What does Balzac age mean and what does Balzac have to do with it

Regarding the fair sex, they can use a peculiar expression – a woman of Balzac age. Moreover, this phraseological unit in the mouths of different people can have a different meaning.

Using the expression, not everyone understands its true, original meaning.

What age of a woman did this phraseological unit imply in the era of its appearance?

What does the famous French writer have to do with him?

How was the meaning of the expression distorted compared to the initial value?

Why is the literal use of phraseologism incorrect today?

Romantic young ladies
The appearance of phraseologism was associated with literature.

In the traditions of European romance until the middle of the 19th century, there was only one cliche – the main character of the work could only be a young lady of 16-19 years old, who is not married and is looking for love.

Exceptions in European literature were very rare. For example, Jane Austen, describing her character Ann Elliot, notes that at the age of 27 she no longer dares to hope for marriage, and her youth is left far behind.

European novels, as a rule, described the vicissitudes of the relationship of a young woman with a gentleman and ended in marriage. What happened after the wedding is at best described by a couple of lines in the afterword.

It was believed that nothing interesting could happen to a woman anymore – marriage, life, children. Older women in a novel or play could only be cast in episodic roles: mothers, aunts, neighbors.

To some extent, this was true. Having married at the age of 17-18, after 30 a woman could already be a grandmother, a venerable matron. But stereotypes also played a role.

Big love and a revolution in the minds
Broke the template of the image of the heroine of the novel by Honore de Balzac.

The writer had several novels with women older than himself. His first passion at the age of 21 was Laura de Berni, 42 years old, mother of 9 children! By that time, age was critical, women of such years were considered old. And the love of Balzac’s life was Evelina Ganskaya. At the time of the meeting with Honore, she was already 32 years old – in the view of society, the age is very respectable.

The realist writer transferred his experience to the pages of the work. He published the novel “The Thirty-Year-Old Woman” from a series of short stories describing the life, destinies, passions of women after 30.

Balzac, with his work, wanted to show the public that women after 30 are still alive, they have feelings, intelligence, they are not a faceless addition to a man, home and children.

After the release of the novel, a persistent expression appeared. Balzac woman – that is, a woman in her 30s or under 40s.

Outrage, criticism and disfigured meaning
The society was shocked by the writer’s novel. Thirty-year-old women, their love, feelings on the pages of a novel – it seemed absurd.

The writer himself portrayed women at that time, elderly, but sensitive, alive.

Critics began to call women of Balzac age older women who, beyond their years, claim to be romantically interested in men. The expression was used as a veiled hint that a woman can no longer count on love.

Today, both meanings of the expression are irrelevant. On the one hand, women of 30 years old in modern society are fully called girls, and even after 40, 50 and older, they still do not always look and feel old.

On the other hand, today the romance or marriage of a woman of all ages does not cause shock to others.