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Honoré de BALZAC

Lettre autographe signée à l'une de ses muses, la Comtesse Merlin : « vous ne connaissez que les roses de la littérature et nous avons toutes les épines. »

s.l. s.d. [circa 1843], 30,5x13,3cm, Une page et demie sur un feuillet remplié.

BALZAC Honoré de
Unpublished autograph letter signed to one of his muses, the Countess Merlin: “you know only literary roses, but we all have thorns.” N. p. n. d. [circa 1843], 305 x 133 mm (12 x 5 1/4 ”), one and a half page on a folded leave
An exceptional autograph letter signed and as yet unpublished from Balzac to the Countess Merlin. One and a half pages in black ink. Balzac is writing to a noted female writer and singer of Spanish and Cuban origin, who was the inspiration for several characters in his Human Comedy.
Our thanks are due to Mr. Hervé Yon, a Balzac specialist, who helped us identify the addressee of this letter (which will be published in volume three of the Pléiade’s Correspondance de Balzac, as number 42-175).
Maria de Las Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo, born in Havana in 1788, was the scion of an aristocratic Spanish family. From her childhood in Cuba, she retained a “wild” temperament (according to Sainte-Beuve) and an exotic charm that made her famous at the court of King Joseph Bonaparte in Madrid. There, she met General Merlin, the Commander of the Royal Guard. She married him in 1811 before leaving for Paris, where her talents and position rapidly earned her a place in the first ranks of Parisian high society. She maintained one of the most popular salons in Paris, whose visitors included La Fayette, George Sand, Mérimée, Chateaubriand, Musset, as well as a number of composers including Chopin, Verdi, Donizetti, and Rossini. Balzac had had pride of place at her salon since his first visit in the 1830s. Within the rarified circle surrounding the Countess Merlin, there were literary discussions, games of lansquenet, and numerous concerts in which – with her soprano voice – the Countess often took part.
At the time that this letter was written, the Countess was preparing a new musical evening, which Balzac excused himself for not being able to attend: “Please accept my apologies for not participating in the great pleasure of the good music you will be making today...I have an urgent piece of work that ties me to my desk”. Having returned from his travels to Germany and Russia, Balzac was beginning to re-read and correct Colonel Chabert, which appeared in its definitive form in 1844. Despite his workload, he muses about his availability: “[...] at what hour can one call on you without disturbing...my mornings are mostly freer than my evenings which, like my nights, are taken up with literary work.” The Countess also used to move to Versailles for the summer, hosting a few music lovers there. Thus Balzac lets her know that he tried to meet her: “[...] at Versailles last summer, but they told me you were not receiving at all...that you were working on a new piece that I had already heard about from one of my publishers, which would have no equal in its power to sell (which is to say make people buy) books.” The Countess, who already enjoyed significant literary success, was in fact engaged in writing her masterpiece and the third volume of her memoirs, which gave rise to the comment – Balzac not yet being very well known – that “you only know literary roses, but we all have thorns”. The work, Havana, was to mark the birth of a very successful Hispano-American Romanticism, and painted a brilliant – if controversial – portrait of the colonial situation in Cuba. At the moment of the awakening of a national consciousness, Havana was to become one of the founding texts of the “Cuban Créolité”, which celebrates the ethnic diversity of the island’s inhabitants. This is echoed by Maria de las Mercedes’ triple nationality, Cuban, Spanish, and French; her singular path inspired two characters in Balzac’s Human Comedy . She was also the dedicatee and heroine of The Maranas in the form of the character of Juana, as well as Balzac’s making her the model for the Marquess of San-Réal, who appeared in The Girl With the Golden Eyes, the third novel of his The Thirteen trilogy.
A precious witness of the friendship Balzac bore one of his muses, a passionate native of Havana and someone with an extraordinary life, as well as a leading figure of mid-century Parisian high society.                                                                                        
BAUDELAIRE Charles (under the nom de plume of BAUDELAIRE DUFAÿS)

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