Balzac's Dyslexia

Traditional models of textual understanding have been based on the idealistic possibility of good communication. Readings of realist novels have been beholden to such a model, which has often served to separate Balzac and Flaubert based on the way each made contracts with his readers. The model proposed here is one of misreading, fundamental to an understanding of realism. Application of this model questions the Balzac-Flaubert split and shows how misreading functions in La Cousine Bette and Modeste Mignon. Finally, Balzac uses a strategy to overcome misreading that depends on the imposition of rhetoric of the sublime. (LRS)