Louis Lambert (novel)
Encyclopedia
Louis Lambert is an 1832 novel by French
novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac
(1799–1850), included in the Études philosophiques section of his novel sequence
La Comédie humaine
. Set mostly in a school at Vendôme
, it examines the life and theories of a boy genius fascinated by the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg
(1688–1772).
Balzac wrote Louis Lambert during the summer of 1832 while he was staying with friends at the Château de Saché
, and published three editions with three different titles. The novel contains a minimal plot, focusing mostly on the metaphysical ideas of its boy-genius protagonist
and his only friend (eventually revealed to be Balzac himself). Although it is not a significant example of the realist
style for which Balzac became famous, the novel provides insight into the author's own childhood. Specific details and events from the author's life – including punishment from teachers and social ostracism – suggest a fictionalized autobiography
.
While he was a student at Vendôme, Balzac wrote an essay called Traité de la Volonté ("Treatise on the Will"); it is described in the novel as being written by Louis Lambert. The essay discusses the philosophy of Swedenborg and others, although Balzac did not explore many of the metaphysical concepts until much later in his life. Ideas analyzed in the essay and elsewhere in the novel include the split between inward and outward existence; the presence of angels and spiritual enlightenment; and the interplay between genius and madness.
Although critics panned the novel, Balzac remained steadfast in his belief that it provided an important look at philosophy
, especially metaphysics
. As he developed the scheme for La Comédie humaine, he placed Louis Lambert in the Études philosophiques section, and later returned to the same themes in his novel Séraphîta
, about an androgynous angelic creature.
By 1832, Honoré de Balzac
had begun to make a name for himself as a writer. The second of five children, Balzac was sent to the Oratorian
College de Vendôme
at the age of eight. He returned from the school six years later, sickly and weak. He was taught by tutors and private schools for two and a half years, then attended the Sorbonne
in Paris
. After training as a law clerk
for three years, he moved into a tiny garret
in 1819 and began writing.
His first efforts, published under a variety of pseudonyms, were cheaply printed potboiler
novels. In 1829 he finally released a novel under his own name, titled Les Chouans
; it was a minor success, though it did not earn the author enough money to relieve his considerable debt. He found fame soon afterwards with a series of novels including La Physiologie du mariage (1829), Sarrasine
(1830), and La Peau de chagrin
(1831).
In 1831 Balzac published a short story called "Les Proscrits" ("The Exiles"), about two poets named Dante and Godefroid de Gand who attend the Sorbonne
at the start of the fourteenth century. It explores questions of metaphysics
and mysticism
, particularly the spiritual quest for illuminism and enlightenment. Balzac had been influenced greatly as a young man by the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg
, whose theories permeate "Les Proscrits". The story was published – alongside La Peau de chagrin, which also delves into metaphysics – as part of an 1831 collection entitled Romans et contes philosophiques ("Philosophical novels and stories").
In May 1832, Balzac suffered a head injury when his tilbury
carriage crashed in a Parisian street. Although he was not hurt badly, he wrote to a friend about his worry that "some of the cogs in the mechanism of my brain may have got out of adjustment". His doctor ordered him to rest and refrain from writing and other mental activity. When he had recuperated, he spent the summer at the Château de Saché
, just outside the city of Tours
, with a family friend, Jean de Margonne.
While in Saché, he wrote a short novel called Notice biographique sur Louis Lambert about a misfit boy genius interested in metaphysics
. Like "Les Proscrits", Louis Lambert was a vehicle for Balzac to explore the ideas that had fascinated him, particularly those of Swedenborg and Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
. He hoped the work would "produce an effect of incontestable superiority". and provide "a glorious rebuttal" to critics who ridiculed his interest in metaphysics.
The novel was first published as part of the Nouveaux contes philosophiques in late 1832, but by the start of the following year he declared it to be "a wretched miscarriage" and began rewriting it. During the process, Balzac was aided by a grammarian working as a proofreader, who found "a thousand errors" in the text. Once he had returned home, the author "cried with despair and with that rage that takes hold of you when you recognize your faults after working so hard".
A vastly expanded and revised novel, Histoire intellectuelle de L.L., was published as a single volume in 1833. Balzac, still unsatisfied, continued reworking the text – as he often did between editions – and included a series of letters written by the boy genius, as well as a detailed description of his metaphysical theories. This final edition was released as Louis Lambert, included with "Les Proscrits" and a later work, Séraphîta, in a volume entitled Le Livre mystique ("The Mystical Book").
and his wife, is born in 1797 and begins reading at an early age. In 1811 he meets the real-life Swiss author Madame de Staël
(1766–1817), who – struck by his intellect – pays for him to enroll in the Collège de Vendôme. There he meets the narrator, a classmate named "the Poet" who later identifies himself in the text as Balzac; they quickly become friends. Shunned by the other students and berated by teachers for not paying attention, the boys bond through discussions of philosophy and mysticism.
After completing an essay entitled Traité de la Volonté ("Treatise on the Will"), Lambert is horrified when a teacher confiscates it, calls it "rubbish", and – the narrator speculates – sells it to a local grocer. Soon afterwards, a serious illness forces the narrator to leave the school. In 1815, Lambert graduates at the age of eighteen and lives for three years in Paris
. After returning to his uncle's home in Blois
, he meets a woman named Pauline de Villenoix and falls passionately in love with her. On the day before their wedding, however, he suffers a mental breakdown and attempts to castrate
himself.
Declared "incurable" by doctors, Lambert is ordered into solitude and rest. Pauline takes him to her family's château, where he lives in a near coma
. The narrator, ignorant of these events, meets Lambert's uncle by chance, and is given a series of letters. Written by Lambert while in Paris and Blois, they continue his philosophical musings and describe his love for Pauline. The narrator visits his old friend at the Villenoix château, where the decrepit Lambert says only: "The angels are white." Pauline shares a series of statements her lover had dictated, and Lambert dies on 25 September 1824 at the age of twenty-eight.
for which Balzac became famous, it has been called one of "the most diffuse and least valuable of his works". Whereas many Balzac stories focus on the external world, Louis Lambert examines many aspects of the thought process and the life of the mind. Many critics, however, condemn the author's disorganized style and his placement of his own mature philosophies into the mind of a teenage boy.
Still, shades of Balzac's realism are found in the book, particularly in the first-hand descriptions of the Collège de Vendôme. The first part of the novel is replete with details about the school, describing how quarters were inspected and the complex social rules for exchanging dishes at dinnertime. Punishments are also described at length, including the assignment of tedious writing tasks and the painful application of the strap:
and seeing "every incident". In another he imagines the physical pain of a knife cutting his skin. As Balzac's biographer André Maurois notes, these reflections provide insight into the author's perspective toward the world and its written representations.
. Balzac read voraciously while in school, and – like Lambert – was often punished for misbehaving in class. The precise details of the school also reflect Balzac's time there: as described in the novel, students were allowed to keep pigeons and tend gardens, and holidays were spent in the dormitories.
Lambert's essay about metaphysics, Traité de la Volonté ("Treatise on the Will"), is another autobiographical reference. Balzac wrote the essay himself as a boy, and – as in the novel – it was confiscated by an angry teacher. Lambert's genius and philosophical erudition are reflections of Balzac's self-conception. Similarly, some critics and biographers have suggested that Lambert's madness reflects (consciously or not) Balzac's own unsteady mental state. His plans to run for parliament and other non-literary ambitions led observers at the time to suspect his sanity.
The many letters in the novel written by Lambert are also based on Balzac's life. After finishing the first version of the book, Balzac tried to win the heart of the Marquise de Castries by sending her a fragmented love letter from the book. Lambert's letters to his uncle about life in Paris from 1817 to 1820, meanwhile, mirror Balzac's own sentiments while attending the Sorbonne at the same time.
The ideas of Swedish
philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg
(and his disciple Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
) are central to Louis Lambert. Madame de Staël is impressed by Lambert when she finds him in a park reading Swedenborg's metaphysical treatise Heaven and Hell
(1758); the Swedish writer's ideas are later reproduced in Lambert's own comments about mind, soul, and will. Primary among these is the division of the human into an "inward" and "outward" being. The outward being, subject to the forces of nature and studied by science, manifests itself in Lambert as the frail, frequently sick boy. The inward being, meanwhile, contains what Lambert calls "the material substance of thought", and serves as the true life into which he gradually moves throughout the novel.
Swedenborg's concepts are explored with relation to language, pain, memory, and dreams. When the students take a trip to the nearby Château de Rochambeau
, for example, Lambert, who has never visited the château, nevertheless recalls vivid memories of the place from a dream. Believing his spirit visited the place while his body slept, he ascribes the experience to "a complete severance of my body and my inner being" and "some inscrutable locomotive faculty in the spirit with effects resembling those of locomotion in the body".
Like his heroes Swedenborg and Saint-Martin, Balzac attempts in Louis Lambert to construct a viable theory to unify spirit and matter. Young Lambert attempts this goal in his Traité de la Volonté, which – having been confiscated by a teacher – is described by the narrator:
, who postulated the theory of animal magnetism
, a force flowing among humans. The narrator invokes Mesmer twice in the text, and describes a section of the Traité de la Volonté which reflects the animal-magnetic theory.
. As the French critic Philippe Bertault points out, much of the mysticism in Louis Lambert is related to that of early Christianity
. In his letters, Lambert describes exploring the philosophies of Christianity, Hinduism
, Buddhism
, Islam
, and Confucianism
, among others. Tracing the similarities among these traditions, he declares that Swedenborg "undoubtedly epitomizes all of the religions—or rather the one religion—of humanity". The same theory informs Balzac's efforts, in Louis Lambert and elsewhere, to complement his Christian beliefs with occult mysticism and secular realism.
The church itself is a subject of Lambert's meditations, particularly with regard to the early Christian martyrs
. The split between inward and outward realities, he suggests, serves to explain the ability of those being tortured and maimed to escape physical suffering through the will of the spirit. As Lambert says: "Do not the phenomena observed in almost every instance of the torments so heroically endured by the early Christians for the establishment of the faith, amply prove that Material force will never prevail against the force of Ideas or the Will of man?" This inward–outward split also serves to explain the Miracles attributed to Jesus, whom Lambert considers a "perfect" representation of unity between the two beings.
The religious theme later appears in passages relating to angel
s. Discussing the contents of Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell, Lambert tries to convince the narrator of the existence of angels, described as "an individual in whom the inner being conquers the outer being". The boy genius himself is seen as an example of this process: his physical body withers and sickens, while his spiritual enlightenment expands, reaching its apex with his comment to the narrator: "The angels are white." Pauline, meanwhile, is described as "the angel" and "Angel-woman". Their parallel angelic states merge into what critic Charles Affron calls "a kind of perfect marriage, a spiritual bond that traverses this world and the next". Balzac later returned to the question of angels in other works of the Études philosophiques, particularly Séraphîta.
, Balzac used Louis Lambert to explore the difficulty of geniuses in society, as well as their frequent progression into madness
. He had been troubled greatly when, at Vendôme, he watched a schoolmate's mental condition deteriorate severely. Lambert's madness is represented most vividly in his attempt at self-castration
, followed by years spent in a catatonic state. This transformation is in many ways a byproduct of his genius; because his brilliance is condemned by teachers and incompatible with the society of the other children, Lambert finds himself rejected by the world. He finds no more success in Paris, where he is led to "eat my heart out in misery". He becomes a vegetable, removed from the physical world entirely.
As a reflection of Balzac himself, Lambert also embodies the author's self-image as a brilliant writer, but one who acknowledges suspicions about his mental health. Some of his stories and public statements – as well as his fall prior to writing the novel – had led some observers to question Balzac's sanity. The protagonist's madness in Louis Lambert only added weight to these claims. As biographer Graham Robb writes: "It was typical of Balzac to douse a fire with petrol."
Balzac was fiercely proud of Louis Lambert and believed that it elegantly represented his diverse interests in philosophy, mysticism, religion, and occultism. When he sent an early draft to his lover at the time, however, she predicted the negative reception it would receive. "Let the whole world see you for themselves, my dearest," she wrote, "but do not cry out to them to admire you, because then the most powerful magnifying glasses will be directed at you, and what becomes of the most exquisite object when it is put under a microscope?" Critical reaction was overwhelmingly negative, due mostly to the book's lack of sustaining narrative. Conservative commentator Eugène Poitou, on the other hand, accused Balzac of lacking true faith and portraying the French family as a vile institution.
Balzac was undeterred by the negative reactions; referring to Louis Lambert and the other works in Le Livre mystique, he wrote: "Those are books that I create for myself and for a few others." Although he was often critical of Balzac's work, French author Gustave Flaubert
was influenced – perhaps unconsciously – by the book. His own story "La Spirale", written in the 1850s, bears a strong plot resemblance to Balzac's 1832 novel.
While the three editions of Louis Lambert were being revised and published, Balzac was developing a scheme to organize all of his novels – written and unwritten. He called the scheme La Comédie humaine
("The Human Comedy"), and envisioned it as a panoramic look at every part of French life at the time. He placed Louis Lambert in the section named Études philosophiques ("Philosophical Studies"), where it remained throughout his fifteen-year refinement of the project. He returned to the themes of the novel in his later work Séraphîta, which follows the travails of an androgynous angelic creature. Balzac also inserted Lambert and his lover Pauline into later works – as he often did with characters from earlier novels – most notably in the story "Un Drame au bord de la mer" ("A Drama at the Sea's Edge").
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac
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), included in the Études philosophiques section of his novel sequence
Novel sequence
A novel sequence is a set or series of novels which share common themes, characters, or settings, but where each novel has its own title and free-standing storyline, and can thus be read independently or out of sequence.-Definitions:...
La Comédie 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:...
. Set mostly in a school at Vendôme
Vendôme
Vendôme is a commune in the Centre region of France.-Administration:Vendôme is the capital of the arrondissement of Vendôme in the Loir-et-Cher department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It has a tribunal of first instance.-Geography:...
, it examines the life and theories of a boy genius fascinated by the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg
was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. He has been termed a Christian mystic by some sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica online version, and the Encyclopedia of Religion , which starts its article with the description that he was a "Swedish scientist and mystic." Others...
(1688–1772).
Balzac wrote Louis Lambert during the summer of 1832 while he was staying with friends at the Château de Saché
Château de Saché
The Château de Saché is a stately home built from the converted remains of a feudal castle. It is situated in Saché, Indre-et-Loire, the heart of the French Touraine, in the valley of the river Indre...
, and published three editions with three different titles. The novel contains a minimal plot, focusing mostly on the metaphysical ideas of its boy-genius protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
and his only friend (eventually revealed to be Balzac himself). Although it is not a significant example of the realist
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
style for which Balzac became famous, the novel provides insight into the author's own childhood. Specific details and events from the author's life – including punishment from teachers and social ostracism – suggest a fictionalized autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
.
While he was a student at Vendôme, Balzac wrote an essay called Traité de la Volonté ("Treatise on the Will"); it is described in the novel as being written by Louis Lambert. The essay discusses the philosophy of Swedenborg and others, although Balzac did not explore many of the metaphysical concepts until much later in his life. Ideas analyzed in the essay and elsewhere in the novel include the split between inward and outward existence; the presence of angels and spiritual enlightenment; and the interplay between genius and madness.
Although critics panned the novel, Balzac remained steadfast in his belief that it provided an important look at philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, especially metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
. As he developed the scheme for La Comédie humaine, he placed Louis Lambert in the Études philosophiques section, and later returned to the same themes in his novel Séraphîta
Séraphîta
Séraphîta is a French novel by Honoré de Balzac with themes of androgyny. It was published in the Revue de Paris in 1834.The work plunges into the fantastic and the supernatural self ....
, about an androgynous angelic creature.
Background
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....
had begun to make a name for himself as a writer. The second of five children, Balzac was sent to the Oratorian
Oratory of Saint Philip Neri
The Oratory of Saint Philip Neri is a congregation of Catholic priests and lay-brothers who live together in a community bound together by no formal vows but only with the bond of charity. They are commonly referred to as Oratorians...
College de Vendôme
Vendôme
Vendôme is a commune in the Centre region of France.-Administration:Vendôme is the capital of the arrondissement of Vendôme in the Loir-et-Cher department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It has a tribunal of first instance.-Geography:...
at the age of eight. He returned from the school six years later, sickly and weak. He was taught by tutors and private schools for two and a half years, then attended the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. After training as a law clerk
Law clerk
A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. Law clerks are not court clerks or courtroom deputies, who are administrative staff for the court. Most law clerks are recent law school graduates who...
for three years, he moved into a tiny garret
Attic
An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . Attic is generally the American/Canadian reference to it...
in 1819 and began writing.
His first efforts, published under a variety of pseudonyms, were cheaply printed potboiler
Potboiler
Potboiler or pot-boiler is a term used to describe a poor quality novel, play, opera, or film, or other creative work that was created quickly to make money to pay for the creator's daily expenses . Authors who create potboiler novels or screenplays are sometimes called hack writers...
novels. In 1829 he finally released a novel under his own name, titled Les Chouans
Les Chouans
Les Chouans is an 1829 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac and included in the Scènes de la vie militaire section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set in the French region of Brittany, the novel combines military history with a love story between the aristocratic...
; it was a minor success, though it did not earn the author enough money to relieve his considerable debt. He found fame soon afterwards with a series of novels including La Physiologie du mariage (1829), Sarrasine
Sarrasine
Sarrasine is a novella written by Honoré de Balzac. It was published in 1830 , and is part of his Comédie Humaine.-Commentary:...
(1830), and La Peau de chagrin
La Peau de chagrin
La Peau de chagrin is an 1831 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac . Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of...
(1831).
In 1831 Balzac published a short story called "Les Proscrits" ("The Exiles"), about two poets named Dante and Godefroid de Gand who attend the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
at the start of the fourteenth century. It explores questions of metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
and mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
, particularly the spiritual quest for illuminism and enlightenment. Balzac had been influenced greatly as a young man by the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg
was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. He has been termed a Christian mystic by some sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica online version, and the Encyclopedia of Religion , which starts its article with the description that he was a "Swedish scientist and mystic." Others...
, whose theories permeate "Les Proscrits". The story was published – alongside La Peau de chagrin, which also delves into metaphysics – as part of an 1831 collection entitled Romans et contes philosophiques ("Philosophical novels and stories").
Writing and publication
Tilbury (carriage)
A tilbury is a light, open, two-wheeled carriage, with or without a top, developed in the early 19th century by the London firm of Tilbury, coachbuilders in Mount Street...
carriage crashed in a Parisian street. Although he was not hurt badly, he wrote to a friend about his worry that "some of the cogs in the mechanism of my brain may have got out of adjustment". His doctor ordered him to rest and refrain from writing and other mental activity. When he had recuperated, he spent the summer at the Château de Saché
Château de Saché
The Château de Saché is a stately home built from the converted remains of a feudal castle. It is situated in Saché, Indre-et-Loire, the heart of the French Touraine, in the valley of the river Indre...
, just outside the city of Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
, with a family friend, Jean de Margonne.
While in Saché, he wrote a short novel called Notice biographique sur Louis Lambert about a misfit boy genius interested in metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
. Like "Les Proscrits", Louis Lambert was a vehicle for Balzac to explore the ideas that had fascinated him, particularly those of Swedenborg and Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
Louis Claude de Saint-Martin was a French philosopher, known as le philosophe inconnu, the name under which his works were published.-Life:He was born, at Amboise, into a poor but noble family....
. He hoped the work would "produce an effect of incontestable superiority". and provide "a glorious rebuttal" to critics who ridiculed his interest in metaphysics.
The novel was first published as part of the Nouveaux contes philosophiques in late 1832, but by the start of the following year he declared it to be "a wretched miscarriage" and began rewriting it. During the process, Balzac was aided by a grammarian working as a proofreader, who found "a thousand errors" in the text. Once he had returned home, the author "cried with despair and with that rage that takes hold of you when you recognize your faults after working so hard".
A vastly expanded and revised novel, Histoire intellectuelle de L.L., was published as a single volume in 1833. Balzac, still unsatisfied, continued reworking the text – as he often did between editions – and included a series of letters written by the boy genius, as well as a detailed description of his metaphysical theories. This final edition was released as Louis Lambert, included with "Les Proscrits" and a later work, Séraphîta, in a volume entitled Le Livre mystique ("The Mystical Book").
Plot summary
The novel begins with an overview of the main character's background. Louis Lambert, the only child of a tannerTanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
and his wife, is born in 1797 and begins reading at an early age. In 1811 he meets the real-life Swiss author Madame de Staël
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein , commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a French-speaking Swiss author living in Paris and abroad. She influenced literary tastes in Europe at the turn of the 19th century.- Childhood :...
(1766–1817), who – struck by his intellect – pays for him to enroll in the Collège de Vendôme. There he meets the narrator, a classmate named "the Poet" who later identifies himself in the text as Balzac; they quickly become friends. Shunned by the other students and berated by teachers for not paying attention, the boys bond through discussions of philosophy and mysticism.
After completing an essay entitled Traité de la Volonté ("Treatise on the Will"), Lambert is horrified when a teacher confiscates it, calls it "rubbish", and – the narrator speculates – sells it to a local grocer. Soon afterwards, a serious illness forces the narrator to leave the school. In 1815, Lambert graduates at the age of eighteen and lives for three years in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. After returning to his uncle's home in Blois
Blois
Blois is the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours.-History:...
, he meets a woman named Pauline de Villenoix and falls passionately in love with her. On the day before their wedding, however, he suffers a mental breakdown and attempts to castrate
Castration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...
himself.
Declared "incurable" by doctors, Lambert is ordered into solitude and rest. Pauline takes him to her family's château, where he lives in a near coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
. The narrator, ignorant of these events, meets Lambert's uncle by chance, and is given a series of letters. Written by Lambert while in Paris and Blois, they continue his philosophical musings and describe his love for Pauline. The narrator visits his old friend at the Villenoix château, where the decrepit Lambert says only: "The angels are white." Pauline shares a series of statements her lover had dictated, and Lambert dies on 25 September 1824 at the age of twenty-eight.
Style
The actual events of Louis Lambert are secondary to extended discussions of philosophy (especially metaphysics) and human emotion. Because the novel does not employ the same sort of realismRealism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
for which Balzac became famous, it has been called one of "the most diffuse and least valuable of his works". Whereas many Balzac stories focus on the external world, Louis Lambert examines many aspects of the thought process and the life of the mind. Many critics, however, condemn the author's disorganized style and his placement of his own mature philosophies into the mind of a teenage boy.
Of all the physical torments to which we were exposed, certainly the most acute was that inflicted by this leathern instrument, about two fingers wide, applied to our poor little hands with all the strength and all the fury of the administrator. To endure this classical form of correction, the victim knelt in the middle of the room. He had to leave his form and go to kneel down near the master's desk under the curious and generally merciless eyes of his fellows.... Some boys cried out and shed bitter tears before or after the application of the strap; others accepted the infliction with stoic calm ... but few could control an expression of anguish in anticipation.Further signs of Balzac's realism appear when Lambert describes his ability to vicariously experience events through thought alone. In one extended passage, he describes reading about the Battle of Austerlitz
Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...
and seeing "every incident". In another he imagines the physical pain of a knife cutting his skin. As Balzac's biographer André Maurois notes, these reflections provide insight into the author's perspective toward the world and its written representations.
Themes
Autobiography
Biographers and critics agree that Louis Lambert is a thinly veiled version of the author, evidenced by numerous similarities between them. As a student at the Collège de Vendôme, Balzac was friends with a boy named Louis-Lambert Tinant. Like the title character, Balzac's faith was shaken at the time of his first communionEucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
. Balzac read voraciously while in school, and – like Lambert – was often punished for misbehaving in class. The precise details of the school also reflect Balzac's time there: as described in the novel, students were allowed to keep pigeons and tend gardens, and holidays were spent in the dormitories.
Lambert's essay about metaphysics, Traité de la Volonté ("Treatise on the Will"), is another autobiographical reference. Balzac wrote the essay himself as a boy, and – as in the novel – it was confiscated by an angry teacher. Lambert's genius and philosophical erudition are reflections of Balzac's self-conception. Similarly, some critics and biographers have suggested that Lambert's madness reflects (consciously or not) Balzac's own unsteady mental state. His plans to run for parliament and other non-literary ambitions led observers at the time to suspect his sanity.
The many letters in the novel written by Lambert are also based on Balzac's life. After finishing the first version of the book, Balzac tried to win the heart of the Marquise de Castries by sending her a fragmented love letter from the book. Lambert's letters to his uncle about life in Paris from 1817 to 1820, meanwhile, mirror Balzac's own sentiments while attending the Sorbonne at the same time.
Swedenborg and metaphysics
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg
was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. He has been termed a Christian mystic by some sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica online version, and the Encyclopedia of Religion , which starts its article with the description that he was a "Swedish scientist and mystic." Others...
(and his disciple Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
Louis Claude de Saint-Martin was a French philosopher, known as le philosophe inconnu, the name under which his works were published.-Life:He was born, at Amboise, into a poor but noble family....
) are central to Louis Lambert. Madame de Staël is impressed by Lambert when she finds him in a park reading Swedenborg's metaphysical treatise Heaven and Hell
Heaven and Hell (Swedenborg)
Heaven and Hell is the common English title of a book written by mystic Emanuel Swedenborg in Latin, published in 1758.The full title is Heaven and its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen, or in Latin: De Caelo et Ejus Mirabilibus et de inferno, ex Auditis et Visis.This book is a detailed...
(1758); the Swedish writer's ideas are later reproduced in Lambert's own comments about mind, soul, and will. Primary among these is the division of the human into an "inward" and "outward" being. The outward being, subject to the forces of nature and studied by science, manifests itself in Lambert as the frail, frequently sick boy. The inward being, meanwhile, contains what Lambert calls "the material substance of thought", and serves as the true life into which he gradually moves throughout the novel.
Swedenborg's concepts are explored with relation to language, pain, memory, and dreams. When the students take a trip to the nearby Château de Rochambeau
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau
Marshal of France Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau was a French nobleman and general who participated in the American Revolutionary War as the commander-in-chief of the French Expeditionary Force which came to help the American Continental Army...
, for example, Lambert, who has never visited the château, nevertheless recalls vivid memories of the place from a dream. Believing his spirit visited the place while his body slept, he ascribes the experience to "a complete severance of my body and my inner being" and "some inscrutable locomotive faculty in the spirit with effects resembling those of locomotion in the body".
Like his heroes Swedenborg and Saint-Martin, Balzac attempts in Louis Lambert to construct a viable theory to unify spirit and matter. Young Lambert attempts this goal in his Traité de la Volonté, which – having been confiscated by a teacher – is described by the narrator:
The word Will he used to connote ... the mass of power by which man can reproduce, outside himself, the actions constituting his external life.... The word Mind, or Thought, which he regarded as the quintessential product of the Will, also represented the medium in which the ideas originate to which thought gives substance.... Thus the Will and the Mind were the two generating forces; the Volition and the Idea were the two products. Volition, he thought, was the Idea evolved from the abstract state to a concrete state, from its generative fluid to a solid expression.... According to him, the Mind and Ideas are the motion and the outcome of our inner organization, just as the Will and Volition are of our external activity. He gave the Will precedence over the Mind.The exploration of human will and thought is linked to Balzac's interest in Franz Mesmer
Franz Mesmer
Franz Anton Mesmer , sometimes, albeit incorrectly, referred to as Friedrich Anton Mesmer, was a German physician with an interest in astronomy, who theorised that there was a natural energetic transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called magnétisme animal ...
, who postulated the theory of animal magnetism
Animal magnetism
Animal magnetism , in modern usage, refers to a person's sexual attractiveness or raw charisma. As postulated by Franz Mesmer in the 18th century, the term referred to a supposed magnetic fluid or ethereal medium believed to reside in the bodies of animate beings...
, a force flowing among humans. The narrator invokes Mesmer twice in the text, and describes a section of the Traité de la Volonté which reflects the animal-magnetic theory.
Religion
Balzac's spiritual crisis at the time of his first communion led him to explore the first Christian thinkers and the question of evilProblem of evil
In the philosophy of religion, the problem of evil is the question of how to explain evil if there exists a deity that is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient . Some philosophers have claimed that the existences of such a god and of evil are logically incompatible or unlikely...
. As the French critic Philippe Bertault points out, much of the mysticism in Louis Lambert is related to that of early Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. In his letters, Lambert describes exploring the philosophies of Christianity, Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, and Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
, among others. Tracing the similarities among these traditions, he declares that Swedenborg "undoubtedly epitomizes all of the religions—or rather the one religion—of humanity". The same theory informs Balzac's efforts, in Louis Lambert and elsewhere, to complement his Christian beliefs with occult mysticism and secular realism.
The church itself is a subject of Lambert's meditations, particularly with regard to the early Christian martyrs
Christian martyrs
A Christian martyr is one who is killed for following Christianity, through stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake or other forms of torture and capital punishment. The word "martyr" comes from the Greek word μάρτυς, mártys, which means "witness."...
. The split between inward and outward realities, he suggests, serves to explain the ability of those being tortured and maimed to escape physical suffering through the will of the spirit. As Lambert says: "Do not the phenomena observed in almost every instance of the torments so heroically endured by the early Christians for the establishment of the faith, amply prove that Material force will never prevail against the force of Ideas or the Will of man?" This inward–outward split also serves to explain the Miracles attributed to Jesus, whom Lambert considers a "perfect" representation of unity between the two beings.
The religious theme later appears in passages relating to angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
s. Discussing the contents of Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell, Lambert tries to convince the narrator of the existence of angels, described as "an individual in whom the inner being conquers the outer being". The boy genius himself is seen as an example of this process: his physical body withers and sickens, while his spiritual enlightenment expands, reaching its apex with his comment to the narrator: "The angels are white." Pauline, meanwhile, is described as "the angel" and "Angel-woman". Their parallel angelic states merge into what critic Charles Affron calls "a kind of perfect marriage, a spiritual bond that traverses this world and the next". Balzac later returned to the question of angels in other works of the Études philosophiques, particularly Séraphîta.
Genius and madness
Convinced that he was himself a geniusGenius
Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....
, Balzac used Louis Lambert to explore the difficulty of geniuses in society, as well as their frequent progression into madness
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
. He had been troubled greatly when, at Vendôme, he watched a schoolmate's mental condition deteriorate severely. Lambert's madness is represented most vividly in his attempt at self-castration
Castration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...
, followed by years spent in a catatonic state. This transformation is in many ways a byproduct of his genius; because his brilliance is condemned by teachers and incompatible with the society of the other children, Lambert finds himself rejected by the world. He finds no more success in Paris, where he is led to "eat my heart out in misery". He becomes a vegetable, removed from the physical world entirely.
As a reflection of Balzac himself, Lambert also embodies the author's self-image as a brilliant writer, but one who acknowledges suspicions about his mental health. Some of his stories and public statements – as well as his fall prior to writing the novel – had led some observers to question Balzac's sanity. The protagonist's madness in Louis Lambert only added weight to these claims. As biographer Graham Robb writes: "It was typical of Balzac to douse a fire with petrol."
Reception and legacy
Balzac was undeterred by the negative reactions; referring to Louis Lambert and the other works in Le Livre mystique, he wrote: "Those are books that I create for myself and for a few others." Although he was often critical of Balzac's work, French author Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
was influenced – perhaps unconsciously – by the book. His own story "La Spirale", written in the 1850s, bears a strong plot resemblance to Balzac's 1832 novel.
While the three editions of Louis Lambert were being revised and published, Balzac was developing a scheme to organize all of his novels – written and unwritten. He called the scheme La Comédie 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:...
("The Human Comedy"), and envisioned it as a panoramic look at every part of French life at the time. He placed Louis Lambert in the section named Études philosophiques ("Philosophical Studies"), where it remained throughout his fifteen-year refinement of the project. He returned to the themes of the novel in his later work Séraphîta, which follows the travails of an androgynous angelic creature. Balzac also inserted Lambert and his lover Pauline into later works – as he often did with characters from earlier novels – most notably in the story "Un Drame au bord de la mer" ("A Drama at the Sea's Edge").
External links
- Louis Lambert at Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...