Isidore-Stanislas Helman, The Day of January 21, 1793: The Death of Louis Capet on the Place de la Révolution; Presented to the National Convention on the 30th of Germinal (1793): Here is where it all ended for Louis XVI. Based on Charles Monnet’s drawing of Louis XVI’s execution, Helman’s print shows the executioner as he circled the scaffold twice, emphasizing the ritual nature of the king’s sacrifice. The National Guard ringing the scaffold maintain their poise as civilian spectators to the right and left hail the king’s death with cries of, “Long live the Nation! Long live the Republic!” In a nice symbolic touch, the artist has included the pedestal that once supported a statue of Louis XV (torn down in August 1792). And, yes, this image has something very important to do with Balzac’s story.
Reading
Please read Honoré de Balzac, “An Incident in the Reign of Terror” (1830) (Canvas).
What We are Doing Today
The tempestuous period between 1789 and 1815 inspired a number of great painters to produce works about the revolution (e.g. David), but it did not seem to generate much great fiction about the same topic. That is not to stay there weren’t important novels written during these years; François-René de Chateaubriand wrote the Romantic classic René in 1802, but this book had nothing to do with the revolution. Why French authors did not write great novels about the revolution during this period, I leave to literary scholars to investigate.
The French Revolution became an important subject of literature after it was over, and that is why we are looking at Honoré de Balzac today. During his prime, that is, throughout the 1830s and 1840s, Balzac set many short stories, novellas, and novels during the revolution. So for today, we will look at one of his short stories, “An Incident in the Reign of Terror” (1830). If anything, this piece should give you some sense of the trauma the revolution inflicted on the French people.
Honoré de Balzac
Balzac (1799-1850) is widely considered one of France’s greatest 19th-century novelists. He is most well known for having written a sequence of novels (about 90 completed stories and over 45 unfinished ones) with frequently recurring characters that he entitled La Comédie Humaine. His intent was to capture “all aspects of society.”
Balzac, however, first started by writing short stories and novellas in the early 1820s. At first, his work in this area was terrible. But by the end of the decade, he found his mojo and, fueled by staggering quantities of coffee, churned out a pile of novels and short stories, one after the other. His first important, well-received novel was Les Chouans (1829) (a story set during a royalist uprising in western France during the revolution). That very same year, he wrote Colonel Chabert (which was set in Restoration France but flashed back to the revolution), one of his greatest novellas. “An Incident in the Reign of Terror” was written shortly thereafter (1830) just as Balzac was hitting his stride as an author.
Balzac was a royalist who supported the Bourbons, but he was no unthinking, reflexive monarchist. He fully understood the new capitalist forces and class tensions that increasingly characterized France in his own time. This feature of his work, along with his sharp eye (he was considered the founder of realism), made him a favorite of Marx, Engels, and large numbers of leftist social critics.
Achille Devéria, Honoré de Balzac (ca. 1825)
Notes for “An Incident in the Reign of Terror”
The following points will help you follow the story better.
First, on a couple of occasions, the characters mention the massacre of the Carmelites and events at the Abbaye de Chelles. These are references to events associated with the September Massacres of 1792. A large number of non-juring priests (along with several bishops) had been imprisoned in two former monasteries—the Carmes Monastery, which had belonged to the Carmelites, and the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Présin. In early September 1792, most of the priests at both locations were butchered by revolutionary crowds. The priest in Balzac’s story, however, somehow managed to survive.
Second, keep in mind the date on which this story begins. If I were you, I’d look up a timeline of the French Revolution and find out what happened that week.
Third, Mucius Scaevola was a figure who appears in Livy’s History of Rome (yes, that same Livy from whom David drew inspiration). In 508 BC, during a war between Rome and Clusium, the Roman Senate sent Mucius to the enemy camp to assassinate Porsena, the Clusian king. Mucius killed Porsena’s secretary by mistake, and upon being captured, declared: “I am Gaius Mucius, a citizen of Rome. I came here as an enemy to kill my enemy, and I am as ready to die as I am to kill. We Romans act bravely and, when adversity strikes, we suffer bravely.” “Watch,” he said to Porsena, “so that you know how cheap the body is to men who have their eye on great glory,” and with that, he stuck his right hand into a fire without expressing any pain. Porsena was so impressed by this display that he sent Mucius back to Rome and negotiated peace terms with the Romans. The Mucius Scaevola of Balzac’s story was named after this legendary figure; names from ancient Rome were the rage right before and during the revolution.
Potential Quiz Questions
1) The story starts with an old lady being followed in the Faubourg Saint-Martin. From her bearing and appearance, what do we learn about her background? Eventually, what does the reader find out about who she is?
2) What did the old lady pick up from the pastry-cook’s cake-shop?
3) What does the stranger want from the non-juring priest and the two nuns?
4) How does Balzac want the reader to feel about the mass? Use specific quotes to justify your answer.
5) For whom was the requiem mass observed?
6) What does the stranger provide in payment for what the priest has done?
7) Who was the stranger?
History 114: The French Revolution and Napoleon 