“If poetry is to be spoken aloud in such a way as to be understood, absolute concentration is necessary. There must be complete sympathy between the reader and the audience, in the absence of which no electrical communication of emotion can take place. If this sympathetic atmosphere is lacking, the poet finds himself in theContinue reading “RKS Literature: Poets and the Mocking Laughter of Hell (Balzac)”
Tag Archives: Honoré de Balzac
RKS Literature: Squashing Your Rival: Balzac’s “Lost Illusions”
“Baron Sixte du Châtelet was of the opinion that the little rhymer would succumb, sooner or later, in the hot house atmosphere of applause, or perhaps that, intoxicated with the prospect of future glory, he would commit some impertinence that would consign him again to his original obscurity. While awaiting the decease of the youngContinue reading “RKS Literature: Squashing Your Rival: Balzac’s “Lost Illusions””
RKS Literature: Infatuation: Balzac’s “Lost Illusions”
“He did not notice her faded cheeks, or the brick red blotches on her cheek-bones, the result of boredom and a certain amount of ill-health. His imagination seized, first of all, on those ardent eyes, those elegant curls that caught the candlelight, that dazzling whiteness – so many points of light that drew him likeContinue reading “RKS Literature: Infatuation: Balzac’s “Lost Illusions””
RKS Literature: The Misfortune of a Great Intelligence (Balzac)
“One of the misfortunes to which great intelligence is subject is that of understanding everything too well. The standards by which these two men judged society were all the higher, because they themselves were low on the social scale, for unknown men are apt to revenge themselves by their lofty outlook. But their despair wasContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Misfortune of a Great Intelligence (Balzac)”
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