More Chunnering About Balzac

... point, waffle about politics and society. It's as if someone dumped a block of concrete in the stern of a racing skiff. One of the big French critics- it may have been Roland Barthes- said Balzac's moralising windbaggery made him feel physically ill.  It doesn't have that effect on me. I accept it as a part of what he is- I just wish he'd get a move on.  Jaques Rivette has just filmed the story ...