Reflections on Balzacian Models of Representation

Abstract

I tell you that La Bataille is an impossible book. In it, I undertake to make you aware of all the horrors and all the beauties of a battlefield; my battle is Essling, Essling with all its consequences. A cold man sitting in his armchair must see the countryside, the irregularities of the ground, the masses of men, the strategic events, the Danube, the bridges; must admire the details and the whole of that combat; must hear the artillery; must be interested in these chess moves; must see everything. In every joint of that great body, he must feel Napoleon whom I will not show or whom I will allow to be seen in the evening crossing the Danube in a boat. Not a single female, cannons, horses, two armies, uniforms; on the first page, the cannon roars, it is silent on the last; you will read through the smoke and, when the book is closed, you must have seen everything intuitively and must recall the battle as if you had been [there]. For three months now I have wrestled with this work, this ode in two volumes which everyone cries out is impossible to write (Balzac 1967:2728).