"Balzac's age" - a winged expression, which is often given an ironic, humorous tone. Usually this phrase applies to women between the ages of thirty to forty.
History of appearance
The expression "Balzac's age" has becomefamous after the birth of the novel "The Thirty Years Woman" in 1831 - a famous work by the French writer, one of the founders of realism in the French literature Honore de Balzac.
This novel is sometimes found as "A Woman in Thirty Years" - a rarer version of the translation of the title.
In the first years after the publication of the workThis expression was used in an ironic manner in relation to women who resemble the heroine of the novel or who want to become like her. With the passage of time, this value was forgotten, and when speaking of Balzac's age, they began to imply only a certain age range - from thirty to forty years.
The expression "Balzac's age" is traditionally applied only in relation to a woman. To designate in this way the age of a man is not accepted.
Balzak's woman
Together with "Balzac's age" in the wideThe use was made of the expression "Balzac's woman", who is called both ladies of Balzac's age, and individuals similar to the heroine of the novel Honore de Balzac. This is an attractive middle-aged woman or a little older, enjoying success in the opposite sex and often showing initiative at acquaintance. Men should remember that behind the expression "Balzac's age" was fixed a humorous, comic, ironic connotation of meaning. Indeed, during the time of Honore de Balzac, the ladies entered a period of, so to speak, flourishing at about fourteen, and at thirty preferred not to talk about their age. Perhaps, that is why now there is a misconception that "the Balzac Age" means the modern pre-retirement or retirement age of a woman. So use this expression with caution, not in the presence of the ladies, and sometimes it is better to give it up altogether. There is one more meaning of this expression, which has appeared already at the present time. Under Balzac's age is also understood as a kind of transition period in the life of a woman, since the age after 30 is widely perceived as a milestone, after which you need to take a small result and move on to the next stage of your life. There is also a peculiar tendency - after 30 years there is a crisis based on the belief that in these years the woman should already have a certain status, a certain experience, and the time of discoveries and external and spiritual flourishing is left behind.
