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| Paqui Jones in Le Jardin du Luxembourg |
Today, The Jones have decided to visit Le Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. The Grandma is under the effect of the Stendhal syndrome after her visit to The Louvre Museum and she has started to live in a parallel world where only art exists.
The family has decided to take a free day in these wonderful gardens and read some of the books that they have bought to celebrate next Saint George's Day, especially Stendhal's Red and Black and Honoré de Balzac's Cousin Bette the best writers from the French Realism, something that The Grandma needs urgently to return to her real life.
Stendhal's syndrome, hyperkulturemia, or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic disorder that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to an experience of great personal significance, particularly viewing art. It is not listed as a recognised condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
The illness is named after the 19th-century French author Stendhal, who described his experience with the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence in his book Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio.
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| The Jones are visiting Le Jardin du Luxembourg |
The Jardin du Luxembourg, also known in English as the Luxembourg Gardens, is located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was created beginning in 1612 by Marie de' Medici, the widow of King Henry IV of France, for a new residence she constructed, the Luxembourg Palace.
The garden today is owned by the French Senate, which meets in the Palace. It covers 23 hectares and is known for its lawns, tree-lined promenades, flowerbeds, model sailboats on its circular basin, and picturesque Medici Fountain, built in 1620.
The garden is largely devoted to a green parterre of gravel and lawn populated with statues and centred on a large octagonal basin of water, with a central jet of water; in it children sail model boats. The garden is famed for its calm atmosphere. Surrounding the bassin on the raised balustraded terraces are a series of statues of former French queens, saints and copies after the Antique. In the southwest corner, there is an orchard of apple and pear trees and the théâtre des marionnettes, the puppet theatre.
More information: Lonely Planet
The Jones are resting in the Jardin du Luxembourg and reading some plays from two of the best French writers of the Realism: Stendhal and Honoré de Balzac.
On the one hand, Marie-Henri Beyle (1783-1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels Le Rouge et le Noir, 1830 and La Chartreuse de Parme, 1839, he is highly regarded for the acute analysis of his characters' psychology and considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism.
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| Marie-Henri Beyle aka Stendhal |
Born in Grenoble, Isère, he was an unhappy child, disliking his unimaginative father and mourning his mother, whom he passionately loved, and who died when he was seven. He spent the happiest years of his life at the Beyle country house in Claix near Grenoble. His closest friend was his younger sister, Pauline, with whom he maintained a steady correspondence throughout the first decade of the 19th century.
The military and theatrical worlds of the First French Empire were a revelation to Beyle. He was named an auditor with the Conseil d'État on 3 August 1810, and thereafter took part in the French administration and in the Napoleonic wars in Italy. He travelled extensively in Germany and was part of Napoleon's army in the 1812 invasion of Russia.
Stendhal witnessed the burning of Moscow from just outside the city. Stendhal was appointed Commissioner of War Supplies and sent to Smolensk to prepare provisions for the returning army. He crossed the Berezina River by finding a usable ford rather than the overwhelmed pontoon bridge, which probably saved his life and those of his companions.
More information: Academy Publication
Stendhal arrived in Paris in 1813, largely unaware of the general fiasco that the retreat had become. Stendhal became known, during the Russian campaign, for keeping his wits about him, and maintaining his sang-froid and clear-headedness. He also maintained his daily routine, shaving each day during the retreat from Moscow.
Stendhal suffered miserable physical disabilities in his final years as he continued to produce some of his most famous work. Modern medicine has shown that his health problems were more attributable to his treatment than to his disease.
Watch Scarlet and Black by Stendhal: Chapters 2, 3 and 4
A novel is a mirror carried along a main road.
Stendhal
On the other hand, Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.
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| Honoré de Balzac |
He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities.
His writing influenced many famous writers, including the novelists Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Jack Kerouac, and Henry James, filmmakers Akira Kurosawa and Eric Rohmer as well as important philosophers such as Friedrich Engels.
More information: Libres UNCG
An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac had trouble adapting to the teaching style of his grammar school. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. When he finished school, Balzac was apprenticed in a law office, but he turned his back on the study of law after wearying of its inhumanity and banal routine.
Before and during his career as a writer, he attempted to be a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician; he failed in all of these efforts. La Comédie Humaine reflects his real-life difficulties, and includes scenes from his own experience.
Balzac suffered from health problems throughout his life, possibly due to his intense writing schedule. His relationship with his family was often strained by financial and personal drama, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews.
In 1850, Balzac married Ewelina Hańska, a Polish aristocrat and his longtime love; he died in Paris five months later.
Watch Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac: Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5
Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass
and the little ones get caught.
Honoré de Balzac
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