Wine of Life by Charles Gorham

Balzac: genius in literature, lovable loser in life

I know almost nothing about the author Charles Gorham, but this is the second book I’ve read by him. He was an American writer, born 1911, died in Connecticut in 1975, and the Library of Congress has him down for ten books. I had previously read The Gold of Their Bodies, Gorham’s biographical novel about the painter Paul Gauguin. Having enjoyed that book quite a bit, I sought out more of Gorham’s novels. Wine of Life, published in 1958, is Gorham’s fictionalized life story of the French writer Honoré de Balzac. Once again Gorham proves himself a skilled writer of the biographical novel with another book about an eccentric and uncompromising artistic genius who lived by his own rules.

Gorham presents a complete cradle-to-grave retelling of Balzac’s life, beginning with the Frenchman’s birth in Tours in 1799. Balzac experienced a sad childhood. Unloved by a mother who wanted nothing to do with him, he was sent off at a young age to a boarding school that resembled a prison and the teachers sadistic guards. Despite his mother’s shunning of him, or maybe because of it, Balzac strove for the rest of his life to earn her love and respect, at least in Gorham’s telling. Balzac did not decide to become a writer until after having studied to be a lawyer and pursuing several futile business ventures. The first half of Wine of Life is all about his struggle to become a published writer, and frankly that portion of the book is drawn out a bit too long. Anyone who’s ever read a biography of Balzac already knows about his ineptitude as a businessman, and it does tax one’s patience a bit to read three chapters about his failed printing business or pineapple farm. Though the pacing is a bit slow, however, Gorham’s talent for period realism and vivid characterization prevail, and once Balzac’s writing career gets off the ground, the second half of the book is a vast improvement.

Balzac was notoriously devoid of anything resembling fiscal responsibility. Though he was a success during his lifetime, he always spent more than he made, and he pushed himself like a flogged mule in a vain attempt to write enough words to pay off his debts. In depicting this aspect of Balzac’s personality, Gorham paints Balzac as a lovable loser whose extravagance is so ridiculous one has to laugh good-naturedly at his clueless optimism. Balzac’s relationships with women are also crucial to an understanding of his nature, and Gorham thoroughly chronicles his subject’s love life. A string of mistresses helped to mold Balzac’s character, further his career, and in some cases enable his excesses, but his one true love was the Polish countess Evalina de Hanska (that’s Gorham’s spelling). Rather than an overly romanticized account of the lovers’ protracted long-distance courtship, Gorham presents a portrait of the countess that is not very flattering. While Wine of Life contains a fair amount of sex and romance, Gorham treats such amorous matters realistically, never succumbing to sappy sentimentalism or bodice-ripping titillation.

I’m not sure how Gorham conducted his research into Balzac’s life, but it seems obvious that Mary Frances Sandars’s 1902 biography Honoré de Balzac: His Life and Writings was one of his sources. As a historical novelist, Gorham is like an unsung Gore Vidal. He strikes a fine balance between factual accuracy and literary license. He admirably recreates this time period in French history and teaches the reader a great deal about Balzac’s life while telling a satisfying, entertaining, and moving fictional narrative in the process. Literary scholars could probably quibble over some of the details and characterizations in Wine of Life (because that’s what literary scholars do), but most Balzac fans will enjoy it.  

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The Gold of Their Bodies: A Novel about Gauguin by Charles Gorham

Naturalistic portrait of the uncompromising artist

Published in 1955, The Gold of Their Bodies is a biographical novel on the life of French painter Paul Gauguin. It was written by Charles Gorham (1911-1975), an author I know almost nothing about. According to the Library of Congress, Gorham authored ten books, including biographical novels on French author Honoré de Balzac (Wine of Life, 1958) and the Emperor of Ethiopia Hailie Selassie I (Lion of Judah, 1966). The Gold of Their Bodies includes a colophon that indicates the novel was written in New York—apparently Gorham’s home—as well as Paris, Pont Aven, and Arles, three locations in France that figured prominently in Gauguin’s life.

Only about half of the novel takes place in France, however. Gauguin possessed an adventurous soul that could not be confined by his native land, a quality that makes his life tasty fruit for a novelistic treatment. Gauguin’s travels took him all over the world—Denmark, Panama, Martinique, Tahiti, the Marquesas—for a life that was epic in scope, and he bore a larger-than-life personality that lived up to his exotic itinerary. Gauguin was an uncompromising individual who lived life on his own terms, scorning societal conventions at every turn and sticking to an unwavering belief in the superiority of his own art, even when no one else seemed to agree with him.

Gorham may not have traveled to Tahiti or the Marquesas, but he has certainly done enough research to bring the artist’s tropical experiences to life. Other than his period of “going native” in the islands, where most of his best-known paintings were produced, the other well-known episode of Gauguin’s life is his stint as Vincent Van Gogh’s roommate and mentor in Provence. Gorham sensitively portrays the interaction between the two painters without over-glorifying Van Gogh’s genius or insanity. Unlike Van Gogh, Gauguin enjoyed some level of artistic recognition and respect during his lifetime, but it never equated to enough financial success to keep him very far from starvation. Gorham vividly sketches a naturalistic depiction of Gauguin’s often squalid mode of existence while providing thoughtful insight into his art.

Every biographical novel exhibits a certain amount of hero worship towards its subject, but Gorham’s narrative is not an entirely favorable portrait. While admirable as an artist, Gauguin was far from a model human being. He was a terrible husband, a dead-beat dad, a philanderer, an alcoholic, a megalomaniac, and his love affairs in Tahiti qualified him as a pedophile by European standards. To his credit, Gauguin seems to have been less of a racist than many of his colonial contemporaries and even a proponent of Indigenous rights in the South Pacific, though today he would be condemned for cultural appropriation. While Gorham clearly admires his protagonist, he does not let Gauguin off the hook for his shortcomings, character defects, and crimes. Gorham’s aim is not to make the reader like Gauguin, but rather to understand him. This novel’s balanced depiction of Gauguin allows the reader to admire his artistic genius without condoning his reprehensible qualities.

Gorham succeeds in translating the legendary Gauguin into a fully dimensional human character with whom the reader can relate and sympathize or even choose to dislike. As an indication of its success as a biographical novel, this book makes me want to delve deeper into Gauguin’s art and conduct further research into the true history behind this compelling interpretation of his life.
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