The Quest of the Absolute
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| Author | Honoré de Balzac |
|---|---|
| Original title | La Recherche de l'absolu |
| Illustrator | Édouard Toudouze |
| Language | French |
| Series | La Comédie humaine |
Publication date | 1834 |
| Publication place | France |
The Quest of the Absolute (French: La Recherche de l'absolu) is a novel by Honoré de Balzac.[1] The novel first appeared in 1834, with seven chapter-divisions, as a Scène de la vie privée; was published by itself in 1839 by Charpentier; and took its final place as a part of the Comédie in 1845.
The astronomer Ernest Laugier helped Balzac in the use of chemical terminology in this novel.[2]
In Popular Culture
[edit]In François Truffaut's 1959 film The 400 Blows, teenager Antoine Doinel idolizes Balzac's work and depicts 'my grandfather's death' in a school essay, based on the plot of The Quest of the Absolute, leading his teacher to accuse of him of plagiarizing, causing him to quit school.
References
[edit]- ^ Hayward, Margaret (April 1973). "Review: Balzac et 'La Recherche de l'Absolu' , by Madeleine Fargeaud". Modern Language Review. 68 (2): 416–422. JSTOR 3725892.
- ^ "Quel est ce Laugier?". La Chronique Médicale. 14: 405–407. 1907.
External links
[edit]- The Quest of the Absolute (Ellen Marriage trans., 1895) at the Internet Archive
- Scott Sprenger, "In the End Was the Word: Balzac's Modernist Absolute," Anthropoetics VII, no. 1 Spring/ Summer 2001.
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