During the five years (1820-1825) that Balzac remained at home in Villeparisis, he longed for the quiet freedom of his garret; he could not adapt himself to the bustling family circle, nor reconcile himself to the noise of the domestic machinery kept in motion by his vigilant and indefatigable mother.  She was of a nervous, excitable nature, which she probably inherited from her mother, Madame Sallambier.  She imagined that he was ill, and of course there was no one to convince her to the contrary.  Had she known that while she thought she was contributing everything to the happiness of those around her, she was only doing the opposite, we may be sure that she of all women would have been the most wretched.

Balzac having failed in his speculations as publisher and printer, was aided by his mother financially, and she figured as one of his principal creditors during the remainder of his life. (E.  Faguet in Balzac, is exaggerating in stating that Madame de Balzac sacrificed her whole fortune for Honore, for much of her means was spent on her favorite son, Henri.)

M. Auguste Fessart was a contemporary of the family, an observer of a great part of the life of Honore, and his confidant on more than one occasion.  In his Commentaires on the work entitled Balzac, sa Vie et ses Oeuvres, by Madame Surville, he states that the portrait of Madame de Balzac is flattering—­a daughter’s portrait of a mother—­and declares that Madame de Balzac was very severe with her children, especially with Honore, adding that Balzac used to say that he never heard his mother speak without experiencing a certain trembling which deprived him of his faculties.  Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, in reviewing the Commentaires of M. Fessart, notes the recurring instances in which pity is expressed for the moral and material sufferings almost constantly endured by Balzac in his family circle.  These sufferings seem to have impressed him more than anything else in the career of the novelist.  In speaking of Balzac’s financial appeal to his family, M. Fessart notes:  “And his mother did not respond to him.  She let him die of hunger! . . .  I repeat that they let him die of hunger; he told me so several times!” When Madame Surville speaks of their keeping Balzac’s presence in Paris a secret, saying that it was moreover a means of keeping him from all worldly temptations, M. Fessart replies:  “And of giving him nothing, and of allowing him to be in need of everything!” Finally, when Madame Surville speaks of her parents’ not giving Balzac the fifteen hundred francs he desired, M. Fessart confirms this, saying that his family always refused him money.

A letter from Balzac to Madame Hanska testifies to this attitude of his family towards him:  “In 1828 I was cast into this poor rue Cassini, in consequence of a liquidation to which I had been compelled, owing one hundred thousand francs and being without a penny, when my family would not even give me bread.”