Theorie des Gehens

Balzac's essay on the theory of walking, first published in 1833, is one of the little-known key texts of his major work, The Human Comedy. In this formally unique and original text, the young successful author defines his historical-anthropological approach to the society of his time, referring to himself here for the first time as its "secretary." Based on observations of pedestrians on the Parisian boulevards, he outlines a "code of gaits," whose axioms confidently draw conclusions from external behavior to inner life. A person's gait is considered the "physiognomy of the body," revealing "thinking in action" along with all human virtues and vices, work habits, and ailments. In an entertaining yet scholarly manner, Balzac intertwines the demonstration of his method with scientific and philosophical reflections on the practice of observation and the state of the human sciences in general.