Séraphîta

Séraphîta is a Romance French of Honore de Balzac. Published in the Re-examined of Paris , in 1834, the text knew seven editions: the first at Werdet in 1835 in same volume as Proscribed the and Louis Lambert , and the last (illustrated Furne edition) in 1846 where the novel appears in the philosophical Études of the human Comedy .

Work plunges in the fantastic one, the supernatural one even (a kind that Balzac always approached successfully). The topic of the androgyny, which it approaches here, brings back to the ancient myth human perfection: the androgyne being the to be total .

Topic

In a castle of Norway located close to the Fjord Stromfjord, Séraphitüs, a strange being and melancholic person, seems to hide a terrible secrecy. He likes Minna and he is liked of her, which sees in him a man. But Séraphitus is also liked by Wilfrid, which regards it as a woman (Séraphîta).

Actually, Séraphitus-Séraphita is a perfect androgyne, born acquired parents with the doctrines from Swedenborg which aims at transcending the human condition and whose Séraphitus-Séraphita is the perfect example. Immensely scholar, endowed with mental faculties exceeding the common run of people, it carries out a solitary and contemplative life. But this quasi celestial being dreams to know the perfect love, that which consists in jointly loving two beings of opposite sexes.

Finally, under the frightened eyes Mined and Wilfrid, the total being is transformed into seraph and goes up to the sky.

The novel had, as the number of editions testifies some, a considerable public success.

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