This year on the 20-th of May was the 220 years anniversary from the day if birth of the world known French writer, whose life was deeply connected with Zhytomyr region. In Verhivnja, near Berduchiv, lived the only woman to whom Onore de Balzac gave his heart, the only one who had become his official wife – Evelina Ganska. The long years of correspondence and waiting for the opportunities to meet each other every time made them even closer. At last their relations led into a marriage which was made in St. Varvara cathedral in Berduchiv. Nowadays in front of the cathedral there is a center named after Onore de Balzac with his monument

15-16- th of May 2019 in Berduchiv within the Ukrainian festival Balzak Fest framework took place an International Scientific-Practical conference «Onore de Balzac: the faces, interpretation, Ukraine». Though, his name is widely known, and his creativity was investigated by the numbers of scientists all around the world, but there were several facts that we haven’t heard about before.
1. People say, that the one can not be born a writer, and the way of writing is a choice of an adult person. And Onore de Balzac wrote his first work- a treatise «About freedom» at the age of 12.
2. Did you know, who was Balzac by the profession? Not a literary man at all! At his time he has taken a sound legal education.
3. Each of us has his own favourite author. Balzac also had his own literary favourite, to which he referred to 174 times. We wouldn’t make any intrigue of that- it was William Shakespeare.
4. Who had never given up from the very first effort? If the great Frenchman wasn’t so stable, we wouldn’t have read this collection. His first work of art, a poem drama «Kromvel», appeared to be a failure, but Balzac didn’t give up and continued to work harder.
5. The most known epic « The Human Comedy» must contain 144 compositions, but Balzac managed to write only 96. Save the time – it is the most valuable resource!
6. How many characters did Balzac think of? In romances, tales,novels and dramas act more than two thousand of characters, many of them travel from one compisition to another, but more often appears doctor Oras Bianchon.
7. Inspiration- is a tricky guest which appears only after the long hours of hard work. So Balzac’s working process lasted for 14-16 hours. The longest period of time the author wrote a romance « Lost illusions», and the novel « Father Gorio» – only for 40 days.
8. If you are fond of the detective genre, so you can thank to Onore de Balzac, as he is thought to be one of the precursors and the initiators of this genre. Don’t you believe? So read «The Red Hotel», «The Dark Affair», «Metre Cornelius» and you will understand everything!
9. Nowadays there is hardly a person who wrires letters and the epistolary genre now is just text messages in the social networking sites. The love story of Balzac and Evelina Ganska who became his wife, is 18 years of correspondence and 144 letters from Onore, filled with tenderness and adorance.
Behind the great monumental personality always stands a common human being with his own emotions, fears and preferences. If you want understand Balzac- human being better, so read «Loui Lambert», or visit Berduchiv, a small town of a huge love.