A Harlot High and Low, by Honore de Balzac

I’d read ‘Memoirs of a Bangkok Warrior’, ‘Private Dancer’, ‘Murder at the Horny Toad Bar’, ‘Thailand Fever’ and just about every other Thailand-related book – so how was I going to while away the 11 hour flight to Bangkok this time? A friend recommended ‘A Harlot High and Low’ by Honore de Balzac. When I asked him what that had got to do with Thailand he said, “Paris was the 19^th century Bangkok. The story is a love triangle between a prostitute, a young man who she loves, and an old man who she rips off.” It sounded like familiar territory, so I thought I’d give it whirl.

The edition I bought was: ‘A Harlot High and Low’ by Honore de Balzac (Penguin Classics) ISBN: 978-0140442328 for a hefty £12.99. However, another translation is available as a free download from Project Gutenberg, entitled ‘Scenes From a Courtesan's Life’. If you can read French, try this edition: ‘Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes’, Folio classique, ISBN 2-07-036405-4.

My first reaction to the book was not favourable. The story is part of Balzac’s huge project, La Comédie humaine, which consists of 95 interlinked novels with many characters in common. The opening scenes of ‘A Harlot High and Low’ pick up the story of Lucien de Rubempré and Abbé Herrera (Vautrin) from ‘Lost Illusions’ and several other characters from other novels. The experience was a bit like being at a party where everybody knows everybody except you.

Luckily, as I was on the plane when I started it, the distractions were few. I had read the free newspaper, and the in-flight movie was, well, an in-flight movie, so it was Balzac or nothing. The story started to pick up when Esther was introduced – Esther is the harlot of the title – and by the time her eldery lover appeared on the scene, I was hooked.

At this point, a brief synopsis might be helpful. It is a complex tale, as it fits like a jigsaw piece into La Comédie humaine, so I will focus on the main plot, rather than the numerous subplots, as it is that what most interested me and is most likely to interest the readers of this review.

Abbé Herrera is the powerful ex-convict, Vautrin, disguised as a priest who wants to make his protege, Lucien, a success. Unfortunately, Lucien threatens these plans by falling in love with a harlot named Esther. Herrera decides to allow this affair as long as it is kept secret, and they enjoy four years of passionate love. The plan is threatened again when an elderly banker, Baron de Nucingen sees Esther and falls in love with her. Herrera sees a way this can be turned to advantage. Lucian needs one million francs to buy back the old Rubempré estates and secure his place among the Parisian elite. Herrera uses Esther to extort this money from the Baron through various wiles.

As I don’t wish to spoil the story, I will not reveal how it ends, but will only say that I found the ending unsatisfactory – and long winded, because Balzac is dealing with the bigger picture in La Comédie humaine. But don’t let this put you off. In the middle section of the novel there are many scenes which I found fascinating, both in themselves, and because they had resonances with my experiences in Thailand and the Philippines.

I particularly liked the character of Esther. She is already an experienced prostitute at the age of 19 when she meets Lucien. The word ‘prostitute’ needs qualification in a nineteenth-century France context, just as it does in a 21^st century Far East context. Esther belonged to the higher class of prostitutes who were also actresses. They hoped to find a rich man who would set them up in an apartment and be a long term lover. It was not unusual in this situation for feelings of love to develop (as they can do today in bargirl/westerner relationships in the Far East) and this is what happened when Esther met Lucian. In fact, she falls for him in a big way:

"Lucien is Lucien," said she, "the handsomest young man, the kindest soul alive; if you know him, my love must seem to you quite natural. I met him by chance, three months ago, at the Porte-Saint-Martin theatre, where I went one day when I had leave, for we had a day a week at Madame Meynardie's, where I then was. Next day, you understand, I went out without leave. Love had come into my heart, and had so completely changed me, that on my return from the theatre I did not know myself...”

(Quotations are from the Project Gutenberg etext version)

This is one of Balzac’s points – that a prostitute can love just as passionately as any other woman, and can be just as devoted and true. In fact, the subtitle to the first section is: ‘How a Courtesan Can Love’. This is just as true in the Far East today. Despite all those tales of woe we read on Stickman, there are also stories of real, deep, passionate love, which changes the lives of those involved.

I also liked the portrait of the elderly (60+) love-struck banker, Baron Frederic de Nucingen. I hope I am not quite so hopeless a case as he is, but I have to admit to a few parallels. For example, the way he makes himself ready for his first meeting with Esther:

The Baron spent an hour, from noon till one, in dyeing his hair and whiskers. At nine in the evening, having taken a bath before dinner, he made a toilet worthy of a bridegroom and scented himself – a perfect Adonis.

I have to confess that, prior to a trip to Thailand or the Phils, I can also be found in the bathroom with a bottle of hair dye, and like many others, Thailand has inspired me to keep fit, lose weight, use Listerine and deodorant, and go clothes shopping more than once a year.

The way Esther milks the Baron for money also reminds me of similar tricks in modern Thailand/Phils. From the minute Nucingen enters her apartment it is one thing after another – a request for a better apartment, an ‘unexpected’ visit from creditors in the morning (whom the Baron pays off), and numerous other debts (contrived by Herrara to extort money for Lucien’s use). The specifics may be different, but the feeling is the same – it always costs more than you expected, and just when you think you’ve given her enough, there are always ‘emergencies’ to make you dig deeper into your wallet.

The Baron’s situation is particularly bleak, because, for a long time, he is not even getting anything in return:

“A half a million francs I hafe paid, and I hafe not yet seen vat her leg is like. – Dat is too silly! but, happily, nobody shall hafe known it!" said he to himself three weeks after.”

When she does, finally, give in to him, the cost is great – a luxuriously furnished house – and the prize is disappointing, because she offers herself like a sacrifice. When the Baron asks what he can do to please her, she replies with words that must run through many a Thai or Filipina’s head:

“Be young, be handsome, be like Lucien de Rubempre..., and you shall have gratis what you can never buy with all your millions!”

That’s why I enjoyed it – because in me, in all of us I think, there is a little of the Lucien de Rubempre and the Baron de Nucingen, and in the Eastern ladies we love, both sides of the character of Esther Van Gobseck – in varying proportions.

In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to give it the ‘rob’ treatment – i.e., a rewrite in a modern setting. I chose the Philippines for the setting, partly because that’s where I’m spending most of my time at the moment, and partly because it allowed me to use Balzac’s names with only slight changes.

I will be posting this in instalments over the next few weeks. I am aware that it has many flaws and could do with a lot more work, but if it inspires you to read the original on which it was based, then it will have done its job.

© Bangkok Byron, 2007. All rights reserved by the author.