Editing Honoré de Balzac (section)

===Marriage, romantic relationships, and death===
In 1833, as he revealed in a letter to his sister, Balzac entered into an illicit affair<ref>{{cite book|title=La Revue de Paris, Volume 67, Part 3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhgZAAAAIAAJ|year=1960|publisher=Bureau de la Revue de Paris.|page=122}}</ref> with fellow writer Maria Du Fresnay, who was then aged 24. Her marriage to a considerably older man (Charles du Fresnay, Mayor of [[Sartrouville]]) had been a failure from the outset.<ref name = "chancerel_pierrot">{{citation|last1=Chancerel|first1=Pierrot|title=La véritable Eugénie Grandet : Marie du Fresnay|magazine=Revue des sciences humaines|date=October–November 1955|language=fr|trans-title=The real Eugénie Grandet: Marie du Fresnay}}</ref> In this letter, Balzac also reveals that the young woman had just come to tell him she was pregnant with his child. In 1834, 8 months after the event, Maria Du Fresnay's daughter by Balzac, Marie-Caroline Du Fresnay, was born. This revelation from French journalist {{ill|Roger Pierrot|fr|Roger Pierrot}} in 1955 confirmed what was already suspected by several historians: the dedicatee of the novel ''Eugénie Grandet'', a certain "Maria", turns out to be Maria Du Fresnay herself.
Balzac had also long been suspected of being attracted to males as well.<ref>Dynes, Wayne R. ''Encyclopedia of Homosexuality'', Volume 1, Routledge, Abingdon 1990, p105</ref> When the official records of homosexuals once maintained by the Paris police were finally released, his name was found listed.<ref>Collectif (Prefecture de Paris Police), ''Le Registre Infamant'', Quintes-Feuilles, Paris 2012, pp26-427 passim; {{ISBN|978-2-9532885-6-8}}</ref>

In February 1832 Balzac received an intriguing letter from [[Odessa]]—with no return address and signed simply "''L'Étrangère''" ("The Foreigner")—expressing sadness at the cynicism and atheism in ''La Peau de Chagrin'' and its negative portrayal of women. His response was to place a [[classified advertisement]] in the ''Gazette de France'', hoping that his anonymous critic would see it. Thus began a fifteen-year correspondence between Balzac and "the object of [his] sweetest dreams": [[Ewelina Hańska]].<ref>Robb, 223–224</ref>

[[Image:Hanska Holz Sowgen 1825.jpg|thumb|left|[[Countess]] [[Ewelina Hańska]] miniature by Holz von Sowgen (1825)]]
[[File:Balzac Boulanger2.jpg|thumbnail|right|Portrait of Balzac in his famous dressing gown, by [[Louis Boulanger]].]]
Ewelina (''née'' Rzewuska) was married to a [[Szlachta|nobleman]] twenty years her senior, [[Marshal]] [[Wacław Hański]], a wealthy Polish landowner living near [[Kyiv]]. It had been a [[marriage of convenience]] to preserve her [[Rzewuski family|family]]'s fortune. In Balzac Countess Ewelina found a kindred spirit for her emotional and social desires, with the added benefit of feeling a connection to the glamorous capital of France.<ref>Robb, 227</ref> Their correspondence reveals an intriguing balance of passion, propriety and patience; [[Graham Robb|Robb]] says it is "like an experimental novel in which the female protagonist is always trying to pull in extraneous realities but which the hero is determined to keep on course, whatever tricks he has to use".<ref>Robb, 230</ref>

Marshal Hański died in 1841, and his widow and her admirer finally had the chance to pursue their affections. A rival of the Hungarian composer [[Franz Liszt]], Balzac visited Countess Hańska in [[Saint Petersburg]] in 1843 and won her heart.<ref>Robb, 340</ref> After a series of financial setbacks, health problems and objections from [[Nicholas I of Russia|Tsar Nicholas I]], the couple finally received permission to wed.<ref>Pritchett, 261</ref> On 14 March 1850, with Balzac's health in serious decline, they travelled by carriage from her [[family seat]] at {{ill|Verhivnya|fr|Verkhovnia}} [[Park#Private parks|Park]] in [[Volhynian Governorate|Volhynia]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://balzac-museum.com/contacts.html|script-title=ru:Адреса музею Оноре де Бальзака у Верхівні|website=Balzac-museum.com|access-date=26 November 2017}}</ref> to [[St. Barbara's Church, Berdychiv|St. Barbara's Catholic Church]] in [[Berdychiv]] (Russia's former banking city in present-day Ukraine), where they were married by Abbot Ożarowski.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.berdichev.org/distinghished_shrines_of_berdichev.html |title=Distinguished Shrines of Berdichev |access-date=30 August 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923183609/http://www.berdichev.org/distinghished_shrines_of_berdichev.html |archive-date=23 September 2015 |website=The Berdichev Revival}}</ref> The ten-hour journey to and from the ceremony took a toll on both husband and wife: her feet were too swollen to walk, and he endured severe heart trouble.<ref>Pritchett, 261–262</ref>

Although he married late in life, Balzac had already written two treatises on marriage: ''Physiologie du Mariage'' and ''Scènes de la Vie Conjugale''. These works lacked firsthand knowledge; Saintsbury points out that "cœlebs cannot talk of [marriage] with much authority".{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|pp=298–301}} In late April the newly-weds set off for Paris. His health deteriorated on the way, and Ewelina wrote to her daughter about Balzac being "in a state of extreme weakness" and "sweating profusely".<ref>Quoted in Robb, 404</ref> They arrived in the French capital on 20 May, his fifty-first birthday.<ref>Robb, 404</ref>

[[Image:Père-Lachaise - Division 48 - Balzac 07.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Balzac's statue in the [[Cimetière du Père-Lachaise]]]]
Five months after his wedding, on Sunday, 18 August 1850, Balzac died of [[gangrene]] associated with [[congestive heart failure]], in the presence of his mother—his wife, Eve de Balzac (formerly Countess Hańska) had gone to bed.<ref>Pritchett, 263</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27638234/#:~:text=He%20prematurely%20died%20at%20the,associated%20with%20congestive%20heart%20failure | pmid=27638234 | year=2016 | last1=Perciaccante | first1=A. | last2=Riva | first2=M. A. | last3=Coralli | first3=A. | last4=Charlier | first4=P. | last5=Bianucci | first5=R. | title=The Death of Balzac (1799–1850) and the Treatment of Heart Failure During the Nineteenth Century | journal=Journal of Cardiac Failure | volume=22 | issue=11 | pages=930–933 | doi=10.1016/j.cardfail.2016.09.005}}</ref> He had been visited that day by Victor Hugo, who later served as a [[pallbearer]] and the [[eulogy|eulogist]] at Balzac's funeral.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|pp=298-301}} Some modern researchers have attributed a factor in his death to excessive coffee consumption or a caffeine overdose (Balzac reportedly drank over 50 cups a day) but this has yet to be proved.<ref> https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/opinion/29iht-edjohnson</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6T2oDwAAQBAJ&dq=balzac+cause+of+death+coffee&pg=PT160 | title=Balzac | last1=Zweig | first1=Stefan | date=9 August 2019}}</ref>

Balzac is buried at [[Cimetière du Père Lachaise|Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris. At his memorial service, Victor Hugo pronounced "Today we have people in black because of the death of the man of talent; a nation in mourning for a man of genius".<ref>The full text is available at [http://www.gavroche.org/vhugo/balzaceulogy.shtml Victor Hugo Central].</ref> The funeral was attended by "almost every writer in Paris", including [[Frédérick Lemaître]], [[Gustave Courbet]], [[Alexandre Dumas, père|Dumas ''père'']] and [[Alexandre Dumas, fils|Dumas ''fils'']],<ref>Robb, 412</ref> as well as representatives of the [[Légion d'honneur]] and other dignitaries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legiondhonneur.fr/fr/decores/honore-de-balzac/89|title=Honoré de Balzac – La grande chancellerie|website=Legiondhonneur.fr|access-date=26 November 2017|archive-date=7 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007182319/https://www.legiondhonneur.fr/fr/decores/honore-de-balzac/89|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:2018 Balzac (1898) 1.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Monument to Balzac]]'']]
Later, a statue (called the ''[[Monument to Balzac]]'') was created by the celebrated French sculptor [[Auguste Rodin]]. Cast in bronze, the Balzac Monument has stood since 1939 nearby the intersection of [[Boulevard Raspail]] and [[Boulevard Montparnasse]] at Place Pablo-Picasso. Rodin featured Balzac in several of his smaller sculptures as well.