The Quest of the Absolute by Honoré de Balzac
"The Quest of the Absolute" by Honoré de Balzac is a novel that delves into the theme of obsession, particularly through the character of Balthazar Claes. The narrative begins with Josephine de Temninck Claes, who feels neglected by her husband Balthazar as he becomes consumed by his scientific pursuits in search of a fundamental element that constitutes all matter. Despite her enduring love and loyalty, Josephine faces the challenges of maintaining her family's stability, ultimately sacrificing her own well-being for Balthazar's obsession. The story highlights the conflicts within and between characters, particularly the tension between familial obligations and personal ambitions.
Balzac’s exploration of monomania is evident as Balthazar's fixation leads to tragic consequences for his family, including Josephine's decline and eventual death. The novel is part of Balzac's larger work, "La Comédie humaine," specifically categorized under "Philosophical Studies," and is noted for its realistic detail and psychological depth. Critics recognize it as a significant early work that reflects Balzac's understanding of the complexities of human relationships and the destructive power of obsession. The interplay of love, sacrifice, and ambition in "The Quest of the Absolute" invites readers to consider the price of greatness and the impact of one individual's quest on those around them.
The Quest of the Absolute by Honoré de Balzac
First published:La Recherche de l’absolu, 1834 (Balthazar: Or, Science and Love, 1859; better known as The Quest of the Absolute)
Type of work: Psychological realism
Time of work: 1812-1832
Locale: Douai, France
Principal Characters:
Balthazar Claes , a wealthy, middle-aged geniusJosephine De Temninck Claes , his aristocratic wifeMarguerite Claes , their oldest childGabriel Claes , their oldest sonFelicie Claes , their second daughterJean Balthazar Claes , their younger sonEmmanuel de Solis , a schoolmasterPierquin , a notary and a friend of the familyLemulquinier , Balthazar’s valet
The Novel
The Quest of the Absolute is the story of an obsession. At the beginning of the novel, Josephine de Temninck Claes is heartbroken because she believes that her husband, the magnetic Balthazar Claes, has ceased to love her after many happy years of marriage. Although he is not unkind, he ignores her and their four children, spending most of his time locked up in a laboratory.
Josephine feels even more insecure because, although beautiful, she is lame and deformed. She could hardly believe her good fortune when the handsome, wealthy young Balthazar, hearing of her virtue and beauty, sought her out and fell deeply in love with her. To Josephine, Balthazar is almost a god. Three years before the opening scene of the novel, however, Balthazar became preoccupied with a scientific quest. Shutting himself up in the laboratory with his valet-assistant Lemulquinier, Balthazar has deserted his family, which does not even know the object of his quest.
As the novel progresses, Josephine tries to be a loyal wife. Persuading her husband to explain his search, which is an attempt to find the single element which is the basis of all matter, Josephine reads scientific materials and pretends enthusiasm, concealing as long as she can the family’s desperate financial situation. When at last Josephine must tell her husband that they can no longer pay their debts, Balthazar repents and promises to give up his experiments. When his frustration and despair seem to threaten his life, however, Josephine returns his promise, and once again, he returns to the laboratory. It is Josephine who pays for his obsession with her life, for, driven by worry, she sickens and dies, bequeathing the responsibility for the family to her oldest daughter, Marguerite.
Realizing that he has caused his wife’s death, Balthazar once again gives up his work, but when he threatens to kill himself, Marguerite, like her mother, sacrifices the welfare of the children for that of the father and gives him the little money that she has left. Again Balthazar experiments; again he gives up his search, this time taking a paying job. It seems that the family can now recoup its fortunes. Under Marguerite’s leadership, the little remaining property is increased. Gabriel marries an heiress; Felicie marries the notary, who is financially well off and anxious to ally himself with an aristocratic family; and Marguerite marries her kind, practical schoolmaster. Nevertheless, Balthazar’s obsession will not release him, and he squanders all the property which Marguerite has reclaimed for him. At the end of the novel,he dies penniless, in his last words insisting that he has found the absolute.
The Characters
The tension in The Quest of the Absolute results from two kinds of conflicts: between characters and within characters. At the beginning of their relationship, Josephine and Balthazar had a conventional nineteenth century marriage. Balthazar was in charge; he cherished and provided for Josephine, and in return, she obeyed and loved him. Two events bring problems and conflict: Balthazar’s insistence on putting his work ahead of both his marriage and his family, and Josephine’s realization that she has a responsibility for their children which in this case conflicts with her duty to obey her husband. In addition to this disruptive disagreement, Balthazar is torn between the demands of his genius and his love for his family, and Josephine is torn between her love for her husband and her love for her children.
Honore de Balzac describes Balthazar as a forceful, brilliant man whose features remind one of those of a dedicated priest. Certainly he has inherited his single-minded devotion to duty from an ancestor who died in the cause of freedom. (Because Balzac spent his own life obsessively pursuing various commercial ventures in quest of wealth, thereby losing all that he made by his writing, he could understand Balthazar’s similar personality.) Other characters are affected by this trait as well. Copying his master, the valet Lemulquinier is possessed by the idea of the absolute, and his increasing quarrels with the other servants reflect the disintegration of his own character as well as the household disorder which results from Balthazar’s experiments.
In contrast to Balthazar and Lemulquinier, Josephine, her strong daughter Marguerite, and the other children represent the sensible, everyday world, which balances one need against another and compromises in order to satisfy partially as many needs as possible. None of them can understand Balthazar’s single-mindedness. On the other hand, Balthazar refuses to face financial reality, leaving his wife or children to pay the debts which he irresponsibly incurs.
Josephine and Marguerite are alike in their love for Balthazar. To Josephine, he is the prince who rescued her from unpopularity. Uncertain of herself, she is all the more dependent on his love for a sense of her own identity. When she believes that she has been replaced by his quest, she is lost. Always hoping that she can once again be the center of his life, she believes him, forgives him his coldness and his extravagance, and sacrifices her children for his love. Although Marguerite, who is Josephine’s successor as protector of the family, does not fear the loss of love, she is too compassionate to see her father suffer or even possibly kill himself when he is deprived of his work. Therefore, though for different motives, she softens and indulges him as her mother had.
Balzac’s treatment of the two suitors is interesting. Neither of them is a simple character. Emmanuel de Solis, the intelligent, honest schoolmaster whom Marguerite finally marries, though idealistic, is willing to conspire in order to save the family fortunes and even to lie in order to keep Balthazar from taking Marguerite’s last remaining funds. Pierquin, the notary, is also complex. Although at first he seems interested in Marguerite only because of her parents’ wealth, at the end of the story, when he marries Felicie, primarily because of her aristocratic ancestry, he commits himself to aiding the family, showing more human warmth than he had displayed earlier in the novel.
Critical Context
The Quest of the Absolute was published only five years after Balzac’s first successful novel; it is in the series which he called “Philosophical Studies,” one of three major subdivisions of his vast lifework, La Comedie humaine (1829-1848; The Human Comedy, 1895-1896, 1911). Although it is a relatively early work, it does not show indications of immaturity. Critics praise the novel for its realistic detail in both description and scientific fact. It has been noted that Balzac used the care of a scientist in referring to the scientific knowledge of his time, as well as the insight of a psychologist in revealing the fluctuations of the human heart.
As a study of monomania, The Quest of the Absolute is in the vein of Balzac’s masterpieces: stories of obsession such as Eugenie Grandet (1833; English translation, 1859), Le Pere Goriot (1835; Daddy Goriot, 1860; also as Pere Goriot), and La Cousine Bette (1846; Cousin Bette, 1888). Indeed, referring to Balzac’s “Philosophical Studies,” V.S. Pritchett observes that it is “above all” The Quest of the Absolute which “contains the theme of a destiny that is the directing force in his imagination.”
Bibliography
Bertault, Philippe. Balzac and the Human Comedy, 1963.
Lawton, Frederick. Balzac, 1910.
Maurois, Andre. Prometheus: The Life of Balzac, 1965.
Pritchett, V.S. Balzac, 1973.
Saintsbury, George. A History of the French Novel to the Close of the Nineteenth Century. Vol. 2, 1919.