Synopses & Reviews
Balzac's reputation is as a novelist. But short stories make up over half La Comédie humaine, besides scores of other tales and articles. Balzac's Shorter Fictions looks at the whole of this corpus, at the nature of short fiction, and at how Balzac's novels developed from his stories--at the links between literary genesis and genre.
Table of Contents
General Introduction 1. Philosophies of Composition: From `Corsino' to the `Code des gens honnêttes', 1818-1825
2. From Code to Physiologie, 1826-1829
3. The First Scenes de la vie privée, 1829-1830
4. Narratives and Newspapers, 1829-1830
5. Balzac and the Literary Reviews, October 1830 - August 1831
6. From la Peau de chagrin to the Contes drolatiques, 1831-1832
7. Balzac, Roi de la Nouvelle: from the `Contes bruns' To `Le Curé de Tours' (1832)
8. Another Destiny? From `Louis Lambert' to `Le Père Goriot', September 1832 - March 1835
9. Building the Cathedral, 1835-1838
10. Relative Values, 1838-1839
11. Roi des romanciers? Scenes, Satires, and Serials, 1839-1840
12. Towards the Comédie, 1840-1841
13. La Grrrrrrande Comédie, 1842-1845
14. Constellations and Supernovellas: `Nouvelle' And Novel, 1841-1844
Conclusion; Balzac's Shorter Fictions
Bibliography
Index