Lost Illusions

Another amazing Balzac novel. many insights into life and human beings.Good read and food for thought.

As much as I enjoyed Pere Goriot, Lost Illusions is the kind of a literary work that lets you peer into the soul of a great mind and dwell there. Just as Lucien was Balzac, the lost poet, David Sechard, the printer, is also Balzac the craftsman in real life: he bought a print shop in Paris to print his own novels. Sechard is much like the scientist in the Quest of the Absolute, except that David ultimately finds himself through his invention and the inventor in The Quest becomes lost to his own monomania. As Balzac wrote of Lucien: "He's not a poet, this young man: he's a serial novel." And so it's time to find out what happens to Lucien after this novel in his return to Paris. The characters of his novels keep reappearing in scenes from one novel to the next, which is wonderful. However, they seem to change as one sees them through different eyes. Delightful young Rastignac in Pere Goriot becomes a rather unscrupulous mean-spirited character in Lost Illusions. Balzac has built an entire society of his characters and as varied as they are, they are all also him and show the great diversity and depth of his personality and sensitivity. Like Galsworthy, Balzac wanted to build an interconnected society of characters who are so human that it's easy to understand why they behave as they do. The realism is striking and magnificent and always rings true. Balzac works hard despite the realism to spin out of every hardship a redemption and out of every malignity a comic side that's all too human. The comedy and irony are rich in Balzac in his passionate account of life in Paris in high society and the challenges that it thrusts upon every ideal. This is the best work of Balzac that I have read so far out of four novels of his. It's such great writing, and the energy of the translator can make a difference, that Balzac keeps one coming back for more. But the writing and wit and wisdom are so extraordinary, I am happy to accommodate him. Anyone who has ever aspired to write and publish prose in New York will identify with Balzac's Lucien: Lost Illusions is a novel that aspiring writers especially may find intriguing.

It underlines the provincialism of UK universities, including Oxbridge, that some 250,000 books sell better on amazon than one of the basic works of world literature. Several of the commentaries speak of this great novel as giving us insights into 19th century France. Like all great writers, Balzac wrote in the eternal present tense. In Balzac's time mass media meant newspapers of ten thousand copies - and he was involved with several of them. From that small sample he was able to discover and define the nature of the mass media, as well as the characters who are drawn to them. There are literal-minded people who think Hamlet is only a Dane from the distant past. But in all great works of fiction the characters are your contemporaries, and no matter how long ago they lived and in what distant country, they are nearer to you and the people you know than the characters in this year's novels about people who are supposed to live on the same street as you do. I cannot think of a more relevant or more important book for anybody who is interested in literature or in writing or who wants to understand the media. Lost Illusions certainly throws more light on what goes on in our newspapers than the Leveson Inquiry. When I went to Hollywood, I was amazed to find it crowded with old acquaintances: I knew them all from Lost Illusions. Of course Lost Illusions is about a lot more than this. Balzac is the Shakespeare of the novel and Lost Illusions has dramatic scenes that you will never forget. Stephen Vizinczey

The Human Comedy is a saga of 92 novels that Balzac said was written by French society. Legend described him as the night-shirted social recorder working until dawn fueled by liters of coffee. Lost Illusions (1837-1843) is considered to be one of the best of the novels in the series in scope and structure. From the frenetic world of writers and booksellers in Paris to the grueling life of hard work and boredom in villages, Balzac traced the systematic destruction of illusions in his characters. No one could be trusted (friends, foes, or family) when the creative or inventive characters attempted to reach a goal. The flicker of hope and joy related to an artistic or business accomplishment was extinguished within days or hours. The enduring artists and producers were those who lived almost without hope, guided by a strict code of ethics protected only by their ability to keep their accomplishments secret. Ultimately, some of these survivors reached their goals. But by then, they no longer placed high value in them, much of the luster lost with their illusions. Lost Illusions set the standard for many of the wonderful French novels of the subsequent years of the 19th Century. The reader is immersed in French culture in a manner similar to the later writing of Gustav Flaubert.

I read this book during my latest visit to my favorite middle east country. I must admit that I didn't enjoy this book as much as others. I felt like it was slow to come around and I thought there was too much detail on (seemingly) unimportant things at times. I'm just a regular person, so that said if you are an accomplished reader you may love this, for neophytes such as myself, other titles are more likely to be properly enjoyed (see my reviews)...and keep me updated!