Il est dans Paris certaines rues déshonorées autant que peut l'être un homme coupable d'infamie; puis il existe des rues nobles, puis des rues simplement honnêtes, puis des jeunes rues sur la moralité desquelles le public ne s'est pas encore formé d'opinion; puis des rues assassines, des rues plus vieilles que de vieilles douairières ne sont vieilles, des rues estimables, des rues toujours propres, des rues toujours sales, des rues ouvrières, travailleuses, mercantiles. Enfin les rues de Paris ont des qualités humaines, et nous impriment par leur physionomie certaines idées contre lesquelles nous sommes sans défense. Il y a des rues de mauvaise compagnie où vous ne voudriez pas demeurer, et des rues où vous placeriez volontiers votre séjour ... Ces observations, incompréhensibles au-delà de Paris seront sans doute saisies par ces hommes d'étude et de pensée, de poésie et de plaisir qui savent récolter, en flânant dans Paris, la masse de jouissances flottantes, à toute heure, entre ses murailles; par ceux pour lesquels Paris est le plus délicieux des monstres ... ô Paris! qui n'a pas admiré tes sombres paysages, tes échappées de lumière, tes culs-de-sac profonds et silencieux; qui n'a pas entendu tes murmures, entre minuit et deux heures du matin, ne connaît encore rien de ta vraie poésie, ni de tes bizarres et larges contrastes. Honoré de Balzac: Ferragus (1833)The literature of the nineteenth century is a literature of things, of objects. The literature of the nineteenth century is also however, a literature of place, of social space, a literature of precise geographical specificity. Since the nineteenth century was very much the century of the city and the rapid growth of the city - the population of Paris increased threefold during Balzac's lifetime from 650,000 to 1,800,000 inhabitants - the literature and the art of the nineteenth century was thus also a literature and an art of the urban, the metropolitan. This is certainly true of Le Père Goriot. Indeed, almost on the very first page of the novel, in a kind of narratorial digression, we find the narrator wondering aloud if the story he is about to tell would be understood outside of Paris:
Serait-elle [l'histoire] comprise au-delà de Paris? le doute est permis. (Folio pp.21-2)What the narrator is saying here is this: look, my story is so rooted in Paris, so much about the people and atmosphere of the place, that it may not be fully comprehensible to anyone living outside of Paris. Balzac's Paris, the Paris described in Le Père Goriot is, I would argue, a fascinating mix of the historically verifiable and the poetic. At the same time as remaining superficially faithful to the real contours, detours, sights and smells of the city he projects onto the city his own mythologized vision. The extract from Ferragus at the beginning of this section expresses Balzac's desire to document the different quartiers of Paris and their respective characters, as well as a sensitivity to the city's strange poetry.
The Paris of Balzac's lifetime was largely mediaeval, based as it was on a mediaeval street pattern and largely unchanged. It was not until the 1850's with the modernization programme commissioned by Napoléon III and carried out by Baron Haussmann that the modern Paris we know today took shape. Balzac's Paris was one of glitter, ferment and temptation since the capital became a magnet for the concentration of wealth and power. Yet it was also one of squalid streets, dark alleys and poor hygiene. Balzac is alive to the economic developments and opportunities taking place in Restoration Paris. Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo a mere four years prior to the action of the novel and Paris had only just be free of the occupation of allied troops. Although between 1815 and 1818 things were rather uncertain economically, by 1819 the economy was beginning to pick up. Paris, in particular, was the beneficiary of a number of significant building projects: new markets and slaughterhouses, The Saint-Denis and Ourcq canals and the Sèvres bridge were also completed during this period.
In keeping with Balzac's Realist aesthetic, his representation of life in Paris is broadly similar to documentary accounts produced at the time. Housing and police documents of the time for example, paint a dismal picture of the low standard of living and insanitary conditions of the poorer areas of Paris. The population of Paris grew rapidly in the period after 1815 but with no real increase in the number of available properties. Overcrowding, and the social and medical problems it causes was endemic. This explains the large number of boarding houses in poorer areas and, indeed, the often varied social mix who dwelt in those boading houses. As for the streets, well they were almost uniformly poorly lit, awash with mud and filth and were a constant place of crime. Little wonder then, that Rastignac makes so much fuss at having to brave the streets instead of taking a cab.
Further Reading
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Concept: Charlie Mansfield, Text: Tony McNeill
The University of Sunderland, GB, Last Update 20-Feb-96