Balzac's Bleating

Answering your most pressing questions of the MIC Contest here comes the solution to the Bridau query:

1. Name the following novel that features this rather sad little family:
- Madame Bridau
- Joseph Bridau
- Phillipe Bridau

It is, as has been noted in the comments, the novel The Black Sheep by Honoré de Balzac, the French writer of the 1800s. Balzac's works, at least those not published under the various pseduonyms he employed early in his literary career, are all part of a grand collection he called, La Comédie Humaine.

He was fond of saying that one day people would realize he was not so much a novelist as an historian, and his work reflects that. Realism and integration with historical events characterizes Balzac's work (or so I'm told, since I've only read one book so far), though it wouldn't be fair to call his work "historical fiction." His goal, rather, was to link his novels together so as to capture the whole of society. As one critic noted, "This plan eventually led to 90 novels and novellas, which included more than 2,000 characters. Balzac's huge and ambitious plan drew a picture of the customs, atmosphere, and habits of the bourgeois France."

Even given his polific writing, Balzac only managed, over the course of his half-century on this earth, to cover half the range he had originally hoped, passing from this worl, like so many brilliant men before and since, before he had reached ripe old age.

2. Who really is the black sheep of the family?

(If I gave any more hints, I'd be reading the story out loud)

The black sheep is not, as an anonymous poster suggested, Joseph Bridau. The reasons why demand a basic plot description.

The plot of The Black Sheep follows the ups and downs of the Bridau family, their rises and falls being very much influenced by three factors: Joseph's constancy, Phillipe's degeneracy, and the substantial inheritance left to Madame Bridau's infantile brother, Jean-Jacques Rouget. Without giving away too much, it is perfectly reasonable to say, that by book's end, you will realize that despite initial apperances to the contrary, Phillipe is quite the black sheep, an absolute rascal. Joseph, by contrast, shines as a dutiful son, but not an inhuman angel.

The story was quite gripping, more than a little bit depressing, and utterly fascinating, even (though some reviewers despise the section) the lengthy passage devoted to a description of the place and history of Issodoun, the spot in rural France where Madame Bridau, Agathe, grew up.

Right then, that's all for the moment. I encourage you all to read the book and I thank the inestimable Mr. Cohen for having recommended it to me.