HONORE DE BALZAC
THE PLEASURES AND PAINS OF COFFEE
Translator's note: This essay was written in the 1830s by the great French novelist as
part of an appendix to an "enhanced" edition of La Physiologie du Gout by Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin. The full appendix, subtitled Trait6 des Excitants Modernes, deals
with coffee, wine, and tobacco. The translation is based on the authoritative modern
edition of Balzac's works published in Paris by Le Castor Astral in 1992.
On this subject Brillat-Savarin is far from complete. I can add something
to what he has said because coffee is a great power in my life; I have observed its effects on an epic scale. Coffee roasts your insides. Many people claim coffee inspires them; but as everybody likewise knows, coffee
only makes boring people even more boring. Think about it: although
more grocery stores are staying open in Paris until midnight, few writers
are actually becoming more spiritual.
But as Brillat-Savarin has correctly observed, coffee sets the blood in
motion and stimulates the muscles; it accelerates the digestive
processes, chases away sleep, and gives us the capacity to engage a little
longer in the exercise of our intellects. It is on this last point, in particular, that I want to add my personal experience to Brillat-Savarin's observations, and to add some remarks about coffee from the great sages.
Coffee affects the diaphragm and the plexus of the stomach, from
which it reaches the brain by barely perceptible radiations which escape
complete analysis; that aside, we may surmise that our primary nervous
flux conducts an electricity emitted by coffee when we drink it. Coffee's
power changes over time. Rossini has personally experienced some of
these effects, as, of course, have I.
"Coffee," Rossini told me, "is an affair of fifteen or twenty days; just
the right amount of time, fortunately, to write an opera."
This is true. But the length of time during which one can enjoy the
benefits of coffee can be extended. This knowledge is so useful to so
many people that I cannot but confess the secrets of releasing the bean's
precious essence.
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