Word: balzacs
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...village priest, Don Abbondio, for example, is no stock cleric of the sort Balzac rolled off his nib, but the full-length portrait of a weak, well-meaning man of the world, truckling where he has to, lording it where he can, glad to do a kindness if you'll wait till after supper, parish-wise and heaven-foolish all day long. The wicked nun is not simply wicked, but a believable wretch who got that way partly through her own vanity, partly because she was hideously tricked by her father into a life she had no call...
John Dos Passos' massive, radical trilogy, U.S.A. (1930-36), sizzled with social protest, sent admiring critics scurry-ng to Balzac and Tolstoy for comparisons. Now a mellow 55, Dos Passos has put together a long, loose chronicle that parallels the history of many an intellectual of his own generation...
...Long Ago. It is not hard to imagine what a mature author would do with the theme of The Young Visiters (Balzac rigged a great part of his Human Comedy round precisely such characters as Ethel Monticue and Mr. Salteena). But it is certain that no adult, whether a Balzac or a Barrie, could have turned out a work ith the unique perfections of The Young Visiters...
...verbiage that he would surely have found too hairy for comfort; The Laughing Philosopher, by M. P. Willcocks, sometimes muffles the Rabelaisian laughter in a modesty he certainly never felt. Yet both books bring back a strong, winey breath of the most exuberant of writers from Aristophanes to Balzac; a man who drank life to the drains, and then couldn't deny himself the loudest belch in literature...
...Pending Balzac. Whether the fictional Barons catch the flavor and character of the Du Ponts is another question. Many attempts have been made to mine the raw drama of America's industrial titans. So far, these tremendous themes are still awaiting a Balzac. Author Wertenbaker, sometime resident of Delaware, longtime member of the editorial staffs of TIME and FORTUNE who now writes novels in the south of France, knows his milieu. He has a long memory for the provincial feel, the sights, sounds, and faded scandals of the Delaware country. If there is a bit too much historical lumber...