterpieces.html where you can find a few thousand reviews, and a few more on Honore de Balzac

The Reader as King

 

10 out of 10

 

‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments’ – this was the favorite sonnet of the majestic thespian, Laurence Olivier, but I just wanted to say let me first say the most important thing in all this – Balzac is the name of my eldest son aka blue and gold macaw, so I shout a few dozen or hundred times a day

 

-          Balzac!

 

Not Honore, though that might have been an idea, it is because he screams, shouts, tries to destroy something, come to think of it, I do not use Balzac when he is nice, I go with baby, boy, dumplings, using the plural because I have…two macaws, more than a human being can take, albeit Puccini, the other one, is more decent, or used to be

So having finished the paramount, let us get to the point – or as Mickey Rourke, in one of his more repellant roles, not Nine and a Half Weeks, where we enjoyed him, or Angel Heart, playing opposite De Niro, the latter is the devil, literally, if that is allowed, no, it is not, but hey, why delete it, we are having fun, so he said ‘foreplay is over, it’s time to fuck, not sexually, but they had some drugs or guns to exchange…

 

On TV5 last night there was a documentary on Balzac, who was so much larger than life, physically – let us not repeat literally, so soon – but especially in spirit, he worked on one of the most spectacular masterpieces of All Time, La Comedie Humaine, he was celebrated, and chased by creditors, he was a fantastic human being

I mean, he did have short comings, in his youth, when he shoed up in society he was not that clean, disheveled, rustic, but then with time, he became a seigneur de l’esprit and altogether, rather pompous, what with all that huge spending he could not afford, at the nadir, he owed the equivalent of 750,000 euros!

 

He had to move to various addresses, at one point using his servant’s name – one went crazy and destroyed what Honore de Balzac had created in the villa – choosing one place because it had two entrances/exits, so that he could escape the men pushing to get money from him, enormous sums and galloping

 

He was an entrepreneur nevertheless, he had quite a few failed initiatives, newspaper, a few plays he wanted to use for cash, but he was the first to press for copyright, before him, authors had not had protection, various individuals could sell, fake their books with impunity, but Balzac took the matter to court

Some critics, even a psychanalyst is invited for this program, and a few women highlight how knowledgeable, fantastic he was, he wrote about young women, old, from various classes, and he knew exactly what they felt and thought, one said that despite the fact that he had no children, and he was no woman, she felt she knew exactly what she felt like, a mother of kids, and then there was his discretion and reserve

 

He loved to tell stories, enjoyed fame, money, spent way more than he earned, and aimed for opulence, but in the question of his intimacy, he never uttered a word about his affairs, to the point where they speculated, he would rather have them say he is impotent, or gay, at a time when this was such a stigma…

He has had a well-known intimacy with a countess – was she, I wonder - easy to check, but who is still here, by now, nobody has had the patience to stay with these lines, and perhaps they have made the right choice, if they ever had a glance at the top – who lived in…Ukraine, maybe the free part, or else what Putin has grabbed with his war

 

They have had a long correspondence, established that they would wait, she was married and had a daughter, Balzac we are told had a penchant for married women – or was it just with spouses that he engaged, I forgot – and met her abroad, even went all the way to what was Russia back then and had some peculiar plans

One was to become…Russian, although I realize that I am looking with the mindset of now, hateful of Putin and all that, Balzac was of the right, he liked the czar and the severity of that regime, he took part in elections, but somehow, he did not get to be deputy, regardless of his popularity with readers, who sent a multitude of letters

 

They were counted and he had what, 60,000, anyway, a massive figure, more than his contemporaries combined, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, and I think they mentioned a third, but this is already too much inuendo, pointless detail…they even rejected his candidacy for the French Academy alas, Hugo voted for him

He worked with superhuman talent and dedication, following a program for Sisyphus, he would go to bed with the hens, at six in the evening, but wake up at one at night, and went all the way through, with tens of cups of coffee, indulging in enormous lunches after the austerity imposed at the writing table, he would produce a gigantic, mesmerizing magnum opera, and looked at society, but as the critics said, he has also influenced his country, they talk of Rastignac as somebody who has transcended fiction, more alive than a real person somehow…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

 

 

 

 

 

  

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