Tag Archives: Honoré de Balzac

History’s Arc Bends Towards Kafka

By Robin Bates | Published: July 13, 2023

The late Kundera has fascinating insights into how the novel has intersected with history.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Marx & Engels on the Usefulness of Lit

By Robin Bates | Published: June 14, 2021

Marx and Engels see literature as playing a role in class conflict, just not the major role.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Balzac Invented the 19th Century?!

By Robin Bates | Published: October 1, 2020

According to Peter Brooks, we should all revisit Balzac, who (according to Oscar Wilde) invented the 19th century.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , | Comments closed

On Using Lit as a Cudgel

By Robin Bates | Published: January 14, 2019

Monday A conservative reader the other day accused me of relentlessly using this blog as “an anti-Trump cudgel,” which got me thinking about whether I was indeed guilty of losing perspective. Was I in the grip of what Balzac calls an “idée fixe”—which is to say, an obsession that defines a life? According to Encyclopedia […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Balzac’s Gobseck Understands Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: December 3, 2018

Balzac’s dazzling novella “Gobseck” finds the measure of the Trumps and other billionaires who sell out the nation.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Can Lit Make the Rich More Empathetic?

By Robin Bates | Published: February 2, 2015

With growing income disparity comes a decline in empathy. Literature can help rebuild our compassion.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed

Why the Wealthy Get Wealthier

By Robin Bates | Published: July 22, 2014

Thomas Piketty turns to Jane Austen and Honoré de Balzac to analyze “Capitalism in the 21st Century.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Stephen Strasburg as a Balzac Parable

By Robin Bates | Published: September 1, 2012

The strange case of Stephen Strasburg–missing the playoffs if he exceeds his innings pitched limit–has parallels with the Balzac novel “The Magic Skin.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed