Distance and Narrative Perspective in Balzac’s Facino Cane

Distance and Narrative Perspective in Balzac’s Facino Cane Alexander Fischler T HE MOST COMMON CRITICISM of Balzac’s Facino Cane, composed shortly before its publication in March of 1836, is that it consists of two distinct stories which do not cohere: an introduc­ tion which tells of the narrator’s early days in the Faubourg SaintAntoine , and the fantastic tale of Pere Canet, a blind musician from the Hospice des Quinze-Vingts who claims to have once been a Venetian nobleman, Marco Facino Cane. Since Balzac asserted in a letter to Mme Hanska that he had written the work in a single night,1hasty composi­ tion is usually blamed for its flaws, and the reliance on such stereotypes as the passionate Italian and the fabulously wealthy Venice (which Balzac would visit only after publishing the story) are viewed as evidence that nothing more was intended than a little tribute to italian friends like the Guidoboni-Visconti.2Since the publication of Gautier’s first articles on Balzac in L ’Artiste (March 1858), which stressed the autobiographical character of the story’s introduction,3critics and editors of Facino Cane have generally agreed that the detail it presents reflects the reality of the period described, 1820. Most of them have consequently identified the anonymous young narrator with the author himself. Even detractors allow for the value of the personal data offered in the story.4The story’s partisans point out that, aside from its autobiographical interest, the introduction discusses and illustrates the author’s important concept of seconde vue. They argue also that the lives of the octogenarian and the young man of twenty are in fact well meshed, and that the treatment of the destructive powers of gold is effective and very Balzacian, as is the choice of carefully nurtured creative powers over immediate gratifica­ tion.5I should like to argue beyond this that the challenge of two narra­ tives, three distinct points of view, and a chance to excel in a genre made popular by recent translation of Hoffmann’s tales inspired Balzac to write a well-knit story in which clearly drawn lines, not only point to the wisdom of walking the straight and narrow, but invite the reader to estimate distance along the way. My examination centers on the manner in which, within the story, awareness of the uses of distance parallels consideration of problems VOL. XXXI, No. 3 15 L ’E spr it C réa te u r posed by distance and means to overcome them. I am concerned also with Balzac’s use of the background as “ cadre” in Facino Cane, notably the wedding background, and the manner in which successive frames, while narrowing toward a focal point or expanding to suggest wide planes beyond, promote an attitude or a course of action. I expect to show that the author’s involvement in the story both as protagonist and narrator, while adding grist to the mill of the biographer and weight to the attitudes conveyed, serves primarily to foster intimacy with the reader. This, in turn, facilitates suspension of disbelief and allows the story to illustrate the process by which fiction comes into being better than any preface. The eponym Facino Cane set this fantastic tale under the sign of fear and fascination: Facino the fascinator is also the awe inspiring Cane, the dog who can sniff out the fascinating (“ [il] me flairait, il devinait l’excessif intérêt que je lui portais,” 1024).6Fascination and fear, attrac­ tion and repulsion, structure the story’s twin narratives and allow them to illustrate exceptionally well the manner in which Balzac rests fiction, especially in stories of initiation, on tension resulting from the dynamics of distance and desire, “ distance as the source of desire and desire as the energy behind attempts to turn distance into closeness.” 7 To maximize impact, Balzac set up an elaborate narrative perspective largely dependent on his presence and interventions. The autobiograph­ ical opening invites the reader to look back over a timespan of twenty years and to consider a younger Balzac who, like his own protagonists, is eager to situate himself in the world and obsessed by the need to assess...