Another Study of Woman (Before 1815)
Proust devoted three pages of his essay on Balzac to a criticism
of this short story.
Almost all of Balzac's recurring characters
take part in this extended conversation at a dinner party.
As Proust observes
Balzac summarizes its contents
even before he begins and also manages to applaud himself
in the process:
It is in Paris alone that this type of wit abounds.
Only Paris, the capital city of taste, understands this science.
that changes a conversation into a tourney....
Deft repartees, sharp observations, admirable witticisms,
pictures sketched with brilliant precision, sparkled and jostled
...accompanied by mimicries, tilts of the head, airs,
and graces...
If you're looking for the proto-type for a male-chauvinist
jerk, the dinner party prattle of De Marsay would seem
to fit the bill.
In describing one of his mistresses he treats the reader to
vulgarities such as "There is always a first-rate monkey
in the most prettiest and angelic of women" and goes on to
observe "...she could not live without me...she made me into
her god."
(Short, Autre Etude de femme, nswmn10.txt)
A Prince of Bohemia (1830-37)
About the bohemian exploits of "La Palferine".
Bohemia, Balzac tells us, is a world of young men between
20 and 30 given to frivolity and buffoonery.
Holding the middle class in contempt,
they conquer women and abandon them
for the sake of conquest alone.
They live in squalid garrets, but move
socially in high society.
(Short, Une Prince de la boheme, prbhm10.txt)