Catherine De Medici Honoré de Balzac Books
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This book was digitized and reprinted from the collections of the University of California Libraries. It was produced from digital images created through the libraries’ mass digitization efforts. The digital images were cleaned and prepared for printing through automated processes. Despite the cleaning process, occasional flaws may still be present that were part of the original work itself, or introduced during digitization. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found online in the HathiTrust Digital Library at www.hathitrust.org.
Catherine De Medici Honoré de Balzac Books
Looking for a biography of Catherine De Medici, I was astonished to find this one, written by Balzac! Since he's one of my favorite authors, I bought it immediately. It is an interesting read, but very early in my read, I realized that it didn't mean too much if I didn't already know the story of Catherine's life and what the French people thought of her during her lifetime and shortly thereafter. So I stopped and read a recent (and more complete) biography of her so I would know what he's referring to. After that, I was able to follow along quite well. Mostly Balzac is trying to dispel some of the slanders told about her, which people of his time may have believed if they had no other source of information about her. I'm not sure I would call this a biography, since it doesn't cover Catherine's entire life. Balzac covers her time as queen and queen mother, which I have to admit is the most important part of her life. This isn't as much fun as Balzac's fiction, but it is enjoyable and reasonably accurate.Product details
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Tags : Catherine De Medici [Honoré de Balzac] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This book was digitized and reprinted from the collections of the University of California Libraries. It was produced from digital images created through the libraries’ mass digitization efforts. The digital images were cleaned and prepared for printing through automated processes. Despite the cleaning process,Honoré de Balzac,Catherine De Medici,University of California Libraries,B006R43QGS
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Catherine De Medici Honoré de Balzac Books Reviews
Balzac guided European fiction away from the overriding influence of Walter Scott and the Gothic school, by showing that modern life could be recounted as vividly as Scott recounted his historical tales, and that mystery and intrigue did not need ghosts and crumbling castles for props. Maupassant, Flaubert and Zola were writers of the next generation who were directly influenced by him, and Marcel Proust (that other weaver of a great tapestry) acknowledged his influence.
He is worth reading for pleasure as well as for his influence on European literature.
I read this immediately after completing Frieda's excellent biography of Catherine de Medici and was glad to have a familiarity with her life while reading this. This is not another biography, however, nor a treatise on the lady.
The first (main) part of the book is a narrative of an idealistic young Calvinist, Christophe Lecamus, who is a willing participant in the Prince de Conde's plan to gain access to Catherine with communications from the Protestant faction. I found this section really brought history to life from Balzac's descriptions of 16th century Paris to the personalities at court. Certainly his take on some situations is vastly different from that of Frieda; he imagines huge antipathy between Catherine and her young daughter-in-law Mary (later Queen of Scots) whereas Frieda describes a warm relationship. Similarly Catherine's determination to remove Mary (and her hated Guise relatives) causes her to refuse her son a life-saving trepanning operation. Frieda considers it absurd propaganda that she would have let her son die. Who knows?
The second piece is set a little later - Catherine's second son, Charles IX, is now on the throne, an unwell and unhealthy young man, ever distrustful of his mother and her poisons. He brings in her alchemists, the Ruggieris, for questioning. I found the discussion on their craft somewhat over my head but the historic picture of this king was fascinating.
Third and finally we are transported to an aristocratic party in 1786. One guest claims to have seen and debated with Catherine over the events in her life. She sums up 'to leave two hostile principles at work in a government with nothing to balance them...is sowing the seed of revolution' and continues 'a revolution which is still progressing and which you may achieve.Yes, YOU, who hear me.'
Only in the last sentence is it revealed that the two guests are Robespierre and Marat.
Very interesting read, totally interesting to any history book on the subject
A waste of time. Read the book on Catherine by Leonie Frieda, which I am reading and will rate at least 4 stars
Nice flow to the book
Great! Watched the series "Reign""...wanted to know more about this Catherine de Medici!...Facinating!!
Looking for a biography of Catherine De Medici, I was astonished to find this one, written by Balzac! Since he's one of my favorite authors, I bought it immediately. It is an interesting read, but very early in my read, I realized that it didn't mean too much if I didn't already know the story of Catherine's life and what the French people thought of her during her lifetime and shortly thereafter. So I stopped and read a recent (and more complete) biography of her so I would know what he's referring to. After that, I was able to follow along quite well. Mostly Balzac is trying to dispel some of the slanders told about her, which people of his time may have believed if they had no other source of information about her. I'm not sure I would call this a biography, since it doesn't cover Catherine's entire life. Balzac covers her time as queen and queen mother, which I have to admit is the most important part of her life. This isn't as much fun as Balzac's fiction, but it is enjoyable and reasonably accurate.
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