Interesting story, but KPW's translation is so terrible, I gave it 2 stars. The plot at times becomes pretty melodramatic and dips into Bathos territory, but really its unfair to judge Balzac thru KPW's horrible filter. ( )

A friend of mine recommended this to me over 20 years ago. J Barry is an excellent philosopher, a champion of Arendt and Merleau-Ponty, yet his thoughts on literature have often went awry to my own tastes. This may have been the most static exercise by Balzac which I have encountered. That isn't a dig at the maestro, just an observation. The Quest concerns an obsession, which inflicts immeasurable harm on a family. One thinks of Balzac's Wild Ass' Skin but I was drawn to compare it to Mary Shelley. Both alternate the pursuit with the proprietary bliss of the gentry. Those damned ideas spoil it all. The premise is established early and then unfolds to an expected meter. Barristers aren't portrayed well, which is an appreciable edge to the Balzac milieu. The hypocrisies of funerals and mourning are displayed, though I found the exercise less convincing here than in, say, Cousin Pons.
I read this in airports and flying across the Atlantic. It wouldn't be a bad entry to La Comédie humaine, but unfortunately remains largely a curiosity, not a triumph. 2.5 stars. ( )

Comment un riche Flamand se prend de passion pour la chimie et l'alchimie et veut découvrir le secret de l'Absolu, c'est-à-dire de l'unité de la matière. Comment ce sombre génie ruine sa famille. Comment la science rend fou et comment Balthazar Claës croit découvrir dans ses derniers instants, et sans pouvoir le communiquer, le secret auquel il a sacrifié ses biens, ses proches et sa vie. De tous les romans de Balzac, aucun ne justifie mieux le mot de Baudelaire : 'J'ai maintes fois été étonné que la grande gloire de Balzac fût de passer pour un observateur ; il m'avait toujours semblé que son principal mérite était d'être visionnaire et visionnaire passionné.' La Recherche de l'Absolu est aussi l'une des oeuvres les plus somptueusement pittoresques de Balzac, véritable tableau flamand que balaient les ombres de Rembrandt.

"Eureka, j'ai trouve!" If you are into trivia, you may be interested to learn that the last few lines of this book are the ones that Jean-Pierre Leaud's young character in "Les 400 coups" (Truffaut) memorizes and plagiarizes during that fateful exam. Anyway, the book itself is fantastic and allegorical. One of the early Balzac novels before they take a decidedly "realistic" color. The book will surprise you (delightedly, I hope) if you've exclusively stuck to the "Comedie humaine" : Father Goriot and Eugenie Grandet, etc. where Balzac constructs his vast world in the realist mode he made famous. Here he indulges in late romantic themes of good and evil, of the perils that are bound to mar any search for "absolute" truth, themes which seem to set the philosophical stage for his later works. ( )