“A face that seemed so sturdy as to defy even the devastating pickax of misery,” Balzac
…Godefroid examined [the stranger] closely and was surprised at his exceptional thinness, no doubt caused by sorrow, and perhaps hunger, and very likely hard work. Each of these debilitating forces had left its mark on that face, whose withered skin clung tightly to the bones, as if baked by the fires of Africa. His high, looming forehead sheltered two steel blue eyes beneath its cupola, eyes as cold, hard, wise, and penetrating as the eyes of the savages but marred by two deep and very wrinkled dark circles. His long slender nose and proudly raised chin gave the old man a certain resemblance to the popular image of Don Quixote, but this was the face of a cruel Don Quixote, a Don Quixote without illusions, Don Quixote as a formidable figure.In spite of this severity, the old man could not entirely conceal the fear and frailty that indigence confers on all its victims. These two afflictions had created something like cracks in a face that seemed so sturdy as to defy even the devastating pickax of misery. His mouth was eloquent and serious. Don Quixote was complicated by the President de Montesquieu.
Le grand vieillard hésitait à répondre; il voyait venir Mme. Vauthier; mais Godefroid, qui l'examinait attentivement, fut surpris du degré de maigreur auquel les chagrins, la faim peut-être, peut-être le travail, l'avaient fait arriver; il y avait trace de toutes ces causes d'affaiblissement sur cette figure, où la peau desséchée se collait avec ardeur sur les os, comme si elle avait été exposée aux feux de l'Afrique. Le front, haut et d'un aspect menaçant, abritait sous sa coupole deux yeux d'un bleu d'acier, deux yeux froids, durs, sagaces et perspicaces comme ceux des sauvages, mais meurtris par un profond cercle noir très ridé. Le nez, grand, long et mince, et le menton, très relevé, donnaient à ce vieillard une ressemblance avec le masque si connu, si populaire attribué à don Quichotte; mais c'était don Quichotte méchant, sans illusions, un don Quichotte terrible.Ce vieillard, malgré cette sévérité générale, laissait percer la crainte et la faiblesse que prête l'indigence à tous les malheureux. Ces deux sentiments produisaient comme des lézardes dans cette face construite si solidement que le pic dévastateur de la misère semblait s'y ébrécher. La bouche était éloquente et sérieuse. Don Quichotte se compliquait du président de Montesquieu.
—Balzac, The Wrong Side of Paris (L'envers de l'histoire contemporaine), Part II, Chapter 3, translated by Jordan Stump
Do we still see our fellows in the same detailed way? I wonder if this kind of descriptive language, this way of introducing a character, still exists in the language of the present day. I know that it's often easier to look for a shorthand metaphor, a kind of picture-word that's worth at least five hundred other words; I'm thinking of this kind of description in particular:
The headmistress was a tall, slim woman who looked a little like Charles de Gaulle.To me Balzac's description reeks of the past, of a different way of looking at people, of close examination of appearance as a way to better understanding of character. This kind of quote takes those old saws about how “suffering was written on his face” and walks the reader through one such face: M. Bernard's thinness as the result of hard work and sorrow and hunger, the forehead-as-cupola, the steely blue eyes, and the reference to popular views of Don Quixote.
The larger question is this: do people even look like M. Bernard any more, especially in novels?
picture via flickr.com
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