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His vanity was of the calm, settled sort

Thursday, June 4, 2026 4:09

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Wilkie Collins on Honoré de Balzac.

His vanity was of the calm, settled sort; and his own conviction that his business in life was simply to be a famous man, proved too strong to be shaken by anybody…

“I will give up being a great dramatist,” he told his parents at parting, “and I will be a great novelist instead.” The vanity of the man expressed itself with this sublime disregard of ridicule all through his life…

He appears to have possessed in the highest degree those powers of fascination which are quite independent of mere beauty of face and form, and which are perversely and inexplicably bestowed in the most lavish abundance on the most unprincipled of mankind.

Wilkie Collins – My Miscellanies (1863)

Balzac had the talent and a vast capacity for hard work, but today we see monstrous vanity and a sublime disregard of ridicule in too many public figures with little obvious talent and only a limited inclination to understand what they should understand.

Perhaps ‘vanity’ is a more useful word than ‘narcissistic’ when trying to make sense of mediocre public figures, especially when they display an unshakeable belief that their rightful place is the top of the greasy pole.

This level of vanity tends to go with a lack of principle too, but in the political arena we rarely see the powers of fascination bestowed in the most lavish abundance. The only fascination is to be found in wondering what on earth they will say or do next.

Source: https://akhaart.blogspot.com/2026/06/wilkie-collins-on-honore-de-balzac.html

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