| 词汇 | greatest of novelists |
| 词源 | greatest of novelists. Honoré Balzac authentically depicted French life from the late 18th through the 19th centuries. Commonly working 18 hours a day from 1827 to 1847, he managed to complete 97 novels, peopled by more than 2,000 characters, before death ended his efforts. At least a dozen of these books are masterpieces and earned Balzac the reputa- tion of the greatest of novelists. Many novels have been writ- ten in less time, but Balzac’s masterpiece Le Père Goriot (1840) is probably the best of all rapidly written books. Balzac wrote the well-constructed novel in just 40 days, working 24 hours a day most of the time. He was so rundown mentally and physi- cally at the end of his labors, and poisoned by coffee, that his doctor ordered a complete rest. However, he soon went back to his old ways. In fact, his novel Le Secret des Ruggieri (1836) is traditionally said to have been written in a single night, though this seems unlikely. See coffee as a secret weapon. |
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