Maison de Balzac
Encyclopedia
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
(1799–1850). It is located in the 16th arrondissement at 47, rue Raynouard, Paris, France, and open daily except Mondays and holidays; admission to the house is free, but a fee is charged for its temporary exhibitions. The nearest métro and RER stations are Passy
Passy (Paris Metro)
Passy is a rapid transit station on Line 6 of the Paris Métro in the 16th arrondissement of the city. It is elevated at its eastern end, while its western end is in the mouth of a tunnel.-Location:...
and Avenue du Président Kennedy
Avenue du Président Kennedy (Paris RER)
Avenue du Président Kennedy is a station in line C of the Paris Region's express suburban rail system, the RER. It is situated in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the Musée de Radio France.- Lines serving this station :- See also :...
.
The modest house, with its courtyard and garden, is located within the residential district of Passy
Passy
Passy is an area of Paris, France, located in the XVIe arrondissement, on the Right Bank. It is traditionally home to many of the city's wealthiest residents.Passy was formerly a commune...
near the Bois de Boulogne
Bois de Boulogne
The Bois de Boulogne is a park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine...
. Having fled his creditors, Balzac rented its top floor from 1840-1847 under his housekeeper's name (Mr. de Breugnol). It was acquired by the city of Paris in 1949, and is now one of the city's three literary museums, along with the Maison de Victor Hugo
Maison de Victor Hugo
Maison de Victor Hugo is a museum, operated by the City of Paris, which preserves the house that Victor Hugo lived in for 16 years from 1832–1848.-History:...
and the Musée de la Vie Romantique
Musée de la Vie Romantique
The Musée de la Vie romantique stands at the foot of Montmartre hill in the IXe arrondissement, 16 rue Chaptal, Paris, France in a 1830 hôtel particulier facing two twin-studios, a greenhouse, a small garden, and a paved courtyard. The museum is open daily except Monday. Permanent collections are...
(George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
). It is the only of Balzac's many residences still in existence.
Balzac's five-room apartment was located on the top floor, at three levels, and as today opened into the garden. Here he edited La Comedie humaine
La Comédie humaine
La Comédie humaine is the title of Honoré de Balzac's multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and stories depicting French society in the period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy .-Overview:...
and wrote some of his finest novels, including La Rabouilleuse
La Rabouilleuse
La Rabouilleuse , is a 1842 novel by Honoré de Balzac as part of his series La Comédie humaine. The Black Sheep is the title of the English translation by Donald Adamson published by Penguin Classics...
, Une Ténébreuse Affaire, and La Cousine Bette
La Cousine Bette
La Cousine Bette |Bette]]) is an 1846 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Set in mid-19th century Paris, it tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family. Bette works with Valérie Marneffe, an unhappily married young lady, to seduce and...
. Although the writer's furniture was dispersed after his widow's death, the museum now contains Balzac's writing desk and chair, his turquoise-studded cane by Lecointe (1834), and his tea kettle and a coffee pot given to him by Zulma Carraud in 1832.
The museum also contains an 1842 daguerreotype
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
of Balzac by Louis-Auguste Bisson
Louis-Auguste Bisson
Louis-Auguste Bisson was a 19th-century French photographer.Bisson opened a photographic studio in early 1841. Soon after, his brother Auguste-Rosalie Bisson entered into partnership with him. Their studio was in the La Madeleine in Paris, and they became famous as the Bisson Brothers.In 1860...
, a drawing of Balzac by Paul Gavarni
Paul Gavarni
Paul Gavarni was the nom de plume of Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier , a French caricaturist, born in Paris...
(circa 1840), a pastel portrait (circa 1798) of Balzac's mother Laure Sallambier (1778–1854), an oil portrait (circa 1795-1814) of his father Bernard-François Balzac (1746–1829), and 19th-century prints by renowned artists including Paul Gavarni
Paul Gavarni
Paul Gavarni was the nom de plume of Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier , a French caricaturist, born in Paris...
, Honoré Daumier
Honoré Daumier
Honoré Daumier was a French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century....
, Grandville
Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard
Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard , generally known by the pseudonym of J. J. Grandville, was a French caricaturist.-Life and work:...
, and Henry Bonaventure Monnier.
Since 1971 the house's ground floor has contained a library of the author's manuscripts, original and subsequent editions, illustrations, books annotated and signed by Balzac, books devoted to Balzac, and other books and magazines of the period.
The house is also notable for underlying cavities which have been identified by pottery shards as former troglodyte dwellings dated to the time of the late Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. These excavations, however, are not open to the public.