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Article: Borderie, Regine. Balzac, peintre de corps: La Comedie humaine ou le sens du detail.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Nineteenth-Century French Studies
- Article date:
- March 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 University of Nebraska Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Borderie, Regine. Balzac, peintre de corps: La Comedie humaine ou le sens du detail. Paris: SEDES-VUEF, 2002. Pp. 243. ISBN 2-7181-9439-1
In her study, Regine Borderie explores the innovative role that physical depictions of characters play in Balzac's novels. She demonstrates how the writer, dissatisfied with descriptions that seem merely to confirm stereotypes, uses corporeal details in order to inform readers about the health, passions, and morality of fictional figures in the Comedie humaine; these portraits also serve to situate the origins, trace the pasts, and even anticipate the futures of these personnages. Moreover, this inventive approach enables Balzac ...