Unamuno lector de Balzac: la sed de Eternidad

Abstract

The reading of some of the works of Balzac, such as: La peau de chagrin, Le curé de Tours and Le lys dans la vallée, is a good support for Unamuno to think about some of the subjects which worry him; besides, the first of the works above-mentioned has been the starting-point for the creation of his novel Cómo se hace una novela. Balzac's novels, as those of Unamuno, are personal, existential ones, and it is shown in them the Glose correspondence between life and novel. The work of both authors suggests a constant meditation, by means of dramas of great intensity, about human nature and the limits of man. Both authors emphasize the absurd of human existence, because of the threat of death upon it. Man lives tortured by the dual choice between two kinds of death: the indolence, which is a sort of death, and the annihilation, caused by a feverish activity. Unamuno makes a symbolic and subjective reading of Balzac, which allows him to create a new text, from the source which supplied him the initial idea.