Illusions perdues

Novel by Honoré de Balzac

Illusions perdues — in English, Lost Illusions — is a serial novel written by the French writer Honoré de Balzac between 1837 and 1843. It consists of three parts, starting in provincial France, thereafter moving to Paris, and finally returning to the provinces. The book resembles another of Balzac's greatest novels, La Rabouilleuse (The Black Sheep, 1842), that is set in Paris and in the provinces. It forms part of the Scènes de la vie de province in La Comédie humaine.

The novel's main character, Lucien Chardon, works as a journalist, and his friend David Séchard is a printer. These were both professions with which Balzac himself had experience. Balzac had started a printing business in Paris in 1826, which went bankrupt in 1828. His experiences influenced his description of David Séchard's working life. Balzac had bought the newspaper La Chronique de Paris in 1836 and founded La Revue Parisienne in 1840, both of which also went bust. A number of his novels had been published in serial form in the newspapers, though he often had disagreements with the publishers. He had also received harsh reviews in the newspapers from critics such as Charles Augustin Sainte Beuve and Jules Janin. Balzac had been critical of the press in La Peau de chagrin and later published a criticism of the press called Monograph of the Paris Press in 1842.

Balzac affirms the duplicity of all things, both in Paris and at Angoulême, e. g., the character of Lucien de Rubempré, who even has two surnames; David Séchard's ostensible friend, the notary Petit Claud, who operates against his client, not for him; the legal comptes (accounts) which are contes fantastiques (fantastic tales); the theatre which lives by make believe; high society likewise; the Abbé Carlos Herrera who is a sham priest, and in fact a criminal; the Sin against the Holy Ghost, whereby Lucien abandons his true integrity as a person, forging his brother in law's signature and even contemplating suicide.

(1) Although Illusions perdues is a commentary upon the contemporary world, Balzac is vague in his delineation of the historico political background. His delineation of the broader social background is far more precise. (2) Illusions perdues employs several changes of tempo. Even the change of tempo from Part II to Part III is but a superficial point of contrast between life as it is lived in the capital and life in the provinces. Everywhere the same laws of human behaviour apply. A person's downfall may come from the rapier thrust of the journalist or from the slowly strangling machinations of the law. (3) Most notably in La Cousine Bette Balzac was one of the first novelists to employ the technique of in medias res. In Illusions perdues there is an unusual example of this, Part II of the novel serving as the prelude to the extended flashback which follows in Part III. (4) Illusions perdues is also full of the "sublimities and degradations", "excited emphasis" and "romantic rhetoric" to which F. R. Leavis had objected in Le Père Goriot. Characters and viewpoints are polarized. There is the strong and perhaps somewhat artificial contrast between Lucien and David, art and science, Lousteau and d’Arthez, journalism and literature, Paris and the provinces, etc. And this polarization reaches the point of melodrama as Balzac appears to draw moral distinctions between "vice" and "virtue". Coralie is the Fallen Woman, Ève an Angel of strength and purity. Yet Balzac also describes Coralie's love for Lucien as a form of redemptive purity, an "absolution" and a "benediction". Thus, through what structurally is melodrama, he underlines what he considers to be the fundamental resemblance of opposites. (5) Introduced into narrative fiction by the Gothic novel (The Castle of Otranto, The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Monk), melodrama was widespread in literature around the time when Illusions perdues was written. Jane Austen satirizes it in Northanger Abbey. Eugène Sue made regular use of it. Instances in Illusions perdues are the use of improbable coincidence; Lucien, in an endeavour to pay Coralie's funeral expenses, writing bawdy love songs when her body is hardly yet cold; and the deus ex machina (or Satanas ex machina?) in the form of Herrera's appearance at the end of the novel. (6) Like all the major works of the Comédie humaine, Illusions perdues focuses on the social nexus. Within the nexus of love, in her relationship with Lucien, Coralie is life giving: her love has a sacramental quality. In an environment of worldly manœuvring, her influence upon him is fatal. She is, in other words, both a Fallen and a Risen Woman, depending upon the nexus within which she is viewed. In the unpropitious environment of Angoulême, Mme de Bargeton is an absurd bluestocking; transplanted to Paris, she undergoes an immediate "metamorphosis", becoming a true denizen of high society – and rightfully, in Part III, the occupant of the préfecture at Angoulême. As to whether Lucien's writings have any value, the social laws are paramount, this is a fact which he does not realize until it is too late. (7) Illusions perdues is, according to Donald Adamson, "a revelation of the secret workings of the world, rather than a Bildungsroman illuminating the development of character".

The success of this novel inspired Balzac to write a four part sequel, Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (published in parts from 1838 to 1847). Illusions perdues and Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes form part of La Comédie humaine, the series of novels and short stories written by Balzac depicting French society in the period of the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy (1815–1848). In April 2011, a ballet of the same name inspired by Balzac's novel was staged by the Bolshoi Ballet. It was choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, and went on to open at the Palais Garnier in Paris in 2014. A French film adaptation, Lost Illusions, was screened at the 78th Venice Film Festival and released on October 20, 2021. It is directed by Xavier Giannoli and stars Benjamin Voisin as Lucien du Rubempré, with a supporting cast including Gérard Depardieu, Cécile de France, and Xavier Dolan. A stage adaptation by Pauline Bayle, performed at the Théâtre de la Bastille in Paris from September through October 2021.

Katherine Prescott Wormeley (Roberts Bros., 1893) in two volumes: Lost Illusions: The Two Poets; Eve and David and A Great Man of the Provinces in Paris. Ellen Marriage (J. M. Dent, 1897) in two volumes: Lost Illusions: Two Poets; Eve and David and A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Kathleen Raine (John Lehmann, 1951). Lost Illusions. Herbert J. Hunt (Penguin, 1971). Lost Illusions. Raymond N. MacKenzie (University of Minnesota, 2020). Lost Illusions.