Shine and poverty of courtesans

Starting to read the novel by Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) "brilliance and poverty of courtesans", several important things should be remembered. Firstly, this is part of the whole, almost all the characters of the “human comedy”, a huge Balzac world, consisting of almost a hundred works, are acting or mentioned here. What the naturalists did for the animal world, having described its species, Balzac wanted to make for society, classifying all social types. Secondly, the name of the novel should be understood expansion and included in the number of courtesans not only Esther, "Public Girl, nicknamed the torpedo", but also many other characters, including male. And thirdly: "The stiff contemporaries called the “brilliance and poverty of courtesans” a vile novel, and its author - the collector of dirty scandalous chronicles, the creator of immoral paintings, on which spies and prostitutes are depicted, “perhaps too reliable” (the opinion of the Catholic magazine" Censorship ballot ") But the "censorship ballot" is not known to anyone other than historians of literature, and the “brilliance and poverty of courtesans” is still read ”(Vera Milchina).

Translation from French Nina Yakovleva. The accompanying article by Vera Milchina.

Vera Arkadyevna Milchina is a literature historian and a translator, a leading researcher at the IVGI RSU and the steps of the RANEPA. The author of the books" Russia and France. Diplomats. Writers. Spies "(2004)," Paris in 1814-1848: everyday life "(2013)," Names of Parisian streets. The guide by the names "(2016), `` useful and harmful : supervision of foreigners in Russia under Nicholas I" (2017) Its translation published works by Balzac, Chateaubrian, Nodier, Ms. de Steel, Georges Sand and other French prose writers of the first half of the 19th century