Treatise on Modern Stimulants by Honore De Balzac

Treatise on Modern Stimulants by Honore De Balzac

"A marvel of brash opinion, contemporary society, politics, and memoir.” –Bookforum Honoré de Balzac's Treatise on Modern Stimulants is a meditation on five stimulants—tea, sugar, coffee, alcohol and tobacco—by an author very conscious of the fact that his gargantuan output of work was driven by an excessive intake (his bouts of writing typically required 10 to 15 cups of coffee a day) that would ultimately shorten his life. First published in French in 1839 as an appendix to Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's Physiology of Taste, this Treatise was at once Balzac's effort at addressing what he perceived to be an oversight in that cornerstone of gastronomic literature; a chapter toward his never-completed body of analytic studies (alongside such essays as Treatise on Elegant Living) that were to form an overarching "pathology of social life"; and a meditation on the impact of pleasure and excess on the body and the role they play in shaping society. Balzac here describes his "terrible and cruel method" for brewing a coffee that can help the artist and author find inspiration; explains why tobacco can be credited with having brought peace to Germany; and describes his first experience of alcoholic intoxication (which required seventeen bottles of wine and two cigars). Beyond its braggadocio and whimsy, though, this treatise ultimately speaks to Balzac's obsession with death and decline, and attempts to confront in capsule form the broader implications of dissipating one's vital forces. This edition includes illustrations to an earlier French edition by Pierre Alechinsky.

Part of a series of physiologies – short, pro- to-self-help manuals – that Balzac wrote in the 1820s and 30s, this Treatise shares with its siblings its author’s mercurial wit, and his humorous gossipy prose-- André Naffis-Sahely * Times Literary Supplement *
The Treatise on its own is a marvel of brash opinion, contemporary society, politics, and memoir. * Bookforum *

Balzac (De), Honore: - Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) est un ecrivain francais. Romancier, dramaturge, critique litteraire, critique d'art, essayiste, journaliste et imprimeur, il a laisse l'une des plus imposantes 1/2uvres romanesques au pantheon de la litterature francaise, avec 96 romans et nouvelles parus de 1829 a 1850, reunis sous le titre La Comedie humaine. A cette bibliographie impressionnante, s'ajoutent Les Cent Contes drolatiques, ainsi que des romans de jeunesse publies sous des pseudonymes et quelque vingt-cinq 1/2uvres ebauchees. Maitre du roman francais, il s'est illustre dans divers genres. Dans le roman historique et politique, notons Les Chouans, dans le roman philosophique: Le Chef-d'1/2uvre inconnu, dans le fantastique remarquons La Peau de chagrin ou encore dans le domaine du poetique: Le Lys dans la vallee. Toutefois, ses romans realistes et psychologiques demeurent les plus celebres, tels Le Pere Goriot ou Eugenie Grandet sont de veritables 1/2uvres emblematiques. A cote d'une aristocratie qu'il admire, l'auteur decrit la montee de la bourgeoisie et la puissance de l'Argent. Il se demarque en creant des personnages au destin marque, de veritables archetypes de la nature humaine, tel l'ambitieux Grandet ou le Goriot, le pere tyran. Par ailleurs, son 1/2uvre accorde une large place aux femmes de la courtisane aux femmes admirables et angeliques, toutes ont leur importance de sorte que tres tot Balzac s'aliene ce lectorat. Lu et admire dans toute l'Europe, Balzac a fortement influence les ecrivains de son temps et du siecle suivant notamment Gustave Flaubert et son roman L'Education sentimentale est directement inspire du Lys dans la vallee. Le principe du retour de personnages evoluant et se transformant au sein d'un vaste cycle romanesque a notamment inspire Emile Zola et Marcel Proust. Ses 1/2uvres continuent d'etre reimprimees et adaptees regulierement au cinema.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781939663382
ISBN 10	1939663385
Title	Treatise on Modern Stimulants
Author	Honore De Balzac
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Wakefield Press
Year published	2019-01-03
Number of pages	80
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.