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gonza_basta's review against another edition
3.0
Lotte intestine tra i corridoi di un ministero, dove personaggi, i cui nomi all'inizio facevo fatica a distinguere, si alternano tra piaggerie e dileggi. Fanatici di ristrutturazioni burocratiche, matrone con alte aspirazioni, fanatici degli anagrammi e spie, praticamente tra il 1823 in Francia e la situazione attuale in ufficio da me (e lo dico solo per fare un esempio considerando il grado di potere - nullo - per cui si massacrano) non c'è pressocché alcuna differenza.
virginiedolleans's review against another edition
3.0
Balzac nous décrit le fonctionnement de l’Administration en 1830, aussi inefficace qu’aujourd’hui…Il présente les personnages, employés de toute sorte dans les “Bureaux” dans la première moitié du roman. C’est bien long mais enfin quand tout est en place, l’intrigue s’accélère et une fois de plus, Balzac est un excellent observateur de la société de son temps. Et ce qui est encore plus fort, c’est que sa peinture des caractères est si fine que ses personnages pourraient toujours exister aujourd’hui.
jasonfurman's review against another edition
4.0
A strange creation. Part study, part Platonic dialogue, part novel, it all adds up to a fascinating, but uneven, literary artifact.
The Bureaucrats is Balzac's study of the French bureaucracy under the reign of Charles X in the 1920s. It begins with about 100 pages of essentially prefatory material that serially introduces the dozens of characters that populate this novel, explaining where they came from, what role they play in the bureaucracy, and what their plans for the future contain. There are little bits of storytelling in the first part, but mostly Balzac is setting up the story--which takes up the next 150 pages of the book.
It can be hard to keep track of all of the kaleidoscope of characters, bureaucratic positions, and machinations, but the basic story comes through increasingly clearly. The division director dies and needs to be replaced. Two bureau chiefs are jockeying for the position. The Minister has to make the decision, but mostly delegates it to his fixer, the Secretary-General, who himself is mostly focused on sleeping with one of the bureau chief's wives, getting out of debt, and becoming a Deputy. A large cast of bureaucratic underlings play an important role in the adroit and impressive machinations of the two camps. Ultimately, the good bureau chief loses out and the one who it would be overly generous to describe as a mediocrity ascends one rung up the ladder to become Division Director.
All of the characters are recognizable and are presented as much as types as they are as individuals, but all of them are also unique and come to feel like individuals, albeit ones that generally do not evolve over the course of the book. In that way, it is typical Balzac, although the ratio of "types" in a study to characters in a story is higher in the case of The Bureaucrats", which has no one, for example, that approaches Lucien de Rubempré of Lost Illusions and A Harlot High and Low.
Much of the book feels strikingly modern, including the discussions of tax reform (the reformist division chief favors a broader base with lower rates),government reform (he favors consolidating departments, although interestingly dramatically reducing staffing and dramatically raising salaries--which is not a view I associate with anyone today), and bureaucratic infighting.
I would not recommend this as the place to start with Balzac or even as a particularly great work, but it has a lot of greatness in it and makes for an interesting addition to Balzac's universe.
The Bureaucrats is Balzac's study of the French bureaucracy under the reign of Charles X in the 1920s. It begins with about 100 pages of essentially prefatory material that serially introduces the dozens of characters that populate this novel, explaining where they came from, what role they play in the bureaucracy, and what their plans for the future contain. There are little bits of storytelling in the first part, but mostly Balzac is setting up the story--which takes up the next 150 pages of the book.
It can be hard to keep track of all of the kaleidoscope of characters, bureaucratic positions, and machinations, but the basic story comes through increasingly clearly. The division director dies and needs to be replaced. Two bureau chiefs are jockeying for the position. The Minister has to make the decision, but mostly delegates it to his fixer, the Secretary-General, who himself is mostly focused on sleeping with one of the bureau chief's wives, getting out of debt, and becoming a Deputy. A large cast of bureaucratic underlings play an important role in the adroit and impressive machinations of the two camps. Ultimately, the good bureau chief loses out and the one who it would be overly generous to describe as a mediocrity ascends one rung up the ladder to become Division Director.
All of the characters are recognizable and are presented as much as types as they are as individuals, but all of them are also unique and come to feel like individuals, albeit ones that generally do not evolve over the course of the book. In that way, it is typical Balzac, although the ratio of "types" in a study to characters in a story is higher in the case of The Bureaucrats", which has no one, for example, that approaches Lucien de Rubempré of Lost Illusions and A Harlot High and Low.
Much of the book feels strikingly modern, including the discussions of tax reform (the reformist division chief favors a broader base with lower rates),government reform (he favors consolidating departments, although interestingly dramatically reducing staffing and dramatically raising salaries--which is not a view I associate with anyone today), and bureaucratic infighting.
I would not recommend this as the place to start with Balzac or even as a particularly great work, but it has a lot of greatness in it and makes for an interesting addition to Balzac's universe.
jasonfurman's review against another edition
4.0
Balzac's taxonomy of the "employee"--which he spends over one hundred pages defining but appears to constitute a civil servant working in Paris and can be defined as "Someone who needs his salary to live and isn't free to resign as he isn't equipped for anything other than producing endless piles of paperwork." As Balzac notes, the "employee" is not to be confused with the Statesman--"Axiom One: Where the Employee Ends, the Statesman Begins." Thus begins a taxonomy that considers a wide variety of ranks, ranging from "intern" (the translator's term for "supernumerary clerk", which does seem an awful like like a modern intern) to "Head of Department" along with a cross-cutting wide variety of types ranging from "The Dapper" to "The Codger" to "The Bootlicker". All of this is described with a combination of wit and insight that feels much lighter and less deeply philosophical/historical than much of Balzac's anatomy of society. Moreover, much of the description of bureaucracy feels strikingly modern and relevant today.
The Physiology of the Employee in some ways serves as a nonfiction counterpart to Balzac's somewhat obscure novel Bureaucracy.
This particular edition was published by Wakefield Press is a nicely bound, nicely formatted paperback that has 19th century French illustrations that perfectly match the text (it is unclear to me if these illustrations were part of an edition in Balzac's time). Certainly worth a quick, enjoyable read.
The Physiology of the Employee in some ways serves as a nonfiction counterpart to Balzac's somewhat obscure novel Bureaucracy.
This particular edition was published by Wakefield Press is a nicely bound, nicely formatted paperback that has 19th century French illustrations that perfectly match the text (it is unclear to me if these illustrations were part of an edition in Balzac's time). Certainly worth a quick, enjoyable read.