Droll Stories

(** ½)<br><b>Blanche wallowed silently in her desire, like a cake which is being floured.</b> <br> <br><i>‘This is a book of the richest flavour, full of right hearty merriment, spiced to the palate of the illustrious and very precious tosspots and drinkers, to whom our worthy compatriot, François Rabelais, the eternal honour of Touraine, addressed himself’.</i> <br>(From the prologue)<br><br><a href="https://postimg.cc/47VJS96p" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1547145326i/26898081._SY540_.jpg" alt="balzac" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><br>As much as I loved the few episodes of <b>La Comédie Humaine</b> I read so far (<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/25932.Lost_Illusions__La_Com_die_Humaine_" title="Lost Illusions (La Comédie Humaine) by Honoré de Balzac" rel="noopener">Lost Illusions</a>, <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/59144.Cousin_Bette" title="Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac" rel="noopener">Cousin Bette</a>, <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/25946.Cousin_Pons" title="Cousin Pons by Honoré de Balzac" rel="noopener">Cousin Pons</a>), I cannot say I was entirely enthralled by this collection of ribald short stories by <b>Honoré de Balzac</b>. Published in three sets of ten stories each, in 1832, 1833, and 1837, known as <b>Contes drolatiques</b> (Droll stories), Balzac conceived these candid and wanton stories as an obvious homage to Rabelais. The Dutch subtitle of the edition I read (‘a classic erotic masterpiece’) divulges partly what to expect: lively, amatory and slightly grotesque comical stories set mostly in the thirteenth century, on the licentious mores of knights and dames, pages, courtesans, nuns, monks and others representing the ecclesiastic class. Mostly dealing with cuckoldry, disingenuous wiles, faux-naïvité, impotence or lost innocence; the tales are rather to be situated in the sphere of eroticism than in the one of heroism and also turn out more scatological than eschatological. The <b>Contes drolatiques</b> were added to the Index librorum prohibitorum in 1841 – maybe because most women characters are so admirably sensual and cunning in outwitting the men? ‘This teaches us to thoroughly verify and recognise women’, Balzac muses wisely. <br><br>These libertine, saucy stories struck me as a curiosum in Balzac’s oeuvre. On the historical and social context in which these stories were written and published, Graham Robb in his <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/159978.Balzac_A_Biography" title="Balzac A Biography by Graham Robb" rel="noopener">Balzac: A Biography</a> clarifies that <i>‘The subjects were a form of protest at the new bourgeois society which had no regard for the truly important aspects of human existence: necrophilia, nymphomania, adultery and the essential bodily functions. The first collection was published in what seemed bad taste during the cholera epidemic of spring 1832. Actually it was rather appropriate since Paris was temporarily plunged into the Dark Ages, with a curfew, corpses carried through the streets at midnight, and the rag-pickers revolting when their rubbish heaps were swept away’</i>. And apparently Balzac managed to lift the spirits, as for instance when the first story, on the courtesan <b>Impéria</b>, got published, it worked on the contemporaries <i>‘like an aphrodisiac in a time of miserable chastity’</i>.<br><br>The collection I read contained nineteen stories in a Dutch translation that modernizes the style, so I assume the meticulous historical wordplay in imitation of 16th century French these stories are renown for was a dimension that was unavoidably at least partly lost in translation (allegedly one of the reasons he chose to write in this for the contemporaries rather remote pseudo-archaic style was his aim to restrain the enjoyment of his lascivious adventures to the elite in order to avoid his book being banned). Nevertheless some of the flowery and juicy language, the vitality and the style mimicry echoes through – with the often ambiguous language and plentiful double entendres, it seems that the translator conveys at least some of what must be the playful qualities of the original. <br><br><a href="https://postimg.cc/23dvKH79" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1547145326i/26898082._SY540_.jpg" alt="unnamed" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><br>One of my favourites scenes, in which the pleasures of reading are combined with the ones of the flesh, features in<i>The venial sin</i>, of which I found two illustrations – what will happen can be left to the imagination. Some editions include illustrations by <b>Gustave Doré</b>, which capture the dark and at macabre undertone of some of the stories, in which many a man ends up on the scaffold - exquisitely. Both text and more illustrations can be found <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13260/13260-h/13260-h.htm" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>.<br><br><a href="https://postimg.cc/1fjzC62Y" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1547145326i/26898083._SY540_.jpg" alt="121s" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><br><a href="https://postimg.cc/JsXRpFbG" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1547145326i/26898084._SY540_.jpg" alt="137s" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><br>The repetitiveness and the often clerical context and setting- the stories are supposedly collected from the abbeys of Balzac’s native Touraine - for me however made it hard to fully enjoy this collection reading it in one take – possibly just too many nuns to my taste, having seen enough of them at school - and by the end I struggled to get through the whole collection. Good for a grin here and there, it seems more appropriate to pick a tale in between some other books, or to read one in bed to close the day– maybe the smile it gives could inspire some amusing dreams? I am wondering now how I would get along with Rabelais…<br>

Pssst! People like sex! Keep it quiet! <br /><br />Balzac is one of my literary heroes, the creator or preserver of the whole world of 19th century France so I don’t want to put him down. You should definitely read his classic novels if you haven’t already. But just as we say “Every dog has his day,” we could also say “Every dog has an off day,” and that’s just as true. I suppose old Honoré got tired penning tales of the reality around him and took some time off to write comic, sex and scatological tales of medieval French lords and ladies, churls and varlets, all of whom specialized in “friggling” as it is sometimes referred to within. Maybe he wanted to pen a tribute to Rabelais as some say. Some of the protagonists have bad endings, all contain some sort of vague moral at the end. These are tales which are risqué or ribald rather than just “droll”. I’m afraid that our modern age has deadened us to daggers in boots, lovers under beds or in cabinets, exits by window just in time, old men with a mind to fondle the gentle flowers of innocence, horns sprouting ubiquitously, and youth determined to die for their ladyloves who in turn couldn’t care less. I could continue. But alas, I confess, dear readers, that I tired and could not make it to the end of this 507 page monster, though some of the translated expressions amused me a bit. When I reached a very long tale about a succubus held for trial, I ran out of patience. (“If I asked you to sell me your soul for a kiss, would you not grant it me with all your heart?” p.322) I realized that when I’d bought the book at a sale thirty years ago, I had not bothered to check the contents very well, thinking, “Ah, a book I don’t know by Balzac!” Sorry, messieurs et madames, but I’m out of here. Please read some other, more positive reviews. You can check Ilse's excellent contribution too.

I enjoyed "taking a break" with this book; its humorous style and short story format made it ideal for filling in odd moments throughout the day and providing relief from heavier reading.<br /><br />I really can't understand why any careful reader would think this book dull. True, most of the stories utilize the same main themes (cuckoldry being the most common, I think), but the quality of the writing makes the common-theme stories unique and engaging throughout. If something seems odd or nonsensical upon the first reading, I would suggest going back over the passage to look for double (or triple, in some cases) meanings -- I definitely would have missed a lot of the charming humor Balzac employs if I had not slowed down at certain points when reading his work. I'm sure a lot of his "pun power" was lost in translation, but the editor of the edition I read made quite an effort to fill-in the English reader to the lost complexity whenever he could, a practice I found very helpful.<br /><br />I loved the amazing engravings featured in the work -- their complexity and macabre styling was quite impressive, so don't skip by them if you happen to have an edition where they are included.

Eigentlich zweieinhalb, bei Balzac greift der Klassikerbonus, in Sachen Verklärung der lebenstüchtigeren oder authentischeren Vergangenheit ist der Autor Romantiker, der die miserable bürgerliche Gegenwart durch den Lobpreis von verlorerer Größe tadelt. Architektonische Passagen dieses Zuschnitts finden sich auch noch im Spätwerk, auch in <i>Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen</i> lässt Balzac den alten Geldsack Nucingen endlos für nie gewährte Gunst bluten. Die <i>tolldreisten Geschichten</i> bestehen zu gut einem Drittel aus Geschichten, in denen ein alter Mann, der sich mit seinem finanziellen oder hochadeligen Vorsprung eine junge Frau gesichert hat, am Ende doch drauf zahlt und manchmal auch mit dem Leben. Sämtliche Mönche sind dauergeile Stecher und mit einer wirklich fabelhaften Kondition gesegnet. Leser, die Vorfällen in alten Bücher nach derzeit gültigem Recht beurteilen, dürften auf etliche Vergewaltigungen stoßen, - in einem Fall macht sich ein alter Vagabund über eine schlafende junge Hirtin her* -, von daher Finger weg von den tolldreisten Geschichten, wenn ihr nicht anders könnt als die derzeit gültige Wertordnung oder das aktuelle BGB ans alte Bücher anzulegen. Diese deftigen Erzählungen sind keine Gewissensbisse wert, das literarische Niveau ist über weite Strecken schlechter als in den Romanen und Erzählungen der Comédie Humaine, die zudem deutliche abwechslungsreicher ist.

Ich muss gestehen, ich war vielleicht bereits zu Beginn dieses Buches etwas negativ voreingenommen. Zum einen hat mich Balzac bislang nie so wirklich begeistern können, da sein flüchtiger Stil neben den beiden anderen großen Realisten Flaubert und Stendhal verblasst. Zum anderen war meine DDR-Ausgabe mit einem mikroskopisch kleinen Schriftbild versehen, dass das Lesen unangenehm macht und auch die Qualität der Reproduktionen der Stiches Gustave Dorés erheblich beeinträchtigte. <br /><br />Aber auch ohne diese negative Vorprägung hätte mich das Buch nicht begeistern können. Balzac versucht so etwas, wie einen Decameron seiner Zeit, den er allerdings in das Frankreich der Religionskriege verlegt. Wer das versucht, der muss sich auch mit Boccaccio messen lassen und hier muss Balzac leider den Vergleich scheuen, den bei aller Zotigkeit sind die Tolldreisten Geschichten doch in vielen Punkten verschämt bieder. Das aber passt nicht zum Thema. Da lobe ich mir doch den würzigen Witz der Renaissance! Das übrigens liegt nicht an der etwas altbackenen Übersetzung. Der Übersetzer ist redlich bemüht, die Sprachwitze zu übertragen und dies gelingt ihm insbesondere dort gut, wo Balzac lokale französische Dialekte immitiert und unterschiedliche deutsche Dialekte an deren Stelle gesetzt werden.<br /><br />Zugleich ist Balzac bei seinem historischen Setting unglaublich schlampig. Da wäre es konsequenter gewesen, die Geschichte in die ihm bekannte Gegenwart zu versetzen, wie das Julia Voznesenskaya bei ihrem - schwer mit Balzac zu vergleichenden aber wesentlich gelungeneren - "Dekameron der Frauen" gemacht hat.

4,5/5<br /><br />Wow, neviem, čo som čakala, ale toto určite nie. Nečakala som, že to bude tak dobré!<br />V prvom rade, nie som veľká fanúšička poviedok. V druhom rade som mala (zrejme zo školy) z nepochopiteľného dôvodu zafixované, že Balzac bude nudný. Ani trochu!<br /><br />Tieto poviedky boli veľmi vtipné, miestami absurdné, plné satiry a irónie. Majstrovsky napísané. Poviedky sa týkajú lásky, sexu, nevery, ale aj výsmech cirkvi a ich pokrytectva (som dosť prekvapená, že som túto knihu našla u svojej veriacej babky, autor sa s týmto veľmi nemaznal). Autor niekoľkokrát zašiel ďaleko, oveľa ďalej, než by som čakala pri poviedkách z 19. storočia, ale myslim to v tom najlepšom zmysle. Poviedky tiež často zobrazujú inteligentné ženy, ktoré používajú svoje kvality a vedia ich využiť pre svoj prospech, čiže Balzacovi tlieskam aj kvôli tomuto.<br /><br />Mojim favoritom medzi poviedkami je jednoznačne Všedný hriech, čo bolo umelecké dielo dejovo, charaktermi postáv, aj takým tým situačným humorom (absurditou situácie?)<br />Mimo toho sa tu nachádza aj pár priemerných poviedok, no žiadna si nevyslúžila menej než 3*. Za mňa teda obrovská spokojnosť a môžem vám tieto poviedky silno odporučiť. Navyše je text obohatený úžasnými ilustráciami.

I was really looking forward to reading Droll Stories, as it seemed to me that a ribald parody of medieval tales was subject matter I could easily find amusing treasures in. However it seems as if Balzac had taken on a rabelaisian task without having the right mindset to offer the reader the same degree of grotesque bawdiness all the way through. <br /><br />Balzac promises us a book of the "richest flavour, full of right hearty merriment, spiced to the palate of the illustrious and very precious tosspots and drinkers, to whom our worthy compatriot Francois Rabelais, the eternal honour of Touraine, addressed himself", and this is true of the first ten tales, and indeed somewhat into the second ten tales, but about midway through the second lot of stories the writing takes a turn towards more dramatic themes and the absurdity so well begun wanes. Some of the early pieces I quite enjoyed such as The Brother-in-Arms, The Vicar of Azay-Le-Rideau, and the most befitting The Merry Tattle of the Nuns of Poissy which has a novice nun searching her naked body by command of a senior sister for a potentially sinful flea. This is the kind of bawdy absurdness I was hoping to unravel through-out the entire collection of stories, but by the time I had reached the third ten tales I was struggling to keep engrossed and felt that Balzac was writing in a completely different mood to when he had started out despite the verve of the prologues and epilogues that would have us believe otherwise.<br /><br />"Give us a story, then, that stops at the girdle", this is what I was expecting all the way through Droll Stories, it may be that Balzac is tickled by the wit of Rabelais but I just don't think he has the same nuance of the absurd that is required to replicate it in his own outpourings. It's worth reading for the few tales that will delight the more lewd of the senses and my 1946 edition has saucy illustrations by Steele Savage which enrich the feel of the collection, but if you are hoping for something that will make you gasp and guffaw then I'd recommend Rabelais himself. Having said all that, it is splendid that Balzac attempted such an ode and I'm sure it is probably better read in the author's native tongue.

This isn't the exact edition I read. Unfortunately and inexplicably I can't seem to find the right edition, which includes 125 illustrations by the fantabulous <a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41o0hHvoUYL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener">Gustave Dore</a>.<br /><br />In any case, the stories themselves sort of bored me and because of that this took me <i>forevertime</i> to read. Balzac is sort of one of those authors that I've always expected to love, so I've been putting him off until just the right time. But then came these stories and oompf. Balzac could have been holding a gun to my head and I wouldn't have been able to muster any more energy for reading these stories.<br /><br />The stories themselves are "okay", but the third star is because of the illustrations by Dore. They're amazing just like most of his other illustrations, and they're honestly what kept me going through reading these. Maybe it just wasn't quite the right time to read Balzac; but it's never the <i>wrong</i> time to look at some Dore illustrations. Not as awesome as his work for Dante's Inferno, but a nice contender nonetheless.<br /><br />Balzac - as for you, dear friend, I've got some other stuff of yours that I will not give up on... yet.

For those unfamiliar with Balzac, he's one of the first realist writers of his time. Most of his work is vulgar and broad, but set in a time when vulgarity was a part of life. It's refreshing to see that Shakespeare wasn't the first/only one to transcend the pattern of dark Europe.<br /><br />While most of the stories contain subtle filth on bodily functions and bedroom escapades, it's not difficult to understand, even in translation. It's all quite entertaining, and broad though it may be, still lends to an appropriate feeling of familiarity with the era (the writer's 19th century or the fictional 13th century, or anywhere in between).<br /><br />It wasn't all farts and tresses and entrails, however. a four-part story in the middle of the collection concerns a witch trial of-sorts. "The Succubus" reminds me of Milton's Paradise Lost, which probably took clues from most witchcraft stories of the medieval era.<br /><br />Overall, I found it light reading and worthy of my time. I recommend it to anyone weary of unrealistic, morally-bound pre-victorian literature.

I read a version that was printed in 1874. It was rich with engravings, making up about 20% of the volume. It was very much about ribaldry and cuckoldry, and thus very French. Male/female relations, and the clergy figure prominently. The short stories are all written as if they took place in the 15th century—the time of Rabelais. I found it very entertaining, humorous, and titillating in a very refined manner.