In recent weeks, Balzac has made a comeback on bookstore shelves.
One reason for this: Xavier Giannoli's film.
Released on October 20,
Lost Illusions
created a real revival of interest in the masterpiece of the same name.
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“There is an undeniable cinematographic effect
, we learn from the Livre de Poche.
“With the start of the academic year, and the ENS which put it on its program, we had already seen significant sales of
Lost Illusions
. But, there, since the release of the film, we have multiplied by 25 the sales of this novel compared to usual. ”
Same story with Folio.
"We are at 7,500 sales since the film was released while we are usually on annual sales of 3,000 copies."
This increase in the number of sales of the book is similar to those of Eugénie Grandet since the release of the film, on September 29, by Marc Dugain.
An interesting trend when we know that on the other side of the globe, this latest book is an editorial phenomenon.
“Eugénie Grandet, in the translation of Fu Lei, is reprinted each year between 150,000 and 300,000 copies in China,”
explains Yves Gagneux, director of the Balzac house.
They find there an understanding of today's China. ”
"Xavier Giannoli does Balzac good because he dusted him off and shows how modern he is"
Yves Gagneux, director of the Maison de Balzac
Modernity ... This is precisely what makes one of the keys to Balzac's success.
Often, novel adaptations are disappointing, not to say failed.
Thus,
Rebecca
of Daphné du Maurier has lost its charm and its darkness by going to Netflix.
The opposite is true with Giannoli's film, which sublimates the contemporaneity of a novel written in the twilight of the 1830s.
"Giannoli underlines the universal side of Balzac"
, analyzes Yves Gagneux.
It does him good because he dust him off. " Illusions perdues
tells the story of a young Angoumoisin, Lucien Chardon, who prefers to be called after his mother's name, of Rubempré. In love with a woman of the nobility, the young man, perfect archetype of the romantic, will follow her in the capital before being devoured, with splendor and misery, by the businessmen and other rascals, schemers who hold the top of the Parisian pavement. .
“Lucien de Rubempré is lost when he arrives in Paris. He does too much, he dresses like the ace of spades and he's ridiculous. Everyone can relate to it. Balzac shows the way people look, the way in which we categorize the other ... "
We find the violence of the comedy of masks, its apparent humanity and its animality, the contagion of lies, contempt for the provincial and then mores led astray from a world that can be bought from the highest bidder.
Is that why there is, according to Yves Gagneux, a hiatus in the interpretation of Balzac's work?
"We make an author who describes a past world, but he dismantles the mechanisms of social relations, man in society and man, has not changed."
“There is an effect that has lasted since the film's release and that keeps the sales flames alive.
"
Pocket book
With this backlash for Balzac, Folio put the book back on sale, as did Eugenie Grandet, with the film poster on the cover.
"It is for the general public an excellent entry point into these classics which are sometimes '' impressive ''"
.
Indeed, the number of pages of
Lost Illusions
(800 pages all the same) could be dissuasive and yet ...
"A film can lead to passion and envy".
And, therefore transcend the fear of the big book.
Sign, if one needed another that Balzac is not only "in fashion",
"one notes for months an increase in sales"
, specifies one at Folio. The film establishes this phenomenon in a lasting way, which is also confirmed by the Livre de Poche:
"There is an effect which has lasted since the film's release and which keeps the sales flames alive."
This breathtaking effect for Balzac is not an isolated case.
Recently, thanks to the adaptation of the cult work of Maurice Leblanc by Netflix,
Arsène Lupine
has experienced
"a notable effect in the sales of his most emblematic titles"
, explains one in Livre de Poche.
This was also the case with
Rebecca
, when the film premiered in 2020;
sales had tripled.
Classics have never been so modern.
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