A Start in Life (1822-38)

The education of a young man without means and the errors he repeatedly makes but eventually outgrows is described. The very last sentence makes it clear that this education is the education of the "modern bourgeoisie," in essence the making of a new type of social person, the new middle class man.

The Comte de Serizy is being deceived both by his wife who carries on innumerable affairs behind his back and by the manager of his estates in the country, Moreau. Gossip has made it common knowledge why his wife cheats on him. He has an unsightly skin disease caused by working too much. Word gets to the count that he is being cheated by Moreau and that Moreau is working with a neighboring farmer, Leger, to sell him a piece of land at an inflated price, so he decides to travel to his estates in the country incognito in a stagecoach to find out what's really happening and stop it.

During the French revolution Moreau had been saved from the guillotine by a Madame Husson to whom he owes a debt of gratitude and tries to help her when he can. Moreau's wife, a former chambermaid of the Comtesse de Serizy with social pretensions of her own which she hopes to realize through her husband, dislikes the interest her husband shows in his former protectress.

Madame Husson has a young son, Oscar, who needs some (actually a lot of) help getting a start in life. Moreau has grown wealthy off the money he has skimmed off the estate and plans to retire. Moreau suggests to Madame Husson that Oscar could replace him as estate manager when he retires. He invites Oscar to come and stay with him in the country.

Oscar's mother brings him to the stagecoach that he is to travel in to see Moreau. His mother embarasses him in front of all the other travellers by doting over him the way mothers usually do. The passengers in the stagecoach also include the count himself, who has chosen this very day to travel to his estates incognito, Joseph Bridau and Leon de Lora (or Mistigris), two painters who are painting a mural at the count's home in the country, and George Marest, a clerk of the count's notary and also a elegant dandy.

(Balzac provides a history of the stagecoaches that were used before the advent of the train to travel to rural areas surrounding Paris He paints a detailed picture of one entrepreneur in this business, Pierrotin.)

During the journey to the country, the talk amongst the passengers quickly degenerates into showy boasting calculated to impress the rest of the passengers. Georges invents tall tales of adventure in Egypt and Turkey. Joseph Bridau pretends he is the famous painter Schinner and invents a tall tale of love and adventure in Yugoslavia. Mistigris provides the passengers with witty little epigrams. Little Oscar gets fed some wine at one of the stops along the way and wanting to tell a story like everyone else, contributes the story of the count's skin disease and his inability to satisfy his wife.

Approaching his estates, the count gets off the stagecoach and makes his way to his manor through the back of his estates. Everyone at the estate is shocked when they find out that the count has arrived unexpectedly. The count gives little Oscar, Moreau, and the painters a thorough dressing down. Oscar blows his first chance to get "a start in life" and makes his way back to Paris.

Madame Husson's next step to find a career for her son is to ask a relative by marriage, the businessman Cardot, to get taken on as an apprentice clerk to a lawyer. Oscar works in the office of Desroches under the tutelage of Godeschal (both recurring characters in Balzac). Among the traditions of this law firms that Balzac recounts is the party that new clerks have to treat the other clerks in the firm to when they finish their apprenticeship. Everything is going well for Oscar when several events converge in an ominous fashion. Oscar must attend one of these end of apprenticeship parties as well as take care of some important business for the head clerk Godescal the following day. He is also entrusted with some money by Godeschal. The party ends up in the house of the mistress of Oscar's patron Cardot, the courtesan Florentine Cabirolle. First, Oscar loses all the money that the head clerk has entrusted to him. One of the courtesans at the party, feeling pity for him, provides him with the cash he has lost, which Oscar proceeds to lose again. Being drunk, he falls asleep in the hostess's bedroom and doesn't awaken until the next day, to late to take care of the business that has been entrusted to him by the head clerk. Moreover, Cardot, his rich patron finds him in his mistress's bedroom and is furious. All these indiscretions spell the end of Oscar's second start in life.

Without his wealthy patron he cannot buy himself out of the draft so Oscar is drafted into the army. Oscar is finally able to prove himself. After many years of service he is promoted to the rank of officer fighting in Africa rescues the son of Count Serizy, the same count he had insulted so many years ago, from the Arabs. He loses his arm in the battle, is promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and retires from the army. Having regained favor with Count Serizy, Oscar is given a position of tax collector. In the final scene, he is seen travelling with his mother on the same stagecoach journey that so many years ago had led to disaster. The passengers include Moreau and his partner the farmer Leger who are now welathy from land speculation, the painter Joseph Bridau, who has now become famous, and Georges Marest, who once cut such a fine figure but is now bald, fat, ugly, and reduced to making his living as a travelling insurance salesman. Oscar himself has earned a measure of respect through his military service and the position he has been appointed to.

(Long, Un Debut dans la vie, stlif10.txt)