The Quest of the Absolute

The Quest of the Absolute
AuthorHonoré de Balzac
Original titleLa Recherche de l'absolu
IllustratorÉdouard Toudouze
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
SeriesLa Comédie humaine
Publication date
1834

The Quest of the Absolute (French: La Recherche de l'absolu) is a novel by Honoré de Balzac.[1] The novel first appeared in 1834, with seven chapter-divisions, as a Scène de la vie privée; was published by itself in 1839 by Charpentier; and took its final place as a part of the Comédie in 1845.

The astronomer Ernest Laugier helped Balzac in the use of chemical terminology in this novel.[2]

In Popular Culture

In François Truffaut's 1959 film The 400 Blows, teenager Antoine Doinel idolizes Balzac's work and depicts 'my grandfather's death' in a school essay, based on the plot of The Quest of the Absolute, leading his teacher to accuse of him of plagiarizing, causing him to quit school.

References

  1. ^ Hayward, Margaret (April 1973). "Review: Balzac et 'La Recherche de l'Absolu' , by Madeleine Fargeaud". Modern Language Review. 68 (2): 416–422. JSTOR 3725892.
  2. ^ "Quel est ce Laugier?". La Chronique Médicale. 14: 405–407. 1907.

External links

  • The Quest of the Absolute (Ellen Marriage trans., 1895) at the Internet Archive
  • Scott Sprenger, "In the End Was the Word: Balzac's Modernist Absolute," Anthropoetics VII, no. 1 Spring/ Summer 2001.
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List of titles
Scènes de la vie privée
Scènes de la vie de provinceScènes de la vie ParisienneScènes de la vie politique
Scènes de la vie militaireScènes de la vie de campagneÉtudes philosophiques
Études analytiques
  • La Physiologie du mariage
  • Petites misères de la vie conjugale
RelatedRelated works by others
  • Fernand Lotte: Armorial de la Comédie Humaine
Authority control databases: National Edit this at Wikidata
  • France
  • BnF data


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