La Messe de l'athée
Église Saint-Sulpice, illustration by François-Étienne Villeret | |
Author | Honoré de Balzac |
---|---|
Country | France |
Language | French |
Series | La Comédie humaine |
Publication date | 1836 |
La Messe de l'athée (English "The Atheist's Mass") is a short story by Honoré de Balzac, published in 1836. It is one of the Scènes de la vie privée in La Comédie humaine.[1]
Plot summary
The main character, Desplein, is a successful surgeon. One day, Doctor Horace Bianchon, his former assistant and friend, sees Desplein, an atheist, going into the Saint-Sulpice church, and, knowing Desplein and his strong atheistic beliefs, decides to follow him. He sees Desplein alone attending a mass. After Desplein departs, Bianchon questions the priest from whom he learns that Desplein attends a mass at the church four times a year (at the beginning of each season) which he himself pays for.
A few years later, Bianchon sees Desplein going into Saint-Sulpice for the mass again; but this time, he questions Desplein about it. Desplein explains that when he was a poor medical student, already desperate, his landlord evicted him from the modest building he lived in, along with Bourgeat, his elder Christian neighbour originating from Auvergne. Bourgeat offered to look for a new place for both of them and eventually found two cheap rooms in the attic of another building. Thenceforth, Bourgeat became a father figure to Desplein. He helped to pay for Desplein's education, and did menial tasks like cutting the wood. After Desplein became successful, he bought Bourgeat a horse and cart for his water carrying work; Desplein would not have been capable of escaping his misery without the help of his Christian friend.
Bourgeat became ill some time later, but Desplein was able to cure him; howbeit, the following year, Bourgeat contracted the same illness, and this time succumbed to it. On his deathbed, Desplein by his side, he expressed religious hopes, including, of course, the humble wish of going to heaven. Desplein, having lost probably his closest friend, decided to dedicate his thesis to Bourgeat and to pay for the seasonal masses every year, reciting the wished-for prayers on behalf of Bourgeat; Desplein claimed that the prayers were "all that a man who has [Desplein's] opinions could allow himself." Howsoever many times Desplein repeated the prayers, he swore that "he would give his fortune in order that the beliefs of Bourgeat enter his head."
The closing lines follow: "Bianchon, who treated Desplein whilst experiencing his last illness, today never dares confirm that the illustrious surgeon died an atheist. Believers would not like to think that the humble Auvergnat had come to open the doors of heaven for him, as he once opened the doors of the earthly temple whereabove one can read: to great men the homeland grateful."
Recurring characters
Bianchon appears in several novels and stories of La Comédie humaine, including Le Père Goriot. He is the narrator of Étude de femme and La Grande Bretèche.[2]
Themes
Sylvia Raphael wrote "..the unselfish devotion of the humble water-carrier is matched only by the profound gratitude and deep religious feeling (in the broadest sense of those words) of the irascible, often selfish, eminent atheistic surgeon. Balzac's awareness of the complexity of human beings, of the coexistence within them of conflicting traits, comes out clearly in the story of Desplein who, self-centered and ambitious, forms a bond with the water-carrier which survives even the latter's death."[2]
References
- ^ Honoré de Balzac. The Human Comedy: Introductions and Appendix. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
- ^ a b Raphael, Sylvia. "Introduction". Honoré de Balzac: Selected Short Stories. Penguin Classics, 1977.
External links
- "The Atheist's Mass", translation (by Clara Bell) at Project Gutenberg (full text)
- v
- t
- e
- La Maison du chat-qui-pelote
- Le Bal de Sceaux
- La Bourse
- La Vendetta
- Madame Firmiani
- Une double famille
- La Paix du ménage
- La Fausse Maîtresse
- Étude de femme
- Autre étude de femme
- La Grande Bretèche
- Albert Savarus
- Mémoires de deux jeunes mariées
- Une fille d'Eve
- La Femme de trente ans
- La Femme abandonnée
- La Grenadière
- Le Message
- Gobseck
- Le Contrat de mariage
- Un début dans la vie
- Modeste Mignon
- Béatrix
- Honorine
- Le Colonel Chabert
- La Messe de l'athée
- L'Interdiction
- Pierre Grassou
- Ursule Mirouët
- Eugénie Grandet
- Pierrette
- Le Curé de Tours
- La Rabouilleuse
- L'illustre Gaudissart
- La Muse du département
- La Vieille Fille
- Le Cabinet des Antiques
- Le Lys dans la vallée
- Illusions perdues
- Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes
- Un prince de la bohème
- Un homme d’affaires
- Gaudissart II
- Les Comédiens sans le savoir
- Ferragus
- La Duchesse de Langeais
- La Fille aux yeux d'or
- Le Père Goriot
- César Birotteau
- La Maison Nucingen
- Les Secrets de la princesse de Cadignan
- Les Employés
- Sarrasine
- Facino Cane
- La Cousine Bette
- Le Cousin Pons
- Les Petits Bourgeois
- Une ténébreuse affaire
- Un épisode sous la Terreur
- Madame de la Chanterie
- L'Initié
- Z. Marcas
- Le Député d'Arcis
- Le Médecin de campagne
- Le Curé de village
- Les Paysans
- La Peau de chagrin
- La Recherche de l'absolu
- Jésus-Christ en Flandre
- Melmoth réconcilié
- Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu
- L'Enfant maudit
- Gambara
- Massimilla Doni
- Les Marana
- Adieu
- Le Réquisitionnaire
- El Verdugo
- Un drame au bord de la mer
- L'Auberge rouge
- L'Elixir de longue vie
- Maître Cornélius
- Sur Catherine de Médicis
- Louis Lambert
- Les Proscrits
- Séraphîta
- La Physiologie du mariage
- Petites misères de la vie conjugale
- Fernand Lotte: Armorial de la Comédie Humaine