In 1839, when Stendhal sent Balzac a copy of his new novel, La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma), he was taken aback, to say the least.
While the Comédie humaine author was fascinated by the plot, he remained unconvinced by the style: ‘the weak aspect of this work is its style—in terms of how the words are arranged (…) The long sentences are poorly constructed, and the short ones lack depth,’ he was to comment in a review published by La Revue Parisienne.
Stendhal’s retort to this is quite remarkable. His dry style was adopted from—the Civil Code.
‘In order to set the tone for La Chartreuse as I was writing it, I would read a few pages of the Code Civil each morning in order to remain entirely natural; I have no wish to enthral the reader’s mind by false means. […] I repeat, the contribution of form is diminished with each passing day. Look at Hume. Imagine a History of France from 1780 to 1840, composed with the common sense of [David] Hume; we would read it, were it written in patois; I shall correct the style, since it offends you; but it will pain me greatly. I do not like the style currently in fashion, it annoys me.’
Letter from Stendhal to Balzac, 30 October 1840.
The Civil Code was established in 1804 by Napoleon the 1st,the first in a long series of legal codes that went into effect during the Empire, such as the Civil Procedures, Commercial and Penal codes. The Civil Code covered a very wide domain and contained dispositions regarding rights related to everything from persons, goods, and family to contracts and legal responsibility. Highly innovative at its time, it was to serve as a model for many European countries. No sooner was it published than it became famous, not least for the quality of its writing.
The Civil Code is still today considered the foundational underpinning of French Law.
‘You, who talk of marrying, and who will marry, have you ever meditated on the Civil Code? I myself have never muddied my feet in that hovel of commentators, that garret of gossip, called the Law-school. I have never so much as opened the Code; but I see its application on the vitals of society. The Code, my dear Paul, makes woman a ward; it considers her a child, a minor.’
Honoré de Balzac, Le Contrat de Mariage, 1835 (Translation Katharine Prescott Wormeley)
