Chronology

1799 20 May: Born at Tours, and put out to nurse until the age of four. His father is a civil servant, of peasant stock; his mother from a family of wealthy Parisian drapers.

Napoleon Bonaparte overthrows the Directory and becomes First Consul of France.

Hölderlin, Hyperion.

1804 First Empire: Napoleon becomes Emperor of France and starts conquering Europe.

Schiller, William Tell.

1805 Nelson defeats the French and Spanish fleet in the naval battle of Trafalgar. Napoleon defeats Austro-Russian troops at Austerlitz and then the Prussians at Jena.

Chateaubriand, René.

1807 Sent to the Oratorian college in Vendôme, where he boards for the next six years. Birth of his half-brother Henry. (Already has two younger sisters: Laure, Laurence.)

1812 Napoleon is defeated in his catastrophic Moscow campaign against Tsar Alexander I.

Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.

1814 Family move to Paris, where Balzac continues his education.

Allied troops enter Paris. Napoleon abdicates, and becomes King of Elba. First restoration: Accession of Louis XVIII to the French throne.

Austen, Mansfield Park. Goya, The Second and Third of May 1808.

1815 Napoleon returns in triumph to Paris and rules for 100 days before defeat at Waterloo. Second restoration: Louis XVIII is reinstated on the French throne.

1816–19 Begins his legal training, attending lectures at the Sorbonne; articled to a solicitor, Maître Guillonnet-Merville, then a notary, Maître Passez.

1819 Determined to make a career from writing, moves into a garret in Rue Lesdiguières.

Scott, Ivanhoe. Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa.

1820 Finishes a verse drama, Cromwell, which is judged to be a failure by family and friends.

Shelley, Prometheus Unbound. Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn.

1821 Publishes novels of Gothic inspiration, many produced collaboratively, under the pseudonyms Lord R’hoone and Horace de St Aubin. Writes poems and plays.

Constable, Landscape: Noon (The Hay Wain).

1822 Becomes the lover of Laure de Berny, mother of nine and twenty-two years his senior.

1824 ‘Horace de St Aubin’ is slated in the Feuilleton littéraire. Balzac contemplates suicide.

Louis XVIII dies and is succeeded by Charles X.

Beethoven, Ninth Symphony.

1825 Launches a publishing and printing venture, producing editions of Molière and La Fontaine. Meets Victor Hugo.

Grillparzer, King Ottokar’s Rise and Fall.

1828 Printing business collapses, leaving him in debt. His literary purpose strengthens.

Schubert, Schwanengesang (Swansong).

1829 Frequents the salons, introduced by the Duchesse d’Abrantès. His father dies. The Chouans, the first novel he signs with his own name.

1830 Publishes numerous short stories, including ‘Gobseck’, ‘The Vendetta’ and ‘Sarrasine’.

July Revolution. Charles X abdicates. July Monarchy. Louis-Philippe becomes king.

Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People. Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique.

1831 Adopts a lifestyle beyond his means. The Wild Ass’s Skin establishes his reputation. Begins systematically and publicly to use the particle ‘de’ before his surname.

Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris. Pushkin, Boris Godunov.

1832 Travels widely. Begins corresponding with Eveline Hanska, a Polish countess. Joins the neo-legitimist (ultra-conservative) party and publishes political essays. Rumoured to be going mad. Louis Lambert, Colonel Chabert.

Goethe, final revision of Faust before his death.

1833 Meets Mme Hanska for the first time, in Switzerland. Signs a contract for the publication of Studies of Nineteenth-Century Life, a collective work which will stretch to twelve volumes over the next four years. The Country Doctor, Eugénie Grandet.

1834 Birth of Marie du Fresnay, his supposed daughter by Maria du Fresnay. Becomes Mme Hanska’s lover. Meets Countess Guidoboni-Visconti. Has grand idea of recurring characters between novels and begins adapting previous works to establish continuity. History of the Thirteen, The Quest of the Absolute.

1835 Spends three weeks with Mme Hanska in Vienna, the last time for eight years. Old Man Goriot, Seraphita and collected Philosophical Studies.

Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin.

1836 Birth of Lionel-Richard Guidoboni-Visconti, his supposed son. Death of Laure de Berny. Liquidates La Chronique de Paris, the journal purchased the previous year.

Serial publication of Dickens’s Pickwick Papers begins in England. Some months later, Balzac’s The Old Maid is serialized in La Presse, the first roman-feuilleton.

1837 Countess Guidoboni-Visconti settles his debts to save him from imprisonment. His tilbury is seized by the bailiffs. Travels to Italy, staying at the best hotels. Exhibition of his portrait in a monk’s habit by Louis Boulanger. César Birotteau.

1838 Visits George Sand (who begins a nine-year relationship with Chopin this year). Travels across Sardinia, Corsica and the Italian peninsula. Incurs further debt after speculating in Sardinian silver mines. The Firm of Nucingen.

1840 His play Vautrin opens and is banned. Launches the Revue parisienne, which folds; his review of Stendhal’s The Charterhouse of Parma appears in the third and final issue. Moves to Passy with his mother and housekeeper/mistress Louise de Brugnol.

1841 Signs a publishing contract for The Human Comedy, his collective title since the previous year. Ursule Mirouet, A Murky Business.

1842 Compares human types to animal species in the preface to The Human Comedy. Has his portrait taken by a Daguerréotypeur. Mme Hanska’s husband dies. The Black Sheep. His play The Resources of Quinola is a flop.

Gogol, Dead Souls. Verdi, Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar).

1843 Visits Mme Hanska in St Petersburg. Sits for David d’Angers. His health is poor. Writes a letter of introduction to Mme Hanska for Liszt, who tries to seduce her. Completion of Lost Illusions, in three parts. Honorine.

1844 Due to ill health, travels and socializes little. Collects furniture and paintings. Modest Mignon and publication of the beginning of The Peasantry.

Dumas, The Three Musketeers. Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed. Heine, New Poems.

1845 Travels in Europe with Mme Hanska, her daughter and her future son-in-law.

Poe, The Raven and Other Poems. Wagner, Tannhäuser.

1846 Mme Hanska delivers a stillborn baby, which would have been named Victor-Honoré. Cousin Bette.

1847 Mme Hanska visits for four months in Paris and he makes her his legal heir. They winter in the Ukraine. Cousin Pons. Completion of A Harlot High and Low.

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights.

1848 Returns to Paris. Witnesses the sacking of the Tuileries. His play The Stepmother is a success with critics. Ill health prevents him working regularly. Returns to the Ukraine.

February Revolution. Second Republic. Louis Bonaparte is elected President. Revolutionary uprisings across Europe. Final abolition of slavery in French domains.

Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto. Gaskell, Mary Barton. Thackeray, Vanity Fair.

1849 Health deteriorates seriously. Starts work on projects he will never finish.

1850 Marries Mme Hanska in March, at Berdichev. (They are married for only five months.) On return to Paris in May, Balzac can no longer read or write. 18 August: Dies. A cast is taken of his writing hand. Hugo pronounces a funeral oration at Père Lachaise.

Courbet, A Burial at Ornans.