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"Great Milters." 
 
 EDITED ISY 
 
 PROFESSOR ERIC S. ROBERTSON, ALA. 
 
 LIFE OF BALZAC. 
 
 ive: 
 
 r Tr 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 HONORE DE BALZAC 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK WEDMORE. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE 
 
 1890 
 (All rights reserved.) 
 
// f/v 
 
NOTE. 
 
 BALZAC is a great subject, and this is a small book. 
 But it is a book for a series in which compression 
 is a necessity. And, moreover, my methods of work are 
 incompatible with the production of extensive volumes. 
 A literary task, as I conceive it, is generally ill executed 
 if, when it is done, the labour of omission, though chiefly 
 concealed, is not found to have been its heaviest part. 
 
 Obligations to all sorts of books may, if one is work- 
 ing upon Balzac, be taken for granted. They are unmis- 
 takable and important — even if amidst the mass of 
 miscellaneous material, and amidst Critical writings of 
 high value, there is discovered no single Biography at 
 once broad in conception and finished in treatment. 
 
 Let the less obvious debt to many friends — who, on 
 one point or on another, are especially qualified to 
 criticize or counsel — be gratefully acknowledged. 
 
 F. W. 
 
 London, December, 1889. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Balzac an immortal ; birth and parentage ; he is typically 
 French J his childhood; schooldays at Vendome ; their 
 story partly told in "Louis Lambert"; his illness and 
 return to Tours ; his love of Touraine ; early ambition ; 
 the family in Paris ; he studies Law ; resolves to be a 
 writer ; his attic near the Arsenal ; his lonely life . . 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 Balzac's tragedy a failure ; learns gradually the art of narrative ; 
 writes under pseudonyms ; signs the " Chouans " ; his 
 admiration of Sir Walter Scott ; " La Maison du Chat- 
 qui-pelote " ; the sense in which it is connected with 
 " Eugenie Grandct " and " Illusions Pcdues" . . 24 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Ealz-.c's energy, and unremitting application ; correspondence; 
 his genius for friendship ; regard for fellow-workers ; friend- 
 ships with women ; Madame de Berny ; Madame Zulma 
 Carraud ; the Duchesse d'Abrantes ; the anonymous 
 " Louise " ; the Duchesse de Castries, and the dance she 
 led him; he follows her to Aix, and to Geneva . . 33 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 His deep belief in his own characters ; the " Peau de Chagrin " 
 and its place ; the philosophic stories ; Monsieur Taine's 
 judgment on them; public acceptance of the "Peau 
 de Chagrin " ; the fineness of its allegory ; its criticism 
 of life 42 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The " Medecin de Campagne " ; Balzac's ambition with regard 
 to it ; it is " tevangileen action" ; the method he adopts in 
 it ; Mr. Henry James, who minimizes Balzac's goodness 
 and geniality ; the character of Benassis ; the "Cure de 
 Tours " ; the Abbe" Birotteau's character ; he is found 
 again in "Cesar Birotteau " and in " Le Lys dans la 
 Vallee" 49 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Balzac hangs upon the verdict of his friends ; the public 
 disappoints him ; debts and disputes ; he begins to group 
 his stories into classes ; writes and revises " Eugenie 
 Grandet "; his hopes respecting it 61 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The chief characteristics of " Eugenie Grandet " ; the heroine's 
 ideal; Balzac addresses himself to the "Lear" of the 
 bourgeoisie ; Le Pere Goriot, and how his daughters keep 
 him at a distance ; the death-scene in the boarding-house; 
 the frame for this picture 67 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Balzac and Madame de Hanska ; he had met her at Neuchatel ; 
 his correspondence with her ; her husband and her 
 daughter ; her influence on " Seraphita " ; her character ; 
 she shares Balzac's interests ; and she gives him courage . 76 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PACE 
 
 The preface to the " Comedie Humaine " ; the giving of that 
 title to the novels ; the different stages of the scheme ; 
 Balzac's Apologia ; a " monarchical writer " ; conservative 
 in politics and in religion ; the absence of connecting links 
 in the romances of Scott ; Balzac obtains a hint ; the vast- 
 ness of his plan 84 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " Le Cousin Pons" in contrast with "La Cousine Bette"; 
 Balzac's labours upon it, and his reward in money ; his 
 power in the sympathetic description of the unattractive ; 
 Cousin Pons's world; Balzac and music; "Gambara"; 
 Tons and Schmucke ; the typical good German ; Balzac 
 as a connoisseur of pictures, furniture, and china . . 95 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Balzac in the Rue Fortunee ; he is occupied with Madame de 
 Ilanska; Balzac and the theatre; his Russian journeys; 
 marriage ; his serious illness and his death ; Victor Hugo's 
 account of them ; the scene at his funeral ; his widow's later 
 days, and the collapse of the family ..... 109 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Sainte-Beuve and Balzac; the " rich and complicated legacy"; 
 the opinion of George Sand ; the simplicity of plot in 
 Balzac's work ; his juvenile heroines, and his " women of 
 thirty " ; his young men seldom successful ; his work 
 executed with closeness of web ; the poetry in his realism; 
 his vision of life ; might it have been different ? ; he must 
 be accepted for what he actually was . . . .127 
 
 IXDEX in 
 
LIFE OF BALZAC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BEFORE HE BECAME AN AUTHOR. 
 
 HOW many people shall I displease — how many 
 content — if I set forth by declaring that 
 among the writers whose successes in pure Literature 
 this century allows, five alone must be accounted for 
 ever influential — Goethe, Wordsworth, Balzac, Dickens, 
 Browning ? In England, only one of these writers has 
 very great popularity. The author of " David Copper- 
 field " so planned and executed his work that he appeals 
 to the large public hardly less certainly than to those 
 who concern themselves in seriousness with the problems 
 of Art ; and we need not be occupied with the momentary 
 rejection of him by superfine Criticism, and by the 
 average University young man. Dickens is for the 
 world, a r ter all. But to be sure to care profoundly for 
 Dickens's peers, you must be, perhaps, not incapable of 
 philosophic thought, or not intolerant of the notions 
 of a Society quite other than your own, or not insensitive 
 to the technical qualities of exquisite work — or, at the 
 very least, you must be, in Wordsworth's phrase, a "grave 
 
12 LIFE OF 
 
 liver." Balzac, as much as any one of those writers whom 
 I have associated with him, asks from the readers of his 
 books some touch of kinship, some faculty for the under- 
 standing of his aims. His fifty volumes can have nothing 
 to impart to people who are hungry for farce, or athirst 
 only for story. Would, indeed, that his humour were more 
 prominent, his hand sometimes a little lighter ! He is a 
 study to be seriously undertaken. He is an illumination 
 thrown upon Life. And if he is to be met by you at 
 all along the road, he must be privileged to be met 
 half way. 
 
 Balzac was born at Tours on Saint Honore's Day — 
 May the 16th — 1799. The house is No. 39, Rue 
 Royale — Rue Nationale, its latest appellation— a house 
 of three good storeys, with a shop against the street : at 
 present, " Foucher : Flanelle de Sante : Linge de 
 Toilette." 
 
 One remembers writers of genius who, while their 
 work has been done in the language of their birthplace, 
 have themselves been the product of several nationalities, 
 whose differences and characteristics told plainly on their 
 labour. It is interesting, even if it is hardly important, 
 to notice that Balzac, unlike these — unlike Heine, or 
 Zola, or even the author of " The Ring and the Book" — 
 was of a single stock; that he was as simply and typically 
 French as Shakespeare was simply and typically English ; 
 and that the very heart of France, her central plains, 
 gave birth to the artist who was to picture and to 
 chronicle, to probe into and to record, the whole of her 
 life. We shall notice, too, that Balzac had no early and 
 inevitable connection with literary society — he speaks 
 
BALZAC. 13 
 
 of Tours as " the least literary of cities " — and again, we 
 shall notice that, as is usual in France, academic train- 
 ing, which does justice to mediocrity — nay, which may 
 bestow on mediocrity, for a period, the distinctions of 
 excellence — counted for very little in the formation of his 
 mind. Its role with genius must in any case be small. 
 Balzac was too creative to be chiefly a "scholar," though 
 it is needless to say that books as well as men, great 
 libraries as well as "women's hearts," entered into and 
 became a part of the material of his work. 
 
 Balzac's father, who was born in Langucdoc, in 1 746 — 
 and who was therefore fifty-three years old when the son 
 through whom he was to be remembered lay in the 
 cradle — had been an advocate, officially employed imder 
 the Government of Louis the Sixteenth. He had in- 
 fluential friends and influential enemies in those times 
 of storm, and he may perhaps be considered to have 
 been fairly fortunate when, in the later years of the 
 Eighteenth Century, he was given an appointment of 
 a kind unfamiliar to him, and was sent into the North 
 to assist in the organization of provisions for the army. 
 The elder Balzac remained in that service ; and the 
 Commissariat of the twenty-second division was his 
 especial charge, when, in 1797, he married the young 
 daughter of one of his chiefs — a chief who was at the same 
 time director of hospitals in Paris. 
 
 The Balzacs were settled at Tours, comfortably off, as 
 regards money matters, and of good social repute, when 
 the eldest of their family was born. That was the future 
 novelist. After him came two sisters and a brother. The 
 brother, it is chronicled for us somewhat vaguely, led his 
 
14 LIFE OF 
 
 life in " the colonies ; " but it is to be feared that he did 
 not do this until he had succeeded in making himself not 
 particularly desirable at home. Laurence, the younger 
 sister, died young, after five years of marriage. Laure, 
 the sister who came next to Honore, played a part not 
 necessarily more eventful in itself, but certainly more 
 important for the public. She was the first of Honore's 
 intimate friends — the most sympathetic, perhaps, of all 
 his confidants. In his youth, at all events, he had no 
 secrets from her. She was discretion and appreciation 
 incarnate. And some years after his death — when the 
 world was full of fantastic misrepresentations of the man 
 and the artist — things cheaply vivid or simply silly, 
 treating the writer of the " Comedie Humaine " as above 
 all an "eccentric," an "original," as the French con- 
 temptuously say — it was Madame Laure Surville who 
 gave us a picture of Balzac which, notwithstanding its 
 slightness, it was possible to respect and to believe in. 
 
 Honore had at one time a great opinion of his mother, 
 and for his father he entertained a more spontaneous 
 and gentle affection. But with neither of them had he 
 anything approaching an ideal relationship. His father 
 was divided from him, in one sense, by a barrier of too 
 many years. His mother, there can hardly be a question, 
 was, in the household, obstinately dominant. She was 
 severe in her youth ; nervous, uncertain, and fussy when 
 middle life came upon her; better, I think, in an old 
 age prolonged so far that it allowed her to survive him. 
 Truthful as Madame Surville's accounts are, generally, 
 no doubt a family pride and a legitimate tenderness 
 united to prompt her to a rather rose-coloured view of 
 
BALZAC. 15 
 
 the parents, mid of the bearing of the mother towards the 
 children. " My father,'' she writes, " had much in him 
 of Montaigne, of Rabelais, and of Uncle Toby." " My 
 mother, who was rich and beautiful and very much 
 younger than her husband, had a rare vivacity of imagi- 
 nation and mind. She had an indefatigable activity, 
 firmness of will, and a boundless devotion to her 
 kindred." 
 
 The last-named quality, though it was scarcely shown, 
 cannot be said to be disproved, by the circumstance 
 that instead of keeping Honore with her as a baby, 
 Madame de Balzac put him out to nurse, in the fashion 
 followed by many of her fellow-countrywomen to this 
 day. Beyond the gates of Tours there was found an 
 excellent person who was willing to be Honore's foster- 
 mother. Along with Laure, who was in charge of the 
 same woman, Honore, at four years old, was brought 
 back to his parents. Certainly he was never " spoilt " in 
 his childhood. He was obedient as a matter of course, 
 and little else seems to have been expected of him. 
 Though he showed no aptitude as a scholar, he was 
 still very young when there were wont to fall from him 
 remarks or answers of singular penetration and medi- 
 tative wisdom. The look in the brown eyes was still 
 so simple, the lines of the mouth were at once so childish 
 and so calm, the whole face, framed by the dark and 
 ample hair, was so unvexed and naive, that it was taken 
 for granted he was capable as yet of very little. His 
 seed fell upon stony ground, in the family circle. 
 " Honore' " — his mother was accustomed to say to him 
 after one of his searching observations — "it is im- 
 
10 LIFE OF 
 
 possible that you can understand what you have just 
 said ! " 
 
 At seven years old they sent him to the " college de 
 Vendome "—a school founded by the Oratorians, and then 
 a good deal esteemed. The greater part of his father's 
 household, Madame Surville tells us,— the father, the 
 mother, the mother's mother probably, as she lived with 
 them, and the little Laure herself — were accustomed 
 to repair twice yearly to Vendome : at Easter and on 
 the day for distributing the prizes. But no prizes were 
 for Honore. And at last, at fourteen years old, the boy 
 was brought home, Monsieur Mareschal, the head of the 
 school, reporting that he had fallen into a state of coma. 
 Fragile and thin, too dreamy to answer the questions 
 that were put to him, too indifferent to the things of the 
 moment that interested everybody else, his health became 
 really a cause of anxiety to his kinsfolk. His grand- 
 mother lamented the pressure of the modern education 
 of 1813. But Monsieur Mareschal was no doubt right 
 in asserting that with the young boy's condition school 
 work had had nothing to do. He was an indolent pupil. 
 His tasks had never been performed. Honore, however, 
 had devoured volume upon volume — in hours of holiday, 
 in hours of punishment. 
 
 In the story of " Louis Lambert "—in the earlier part 
 of it— there is written, with more than the accuracy of 
 history, the tale of Balzac's schooldays. All that a 
 sensitive boy suffered, all that he thought, the events of 
 every day, and the crises of his school-life, " Louis 
 Lambert " records. It was Balzac himself who, when 
 he ought to have been busy with his appointed 
 
BALZAC. 17 
 
 exercises, wrote that treatise " On the Will." It was 
 Balzac's own master who burnt it in annoyance at the 
 neglect of the hour's proper business. Years afterwards 
 the novelist is found to be still regretting the destruction 
 of that first essay. By that time he had willingly ac- 
 quiesced in — nay, he had ardently desired — oblivion for 
 a score of stories which had been written for bread. He 
 had no mercy for studies undertaken to keep the wolf 
 from the door, or to teach the writer method in his Art. 
 They were a means ; not an end. But he had only 
 tender thoughts for a treatise done almost in childhood — 
 for a thing which would have proved him, he held, to 
 have been not far from a genius, at a time when the wise 
 world set him down for a dullard. 
 
 The boy's health soon recovered itself in what, chiefly 
 it seems through the insight and the action of his father, 
 became the freedom of his home-life. He had no 
 neglected tasks to be scolded over ; his mother's quite 
 genuine affection for him made her indulgent just now ; 
 and the boy, though allowed no doubt to read for his 
 own pleasure, was counselled to spend much time in the 
 open air, and in long walks in the country. Then began 
 his true love for the features of Touraine — his l:>ve for 
 the large gentleness of all its lan^cape. He would 
 linger perhaps first on the long quiet city quays, the 
 sunset in the west throwing a glow over the twin towers 
 of the cathedral — Saint-Gatien was always impressive to 
 him, less no doubt for its size than for the loveliness of 
 its proportions and the exquisiteness of its ornament. Or 
 he would cross the bridge over the broad river, feasting 
 his eyes upon the green country and the shining Loire. 
 
 2 
 
18 LIFE OF 
 
 The ruin of Plessis — in itself unimportant, but calling up 
 so much of History and so much of Romance — was but 
 a mile or two away. And beyond the northern shore of 
 the river, above the village, the transpontine suburb rather, 
 of Saint-Symphorien — with its shops of cooper and of 
 basket-maker, its business of the wine-cask and cf 
 vintage-time — the land rose gradually, vineyard by vine- 
 yard, and from the ridge of the long low hills there was 
 the outlook over all the breadth and all the opulence of 
 Touraine. Here began certainly, not only Balzac's love 
 for the land he was born in, but that appreciation of 
 Landscape in general, which, never forced upon us with 
 effusion or affectation, is yet so evident in his riper work. 
 And, while he was still at Tours — at leisure first, 
 and, a little later, a day-scholar — the boy began to 
 be conscious, of a vocation, shall we say? — at least 
 of the possession of faculties not every one's. He 
 had what his sister well describes as u l intuition de la 
 renommce "; ambition stirred within him even sooner, 
 perhaps, than genius. His family, however, was little 
 occupied with this, and what was remarked was the con- 
 tinued absence of academic distinction. At the end of 
 1 814, there was change of place, and again change of 
 teaching, Monsieur de Balzac being called to Paris to direct 
 the provisioning of another section of the French army. 
 The quarter of Paris which was selected for residence 
 was central, yet a little obscure — that quarter of " Le 
 Marais," whose later aspects Alphonse Daudet has 
 depicted for us, strikingly yet with delicate minuteness,, 
 in the book which I must allow myself to consider as at 
 bottom the best of his novels — " Froment jeune et 
 
BALZAC. 19 
 
 Risler aine." When the Balzac family were established 
 there, Honord continued his education under a Monsieur 
 Lcpitre, 1 of the Rue St. Louis, and under a couple of 
 gentlemen — Messieurs Sganzer and Beuzelin — in the Rue 
 de Thorigny. One records all this with painful accuracy, 
 aware all the while what a small part it really played in 
 the storing of the mind, in the development of the 
 imagination. But a more potent influence has soon to 
 be chronicled. From the year 1S16, young Balzac 
 attended lectures at the Sorbonne — came home from 
 them his head full of the eloquence and the logic " des 
 Guizot, des Villemain, des Cousin," says his sister. He 
 read now in the public libraries much matter bearing on 
 the discourses of these men ; and he knew the pleasures 
 of book-hunting on the riverside stalls, whence, in the 
 clays of Louis the Eighteenth, the rare and the desirable 
 had not quite vanished. 
 
 The elder Balzac now wished his son to be acquainted 
 with the Law, and for three years — until, indeed, he had 
 passed the last necessary examination — Honore* was 
 reading in the chambers of the learned. It is obvious 
 that a time so spent could not but leave traces on his 
 writings. Balzac's Law is not of the kind that has 
 been spoken of contemptuously as " novelists' Law," or 
 " dramatists'." That, one may take for granted, even if 
 one receives with something less than full credulity 
 Madame Surville's account of the function of "Cesar 
 Birotteau " on the shelves of a notary she knew. That 
 solicitor gravely assured her that this particular novel was 
 
 1 This very name — Lepitre — was given by Balzac to the master of 
 Felix de Vandenesse in " Le Lys dans la Vallee." 
 
20 LIFE OF 
 
 not among his law-books by accident or for recreation. 
 It was there, he protested, as a text-book, invaluable for 
 reference in any question of Bankruptcy. 
 
 Balzac the elder had hoped that with his son the prac- 
 tice of the Law would follow its study. A good opening 
 was, he thought, secured. Honcre set his face against 
 the project. He explained, with impulsiveness, it seems, 
 and with eloquence, his longing to be a writer. The 
 stuff of a writer was in him. And his father was so far 
 convinced, by his pleadings, of the uselessness of oppo- 
 sition at present, that he agreed that Honore should, for 
 two years at least, be on his probation. Let him, in that 
 time if it were possible, display his talent and justify his 
 choice. The concession was already much ; for it came 
 at a time when authorship was very poorly paid, and was 
 generally in fact what it is still imagined to be — the 
 resource of the wholly unpractical. The concession came, 
 too, from a man whom events had but just reminded that 
 he was himself in the last period of his life, and that the 
 position of those whom he cared for must be assured 
 soon, if he was to be a witness of its attainment. The 
 truth in the noble lines which Emerson, long years after- 
 wards, addressed to the failing— 
 
 " It is time to be okl, 
 To take in sail !"— 
 
 had been brought home to Balzac's father when he was 
 seventy-four; and in a fashion terribly prosaic. Govern- 
 ment had placed him on the retired list. He was shorn 
 • — by that and by private losses too— of the greater part 
 
BALZAC. 21 
 
 of his income. He and the family — all of them except 
 Honore — withdrew to Yilleparisis, eighteen miles from 
 Paris, in the Seine-et-Marne. An attic was taken for 
 Honore, near the Library of the Arsenal (the only 
 library, it is said, which was still unknown to him), 
 where he would be free to study. 
 
 Established in the attic, almost incognito — for his 
 friends, lest the experiment should be unsuccessful, were 
 informed that he was sojourning with a cousin at Alby — 
 the youth's view of the situation was cheerful, as became 
 his years ; thoughtful, as became his insight. " I find " 
 — he writes to Laure, the companionable sister, away now 
 in the country — " that the time that I shall spend here 
 will enable me to amass a treasure of delightful remem- 
 brances. To live as I like to live, to work as I like to 
 work, to be idle if I wish it — thinking of you, and know- 
 ing you are happy — to have, for mistress, Rousseau's 
 Julie, and for friends, La Fontaine and Moliere ! — ah ! 
 if that could last for ever ! " Of living friends, the chief 
 one seems to have been an excellent Monsieur Dablin, 
 who came from time to time to see young Balzac in the 
 attic, and who, if he could say of his protege, with the 
 most reputable personage of Eighteenth Century comedy, 
 " I never in my life denied him — my advice," could say- 
 also that the occasions were many on which his purse was 
 proffered even more readily than his counsel. 1 There 
 were times, indeed, when Honore de Balzac needed its 
 help. His allowance, which must in any case have been 
 small, was yet scantier than it should have been, for his 
 
 1 To Monsieur Theodore Dablin, " Les Chouans " afterwards 
 came to be dedicated : " The first book, to the first friend." 
 
22 LIFE OF 
 
 mother built chiefly upon Balzac's poverty the hope that 
 he would, ere long, renounce a career which seemed to 
 her romantic and impossible. That, of course, he could 
 never do. He lived contentedly, in the main, his narrow 
 life : it was, at all events, a life of discipline. 
 
 The future analyst of French Society aimed, in the 
 first instance, at poetic fame. He chose " Cromwell " 
 for a subject ; " the regicide " being by no means the 
 drama's hero. He had no intention of hurrying himself 
 in the execution of his task. And he was already to 
 some extent a critic. " Ideas crowd upon me, but I am 
 stopped continually by my lack of any gift for verse- 
 writing." Again, to his sister, " If you only knew the 
 difficulty of such tasks ! The great Racine spent two 
 years in polishing 'Phedre'; and it is the despair of 
 poets." He sought inspiration in solitary walks : left the 
 Jardin des Plantes, with its chance loungers, light of 
 tongue, for those heights of Pere-Lachaise, from which, 
 in his maturest fiction, he makes Rastignac look forth 
 upon the city when Le Pere Goriot has been let down 
 into the grave. He finds in his walks to Pere-Lachaise 
 " de bonnes grosses reflexio7is in spira trices" " There I 
 make studies of sorrow, useful for ' Cromwell.' True 
 sorrow is so difficult to paint ; for, above all things, it 
 demands simplicity." Then he was gay again ; then a 
 little anxious — seized already with the melancholy of the 
 penetrating, the sadness of the finely organized. " Crom- 
 well " was a complete failure. It was condemned by his 
 family ; condemned by a judge who was particularly 
 bidden to pronounce upon it ; condemned almost by 
 himself. And, though it is obvious that at what was still 
 
BALZAC. 23 
 
 all but the beginning of a life of quite gigantic effort, 
 Balzac's resources of patience and energy had not appre- 
 ciably been drawn upon, there was that in him — in his 
 life of isolation, perhaps ; in his experience already of 
 privations — which made him reflect, "What use will 
 good fortune and pleasure be to me when my youth is 
 gone ! What is the costume to the actor, if he cannot 
 perform the part ! The old man has, after all, had his 
 feast — he can afford to watch others while they eat. But 
 I am young, and hungry, and there is nothing on my 
 plate ! Laura, Laura ! — my two immense desires, and 
 my only ones, — to be famous : to be loved — will they ever 
 be satisfied ! " 
 
 The note of pathos is certainly in the words, and, 
 with it, the evidence of just that not unrighteous egotism 
 which must be owned by every artist who, in a world of 
 distractions, is to accomplish his work. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 TO THE " JIAISON DU CHAT-QUI-PELOTE." 
 
 BALZAC having, as in duty bound, made his debut 
 in writing by a failure in Tragedy, there was 
 thereafter, for a while, a certain measure of unhcpeful- 
 ness about his prospects. But he began to write 
 sensation stories, and, sooner or later, these were sold 
 by him to the cheap booksellers, who again sold them, 
 vulgarly printed, to the cheapest and commonest public. 
 You would be sorry, for your sins, to be condemned to 
 read any great number of them. But they were service- 
 able to Balzac, inasmuch as he had more difficulty than 
 most men of genius in learning his craft. He was 
 always more fertile in thought than in the phrases which 
 properly express it. These stories, then, taught him, 
 as he has himself put it, " to describe scenery," and 
 " to describe character." They helped him at least 
 upon the way. But, to the very end — to the days when, 
 looking round upon his work, he knew how substantial 
 was the monument which he had built himself — Balzac 
 remained without continual sense of form — of curious in- 
 equality in the execution of his task. His maturer art 
 permitted him, in deserts of literary limpness, splendid 
 oases of Style. But it never secured for him the 
 
LIFE OF BALZAC. 25 
 
 smoothness and the symmetry which infinitely smaller 
 writers shared with George Sand. To the end, Balzac 
 said things sometimes with heaviness, sometimes with 
 the directness and the fire which appear to be in- 
 spiration. 
 
 The short sensational stories, of which he produced a 
 great number, were all of them issued anonymously, or 
 under pseudonyms, and " Les Chouans " was the first 
 book to which Balzac attached his name. Before its 
 publication, however, his somewhat speculative ten- 
 dency had led him to embark in business with a young 
 man in whom he believed. He became a printer and 
 type-founder in the Rue des Marais St. Germain. But 
 fortunately this enterprise was not long continued, and 
 Balzac withdrew from it without serious disaster. 
 
 "Les Chouans" was published in 1829, and, owing to 
 the impossibility in which Balzac found himself to 
 execute in later life another work which he had planned 
 to be its companion, it remains the most considerable 
 contribution to that section of the " Comedie Humaine" 
 which he describes as " Scenes de la Vie Militaire." 
 Indeed the sole thing placed with it in this section of 
 the "Comedy" — a "Comedy" thought of as a whole 
 only when many of its pages had been written — is the 
 quite short story, " Une Passion dans le Desert." That 
 was suggested by a conversation Balzac had with a 
 famous lion-tamer, Martin, and, like "La Fille aux Yeux 
 d'Or," it is not without an element of morbidness that 
 we need not enter into. 
 
 To go back for a moment to " Les Chouans." It was 
 issued at first in four volumes. Its sub-title — " Brittany 
 
26 LIFE OF 
 
 in 1799" — shows it to be in some measure historical; 
 the barrier of one complete generation standing between 
 the day it treats of and the day when it was written. 
 In later work, Balzac but seldom threw back the action 
 of his story even by so much as thirty years ; though 
 more than once, in the " Etudes Philosophiques," he 
 dealt with the things of a past century — in " Sur 
 Catherine de Me'dicis," for instance; in "Les Proscrits," 
 which introduces Dante ; and, of course, in " Jesus-Christ 
 en Flandre." He felt, and he often expressed, great 
 admiration for Sir Walter Scott. It is easy to trace the 
 influence of "the Wizard" in certain of the earlier of his 
 writings — in their historic turn, at the least. " Les 
 Chouans " is an example. But that influence died 
 out as Balzac became himself; and whatever remained 
 of the admiration for a master of pageantry and of 
 external romance, felt by a master of the action of the 
 soul, by a profound analyst of life, is but a proof that 
 the deepest of novelists, like one of the deepest of 
 musicians — Schumann scarcely requires to be named —   
 excelled in the faculty of comprehensive appreciation, 
 and was just in criticism because he was generous and 
 far-seeing. 1 
 
 The autumn of 1829 saw the completion, and the 
 
 1 Certainly the admiration itself was by no means quick to 
 depart, for it was when he was thirty-eight years old that Balzac 
 wrote to Madame de Hanska, " Twelve years ago I said of Sir 
 Walter Scott just what you say of him. By his side Lord Byron is 
 almost nothing. ' Kenilworth ' is the clief-cTauvre for complete- 
 ness ; ' .St. Ronan's Well ' for detail and patience ; ' The 
 Chronicles of the Canongate ' for feeling ; for History, ' Ivanhoe '5 
 for Poetry, 'The Antiquary.' " 
 
BALZAC. 27 
 
 spring of 1830 the publication, of the first of Balzac's 
 writings which attains to exquisiteness. This is the tale 
 of quiet bourgeois life, and of unhappy travel beyond its 
 boundaries, to which he gave the name of " La Maison 
 du Chat-qui-pelote." Let us translate it as "At the 
 Sign of the Cat playing Ball." Though the "Human 
 Comedy " as a whole had not been planned at that time, 
 it was already Balzac's scheme to deal not quite un- 
 systematically with certain phases of the life he could 
 observe or imagine ; and " La Maison du Chat-qui- 
 pelote" took its place in his thought from the beginning, 
 as one of several studies " de la vie privee." It is itself 
 a picture in the manner of the better Dutchmen, quite 
 as completely as was the noteworthy canvas which 
 Theodore de Sommervieux, the young lover in the tale, 
 painted of the shop and the parlour which were the 
 surroundings of his mistress. 
 
 I have said that it is exquisite, yet it is possible to be 
 exquisite without being complete, and in " La Maison 
 du Chat-qui-pelote " technical deficiencies seem to be 
 observable which would be searched for in vain in 
 another " Dutch picture," wrought by Balzac four or 
 five years later — " Eugenie Grandet." " La Maison 
 du Chat-qui-pelote " is shorter than "Eugenie Grandet" 
 — that is, it would fill about a hundred and sixty 
 pages, instead of about three hundred pages, of an 
 English romance, issued in circulating-library form — 
 and there are portions in which the more pronounced 
 brevity is felt to be a loss. For " La Maison du Chat- 
 qui-pelote," though it has not in it the making of a big 
 novel, is not a true "short story," whose theme is simple, 
 
28 LIFE OF 
 
 whose scanty incidents occur at no long intervals. In- 
 finite mental changes, the rise and the destruction of 
 many a hope, have to be depicted in the bourgeois tale ; 
 and illustrations are perhaps rather wanting of the 
 fashion in which Augustine, its sympathetic heroine, 
 proved herself lacking in the range and the capacity 
 exacted at the end by an artist who, as a lover, had 
 been satisfied with sweetness and beauty at the begin- 
 ning. Nor is there made visible the means by which 
 the Duchesse de Carigliano supplied the need which the 
 young Madame de Sommervieux could not content. 
 These things we have to take a little upon trust. It 
 may be that the quite final treatment of the subject 
 would have included, not their statement only, but their 
 proof. 
 
 When that has been said, however, "with submission," 
 — with great deference — the rest must be a more than 
 cordial, it must be a grateful recognition of the genius 
 the tale displays. What definiteness of conception! 
 What an unerring analysis ! And the reflective faculties 
 are moving all the while on so exalted a plane ; and the 
 style, here rarely faulty, is sharpened not seldom to 
 exquisiteness, as the selected word bears finely its 
 burthen of feeling and thought. One source of Balzac's 
 greatness is especially evident in his dealing with the 
 persons of this story ; and that is the capacity he shares, 
 as I suppose, with Shakespeare, Goethe, Browning only 
 — for I do not know what fourth, except himself, we are 
 to add to these three — to hold the scales of justice 
 evenly, to be sublimely impartial. Some of the 
 novelists and poets who have impressed the world 
 
BALZAC. 29 
 
 the most, have at bottom been impassioned advocates. 
 Balzac can paint for us here, with penetrating fairness — 
 and it is mentioned now but as an example of his 
 method throughout all his life— on the one hand, the 
 artist and the woman of Society; on the other, the 
 shopkeeper's household, the draper himself, his meaner 
 wife, the assistant, the apprentice, the daughters Virginie 
 and Augustine. 
 
 Monsieur Guillaume is a draper who has secured 
 himself a competence; a man who is in accord with his 
 spouse, who has some tenderness for his daughters, but 
 a man whose best satisfactions and highest excitements 
 have been found always in the incidents of business, 
 and whose reputation for discernment is based surely 
 on the proudest deed of his career— for did he not 
 prophesy " the Lecocq failure " when its probability was 
 hidden from every other draper in Paris ! Theodore de 
 Sommervieux — studied by the author far less profoundly; 
 a fair but ordinary type of an artist, impulsive, uncertain, 
 and somewhat exacting — is smitten with the dainty 
 beauty of Augustine, with whom he comes into chance 
 contact; and, through the agency of a common friend, 
 he succeeds in marrying her. From the first, all her 
 heart is given to him. She has been looked at, too, 
 with longing eyes, by Joseph Lebas, her father's chief 
 assistant ; but for Lebas, Monsieur Guillaume has other 
 intentions — the elder daughter, Virginie, is for Joseph 
 Lebas. Both are married on the same day. Joseph 
 Lebas, who is indeed a good fellow as well as a capable 
 tradesman, manages to forget his rival's wife and behaves 
 very well to Virginie. The business prospers, and. 
 
30 LIFE OF 
 
 under the later regime, the apprentices at the sign of the 
 Cat Playing Ball are not expected to leave the dinner- 
 table at the beginning of the dessert. The steady com- 
 fort, the Chardin-like sobriety, of the Rue St. Denis, are 
 contrasted with Augustine's fortunes, with her ecstasy 
 and her sadness. Her nature's need for romance carried 
 her into places to which she had not really the flexibility 
 to adapt herself. Yet, surveying what seemed to her the 
 pure mechanism of the life of the draper, which Vir- 
 ginie shared, she experienced, says Balzac, " I know not 
 how much pride in her sorrows, remembering that at 
 least their source had been an eighteen months' happi- 
 ness, worth more to her than a thousand lives empty of 
 passion and joy." It is never concealed from us that 
 Augustine carried within her the seeds of her misery. 
 Wedded to a painter, "Augustine pre/emit un regard au 
 plus beau tableau. Le seul sublime quelle connut etait 
 celui du cceur." Thence — though one must remember 
 also a certain shallowness of heart which was her 
 husband's: some defect which forbade him to be great as 
 a man though it allowed him to be brilliant as a crafts- 
 man — thence her failure, her decline. A tombstone at 
 Montmartre records her death, when she was twenty- 
 seven; and the reflection of a friend at her grave — 
 Balzac himself, was it, or was it Joseph Lebas ? — sums 
 up the whole of her story : — " The weak and modest 
 flowers that can bloom in a valley, are like to die, 
 perhaps, if you transplant them too near to the skies — 
 to the regions where storms gather or where the sun 
 burns hot." 
 
 With two other and larger masterpieces of the novelist 
 
BALZAC. 31 
 
 I cannot forbear to connect " La Maison du Chat-qui- 
 pelote." The two are " Eugenie Grandet " and " Illu- 
 sions Perducs." Balzac wrought the first four years and 
 the second six years after the tale we have just dealt 
 with. " Eugenie Grandet," though a larger picture, 
 is still a Dutch picture. It, too, is occupied with the 
 intimate study of narrow fortunes ; with the chronicle 
 of the approach of private and inevitable trouble. In 
 both, a woman — but the device is a favourite one of 
 Balzac's — idealizes a relationship into which the com- 
 monplace must greatly enter. In both, a heart stirs 
 somewhat restlessly in a confined cage, though a patience 
 falls upon Eugenie Grandet such as Augustine never 
 perhaps could have known. 
 
 " Illusions Perdues " repeats, but of course with 
 modifications, the grouping of the two couples in " La 
 Maison du Chat." In the later and larger, as in die 
 smaller novel, there is the errant artistic person and his 
 love — whoever that love may be — and there are the 
 homely pair who can conduct a business, who can dis- 
 pense with excitement. Perhaps it is not too much to 
 say that in both tales the poetry of sentiment finds itself 
 confronted by the poetry of conduct. But the poetry of 
 Lcbas's conduct was somewhat prosaic after all ; and, when 
 the gratification of her first fancy was exhausted, Virginie 
 was bound to Lebas by hardly any tie, I suppose, but the 
 tie of a common interest. Again, as one has pity for 
 Augustine's disappointments, one must make some allow- 
 ance for De Sommervieux's urgent need for the slaking of 
 his thirst. ForLucien de Rubempr^, the literary person — 
 ■the artistic nature, to change the term— in " Illusions 
 
32 LIFE OF BALZAC. 
 
 Perdues," there is scarcely a word to be said ; while Eve 
 and David, on the other hand — Lucien's sister and the 
 man who was her lover and husband at Angouleme — 
 stand as the finest or most sympathetic types that Balzac 
 has created of those whose quietude of life and character 
 forbid any brilliance of service. Their path of duty, at 
 least, is not inevitably and continuously dull. For Eve 
 and David — though hardly for Lebas and Virginie — 
 there are 
 
 " Sensations sweet, 
 Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart." 
 
 And these things pass into their purer minds, "with 
 tranquil restoration." 
 
w 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FRIENDSHIPS. 
 
 E are now at the beginning of the long series of 
 years during which Balzac worked with an 
 activity which threatened to be overwhelming. Energy 
 \ he claims for himself, in writing to one of his friends, as 
   the very chiefest of his characteristics. Balzac dealt 
 willingly in superlatives, and at another moment he 
 would have said that what singled him out from most 
 men was ambition, or that the need to be loved and to 
 be humoured was the very key-note of his temperament. 
 But at all events his energy was really immense : for 
 nearly a score of years the pertinacity of his labour 
 suffered no check. Again, nothing is more remarkable 
 than the dissimilar natures of the tasks to which he 
 addressed himself. His imagination could be concerned 
 almost at the same instant with " Les Chouans," and 
 " La Physiologie du Mariage," and " La Maison du 
 Chat-qui-pelote." Lurthermore, he withdrew to the 
 country to labour, as other men withdraw to it to rest ; 
 yet in the city he was as busy as a journalist who works 
 during half the night. He, too, had his vigils — quite 
 early he formed the habit of placing himself at his desk 
 
 3 
 
84 LIFE OF 
 
 when others' heads were on the pillow. Undoubtedly 
 something of his excess of application is to be set down 
 to the continual existence of debts, all of which can 
 hardly have been caused by disastrous -undertakings in 
 business or by pure speculation. Balzac was honest and 
 proud: he was careful, more than once, to satisfy creditors 
 whose claims the Law did not recognize. Yet it is not 
 only to the admirable anxiety to owe no man anything 
 that we must attribute what became the method of his 
 life. He loved to be free from obligation, but he loved 
 likewise to be free with riches. Money was pleasant to 
 him when it came into his hands. The knowledge that 
 he was working for it was also pleasant. 
 
 Balzac had, then, the energy, though certainly not the 
 system, of a strong man of business, coupled with that 
 energy of an artist which concentrates itself only upon 
 securing, if that may be, perfection to the work that is 
 to be done. Hence, when publishers worried him for 
 manuscripts, he sometimes refused to give them up, and, 
 at other times, insisted upon proof following proof, that 
 he might, practically, before publication, re-write a whole 
 story. He worked like a slave, but this slave had always 
 a conscience — nay, more, he had always an ideal. 
 
 With all his reading, all his observing, all his making 
 of books, Balzac found time to be a good letter-writer — 
 good if, in correspondence, the proof of goodness is that 
 the thing shall be interesting. Judged by conventional 
 standards, Balzac's epistles fall short. They are often 
 fragmentary. They are almost invariably egotistic. 
 They are anything but eloquent disquisitions on themes 
 of Literature, Politics, or Painting. They are the affec- 
 
BALZAC. 35 
 
 tionate record of the reality of his friendships and the 
 chronicle of his struggle with his work. 
 
 For friendship Balzac had a genius rare even in his 
 own country, in which, from the Eighteenth Century to 
 this day, an association at once so voluntary and so 
 varied, has always been properly esteemed. Not only 
 the cordiality of his temperament, but the many-sidedness 
 of his mind, found satisfaction in prolonged and pro- 
 found intimacies with women and men. He had a high 
 ideal, beyond all doubt, in this matter, and he generally 
 acted up to it. For him the basis of friendship was 
 bound to be a sound one : intellectual sympathies and 
 the instinctive liking. He had a deep indifference to the 
 mere " amities d'epiderme." What he sought for, and 
 obtained, was " the intimacy of the heart." 
 
 In the letters which disclose the depth and constancy 
 of Balzac's friendship, there is found, not unnaturally, 
 much of the best material for a knowledge of his life and 
 character. For the most part these letters are written to 
 women. That can be accounted for in two ways. The 
 first cause lies upon the surface — while his friends among 
 men were, with hardly an exception, inhabitants of Paris, 
 his friends among women resided chiefly in remote 
 country houses. Men in Paris, men in the world in which 
 he actually lived, knew quite well what he was about. 
 The intelligent cliatdaine, shut up in the heart of Le 
 Blaisois or Le Berri, with her music and her books, found 
 in the reception of letters a personal interest which the 
 advent of the Gazette could not rouse. But another and 
 a deeper reason lies in Balzac's individuality. To his 
 nature it was essential that people less busy than he was 
 
86 LIFE OF 
 
   — people whose minds were at leisure for the concerns 
 of another — should interest themselves in all the details 
 of his affairs, and should receive his confidences with 
 patience and sympathy. His peculiar organization — the 
 organization of an artist, which, whatever it must have of 
 persistent and energetic, must have also in abundance 
 the qualities of refinement and subtlety — claimed, most 
 of all, the delicate ministrations of the friendship of 
 women. He received much from women. He owed 
 them much in return. They got from him the boon of 
 contact with a great temperament, and such a true, if 
 Lurried, sympathy with their aims, their fortunes, and 
 their daily ways, as only a many-sided nature — a nature 
 dramatic and imaginative — is able to afford. 
 
 Victor Hugo, De Stendhal, Theophile Gautier, Charles 
 Nodier, and Charles de Bernard, were the chief of those 
 illustrious contemporaries of his own sex with whom 
 Balzac's relations were cordial. The author of "Notre 
 Dame de Paris" was "mon cher Hugo" when he was not 
 "dear and illustrious master." Nodier is "my good 
 Nodier." Charles de Bernard, who is written to, perhar s, 
 at somewhat greater length than the rest — and for whose 
 wife Balzac has the friendliest of nicknames, derived 
 fiom cne of his own novels — is invited, not, of course, 
 early in Balzac's life, to come out to Balzac's suburban 
 place, to arrange the books : nor is the inducement of 
 remuneration withheld from him — " You shall have fifty 
 sous a day, and your wine." Among women-writers, 
 Madame Emile de Girardin — the possessor of what the 
 French call "an amiable talent" — was one of Balzac"s 
 friends. He genuinely respected her: though they were 
 
BALZAC. 87 
 
 sometimes separated by his contempt for the purely 
 commercial nature of her husband. And, though he 
 does not seem to have ever been particularly intimate 
 with Madame George Sand, he felt, when some other 
 person failed to understand his circumstances, that 
 Madame Sand would not have failed to understand 
 them. She knew no small rivalries, he said. In her 
 he recognized a great, though erratic, heart, as well as 
 a deep intelligence. 
 
 An element of protection, which Frenchmen love — 
 and which, in many lands, very young men love — entered 
 into one at least of Balzac's friendships with women. 
 Madame de Berny, who was probably a little older than he 
 was, and who was a friend of all his family, did something 
 more than counsel and confer with him. Once (it was 
 in 1S28), by stepping into the breach at the necessary 
 moment, she saved him from the worst effects of financial 
 disaster. She helped him to help himself. He felt he 
 had a right to accept her aid ; and it was a service which 
 he never forgot. Later on, in another money trouble, 
 when Madame de Berny was dead, he wrote to a person 
 who had known her, " That first time, 1 had an angel at 
 my side." 
 
 Whatever may have been the precise attitude of 
 Madame de Berny towards Balzac, the influence of his 
 friendship with her was perhaps the most potent influence 
 exercised by any friendship on his life. To his own 
 mind, at least, it seemed so, when he was bewailing her 
 loss. Yet he bewailed it without a knowledge of his 
 future ; and our view must be broader than any he could 
 take at a time when the woman who was at last to be his 
 
38 LIFE OF 
 
 wife was still unknown to him. There were other asso- 
 ciations, besides. But, in any case, Madame de Berny 
 counted for much. " In my greatest troubles she sus- 
 tained me, by word and deed of devotion." Again, 
 " That which she only roughly modelled in me, I work 
 now to complete." And yet again, " Madame de Mort- 
 sauf, in the ' Lys dans la Vallee,' expresses but weakly 
 the least of that person's qualities." * 
 
 Though the two fat volumes of Balzac's Correspond- 
 ence contain several allusions to Madame de Berny — 
 who died in 1836, after an illness of a couple of years —   
 there is not, from beginning to end of them, one line 
 that was actually addressed to- her. Of the letters 
 written to Madame Zulma Carraud, on the other hand, 
 many have been preserved, and many published, and 
 they tell, as well as any, the story of Balzac's daily life. 
 Madame Carraud had been the great girl-friend of 
 Balzac's sister. Into his intimacy with her, prolonged as 
 it was, the romantic never entered ; but Balzac had the 
 highest opinion of her abilities, and consulted her con- 
 stantly with reference to his work. This friendship, 
 wholly sane and beneficent, was to Balzac an immense 
 service and an immense rest. Thanks to it, he got 
 a sensible woman's impartial and qualified counsels. 
 Thanks to it, the quiet sojourns that he made repeatedly 
 at Angouleme and at Frapesles — in the semi-southern 
 
 1 It has, of course, been suggested that in Madame de Mortsauf 
 the admirable points of Madame de Berny are " expressed " any- 
 thing but "weakly"; and, further, that Monsieur de Berny bore 
 some resemblance to Monsieur de Mortsauf. If the latter conjecture 
 be true, policy, rather than feeling, must have dictated the dedica 
 tion to Monsieur de Berny of the story of "' Madame Firmiani." 
 
BALZAC. 39 
 
 * 
 
 town in which " le Commandant " worked, and in the 
 solitude of Le Berri, where Madame Carraud had a small 
 estate — resulted in the accomplishment of some of the 
 best of his labours. 
 
 One other intimacy — that with the Duchesse de 
 Castries — has to be specially mentioned — has to be 
 remembered with care — and we shall have completed 
 the record of those friendships with women which Balzac 
 formed before the years of his closest connection with 
 the person lie was at last to marry. For his association 
 with the Duchesse d'Abrantes— beginning at the time 
 when Balzac's family and this illustrious relic of the 
 Empire were settled near to each other at Villeparisis — 
 was at most an association between a man who was 
 becoming important in Literature and a woman who had 
 not ceased to be important in Society. It gave to both 
 a certain obvious, but, so to say, external and superficial 
 advantage. Moreover, the Duchesse d'Abrantes was 
 herself a writer — for Balzac in some sense a comrade. 
 And, as regards the always anonymous "Louise" — 
 to whom Balzac said many pretty things on note-paper, 
 and to whom, at a given moment, he was minded to 
 dedicate one of his stories — Balzac never saw her. 
 She declared her admiration in a letter, and many 
 letters followed the first. She had, perhaps, that claim 
 upon an author's regard which arises from the sympa- 
 thetic understanding of his work. But there at all events 
 the matter ended. No personal magnetism drew them 
 together. 
 
 Balzac's intimacy with the Duchesse de Castries was 
 of quite another kind ; and something of that which is 
 
40 LIFE OF 
 
 called his "cynicism," is to be attributed to the dance 
 she led him. An austere judgment condemns the 
 Duchesse de Castries, and declines to sympathize with 
 Balzac. I prefer to sympathize with Balzac, and not 
 to condemn the Duchesse de Castries. 
 
 To Aix, in 1S32 — and beyond Aix, on the road to 
 Italy, following in her track — Balzac was drawn by this 
 siren of the Lac du Bourget, this magnetic nature, this 
 Eustacia Vye of the great world. He came, he writes 
 to Madame Carraud— the friend who was like a sister to 
 him — he "came to seek little and to seek much : much, 
 because I am seeing a woman who is gracious and 
 lovable ; little, because I shall never be loved by her." 
 In her there was in reality — there can hardly be a doubt 
 of it — a thin stratum of friendship for him. She cared 
 for Balzac slightly, it seemed, at last; but he cared for 
 her a great deal. At Aix-les-Bains, for a month, he 
 lived in her society, save in the hours he resolutely 
 gave to some of the most excellent of his work. And 
 when she set out upon her travels, with her kinsman 
 the Due de Fitzjames — whom Balzac liked — and all his 
 family, the young writer of novels planned to go with 
 them. But, at Geneva, somehow, in some inexplicable 
 way — after the fashion of these things — it was all over. 
 The two parted. Without absolute rupture, their rela- 
 tions were less cordial. The fire of their friendship had 
 quite gone out. 
 
 " Ah, Love, but a day 
 And the world has changed ! " 
 
 —must have been Balzac's thought. What he said, long 
 
BALZAC. 41 
 
 afterwards, was that the matter had been to him " tin 
 des plus grands chagrins de ma vie.'" And no doubt it 
 had. Yet the society of the lady, and her gracious 
 presence, had given him enjoyment, too. And, to the 
 artist, enjoyment is so much of inspiration. 1 
 
 1 Philarete Quisles, who was a frequenter of her salon, describes 
 the Duchesse de Castries in his '• Mcmoires," with surroundings and 
 a pose that seem to me to recall very nearly, in their antique sim- 
 plicity, David's portrait of Madame Kecamier. But, in considering 
 her physically, account must be taken, Monsieur Gabriel Ferry 
 assures us, of an expression " de sou_ff'/ance voiUe," of a "tite 
 demeurie belle" and of a " splcndiJe chevelure vinitienne" 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE " PEAU DE CHAGRIN." 
 
 ^F^HE publication of the " Peau dc Chagrin" and the 
 X composition of "Le Cure de Tours" and of "Le 
 Medecin de Campagne " date from about the time of 
 which I have last been speaking. The success of the 
 " Peau de Chagrin " was very marked, and it was made 
 not only among the literary. This is not difficult to 
 account for. A conception, almost as certainly striking 
 as that of Mr. Stevenson in "The Strange Case of Dr. 
 Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," was realized in the " Peau de 
 Chagrin" with depth beyond depth of completeness — 
 with picturesqueness, with unflagging persistence, with 
 curious unity of touch. No doubt the thoroughness of 
 realization was, in this case, and in many others, due in 
 great measure to Balzac's method of work ; but then the 
 method of work was itself the consequence of the ardent, 
 artistic nature, which, in presence of a task to be per- 
 formed, labours not like a craftsman, but charges like a 
 soldier. 
 
 When Balzac was writing a story, his life consisted 
 of a little sleep, a little feeding, and a prodigious exer- 
 cise of brain and pen. He lived, day by day, and night 
 
LIFE OF BALZAC. 43 
 
 by night, with the beings he had made. For him their 
 existence was not relative, but absolute. Thus it is told 
 of him that he would break in on his sister, with the 
 information, " I am starting for Grenoble. Monsieur 
 Benassis lives there." Or, again, "Do you know that 
 Felix de Vandenesse is going to be married ? And to 
 one of the Grandvilles, too ! It's an excellent match." 
 Once, amongst the readers of " Ursule Mirouet," there 
 was a certain amount of curiosity as to the Past of a 
 friend of Dr. Minoret's — Captain de Jordy. It would 
 seem to have been unhappy. For the Captain was "h 
 type de gentilhomme pauvre ct resigne" — "son amc da-ait 
 itre le foyer de chagrins secrets." It was agreed that an 
 inquiry should be made of Balzac on the subject. The 
 novelist listened to the question with the utmost serious- 
 ness. He meditated — paused before he answered — 
 turned over his memories. But alas ! there was nothing 
 to reveal. " I did not know Captain de Jordy," he said, 
 briskly, " until he came to Nemours." 
 
 The story may be capped by one more anecdote, 
 in which Balzac's brother-writer, Jules Sandeau, has 
 a part. Sandeau, on coming home from a journey, 
 called on Balzac, and spoke of the health of his sister. 
 " Yes," said Jules Sandeau, after talking in some 
 detail of the matter ; " my sister has indeed been ill ! " 
 " I am sorry," answered Balzac — who had listened as 
 politely as might be, though somewhat absently. Then, 
 in a changed voice, " We must come back to real life, 
 however. Consider Eugenie Grandet ! " 1 
 
 1 Mr. Power I licks— to whom I owe so much— recalls to me that 
 when, in " La Yieille Fille," Balzac wants to remind us what great 
 
44 LIFE OF 
 
 I do not know that the " Peau de Chagrin " displays 
 this intensity of belief in the created character and the 
 inevitable incident more markedly than many another ot 
 Balzac's stories ; but it is at least a novel which gains 
 peculiarly by the common characteristic. Without it, 
 how could we be invited to accept— what we do accept 
 almost unquestioningly — the play of the supernatural 
 over the events of the tale ? The " Peau de Chagrin " 
 is an allegory. Its hero becomes possessed of, and he 
 must needs carry along with him in all his journeyings, a 
 certain skin, which shrinks, sometimes in a lesser, some- 
 times in a greater degree, as the hero forms, or gives 
 utterance to, the wish of his heart. When it has shrunk 
 to nothing the hero's days will be over. It is not easy 
 to express in a sentence what is the lesson of this 
 parable ; but it makes of course for the subordination of 
 the rebellious instinct, for the submission of the individual 
 fancy to the forces which govern the world. Human 
 Nature, in the person of the "Peau de Chagrin's" 
 Raphael, takes exception to the decree — asks, whether 
 by hook or crook, the wanted object may not be secured 
 and the payment of the price eluded. No. The skin 
 gets smaller and smaller, and Raphael's days become 
 less. Wonderfully dramatic is his gradually increasing 
 realization of the nearness of his end. Every means are 
 tried to save him. Things and persons dear to him have 
 had to be abandoned. What will the mountains at 
 
 results small accidents may bring about, he has recourse to "Eugenie 
 Grandet " and to " L'Histoire des Treize" for his illustrations, just 
 as naturally as to the accounts of Blucher at Waterloo and of 
 Kellermann at Marengo. 
 
BALZAC. 45 
 
 Mont Dore do ? — and what the waters of Aix? Nothing 
 whatever that can be counted upon. The skin shrinks 
 relentlessly. At last there is a moment of forgetfulness, 
 or a moment of defiance. And the thing is all over 
 when Raphael, whom Fcedora could only have betrayed, 
 re-possesses, for an instant, Pauline — Pauline, the incar- 
 nation of an exquisite, of an unselfish, but yet of a sterile 
 devotion. 
 
 Among the " Etudes Philosophiques," the " Peau de 
 Chagrin " will continue to take the first place, both in 
 the appreciation of the general public and in that of 
 the more particular student of the literary Art. The 
 allegory is impressive, and it is presented with dexterity 
 an! vividness. The mysticism of Balzac, difficult to 
 follow in "Seraphita," is, in the "Peau de Chagrin," 
 such as all the world can receive with sympathy. In a 
 book confined within the limits proper to this "Great 
 Writers" Series, it will be well to say as little as 
 possible about the "philosophical" stories. They are 
 the result of a bold imagination — of intuition besides — 
 and of a mass of reading; bat, as studies of Humanity's 
 fortunes, as "magasins de documents sur la nature /iu/na/ne," 
 they are not the most satisfactory portion of the mature 
 work of Balzac. They advance many theories, and very 
 ingeniously — as in "Louis Lambert" — yet sometimes do 
 but insufficiently support them ; so that the reader, in 
 considering the story, is apt to wish for one thing out of 
 two — either a philosophy less romantic or a romance less 
 philosophical. Monsieur Taine says — and he puts his 
 own point of view clearly enough, at all events — that 
 "tout philosofhe renfev.ne un sceftiquc" and that Balzac 
 
46 LIFE OF 
 
 was not a sceptic— was no more a sceptic by nature than 
 by trade. " Both nature and profession," Monsieur Taine 
 adds, truthfully, " oblige him to imagine and to believe ; 
 for the observation of a novelist must often be a power 
 of divination. He does not examine sentiments, as sn 
 anatomist examines tissues. From physiognomy and ges- 
 ture he conjectures and concludes. . . . His instrument 
 is intuition — a dangerous faculty, yet a high one— by 
 which a man discovers from an isolated incident the 
 procession of incidents which have produced it, or 
 which it is about to produce." 
 
 " Tout philosophe renfenne un sceptique" — yet Monsieur 
 Taine's dictum cannot be universally accepted ; and, 
 whatever may be its difficulty and whatever its fanciful- 
 ness, " Seraphita " is itself a contradiction of the state- 
 ment. Here, in "Seraphita," is a philosophy which has 
 no room for scepticism. And here, too, is a book which 
 — with all its faults — is at least an illustrious instance of 
 the capacity for spiritual thought : from end to end of it 
 it is a rarefied atmosphere that the writer is breathing. 
 "What the book illustrates or urges, with something of 
 Swedenborgian method, is the force that might belong 
 to Faith, were but Faith unbounded : the identification 
 of the will of the creature with that of the Creator being 
 so complete that the creature is at one with the forces 
 that govern the world. They are upon his side. 
 
 But we come back to the "Peau de Chagrin," a part of 
 whose value lies where much of the charm of Balzac's 
 work is wont to lie— in the wisdom and the thought- 
 fulness of the interpolated, or at least of the single, 
 sentence — the sentence which, with scarcely a loss, can 
 
BALZAC. 47 
 
 be detached for quotation. What a capacity for pointed 
 or profound reflection ! What a judgment upon Life is 
 here ! Here, too, is Balzac's manner of writing found at 
 its most successful, if, in manner, the proof of success 
 is to present your matter forcibly, to discover and to 
 preserve the tones that will be listened to. " Vierges du 
 fait" says Balzac, '•'■nous etions hardis en paroles" I 
 cannot translate that — there is the figure as well as the 
 terseness. " A great man, strong in health, is bound to 
 be pleasure-loving." " He remembered suddenly that 
 the possession of power, however immense, is nothing if 
 it is not accompanied by the knowledge of how to use it. 
 The sceptre is a toy for the child, an axe for Richelieu, 
 and for Napoleon a lever by which the world can be 
 moved." "To bring chaos into a young man's life, it is 
 enough that he shall meet a woman who does not love 
 him— or a woman who loves him too much." Again, 
 " There are some thoughts which women never face. 
 Why is it ? Is it strength of love or want of courage ? " 
 The " Peau de Chagrin " has its wildnesses, its exagge- 
 rations. It has its mistakes. But, in its every epigram, 
 some measure of truth is encrusted and preserved. Facts 
 are held more closely, seen more finely, when enclosed 
 in the casket of the best of Balzac's style. 
 
 Public acceptance of the " Peau de Chagrin " — due to 
 some extent to the introduction of the supernatural in so 
 dexterous a way and with so tragic a purpose — was no 
 doubt facilitated by the range the novel displayed, by its 
 heights and depths, by the suddenness and the com- 
 pleteness of its contrasts. The book, which contains a 
 sympathetic description of an interior that has about it 
 
48 LIFE OF BALZAC. 
 
 the chastened homeliness and pious simplicity of a 
 picture of Chardin, holds also the narrative of an orgy 
 which only the Decadence in Rome could have matched. 
 Raphael, in contact with Pauline, has the delicacy to 
 accept a sacrifice which has been delicately offered, — I 
 am thinking of the exquisite little scene in which her 
 breakfast of to-morrow furnishes, and is bound to furnish, 
 his supper of to-night. Yet Raphael experiences, as 
 surely, Fcedora's fatal fascination, and is half a slave to 
 her, while knowing her heartless. And, in this same 
 volume, Balzac has imaged Aquilina and Euphrasie : one 
 of them ' ; the soul of vice ; " the other, " vice without a 
 soul.'' 
 
 The " Peau de Chagrin " is not to be recommended to 
 be covered prettily in calf, and offered as a school-prize 
 to the very young. But the variety of power it discloses ; 
 its reflections, its criticism of Life ; its scenes, now of 
 audacity and turbulence, and now of simplicity and 
 restraint— these things, with the spirit of the book, with 
 the essential fineness of its allegory, secure for it a place 
 which will at all events be lasting. I am not sure 
 whether the particular way in which it treats of occult 
 matters, commends it, or does not commend it, in 
 England and America, just now, to a generation in which 
 the superior person is not unwilling to accept the Super- 
 natural, provided only that the manifestation of the 
 Supernatural be ugly and that it cannot possibly be 
 beneficent. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE " MEDECIN " AND THE "CURi'i." 
 
 THE success of the " Peau de Chagrin " assured 
 Balzac that now his chance had come. He had 
 grasped a large public — and by means more creditable 
 than those employed in the " Physiologie du Manage." 
 Whatever might be said by the smaller of the reviewers, his 
 comrades in Literature were now with him. Forthwith we 
 may behold him planning that to the ample banquet of his 
 Fiction a still larger public should be compelled to come 
 in. The " Peau de Chagrin," by its subject, by something 
 even of its sentiment, was not for everybody. Let there 
 be prepared a novel which should be for the youth as 
 well as for the man, for the simple as well as for the 
 subtle, for ingenue as well as matron. Balzac made no 
 concessions in his art. He never angled for popularity 
 either by advocating what he could not believe in, or by 
 suppressing the opinions he had formed. He was glad, 
 however, when the happy inspiration of " Lc Medecin 
 de Campagne " led him, as he thought, into an acceptable 
 way. The country doctor's " Confession," — a long 
 narrative which makes perhaps the most dramatic chapter 
 of the book — docs indeed touch upon matters with which 
 
 x 
 
50 LIFE OF 
 
 the suckling is not generally concerned, and which the 
 pure in conduct, if she be pure in heart, may hear of but 
 to mourn. Yet as a whole the work deserves the eulogy 
 which Balzac himself pronounced upon it, knowing it so 
 well both as creator and critic. How he had paused 
 over it ! — how, after having written, he had weighed its 
 every word ! " I can die happy," he said — " I have 
 done one beautiful thing. The book is worth as 
 much as a law made and kept, or as a battle gained." 
 " Cest VEvangile en action ! " — he wrote of it in 
 admiration. And the very spirit of Christianity — its 
 tenderness and its beneficence — is certainly exhaled from 
 the " Medecin de Campagne's " pages. 
 
 Technically, we may take it, the "Medecin de 
 Campagne" is no more faultless than are the majority 
 of Balzac's books. At the very least it may be said that 
 an age more leisurely than ours is needed for the full 
 appreciation of the endless disquisition upon farm and 
 industry, the district's needs, the district's late improve- 
 ments, which occupies so much of the earlier chapters, 
 and which, to the unvaliant reader, bars entrance to 
 the heart of the story. The earlier chapters of the 
 " Medecin de Campagne " are indeed a solid task. Yet 
 the method has its merits as well as its disadvantages. 
 How completely — little stone by stone — is there built up 
 the effect which Balzac wanted to produce ! He trans- 
 ports you from your study, in London or in Paris, to the 
 mountain country that surrounds and hangs over Gre- 
 noble. And when, at the end of the three hundred 
 pages, "le bon Monsieur Benassis " dies, and, in the 
 sympathetic presence of a whole country-side, there is 
 
BALZAC. 51 
 
 put into the ground the district's benefactor, and every- 
 body's friend, you have been made to believe in his 
 existence so much that it is a personal loss that you suffer. 
 You have known Monsieur Benassis, as you have known 
 Mr. Peggotty, Doctor Manette, and Colonel Newcome. 
 
 And to know Monsieur Benassis absolutely, as the 
 book allows you to do, is to take, one would suppose, 
 a kinder view of his creator's temperament and intimate 
 thought than has been taken by more than one of those 
 authorities who have uttered judgment upon them. 
 Perhaps, after all, neither Mr. Henry James nor Mon- 
 sieur Taine — to name no others — has been sufficiently 
 alive to the humane and the poetic sides of Balzac's 
 work. The merely unmoved a/nalyst, however finely 
 accurate his tests — the merely/ unflinching dissector, 
 however great his aj*atomical knowledge, and however 
 sharpened and precise his instruments — is not, in Litera- 
 ture, the final judge of substance or subject. Mr. James 
 and Monsieur Taine have both of them, in their essays, 
 done considerable service : Balzac's works have prompted 
 them to the expression of many interesting thoughts, and 
 of much cogent criticism. But if Mr. James finds that 
 Balzac's highest success was reached in a minute analysis 
 of smallest things, and Monsieur Taine holds that his 
 greatest characteristic is that he is a Record Office filled 
 with archives — documents, the implication is, which 
 somehow have not yet been wrought into the final form 
 of History or of Art — one is free to consider that, in 
 making the estimate, personal prepossessions have not 
 been left out of the matter. 
 
 These writers do not wholly deny, but it is true to 
 
52 LIFE OF 
 
 say that they minimise, Balzac's humanity, his geniality, 
 his appreciation of goodness and beauty. Mr. James at 
 least does. And his views, of course, it is not difficult 
 to support, by citation of the unnumbered troop of 
 sinners and good-for-nothings, of sharks and harpies, 
 of sensualists and egotists, that throngs along the least 
 agreeable of the novelist's pages. But, in the Arts, 
 cynicism is not to be proved by the presentation of 
 the morbid — an abundance of ugliness is no evidence 
 of the lack of an interest in beauty. Sainte-Beuve, 
 himself — who, notwithstanding some personal provoca- 
 tion, makes the charge far less unhesitatingly and 
 broadly than several later critics — for once " forces the 
 note," and is, by implication, a little uncandid, when he 
 calls up, as a reproach to Balzac, this utterance from 
 Bettina to the mother of Goethe : " The work of Art 
 should express that on'y which lifts the soul, which 
 gladdens it nobly." Even the art of Music knows the 
 value of discords ; as the art of Painting the value of 
 shadow. You hear the discords in Balzac, and you see 
 the shadow ; but you find also the harmony, and you 
 find the light. To have produced the character of 
 Monsieur Benassis — no sentimental philanthropist, but 
 a practical and watchful benefactor, looming real and 
 large on a great and durable canvas — would have entitled 
 Balzac to take exception to the charge of cynicism, to 
 the charge of succeeding best when glorifying the 
 hideous or penetrating into the heart of the small. 
 
 Was Benassis a failure ? Did this sinner over whose 
 repentance there was joy in heaven, find, even in his 
 service — not to speak of the amendment of his nature — 
 
BALZAC. 53 
 
 no reward for years of unfatigued well-doing? Benassis 
 — who left professions of piety to others, and prayed the 
 hardest when he worked the most — was himself the re- 
 joicing witness of the changes for the better in the 
 country-side to whose interests his later life was a devo- 
 tion. The seed of his sowing had fallen not indeed on 
 stony ground. He was himself the spectator of the 
 harvest. The well-being of a whole population, and a 
 whole district's power of self-reliance and righteous self- 
 sufficiency, his efforts had secured ; and a gratitude 
 deeper than the lips remained behind when the country 
 doctor's task was ended, and, in large letters, roughly cut 
 into the pine- wood cross which rose over his grave, 
 there ran the legend, " the good Monsieur Benassis.'' 
 Genestas, an honourable soldier, looking at the epitaph, 
 thought that it was the Cure who had invented the 
 simplicity of the phrase. "No," answered the priest, 
 " we have but used the words which have been uttered 
 everywhere, between these mountain-tops and Grenoble.'' 
 I could understand that the passionate remorse of 
 Monsieur Benassis's " Confession," and the splendid 
 abnegation and untiring service of all his later years, 
 should be less impressive to Mr. James, as an artist, 
 than the dainty perfection of " Le Cure de Tours." 
 This particular preference, Mr. James, indeed, has never, 
 that I know of, had occasion to express ; but for " Le 
 Cure' de Tours " he has declared, in brief terms, an un- 
 stinted, and certainly a justified, admiration. " Le Cure 
 de Tours" was written at the De Bernys', at Saint-Firmin, 
 in the Oise, when Balzac's Paris dwelling was in the Rue 
 Cassini : some time after movement from the Rue de Tour- 
 
54 LIFE OF 
 
 non. A sense of entire and successful concentration, a 
 sense of that order of strength which is best amassed or 
 best displayed in quietude, is over the " Cure de Tours " 
 from its beginning to its end. The subject is not vast, 
 and the canvas selected for its record is of an appropriate 
 size. In a hundred pages, the character and fortunes of 
 the Cure are chronicled with completeness and delicacy 
 — with a success as unquestioned as that which Balzac 
 more than once obtained in the "short story" proper: in 
 the " Grenadiere," for instance, which was the result of 
 the intense yet happy labour of one single day : in " La 
 Messe de l'Athee,'' again, in which with few and finished 
 words a striking conception was expressed in unfor- 
 gettable fashion. 
 
 The very first sentence of "Le Cuie de Tours" is a 
 proof of how well the craftsman knew by this time his 
 craft. " In the beginning of the autumn of the year 
 1826, the principal person in this history — the Abbe 
 Birotteau — on his way home from the house at which he 
 had been spending the evening, was surprised by a 
 shower." There is not a trace of superfluous ornament 
 — that is, where any ornament would be superfluous, there 
 is no trace of ornament at all — but in lines simple and 
 direct, by words that are ordinary, the principal per- 
 sonage is brought at once upon the scene ; the time 
 is indicated, and something of Birotteau's status and 
 office ; and, in the event recorded, there is at once a 
 suggestion of the narrow limits within which moved the 
 regular provincial life : " On his way home from the 
 house at which he had been spending the evening, he 
 7cas su?-friscrf by a shower." The sentence strikes the 
 
BALZAC. 55 
 
 key-note. It is never lost sight of. The Abbe Birotteau 
 and his small discomforts are in our minds to the end. 
 From the first line to the last, there is preserved the 
 Dutch method of minute observation, of precise record. 
 In its quietness and harmony the canvas covered is as if 
 Metsu had worked upon it. And yet, as we shall see, 
 this daintiness of touch is at the service of a singular 
 boldness of conception. When we have closed the page 
 we feel that in its portrayal of a bad priest's hatred, 
 the "Cure de Tours" is comparable only with Mr. 
 Browning's " Soliloquy in a Spanish Cloister." 
 
 The bad priest — of course he is not the Abbe 
 Birotteau. When did "a shower" seriously disturb 
 badness ? — be an event in any wicked life ? Little things 
 like that, upset only the excellent — disturb the incapable. 
 The Abbe Birotteau was blameless, limited, short, ordi- 
 nary, and a prey to the rheumatics. The bad priest was 
 the Abbe Troubert ; and he died Bishop of Troyes. 
 
 The scene of the story, as the title suggests, is Balzac's 
 native city — at Tours and its transpontine suburb, Saint- 
 Symphorien, the little drama is played out. Much of it 
 passes under the very shadow of the cathedral in which 
 Birotteau served. Only late does the action shift to a 
 Loire-side country-house, and to Saint-Symphorien — 
 and, for Birotteau, Saint-Symphorien is banishment. 
 
 Never has the daily life, and the private hope and 
 apprehension, of a blameless priest, loveable yet not very 
 full of character, conscientious but not intellectual, been 
 more minutely pictured. The Abbe, of an evening, 
 frequents the modest whist-table of a well-placed family. 
 He goes to Madame de Listomere's. He was introduced 
 
56 LIFE OF 
 
 to her by his dead friend, Chapeloud — an ecclesiastic 
 more learned than himself, and with a readier social 
 charm, and with a mind wide enough to understand 
 that Birotteau could be quite genuinely attached to 
 him, and yet could, in the future, when he should be 
 gone, derive a substantial measure of comfort from the 
 possession of the library and the furniture of one who 
 was no more. At the same hour, every afternoon, the 
 two priests — confidants as well as comrades — had been 
 accustomed to walk upon "le Mail" — the tree-planted 
 promenade that marks the boundaries of the older town 
 — and now l'Abbe Birotteau's walks were solitary, but 
 he lodged at Mademoiselle Gamard's, in the selected 
 rooms which had been tenanted by his departed friend ; 
 and his circle, wishing him well, had assured him that 
 a vacant canonry — to which his ambition before had 
 scarcely soared — would fall to his lot. 
 
 Birotteau then, at the beginning of the story — save for 
 the shower which surprised him, which gave him wet 
 feet, and more than a touch of rheumatism — Birotteau 
 was a good man in clover. Alas ! the story has to be 
 the record of the steps which led him from small annoy- 
 ances to a great defeat. Coming in from Madame de 
 Listomere's that rainy evening, he was kept waiting at 
 the door. It was the first symptom of an antagonistic 
 spirit, compassing his discomfort, in the house. That 
 lesser culprit, the servant, had been instigated by her 
 mistress, and Mademoiselle Gamard had been instigated 
 by the bad priest, Troubert, who, turning to base uses 
 the savoir-vivre which is the great possession of the 
 ecclesiastic who succeeds, had brought vividly to 
 
BALZAC. 57 
 
   
 
 Mademoiselle Gamard's mind every small grievance of 
 which Birotteau might have been the innocent cause. 
 Troubert was ambitious in the first place, but he was 
 likewise jealous. In love affairs— in the relations of a 
 man and woman — jealousy is the sign of the victory of 
 the animal nature over the intellectual and the spiritual 
 parts. But a priest's jealousy — a priest's envy, rather 
 — though it no less degrades his character, may con- 
 ceivably, instead of retarding, actually forward his 
 career. Jealousy, in the priest, is not fairly to be de- 
 scribed as the most unremunerative of all possible 
 crimes. L'Abbe Troubert employed it well. It supplied 
 a stimulus to his ambition, and he never indulged it 
 too much, or forgot for a moment that it was his 
 servant and not his master. Embroiling the harmless 
 Birotteau with a narrow-souled landlady — making it 
 difficult, and at last impossible, for the poor priest tc 
 remain with her — Troubert was instrumental in de- 
 priving the Abbe* of the books and furniture he loved. 
 In high places of the Church and of the State, Troubert's 
 influence waxed greater. As the story proceeds, Birot- 
 teau is the sinking, Troubert, the swiftly-rising, man. 
 A masterly diplomatic action — threatening the advance 
 of their family — forbids the Listomeres any longer to be 
 substantially the Abbe's helpers ; and by a further 
 intrigue, the bad priest succeeds in getting his most 
 innocent enemy brought from the Cathedral and ap- 
 pointed to the outlying parish beyond the Loire. 
 Birotteau is in broken health. He will gaze at Tours 
 longingly from across the river; but he will never 
 again walk in it. His humble recreations, his whist, 
 
58 LIFE OF 
 
 his blameless gossip, are in the Past for ever. And, 
 wrecked and inert, he is stationed, passively, on the 
 terrace, overlooking the Loire, when, at the story's end, 
 Hyacinthe Troubert— now nominated Bishop of Troyes 
 —rolls grandly along the quay of Saint-Symphorien, 
 happy in satisfied ambition, on his road to Paris. 
 
 Three years after Balzac had drawn, with his most 
 careful and most delicate art, the portrait of l'Abbe 
 Birotteau, in " Le Cure de Tours," he reverted, briefly, 
 in " Le Lys dans la Vallee," to this earlier and quite 
 complete creation. He used l'Abbe Birotteau again : he 
 made him the confessor of Madame de Mortsauf— the 
 heroine of a tale which is a little sentimental, and a little 
 morbid, but which by reason of its thought and reverie, 
 retains its share of charm. But in " Le Lys dans la 
 Vallee," the good dull priest of the " Cure de Tours " 
 plays but a very minor part. Only towards the end of 
 her life did Henriette de Mortsauf need to accord him 
 her confidence. His predecessor, with this much-tried 
 chatelaine, had been the Abbe de la Berge : a man, we 
 read, " of apostolic force ; " fit, no doubt, to be the 
 upholder of her difficult virtue. Birotteau, milder and 
 more docile, yet made his influence felt. On her death- 
 bed, at all events, he was able to persuade Madame 
 de Mortsauf of "/«? n'eant des clwses Jiumaines." 
 
 And, if any reader of " Le Cure de Tours " happens 
 to be impressed unduly by the extent to which this 
 excellent Abbe appreciated his own small comforts, and 
 was disturbed by the machinations of his enemies, let it 
 be remembered that yet another book may be called as 
 a witness to character. In " Cesar Birotteau " — the 
 
BALZAC. 59 
 
 novel in which Balzac displayed so profound a know- 
 ledge of all questions in Bankruptcy — there is record of 
 our Abbe's sending to his brother the whole of his little 
 savings, and with them a letter conceived in simplicity 
 and penned with affection. Yet of these various testi- 
 monies there can hardly be need ; for, though " Le 
 Cure de Tours " contains no story of Birotteau's willing 
 abnegation, and not a single sentence that he frames 
 with cleverness or pronounces with point, it is somehow 
 borne home to one, through the writer's subtle and 
 indefinable art, that it would have been a pleasant thing 
 to take one's walk daily with l'Abbe Birotteau upon " le 
 Mail " at Tours : that one would have been a little 
 happier — perhaps even a little better — for his presence. 
 
 And, as somehow upon the canvas, by touches almost 
 imperceptible, by an art that is elusive, the character 
 takes shape and colour, and a real man stands beside 
 you, so is the appropriate background for this figure of 
 the Abbe, wrought gradually and wrought with success. 
 Touraine, which Balzac describes often — which he de- 
 scribes quite exquisitely in "La Grenadiere " — Touraine, 
 with its broad river, its suave hill-sides, the tepid air of its 
 golden autumns, is described likewise, and described well, 
 in " Le Lys dans la Vallee. But Tours itself is best de- 
 scribed in " Le Cure." Tours did not appreciate Balzac — 
 who was the greatest of its sons — and Balzac loved it, 
 and blamed it. Love and knowledge, and only a word 
 of blame — " Tours, one of the least literary of cities,'' if 
 I may repeat the expression — go together in the picture 
 of the place which the story I have been discussing pro- 
 vides. The precincts of the cathedral — " la petite Place 
 
CO LIFE OP BALZAC. 
 
 deserte," and Birotteau's dwelling, and the Rue de la 
 Psalette — are studied, and remembered with a particular 
 felicity, and the Past is summoned to bestow the charm 
 of association upon the vivid and the learned sketch. 
 Meryon, in some incomparable etching — puttirg other 
 artists to shame, for their lack of imagination— could 
 have done the thing no better. The house of Made- 
 moiselle Gamard— the lodging of Birotteau — "is found 
 continually in the shadows thrown by that great cathe- 
 dral, over which Time has cast its sombre mantle ; on 
 which it has graven its ineffaceable lines ; on which, in 
 the damp coldness, it has planted moss, and lichen, and 
 straggling weed." Ingenious is the suggestion of un- 
 certainty as to the house's age, and as to its fortunes. 
 But look at the arabesques on its panels, and look at the 
 door ! The church's flying buttress has its base in the 
 garden, and " an archseologist would perceive that the 
 house has always been, so to say, a part of the magnifi- 
 cent edifice with which it is allied." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A MIDDLE PERIOD. 
 
 THE " Medecin de Campagne" — though it brought 
 him, as he said it would, "many friends" — did 
 not gain for Balzac the Prix Montyon, which he had almost 
 counted on obtaining ; and the quiet perfection of " Le 
 Cure de Tours " passed, no doubt, comparatively unper- 
 ceived. The years in which these fictions were produced 
 — 1832 and 1833 — were two of the busiest of P>alzac's 
 life; and he is found complaining to his mother of a 
 little unreasonableness, when she expects him to have 
 the time, and, what is more, to have the energy, to 
 plunge into a task of private and of business letter 
 writing. It was in April, 1832, that " Le Cure de 
 Tours " had been conceived, and meditated on, and 
 finally executed, under the friendly eyes of Madame de 
 Berny, whom death was soon to claim. " Madame de 
 Berny," says Balzac to his mother, " saw what brain-work 
 meant. It took me ten days merely to plan the ' Cure 
 de Tours.' " And the " Cure de Tours," wrought, after 
 all, under the happy inspiration of a protecting quietude, 
 had been among the easiest and lightest of his labours. 
 "Louis Lambert," with its philosophy or its speculation 
 '—with its ingenious anticipation of views, upon the Co- 
 
G2 LIFE OF 
 
 relation of physical forces, propounded, in the next decade, 
 by Sir William Grove — had cost him much that year. 
 The " Contes Drolatiques " — in which he told broad 
 stories, in a French which, to the not very learned, passes 
 for the French of Rabelais, and even by the learned is 
 admitted to be the most adroit and sufficient of imita- 
 tions—the " Contes Drolatiques " were engaging him at 
 the same time. 
 
 In 1833, the author's labours upon " Louis Lambert " 
 were, as it were, forgotten; for they had been outdone. He 
 liked the book still ; he would always like it — so much of 
 his own youth had been, so to say, caught and retained in 
 it — had been fixed permanently in its pages. He had 
 had great pleasure in getting a good copy finely bound 
 for Madame Zulma Carraud, so often a hostess, and so 
 continually a friend — though there had been a monstrous 
 delay about the box to pack it in, and a little negligence 
 on the part of "our gcod Borget," in sending it off. 1 
 But, as he was finishing the " Medecin de Campagne,'' he 
 wrote of it — to Madame Carraud: "The 'Me'decin de 
 Campagne ' exacts from me ten times the work I gave 
 to 'Lambert' There's not a phrase, not a thought, that 
 hasn't been considered and re-considered, read, re-read, 
 corrected — frightful ! But if your aim is to approach the 
 
 1 Balzac and Monsieur Auguste Borget had been brought together 
 by Madame Carraud ; and, in the Rue Cassini, Borget — who was a 
 genre painter — took up his abode with Balzac. " A brotherly soul," 
 wrote Balzac to the lady who had made them acquainted : "full of 
 the delicacy I adore. I hope to be as much to him as he is to 
 me." And two or three years later it was to this brotherly soul 
 that was dedicated the story of a devoted service, never to be for- 
 gotten—" La Messe de l'Athee." 
 
BALZAC. 63 
 
 simple beauty of the Gospel, to surpass the 'Vicar of 
 Wakefield,' to carry out in practical life the ' Imitation 
 of Christ ' — well ! you must dig hard and deep." At 
 hist — it is dated from Paris, Saturday, May 25, 1833, 
   — " the ' Medecin de Campagne ' is finished. Fear 
 nothing, with regard to it. The end is better than the 
 beginning. The thing goes crescendo — until lately I had 
 doubted whether it would." And then a line or two of 
 quite domestic counsel: — "The Vichy water would 
 probably be good for your dear child. But wait till 
 you have tried change of air. And, above all, think 
 about Magnetism ! " 
 
 A month later, it was his sister who was Balzac's con- 
 fidante : 
 
 " Yesterday I was at Baron Ge'rard's. He introduced to me 
 three German families: one from Vienna, one from Frankfort, one 
 from somewhere in Prussia. They told me that they had gone 
 a-siduously to Gerard's for a month, hoping to see me — they told me 
 that the moment the French frontier is passed, I have actually some 
 reputation. ' Persevere,' they added, ' and you will one day be the 
 literary chief of Europe.' Of ' Europe,' sister ! Flattering German 
 families ! How certain friends of mine would laugh if I told them 
 this ! Good Heavens, though ! — they were excellent Germans, 
 really. I allowed myself to think that they meant all that they 
 said. AVe artists — praise agrees with us so well ! These honest 
 Germans put some courage into me. ... I have resumed my life 
 of work, and a great deal of black can be put upon white in twelve 
 hmirs a day, little sister, and at the month's end — living like that — 
 it is not a small task that has been clone. Poor pen ! — by rights 
 you should be hard as the diamond ! " 
 
 Again, in August, he wrote to Madame Carraud, 
 at Angoulcmc — delighted with her appreciation of 
 Madame de Berny. " You are right, dear friend, to 
 
G4 LIFE OF 
 
 appreciate Madame de Berny. There is a striking 
 likeness in your two minds — the same love of good ; the 
 same enlightened Liberalism; the same hopes for the 
 masses ; the same high thoughts, delicate feelings." 
 
 The reception given to the " Medecin de Campagne" 
 was a blow to Balzac. Several times he speaks of it. 
 Once, it is, "That failure of the ' Medecin ' annoyed me." 
 That it did not gain the Prix Montyon, was a small 
 affair, apparently. What disquieted him most was the 
 indifference of the world. And yet he tried to hide his 
 disappointment, even from himself. " The three papers, 
 on my own side, that have spoken of it, have done so 
 with what really is contempt for book and author. The 
 rest — I know nothing about them. It troubles me little." 
 This is to Madame Zulma Carraud. " You are my real 
 public : you and the better minds I want to please." 
 And he adds that his own heart can only be opened to 
 such as she — " to you and a few women to whom it has 
 been given to understand troubles." 
 
 These extracts from his letters show Balzac now 
 exalted, now depressed : charmed now with the quality 
 of his work : and now disgusted at the public reception 
 of it. If we think he complained too much, we must 
 remember not alone his natural sensitiveness, but the 
 character and the extent of the effort each book demanded 
 from a temperament that was all of eagerness and fire. 
 We must remember too, that he did not wear his heart 
 upon his sleeve — that the letters I quote from are 
 many of them completely private. And we may recol- 
 lect, furthermore, that a book's comparative failure 
 meant for its author something of poverty as well as 
 
BALZAC. G5 
 
 something of neglect. And plain living and a cottage 
 among the hills — for Wordsworth the salvation of his 
 nature and the making of his art — would have done 
 nothing for Balzac, whose studies, in the main, were of 
 the subtle and the civilized ; whose world was the 
 world of writer and diplomatist, of courtly ecclesiastic 
 and of woman of Society ; who said, emphatically, when, 
 even by himself, his drifting into luxury was called into 
 question, "II fa-ut que V artiste mine line vie splendide /" 
 The opinion may have been mistaken ; but at all events 
 it was sincere. 
 
 Debts, in these years — the middle years of his life — 
 pressed upon Balzac. They had worried him before. 
 They worried him almost to the end. And no 
 wonder. For when a work of Art had been beheld and 
 appreciated, he bought what he wanted, whether he 
 could pay for it or no. And, while he was doubt- 
 less troublesome to publishers, there is no doubt also 
 that publishers — at least one or two of them — were 
 hard and unreasonable with him. This one complained 
 of the delay in the delivery of the " Medecin," when 
 Balzac was polishing it into what was intended for per- 
 fection. That one carried things so far that a lawsuit 
 could not be stayed ; and though the Court decided that 
 Balzac on the whole was right, Balzac was scarcely in 
 the end the gainer by the process. Thus one thing 
 after another disturbed the writer, and distracted him — 
 storms were about him, instead of the serene air of Art. 
 
 Nothing, however — neither debts, nor follies, nor 
 private troubles — could succeed in long detaching him 
 from the work he had set himself to do. And now its 
 
 5 
 
CG . LIFE OF BALZAC. 
 
 scheme was a great, and, as time proceeded, it would 
 become even a colossal one. The " Comedie Humaine," 
 in all the extent of it, had not yet been planned; but 
 Balzac was grouping together certain stories that became 
 in reality a part of it : to Gosselin he announced, "the 
 great work, ' Etude de Mceurs au Dix-neuvieme Siecle.'" 
 It was to contain Scenes from Private Life; from Life in 
 the Capital ; from Life in the Provinces. So much was 
 written, and so much more was planned. Meanwhile 
 accounts, now bad, now somewhat reassuring, came to 
 him from the booksellers. One of the philosophical 
 stories — " Louis Lambert " — had had in Germany ten 
 times the circulation it had thus far enjoyed in Fiance ; 
 but to Balzac came no direct profit whatever from this 
 foreign sale. Prestige, no doubt, did something to con- 
 sole him. Then, it is proclaimed joyfully, and even with 
 surprise, " The ' Medecin ' is being reprinted." Already 
 he was within sight of some reversal of the verdict which 
 had been pronounced at first. 
 
 And so, with nothing less than his habitual energy, he 
 threw himself into the labour necessary for " Eugenie 
 Grandet." " I am revising ' Eugenie Grandet.' " And, 
 before a public which, on the whole, appreciated him 
 but little, had been able to annoy him by an undue 
 exaltation of a single smallish masterpiece, Balzac had 
 high hopes about its future. With the book he was 
 correcting, a trump card lay in his hand, indeed. (i J~e 
 corrige ' Eugenie Grandet? . . . ' Eugenie Grandet' 
 vous etounera." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 "le pere goriot." 
 
 I OFFER no analysis of " Eugenie Grandet." The 
 book is too well known for that to be necessary. And 
 while, on the one hand, it can hardly claim particular 
 notice as standing quite by itself, on the other hand it 
 cannot always be advisable to select it as the representa- 
 tive of a class. It is a type, no doubt ; and some of 
 its qualities we have discerned elsewhere, already, and 
 have, to some extent, dwelt upon. It is wrought with 
 perfection ; but, perhaps, by the themes which it avoids, as 
 much almost as by the themes which it discusses, docs it 
 commend itself, not indeed to the literary artist, but to 
 the lady in the dress circle. Yet Balzac has other books 
 which, if she only knew it, that sometime arbitress of 
 Literature in England might peruse with as little trepida- 
 tion. Balzac himself would have recommended to her 
 " Lrsule Mirouet," which he dedicated to — which he 
 almost wrote for — his nieces ; very conscious at the time 
 of how little fitted, for such as they, were his dark and 
 melancholy studies of a life no phase of which he shrank 
 from depicting. And in Pierrette Lorain — the heroine of 
 "Pierrette" — Balzac is rightly credited with having 
 painted an "adorable nature," " tjute de delicatcsse ct d: 
 
C8 LIFE OF 
 
 spontaneite." Nor had Pauline, of the " Peau de Chagrin," 
 any less than Eugenie Grander., the divine capacity of 
 abnegation. 
 
 But " Euge'nie Grandet," though it exacts from one, 
 now, no very serious discussion, does claim a further 
 word. Apart from Eugenie's singular simplicity, and 
 quiet goodness, and generous, unstinting devotion, there 
 is great interest — there is the interest of a quickly felt 
 reality — in the few characters whom alone Balzac has 
 chosen to place here upon the stage. Madame Grandet, 
 pious and obedient, but colourless and weak — only 
 such a woman as Madame Grandet could by any 
 possibility have lived to old age, with Grandet for a 
 husband, or lived with Grandet at all. And — as the 
 one servant who stays with him and is absorbed in his 
 interests — " la grande Nanon " is just as inevitable. In 
 her own dull^. heavy, faithful, bovine way, she has for us 
 the vitality of a soubrette of Moliere. She lives, or 
 vegetates, for all Time — remembered she must be, for 
 her unfailing helpfulness, for the willingness of her sub- 
 mission, and for her physical immensity : the dinornis of 
 Servitude. Grandet himself — imperious, steady of pur- 
 pose ; a slave-driver rather than a master, a husband, or 
 a friend — is studied to the very depths. When he is 
 remembered but as miser and millionaire, only a little 
 has been understood of all that Balzac is ready to reveal 
 in regard to him. Charles, the lover, is more ordinary. 
 Notwithstanding his affection for his father, and his 
 grief at his father's end, in the main he is the simply 
 weak and selfish, elegant and empty, average young 
 man of leisure. But would the pathos of the story have 
 
BALZAC. 09 
 
 been quite as deep, if Eugenie's devotion had been ac- 
 corded to a being more substantial and more worthy ? 
 "When Eugenie beheld Charles, she knew as much of 
 men as did Miranda when she set eyes on Ferdinand. 
 It was no Ferdinand, however, who descended into the 
 streets of Saumur. 
 
 In the mere discovery of an ideal there may be some- 
 thing that is beautiful, and something that is touching. 
 But the profounder pathos belongs, I must suppose, to 
 the retaining of it, blindly or bravely, when reason would 
 have dismissed it long ago. And Eugenie Grandet held 
 it against all facts, against all truths. Not by the con- 
 ception only, but by the frequent realization, of such a 
 character, in the ingenue that he delights in — in the 
 virginal soul — Balzac gives colour to the superstition that 
 women are the idealists of the world. It is women, then, 
 who have written its poems — who have led its Forlorn 
 Hopes ! 
 
 Balzac was soon to be busy on a work of more tre- 
 mendous import, and of yet profounder penetration, than 
 "Eugenie Grandet." In leaving that dainty, homely, 
 idyll, for " Ee Pere Goriot," the minute and the exquisite 
 were to give place to the monumental and the tragic. 
 The " Bear " of the bourgeoisie was now to be written; 
 and, in this newer "Lear," no Cordelia's tenderness was 
 to relieve the gloom. 
 
 In a preface to a book not of his compiling — the 
 " Repertoire de la Comedie Humaine," by Messieurs 
 Cerfberr and Christophe, which to the student is quite 
 as necessary a possession as Monsieur de LovenjouPs 
 " Histoire des CEuvres de H. de Balzac," — Monsieur Paul 
 
70 LIFE OF 
 
 Bourget, has expressed, very happily, the common- 
 sense opinion that more than half of Balzac's triumph 
 in the portraiture of the soul, in the portraiture of 
 Society, was due to divination, to an intellectual second 
 sight. Philarete Chasles — I think it was — had said so 
 before him. A " voyant" had been the word. Monsieur 
 Bourget puts it strongly, of course, when — alluding to 
 Balzac's continual literary busyness — he says, in round 
 terms, "Balzac lia pas eu le temps de vivre." He is 
 strictly accurate in adding that "the experience of this 
 master of exact Literature was reduced to a minimum ; 
 but this minimum sufficed for him." " To the compara- 
 tively small number of data with which his observation 
 had furnished him, he applied an analysis so intuitive 
 that he discovered, behind the limited materials, the 
 deep forces — the generative forces, if one may so call 
 them.'' 
 
 Of course to do this, in some measure — to call the 
 great out of the little : to divine much, where not much 
 may be perceived or experienced — is ever the function of 
 high novelist or dramatist — of the creative writer. But 
 Balzac is an instance of such capacity to a very peculiar 
 degree. In his treatment of love affairs no doubt divina- 
 tion counted. Yet Balzac, in his own person, knew 
 something of Love — he had, at the least, come very near 
 to it before he was middle-aged : long before it was 
 Madame de Hanska who occupied hi.n the most. He 
 knew nothing of paternity : there was no personal experi- 
 ence of that relationship to fall back upon as a guide. 
 Yet of all passions, the one which he has described with 
 the very fullest power is that passion of paternal self- 
 
BALZAC. 71 
 
 sacrifice which mide Tere Goriot the creature, the slave, 
 the ever-watchful and protecting genius of his child. 
 
 Few writers have been greater than Balzac in the 
 exhibition of the moral qualities : no one has been 
 more careful that they shall be presented with dignity, 
 hedged in with honour, though the possessors of them 
 need sometimes to be shown as of lives sordid and sad- 
 dened, as of manners ungainly, of aspect almost repul- 
 sive. No fear, in any case, for the esteem in which we are 
 to hold them. The flag is kept by Balzac spotless above 
 the mire. Vet the width of Balzac's sympathy and the 
 depth of his penetration must have made him, for his 
 own part, as tolerant as he makes his Popinot in " LTn- 
 terdiction," which we read for the portrait of a just, keen 
 judge, a man of practical charity, never tired of well- 
 doing. 
 
 I have classed, by implication, among " moral quali- 
 ties," le Pere Goriot's devotion to his daughters. Yet 
 I know that he carried it to excess. I know that in 
 his case devotion o'erreached itself, and that it fell 
 " o' the other side." For, when to sacrifice himself has 
 become to le Pere Goriot a thing of habit, we behold 
 him, in his daughters' interests, the ardent helper of their 
 intrigues. They have been badly used, in some sort : they 
 must be assisted to their consolations : at all costs, they 
 must be made happy. Of course, the thought is repulsive. 
 But when did le Pere Goriot move in guarded circles solely 
 — hear only words of goodness and discretion ? ^Vhen did 
 he have the privilege of profiting by the examples of a 
 blameless life, in an ideal Society, or in a world of politic 
 restraint? We must take him for what he is — an ill- 
 
72 LIFE OF 
 
 balanced, ill-educated soul, faulty, lovable : a lonely 
 widower, in an obscure boarding-house, willingly strip- 
 ping himself that the darlings of his heart may go in 
 purple and fine linen. His surroundings have been base ; 
 the counsels of his companions, for all their outward 
 respectability, dark and mean ; his conceptions of Life 
 — of some of its good things — were very limited, and 
 must have been apt to be gross. He is ennobled, at all 
 events, by the profundity of his affection. 
 
 The affection that le Pere Goriot lavished was never 
 in any sense returned. His daughters tolerated him. 
 Scarcely even that. He was nothing but an unpresent- 
 able old man, who in his youth had made a fortune by 
 astuteness and industry and successful dealings in ver- 
 micelli. He had educated his children — Anastasie and 
 Delphine — and they had been enabled to contract mar- 
 riages which were brilliant, instead of happy. He 
 assisted Delphine in her loves, and Anastasie in her 
 difficulties. It was not in either of them to dispense 
 with his services, but they broke his heart by their neglect. 
 Though both of them had been married in prosperity, 
 they belonged to very different worlds. It was fitting 
 that they should see each other but seldom ; yet only 
 accident prevented them from meeting at his death-bed 
 — they might have quarrelled in his presence ; they had 
 done so before ; and that had been one of his fears. At 
 the last, it was impossible for Delphine to arrive. She 
 fancied she was ill, and would not come. Then she 
 would come, but must have money for her father ; and 
 Monsieur de Nucingen, her husband, must allow it her. 
 He refused. She fainted. " Mes fiUcs, mcs filles ! Je 
 
BALZAC. 73 
 
 vcux Us voir!" had to be called in vain. Delphine's 
 maid-servant came instead ; and, when le Pere Goriot 
 was no longer conscious, Anastasie burst into the garret 
 with her tardy tears and the repentance of an hour. 
 Ingratitude has its degrees. 
 
 The keeper of the boarding-house— to whom Pere 
 Goriot owed a trifle she was uncertain of receiving — 
 grudged him the sheets in which to die. But Rastignac 
 and the young Bianchon — Delphine's lover, and his 
 friend, a student of medicine — saw that a certain decency 
 was kept : that a certain consideration — which Humanity, 
 even when it is penniless, may conceivably claim — was 
 paid to the obscure failure, who was passing away. The last 
 sounds that le Pere Goriot uttered, the last expressions that 
 stirred upon his face, were sounds, expressions, of grate- 
 ful, even joyous, recognition of what he thought to be 
 his daughter's presence. The signs came from out of the 
 depths — from out of the depths of his being. A day or 
 two later the empty carriages of le Pere Goriot's sons-in- 
 law followed, in state and chilly ceremony, the humble 
 hearse which bore him to his grave. The loving-kind- 
 ness of the family that he had made, extended even so 
 far as that. 
 
 There should be pointed out, in " Le Pere Goriot," as 
 characteristic of Balzac — and nowadays there needs to 
 be pointed out particularly — the unflinching fashion in 
 which he attacks the difficult scene. At least one living 
 wiiter, highly valued amongst us, expends a half of his 
 dexterity in knowing what he must avoid. The "scene a 
 faire" — in Monsieur Sarcey's phrase — is for him only the 
 scene to be bridged across and passed over. It is the 
 
74 LIFE OF 
 
 triumph of the great as distinguished from the clever —   
 it is the triumph, one allows, of Mr. Thackeray, in 
 "Vanity Fair" — to approach with fearlessness the critical 
 moment, and, having been true already, to be truest of 
 all there. Much of the other work may have been ob- 
 servant chronicle — the work now is revelation. The death 
 scene in " Le Pere Goriot" is of just that order. 
 
 Balzac — for all his vivid and immediate appreciation 
 of the work of his own brain — would have considered it 
 pretentious, perhaps, to have called this book a tragedy. 
 A romance he is careful not to call it. What he calls it is 
 a drama: "not that this history is dramatic \w the usual sense 
 of the word ; though, when the work is accomplished " — 
 he speaks on its first page — "some tears, perhaps, will 
 have been shed, intra muros, ct extra." Will it be under- 
 stood, he asks himself, beyond the limits of Paris ? He 
 is doubtful. " The details of these scenes, displaying 
 observation and so much local colour, can scarcely be 
 appreciated, except within the illustrious valley, so full of 
 sufferings that are real, and of joys that are often false." 
 And he puts his sordid boarding-house in the Rue Neuve- 
 Sainte-Genevieve ; since that, above all other streets, " est 
 comtne tin cadre de bronze, le seul qtd convienne a ce recit." 
 No one knows better than Balzac into what catacombs 
 he is descending — to show there, not empty skulls, indeed, 
 but " dried-up hearts." 
 
 Directly round Pere Goriot moves, then, the sordid life 
 of the boarding-house : Madame Vauquer, its mistress; 
 the young Rastignac, gifted, ambitious, poor; Vautrin, 
 whose " last incarnation " is elsewhere written of— a being 
 of mysterious fascination, of magic influence, of horrible re- 
 
BALZAC. 73 
 
 lationships — one or two elderly or middle-aged women, with 
 tired eyes and withered mouths; and a certain Victorine 
 Taillefer, sometimes hopeful because she is young, but 
 whose life, whose very type, indeed, suggests, at present, 
 only a narrow destiny, a limited personal experience. She 
 lacked, Balzac reminds us, " the very making of a woman 
 — frocks and love-letters." So much for the interior. 
 Outside the boarding-house, surges, of course, Paris — the 
 sense of its nearness and of its infinity — of its ambitions, 
 triumphs, failures, intrigues — never quite lost, and some- 
 times very dominant. For the troubled figure of le Pere 
 Goriot, a stormy background — an immense and appro- 
 priate vista. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MADAME DE HANSKA. 
 
 IN the second half of Balzac's working-life, Evelina 
 de Hanska is the overpowering figure. 
 
 When he first became acquainted with this young 
 Polish lady — who, like most of her predecessors in 
 the intimacies of Frenchmen, must needs be a married 
 woman — Balzac was within sight of the loss of the 
 friend his attachment to whom had been in some 
 respects the most romantic — I think it was also in some 
 respects the most sentimental — of his experiences. 
 Madame de Berny's two years' mortal illness had just 
 begun its course. The deep and reasonable friendship 
 with Madame Zulma Carraud had been unaffected by 
 the association now coming to an end, and would be 
 unaffected by the association which was now to begin. 
 Alongside of it there was room for many a relationship 
 with which it need not in any way clash. 
 
 And Balzac's more passionate concern for the woman 
 who had troubled his imagination the most — I mean, of 
 course, Madame de Castries — was already over. In 
 October, 1831, he had written to her, probably for the 
 first time ; and it was done with civility, with " respectful 
 homage." In February, 1832, she had invited him to 
 
 • 
 
 # 
 
LIFE OF BALZAC. 77 
 
 see her, and he was sending her the expression of his 
 gratitude, and his " affectionate thanks," but was modestly 
 protesting that to be personally known was to risk some- 
 thing of%n esteem already valued. He was putting off 
 the moment ; waiting for some good time in which he 
 might be, not writer, and not artist — he says — but only 
 himself. In July, of that same year, Madame Carraud 
 had received his confidences about the matter — about this 
 human magnet. " I must go climbing at Aix. I must run 
 after some one who is perhaps only laughing at me — one 
 of those aristocratic women you doubtless dislike ; one of 
 those exquisite beauties in whom one supposes, imme- 
 diately, beautiful souls — a true duchess, disdainful, loving, 
 subtle, coquettish. I have never seen the like of her. 
 The woman of one's dreams ! " Then came the vivid 
 autumn at Aix-les-Bains. And then that friendship's col- 
 lapse. " Un des plus grands chagrins de via vie." A little 
 of its bitterness — no definite portrait — had got, no doubt, 
 into the " Duchesse de Langeais." The thing was in its 
 grave, people would say — but stirring there, perhaps, rest- 
 lessly, from time to time — when Balzac formed that 
 association with Madame de Hanska, which pleased him, 
 to begin with, and, as years went on, unquestionably 
 satisfied him, but which can never, it maybe, have given 
 him the moments he would longest remember. 
 
 Madame de Hanska had first to be counted as only 
 one among several friends whom Balzac owed to his 
 production of the " Medecin de Campagne." Monsieur 
 Ferry asserts that she made the novelist's acquaintance 
 at an hotel at Neuchatel, soon after she had read that book. 
 Balzac was certainly at Neuchatel in September, 1S33; 
 
73 LIFE OF 
 
 and he speaks, sixteen years after that, of a sixteen years' 
 knowledge of the lady. But almost the first letter from 
 the one to the other, given in the " Correspondance " 
 — it is a letter, of course, of Balzac's — is dated 1836. By 
 this time he has been twice to Vienna to meet her. And 
 they are clearly on the footing of old friends. "You, 
 who know the whole of my life," Balzac says, in this letter. 
 And it is occupied chiefly with the discussion of two 
 subjects but seldom absent from its writer's mind — the 
 novels of Honore de Balzac ; Honore de Balzac's money 
 troubles. Just then it happened, that, for the second 
 time in his life, financial difficulties had resulted in 
 what is called "a crisis." That is sometimes quite 
 an impressive way of speaking of a failure. The fact is, 
 that the failure of Werdet, the publisher, had brought 
 about Balzac's. In 1828 — that was on the occasion of 
 the first crisis — " an angel" (he means Madame de Berny) 
 had been by his side. From such a being, he, in com- 
 parative youth, had been able, he held, to accept assis- 
 tance without loss of dignity. " To day I am of an age 
 at which a man no longer inspires the wish to extend a 
 protection which has nothing that compromises. It comes 
 naturally to youth to receive, and naturally to affection to 
 bestow. But for a man who is nearer forty than thirty, 
 protection would be an insult. A man of those years, if 
 weak and without resources in himself, is condemned in 
 all lands.'' 
 
 He tells his friend that he is established at Chaillot 
   — in "the attic that was formerly Jules Sandeau's;" 
 still fortunate in the society of the faithful Auguste 
 Borget ; but having left the Rue Cassini, " not without 
 
BALZAC. 79 
 
 regret," and ignorant, as yet, of whether it would be pos- 
 sible to keep together the furniture and the library. 1 
 Then he goes on to very interesting details about his 
 writings. Had Criticism had an influence upon the " Lys 
 dans la Yallee " ? All he knows is, out of two thousand 
 copies, Werdet, the publisher, has only sold twelve hun- 
 dred. " The Belgian brigands " have managed to circulate 
 three thousand. " There are no buyers of my books in 
 France," he declares strongly. " As a consequence, the 
 commercial success which might save me is still far dis- 
 tant." Yet, at that very moment, the " Lys dans la 
 Yallee " had secured no inconsiderable attention. " They 
 say I have described Madame V." And again, "It 
 seems there are as many Monsieur de Mortsaufs crop- 
 ping up, as there are angels of Clochegourde !" 2 
 
 This letter witnesses to the intimacy of the friendship 
 existing when it was written. When Balzac first met 
 Madame de Hanska, she was a woman of thirty; and 
 "la fetnme de t rente ans" was the woman Balzac cele- 
 brated ; Charles de Bernard having been occupied (as a 
 literary artist, I mean) with " the woman of forty." Mon- 
 sieur Ferry tells us — in a sketch by no means simple, and 
 by no means full of colour — that the new friend was of 
 middle height, gracious of feature, and with an air of 
 distinction — i% celte distinction vaporcuse^ he adds, " des 
 
 1 These were in no case destined to be retained in " the attic " ; 
 which, indeed, Balzac only occupied while the pleasanter rooms of 
 the house were being made ready for him. 
 
 2 "Angels of Clochegourde" — Hcnriettes de Mortsauf, in other 
 words. She is the heroine of the story ; and, as a previous foot-note 
 has explained, it was Madame de Berny who for this portrait had 
 really been the sitter. 
 
80 LIFE OF 
 
 jolies femmes du NordT " She spoke several languages " 
 — a circumstance which can have mattered but little to 
 Balzac, unless, indeed, each new language that she 
 acquired, bestowed upon her, as Goethe claimed that it 
 should do, "a new soul." But she was what we call 
 " cultivated " — that is, had several interests of a particular 
 order, and realized contemporary opinion on questions 
 which it is not given to any Age to finally settle. 
 
 Nor, when we have said that Madame de Hanska was 
 " cultivated," have we quite done her justice. She had 
 a Northern love of mysticism, which must have stamped 
 her as original, if her friend was minded to compare her 
 only with the Parisian woman of Fashion — with the 
 brilliant, the coquettish, the matter of fact. And that 
 love of mysticism suited Balzac thoroughly. He some- 
 how had it himself. He appreciated it. He used it, not 
 without effect, in his art; and because of Madame de 
 Hanska's possession of it, " Se'raphita " came to be 
 written. 
 
 Madame de Hanska travelled much, and it was not 
 only at Neuchatel and at Vienna that Balzac saw her. 
 Sometimes she was with her husband : oftcner she was 
 without him. Her daughter was always with her. The 
 Count was detained as much perhaps by public duties as 
 by the administration of his great estates at Vierzschovnia. 
 But on the occasion of the meeting at Neuchatel, he too 
 had been of the party, and he had liked Balzac, and had 
 invited him — though unavailingly, of course, at that time 
 — to visit the Russian home. Years passed on. Balzac's 
 fortunes, which had been darkened, mended a little, 
 thanks to the stress of his labour. Many letters, and an 
 
BALZAC. 81 
 
 occasional meeting, kept alive, through all the chances of 
 his life, his friendship for the Countess. In 1843, the 
 husband died, and Balzac's protestations of affection 
 soon became more urgent. But Madame de Hanska 
 kept always, or for long, a measure of reserve. Yet 
 the two travelled together — met oftener than before. 
 Madame de Hanska, who never forgot her daughter, 
 gave Balzac what was now at least the second place 
 in her consideration. They did not actually marry until 
 March, 1S50; but nearly two years before that, the great 
 French writer had transported himself to Vierzschovnia, 
 and had found there, in what he declared to be almost 
 a desert, no satiety in friendship, no dulness in asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 It will readily be conceived that his letters to Madame 
 de Hanska— who certainly shared his interests, and of 
 whose order of mind he never tired — form some of the 
 most intimate, some of the most detailed, some of the 
 most autobiographic of Balzac's correspondence. He 
 tells her about his acquisitions. They are pictures and 
 bric-a-brac. He had taste and a genuine love of Fine 
 Art ; but not, as he sometimes thought he had, an expert's 
 knowledge or certainty of choice. Thus, a Natoire, 
 at one moment "charming" and "very authentic," is 
 found, at another, displeasing to him, among his more 
 " solid " possessions. And a Breughel, which had doubt- 
 less fascinated him at first — and had called out to him to 
 buy it, with the imperiousness the collector wots of — is to 
 be spoken of, afterward-;, with an implication of subdued 
 remorse: "the false Breughel:" "I hope to get twenty 
 pounds for the false Breughel." 
 
 6 
 
82 LIFE OF 
 
 Then, as, to the very end, he wrote to his sister, to his 
 mother, and to Madame Zulma Carraud, so he wrote, of 
 course, to Madame de Hanskn, the schemes for his 
 stories. Some of these letters let us into the secrets of 
 the work-shop. We learn — to give one detail only— that 
 " Pierrette," though, as a matter of fact, included — and 
 doubtless for a proper reason— in the group of stories 
 called "Les Ce'libataires," belonged, in Balzac's thought, 
 a good deal to " Les Parents Pauvres." The two great 
 stories of that suite will, he says, constitute the suite 
 " with ' Pierrette.' " And how, of the two great stories, 
 the one, " La Cousine Bette," is the complement of the 
 other, "Le Cousin Pons"— which we shall consider 
 in detail further on — Balzac most vividly and lucidly 
 explains. 
 
 Then, of course, come, at lesser or longer intervals, 
 the particulars of his debts — now that they are pressing; 
 and now that they are being gradually and surely wiped 
 off. He speaks of works yet in his brain, as actual pos- 
 sessions : romances, still to be written, have, in his 
 imagination, the value of debentures in a first-class rail- 
 way. And then, when money troubles have been con- 
 fessed—to do him justice, have been amply bemoaned: 
 perhaps even a little exaggerated — and when hopes and 
 projects have been dwelt upon as fully, comes the expres- 
 sion of his appreciation of this woman's friendship. It is 
 a theme that recurs. Writing as late as 1846, he says, of 
 his Parisian apartment, " I want space. I am suffocating 
 here. And the furniture— which is beautiful — hasn't its 
 proper effect. It's just as necessary for me to have a 
 house as it is to pay my debts. And 1 am as hurried 
 
BALZAC. 88 
 
 to-day as in 1837. For me, the sixteen volumes done in 
 the last five years are an inexplicable miracle." And then 
 the thanks to her. " Were it not for some new courage 
 in my heart — a courage of a kind that will uphold a ship- 
 wrecked man, all one long day, in struggle with the 
 billows — were it not for some new courage, why, just in 
 port, I should succumb to the lightest of all waves. Into 
 a fighter's wound you have poured marvellous oil — a 
 perfect woman, a devoted mother, a good and a com- 
 passionate friend." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE SCHEME OF THE " COMEDIE." 
 
 THE novels of Balzac first assumed their collective 
 or their general title, " La Comedie Humaine," in 
 1842 ; and, apropos of it, their author wrote, that year — 
 i n July— a Preface, which, like Wordsworth's progressive 
 apologies for his method in Poetry, like the Introduction 
 to " Leaves of Grass," and the Preface to Johnson's 
 " Dictionary," goes down to further generations, it cannot 
 be questioned, as among the great Prefaces of the world. 
 Some tribute to it may be paid here, in taking account 
 of its thoughtfulness and its significance. And we must 
 trace, however briefly, the growth of the scheme by which 
 each separate romance or realistic study was assigned, in 
 a vast field, its own particular station. 
 
 Though the title "La Comedie Humaine" was first 
 publicly claimed for Balzac's novels in 1842 — that name 
 being bestowed upon an edition that included seventeen 
 volumes — the words had been used by Balzac in a letter 
 written to Madame de Hanska in January, 1838. She 
 was at Vierzschovnia at the time, and had been making 
 inquiries as to a "Balzac Illu-tre." "Reassure your- 
 self," Balzac says : " it is the whole of my Work, the 
 'Contes Drolatiques' excepted. It is, in short, that 
 
LIFE OF BALZAC. 85 
 
 part of ' The Human Comedy ' which is called ' Social 
 Studies.' " A certain grouping had, then, already taken 
 place, and there is every reason to believe that the idea 
 of the arrangement of the stories was of very gradual 
 growth. Indeed, to find the very first instance of what 
 was at all events a series, we have to go back to almost the 
 earliest of Balzac's maturer works. Even in 1830 certain 
 talcs were published under a common head. Half a 
 dozen more or less separate fictions were included in the 
 " Scenes de la Vie privee " issued in that year. A second 
 edition, published two years later, contained additions 
 which more than doubled the number. But, in the 
 interval, there had appeared " Romans et Contes Philo- 
 sophiques." That was in 1S31 ; and the choice of the 
 two general titles — the classification of these tales under 
 the one title and of those under the other — showed some- 
 thing like a definite intention to cover a planned-out 
 ground. In 1834 Balzac had advanced to a project 
 more visibly ambitious — he was using the title " Etudes 
 de Mceurs au Dix-neuvieme Siecle," and dividing such 
 " Studies " into " Scenes of Private Life," " Scenes of 
 Provincial Life," " Scenes of Parisian Life." 
 
 Of course other groups had to be added to these, be- 
 fore a name so comprehensive as " The Human Comedy " 
 could, with any show of reason, be taken. But, by 1842, 
 the scheme was ready to be unrolled before the public, 
 in its entirety. To much of it the author could point as 
 having been already executed. And he could promise 
 to the public this or that volume, already devised with 
 reference to the whole, as his next contribution to it. 
 Stone after stone should be added, till all the edifice was 
 
8G LIFE OF 
 
 built up. Some stones were added— vast, and of finest 
 carving. But, like many a soaring work in Art or Letters 
 — to name the most conspicuous instance that occurs to 
 me, like the "Liber Studiorum'' of Turner — "La 
 Come'die Humaine" was never actually finished. Yet 
 the one work and the other— Balzac's comprehensive 
 survey of his fellow-men, Turner's range over the world 
 of Nature — justified by their own qualities the greatness 
 of the aim, and permitted the high ambition. 
 
 The Preface to the " Comedie Humaine " explains its 
 scope and intention ; and if these elaborated pages con- 
 tain, amongst their treasures of thought and of felicitous 
 phrase, much that is of quite temporary interest, that 
 is because their author could not let slip the opportunity 
 to make some answer to a criticism which, he deemed, 
 had wronged him, and because he chose, too, to embrace 
 the chance of advertising definitely, once for all, some 
 personal opinions which he was very anxious it should be 
 understood that he held. The year in which he penned 
 this Preface to the better part of his life's work, Balzac 
 had been particularly exercised about the reviewers' 
 estimate of him. His " Monographic de la Presse 
 Parisienne," appearing at this very time, was a severe ex- 
 pression of his views as to those who sat upon the judg- 
 ment-seat. And though, in a definite and final utterance 
 on the scheme and basis of his work, he could not, as in 
 minor and more temporary writings, reply in any detail 
 to merely transient cavil, we may be sure that many 
 misinterpretations of his aim were present to his mind 
 when he laid down here, once for all, what his aim had 
 been. If he is accused of immorality, the charge of 
 
BALZAQ... 87 
 
 immorality, he will have us understand, is a charge made 
 lightly by the feeble and the conventional against the 
 vigorous and the fresh. He supplies the public with a 
 list — superfluous to-day — of his important figures of 
 irreproachable virtue : Pierrette Lorain, Ursule Mirouet, 
 Eugenie Grander., Eve Chardon, and the rest. He 
 appends examples of practical well-doing, drawn from 
 those dramatis persona of his who are only in the second 
 rank — whose place upon his stage is in the middle dis- 
 tance. "Joseph Lebas," he says, " Genestas, Benassis, 
 Judge Popinot, Bourgeat " — the Auvergnat water-carrier 
 of the " Messe de l'Athee " — and he mentions several 
 others : " Have I not solved, in them, the difficult literary 
 problem of how to make a virtuous person interesting? " 
 And, if Balzac claims to be a path-breaker, after his 
 own fashion, let it not be forgotten that he is a pillar 
 of Society, besides. Rousseau said that Society depraved 
 men. Balzac thanks it for making men better. And 
 what is the basis of Society ? " Christianity, and more 
 particularly Catholicism, is, as I have said in ' Le 
 Medecin de Campagne,' a complete system for the re- 
 pression of the lower tendencies of mankind. It is the 
 principal element of social order." Again, " It is Chris- 
 tianity that has created modern peoples. It is Chris- 
 tianity that will preserve them." Yet again, " I write by 
 the light of two eternal truths." One of them is "Chris- 
 tianity " — and the declaration may interest us always. If 
 the other is " Monarchy," — Monarchical Government — 
 we may think that it is as a politician of his period, 
 and of an old-world land, like our own, that Balzac makes 
 it an essential — that he gives it that particular place. 
 
88 LIFE OF 
 
 The writer of a preface which mixes the expression of 
 political belief with that of the finest and the widest of 
 social observation, cannot abstain from giving to his 
 readers his theory of popular election. I mention it to 
 hint in a word what was the political position of one 
 who more than once sought to mingle in political life. 
 Balzac is no enemy of popular election — " a capital 
 means," he says, "of founding the law." But it must 
 not be the only means — its sphere must be limited. 
 "With popular election, what representation would 
 there be of the ideas of those imposing minorities 
 of which a Monarchical Government would certainly 
 think? Universal suffrage would give us Government 
 by the masses — the only Government which would be 
 without responsibility, and which would exercise a tyranny 
 that could know no bounds." 
 
 In Politics, then, and in Religion, Balzac is on the side 
 of the Conservative. He is an " ecrivain monarchique" 
 — to use his own phrase — though not of necessity Legiti- 
 mist. He has good words for Napoleon : " Napoleon 
 adapted, quite marvellously, the electoral principle to the 
 genius of our land. There has never been any Chamber 
 to equal Napoleon's Corps Legislatif." 
 
 As for Balzac's attitude towards Religion — a man with 
 so vast an understanding, with so varied a sympathy, 
 could not, by any possibility, be a bigot ? Yet a man of 
 his imaginative faculty — a " voyant" indeed — must make 
 some use of gifts which Heaven has not bestowed on 
 the materialist — the gifts of Reverence and Awe. Or- 
 ganized as he is, Balzac will go far towards doing justice 
 to the instincts of Humanity, towards giving them their 
 
BALZAC. 89 
 
 proper weight, towards taking account of the forces 
 which have moved the world. This or that article of 
 belief, held popularly or conventionally, he may no 
 longer adhere to ; but at least he finds in Catholicism 
 social convenience, and he finds in it tenderness. How 
 far exactly he at one time or another accepts the tenets 
 of the Church he was born into — the Church that has 
 presented Christianity to him— we may not very easily 
 measure ; but we know that like most, I must suppose, 
 of the wisest who have wielded, " with Wit's bauble, 
 Learning's rod," Balzac, at least, 
 
 "Believes in Soul, is very sure of God." 
 
 But now to Balzac's explanation of the "Comedie Hu- 
 maine." The thought of it first came to him, he tell us, 
 through a comparison of Man with the beasts. " The 
 animal," he says — paying his tribute to Geoffroy Saint- 
 Hilaire, by the way — " takes its external form, or, t j 
 speak more precisely, takes the differences in its form, 
 from the place and circumstance in which it is 
 asked to develop itself." Does not Society make of 
 Man as many social species as there are zoological 
 species ? Nay — seeing that Man, to-day, is " Nature 
 plus Society " — is not Man far more complicated, 
 with differences more difficult to seize? Life with the 
 beasts was found by Buffon to be excessively simple. 
 If Buffon's task with animals was undertaken by Balzac, 
 with Mankind as the theme, how hard must that task 
 become ! "Of such a history of the human heart I saw 
 the importance and the poetry ; but I saw at first no 
 means of executing it." Separating, then, rather arbi- 
 
90 LIFE OF 
 
 trarily, as it seems, Narrative Fiction from the Drama 
 — and so, without requiring to refer to them, getting rid 
 of Shakespeare and Moliere — Balzac goes on to say that 
 up to his own time famous story-tellers had confined 
 themselves to the creation of two or three important 
 types, and to the depicting of a phase or side of Life. 
 Sir Walter Scott, however, in Balzac's youth, had done 
 more ; but, having not so much imagined a system as 
 found his manner •' dans le feu du travail" it had not 
 occurred to Sir Walter "so to connect his compositions 
 that each chapter might be a romance, and each romance 
 an epoch." " In noticing this absence of connection, I 
 saw my own way to a system favourable to my work, and 
 saw the possibility of executing it. . . . French Society 
 should be the historian, and I should only be the sec- 
 retary." 
 
 By implication, next, Balzac claims for himself — 
 whether justly or wrongly — as a Catholic, an opportunity 
 of breadth and variety denied, he deems, to Scott as a 
 Protestant. I think there is a germ of truth in what he 
 says on this matter; but I think also that he pushes his 
 theory too far. He remarks that the women of Scott 
 are, as portraits, as representations, relatively false. A 
 something that is in all Human Nature is somehow 
 not in them. Of romantic exterior — he would add — 
 below the surface they are uniformly cold. The 
 excellent Protestant woman knows not, he assures us, 
 the heights and the depths. " Elle peui iire chaste, 
 pure, vcrtucuse; viais sen amour sans expansion sera tou- 
 jour s caline ct range com me un devoir accompli? " If Sir 
 Walter Scott had been Catholic, and if he had taken 
 
BALZAC. 91 
 
 upon himself the task of describing with truth the dif- 
 ferent ways of life which, one after the other, made 
 Scottish history, perhaps the painter of Effie and of Alice 
 — the two figures which in his old age he reproached 
 himself with having designed — would have admitted 
 passions with their faults, with their punishments, and 
 with the qualities that are born of repentance. La passion 
 est toute Vhumanite" Sir Walter Scott, indeed, invented 
 romances; and the romance, unlike the novel of Balzac, 
 depicts a world that is better than the actual one. Yet 
 the romance itself — " cet augusle mensonge" — must have 
 its details recognizably true. Still more must Balzac's 
 task — Society's history. 
 
 It is no slight business then, Balzac continues, to draw 
 with accuracy the two thousand figures that represent the 
 epoch, in his work. And these portraits want their 
 proper frames — they must be stationed, if he is allowed 
 the expression, in their proper galleries. Hence the 
 divisions of the work, the system of classification, 
 already announced and for the most part executed. 
 And, to Balzac's mind — though it is difficult here to 
 follow him closely — each division of the " Etudes de 
 Mceurs" is related to some special period in human 
 life. " Scenes de la Vie privtie" he connects with child- 
 hood and adolescence. "Scenes de la Vie de Province," 
 with a period particularly of combat — a period of passions, 
 ambitions, projects. "Scenes de la Vie Parisienne" 
 depicts the tastes, the vices, the exaggerated fancies, 
 provoked by contact with a capital which contains the 
 highest and the lowest, the worst and best. And these 
 scenes must have their local colour. " I have tried to give 
 
92 LIFE OF 
 
 some idea of the different districts in our splendid land. 
 My work has its Geography, as it has its Genealogy ; place 
 and thing, person and fact ; noble and citizen, artizan 
 and peasant ; politics, army — a whole world, in short." 
 And, after having painted social life, in these three great 
 divisions, Balzac had gone on to " th e exceptional existences 
 which guard the interests of many, or of all." Hence, 
 "Scenesdela Vie Politique"; "Scenesde la Vie Militaire." 
 Lastly, the " Scenes de la Vie de Campagne " might — by 
 a pretty fancy, permitted not unwillingly to the creator 
 of so great a work — " be in some sort the evening of this 
 long day. Here are my purest characters : my application 
 of the principles of order, politics, morality." And then 
 he adds — was it because a Frenchman must be allowed 
 system, even when system is dragged in as an after- 
 thought? — "Such is the base, crowded with figures — such 
 the stage, comic or tragic — on which the ' Etudes Philo- 
 sophiques' come to be raised up." And their first volume, 
 the " Peau de Chagrin," connects in some sense the 
 " Etudes Philosophiques " with the " Etudes de Moeurs," 
 "by the chain of a fantasy almost Oriental." "The vastness 
 of a plan which includes Society's history and criticism, 
 the analysis of its evils, the discussion of its principles, 
 justifies me, I think, in giving to my work the name 
 under which it is appearing to-day — ' The Human 
 Comedy.' Pretentious, is it ? Is it not, rather, true ? 
 That is a question for the public to decide, when the 
 work is finished." 
 
 A feature only touched upon in the Preface, of which 
 the main purport has now been indicated, is the recur- 
 rence of so many characters in so many different stories. 
 
BALZAC. 93 
 
 Yet no feature of the work is more remarkable. Follow- 
 ing Balzac's own example — considering Narrative Fiction 
 as quite distinct from the Drama — we may remind our- 
 selves that in Balzac's day such recurrence was, as to the 
 fact of it, all but, and as, to the extent of it, wholly un- 
 precedented. Or, including the Drama even, how little 
 was it resorted to by Moliere and Shakespeare ! How 
 little, too, has it been resorted to since ! — though resorted 
 to well enough by Emile Augier, with his Giboyer, the 
 journalist. In narrative Fiction, would Mr. Thackeray's 
 Pendennis have come upon the scene so often, would 
 Mr. Trollope's Crawley — to name but one of his 
 revenanfs— have been brought forth again to say his word 
 of what is almost genius, "Peace, Woman ! " to the wife 
 of Bishop Proudie, if Balzac had not given, on his colossal 
 scale, the pattern that might be followed? Again, with- 
 out Balzac, would Monsieur Zola ever have conceived 
 the history of the Rougon-Macquarts ? — though that, I 
 know, in its insistence on hereditary qualities, on physio- 
 logical improvement or degradation, is a far-reaching 
 development of Balzac's plan, while Mr. Thackeray and 
 Mr. Trollope go but a few steps in the direction of the 
 master's strides. 
 
 For myself, I think that in any considerable body of 
 Fiction, dealing intricately with what is practically one 
 period, there is an immense advantage in the reappear- 
 ance of characters who have already played their parts, 
 larger or smaller, in some other tale. Such reappearance, 
 properly contrived, gives wonderfully the sense of actual 
 life. Some one near you to-day was yesterday in the 
 background. Some one else, important enough to you 
 
94 LIFE OF BALZAC. 
 
 years ago, is seen, if we are to speak frankly, with modi- 
 fied interest. And when the characters reappear in 
 sufficient number, and take, not of course their places of 
 old, but their right places for the drama now to be 
 enacted, an atmosphere is formed, a world created — 
 regions of fancy become regions of fact. The " Comedie 
 Humaine," distinguished above most other efforts of 
 imagination, by so many qualities, — by so profound a 
 penetration, so wide a sympathy, so unfailing a tolerance, 
 so exalted a technical skill — is distinguished, above all 
 other efforts, by at least this one particular achievement : 
 the peopling of the novelist's world with men and 
 women who — to borrow a simile from the Theatre which 
 Balzac loved — are now happily "juvenile heroes," now 
 contentedly ' : useful people," now " walking gentlemen," 
 and now appropriately " supers." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 "le cousin pons." 
 
 AMONG the comparatively few stories which Balzac 
 planned and finished after putting forth as the chief 
 instalment of " The Human Comedy " what was indeed 
 to be the bulk of his work, the two related novels 
 known as "Le^ Parents Pauvres " are the most im- 
 portant. The title of the first of the two was long dis- 
 cussed. Once it was to be " Le Vieux Musicien" : then 
 "Le Bonhomme Pons": then " Le Parasite": then, some 
 time after " La Cousine Bette " had been quite fixed 
 on as the title of the second, it became " Le Cousin 
 Pons," that a connection between the two might be 
 clearly inferred and that the suggestion of a friend 
 might be adopted. It was with an extraordinary energy 
 that in the early summer of 1846 Balzac addressed 
 himself to the production of these writings. He had 
 been travelling in the spring. He had got as far as 
 Rome, of which he wisely hesitated to give any descrip- 
 tion- -"You must re-read Lamennais ('Affaires de 
 Rome')," he says to his sister, "and you will know as 
 much as I know." He had been at Tours, afterwards ; 
 
96 LIFE OF 
 
 and now, writing from Paris on a certain " Tuesday " 
 in June, he says, to Madame de Hanska, who is in Rome 
 still : — " I am going to invent ' Le Vieux Musicien ' and 
 ' La Cousine Bette.' . . . The moment exacts from me 
 two or three works of capital importance, which shall over- 
 throw the false gods — the bastard literature — and which 
 shall prove that I am younger, fresher, and more fertile 
 than ever I have been." He adds : — " The ' Vieux Musi- 
 cien ' is the ' poor relation ' overwhelmed with indignities 
 and injuries, but true of heart, and taking revenge only by 
 doing men services. The ' Cousine Bette' is the 'poor 
 relation' overwhelmed with indignities and injuries; 
 and avenging meanly the offences her vanity has felt." 
 Again, on the 16th of July, he says, of " Le Cousin 
 Pons" particularly: — "It is arduous work, for it has 
 something in common with ' Cesar Birotteau ' and with 
 'L'Interdiction ' : what I have to do is to interest 
 readers in a man who is poor and simple and old." 
 
 On the 2nd of August, Balzac was able to announce the 
 completion of " Le Cousin Pons." Three hundred and 
 fifty very close pages — the English two-volume novel at 
 the very least — had been written in two months, and 
 each page stuffed, so to say, with thought and knowledge. 
 "Heavy" some bits of it may very likely be called; 
 but no one can say that it is anywhere careless in 
 method or slight in texture. During most of the time 
 of its production, Balzac had profited, no doubt, by the 
 long spring holiday, with its selected companionship. 
 lie had had " le travail facile" in Paris, those summer 
 days and nights : the stream of Fancy had flowed 
 happily on. The result contented him entirely. As we 
 
BALZAC. 97 
 
 read his account of it, perhaps we have need to remember 
 a very true remark he has made in his big general Pre- 
 face, — that an artist's words of lively and excited hope 
 must not be always taken quite literally, for excessive 
 self satisfaction. " Che re ciine fraternelle" he says to 
 Madame de Hanska— recognizing in her a comrade 
 as well as a friend — "the book is just finished. For 
 me at least, it is one of those fine works, of an extreme 
 simplicity, which contain the whole human heart. It 
 is as great as ' Le Cure de Tours,' and more lucid. It 
 is every bit as touching." 
 
 A little later Madame de Hanska objected to the 
 title. "Le Parasite" had been by this time, as Balzac 
 thought, definitely chosen. The objection took the 
 form of a perfectly accurate criticism ; and Balzac recog- 
 nized his mistake. " You are not satisfied with my title, 
 'Le Parasite.' You say it's a title for an Eighteenth 
 Century comedy, like 'Le Mediant,' 'Le Glorieux,' 
 ' L'Indecis,' ' Le Philosophe Marie.' Well, well — you have 
 settled the matter ! And as, by your sovereign orders, 
 the • Cousine Bette's ' companion can only be the ' Cousin 
 Pons,' the title of ' Le Parasite ' shall disappear from 
 'The Human Comedy.' " A longer time than was usual 
 elapsed before the publication of the tale. " La Cousine 
 Bette" had been planned, but had not been written, 
 and it was held to be politic that it should appear the 
 first. Both were to be published in the Constitutionnel ; 
 Balzac thinking very likely, notwithstanding his own 
 opinion of the first-wrought story, that the average reader 
 would recognize more immediately than the pathos in 
 that, the vividly depicted meanness of the Cousine 
 
 7 
 
98 LIFE OF 
 
 Bette, and the almost dreadful power with which the 
 decay of Le Baron Hulot is made visible in a romance 
 in which the attraction of repulsiveness might be relied 
 upon with safety. 1 
 
 It is time to turn to the story itself, from the external 
 circumstances connected with it; and I do not think 
 that Balzac was mistaken in considering that in the 
 "Cousin Pons " he had dealt more sympathetically than 
 ever before with a character on the outside unattractive. 
 Of course the vitality of his art is nowhere more com- 
 pletely shown than by his frequent command of an 
 interest for the ungainly ; when, without having recourse 
 precisely to the pathos which in Painting and Fiction 
 pertains more easily to the very venerable, he attracts 
 us to the seemingly dull, for whom Romance is over, 
 and fascinates us in the fortunes of the more than 
 middle-aged. He has done that over and over again 
 in the rich pages of the " Comedie." L'Abbe Birotteau, 
 and, as Balzac himself reminds us, his brother Cesar 
 in another story ; le Pere Goriot, amidst the strangest 
 combination of squalor and tragedy ; " le bon Monsieur 
 Benassis," in "Le Medecin de Campagne"; Judge 
 Popinot in " L'Interdiction " — these are but a few ex- 
 
 1 It may be of interest to add here, what were the sums which 
 now at the very height of his fame — when he was enjoying "a 
 European vogue," as a correspondent of the Consiitutionnel 
 reminds him, and reputation in France into the bargain — Balzac 
 received for that which was among the ripest and greatest of his 
 work. The newspaper publication of the " Cousine Bette " brought 
 him — to judge by a letter of his own to Madame de Hanska — five 
 hundred and twenty pounds : that of " Le Cousin Pons," not quite 
 four hundred pounds. 
 
BALZAC. 99 
 
 amples of Balzac's power in the sympathetic description 
 of those persons of the drama whom it is the fashion 
 of smaller novelists to use but as foils. I think this 
 power, which Balzac had always at command, Mas never 
 employed more subtly than in " Le Cousin Pons." 
 
 It was employed, too, in "Le Cousin Pons," with 
 infinite variety : employed with hardly less effect in the 
 portraiture of Schmucke, the inseparable companion, 
 than in the portraiture of the elderly leading character. 
 I must tell the story with some measure of detail, or 
 must at least expound or comment on its principal 
 personages. But let it be said, at once, that a part of 
 the value of " Le Cousin Pons " lies in the force with 
 which, all along its pages, Balzac impresses upon us the 
 essential naivete of the true artistic nature, and records 
 its profundity of affection. In a world chiefly Bohemian 
 — in a world at times very Bohemian indeed — this 
 expert in the science of the human heart compels us 
 to recognize the richness and the freshness of the finer 
 qualities of men : courage under disaster, gaiety under 
 annoyance, a capacity for abnegation, the sense of 
 brotherhood. " Le Cousin Pons," indeed, with its 
 pourtrayal of the world of the smaller theatres, does 
 not need to chronicle the abandonment, the luxury, 
 the wretchedness, of the " Splendeurs et Miseres des 
 Courtisanes " ; but it is yet notable that in its dealing 
 with people of free life and a Past that was wild or 
 shady, it never once, after the modern fashion, courts 
 popularity by disproportionate insistence upon the morbid 
 or the vulgar. The finer realism of Balzac directs him, 
 without error, to the human much oftener than the 
 
100 LIFE OF 
 
 bestial. Ignoring no fact — accepting calmly the things 
 that are — affecting no indignation — feeling none — Balzac 
 is yet, with vision and imagination, alive and alert, for 
 the nobler phases of feeling, for the qualities that are 
 exquisite or ideal. Madame Cibot, a Rubens figure, 
 domiciled in the quart ier du Marat's, may, after the 
 adventures of her youth, be an honest housewife; 
 with a thought for money-making, it is true, when 
 money can be made with probity, but with many a 
 thought besides for the well-being of "'mes messieurs''' 
 — the couple of elderly gentlemen whom she and her 
 lord contract to provide for. Topinard, a small 
 employe at a minor play-house, shows kindnesses to 
 the failing — a continuous and energetic devotion, such 
 as our Dickens would have been the promptest 
 to perceive and the first to chronicle. But our 
 Dickens, with his English public — a public, too, of 
 forty years ago, on which the shadow of Puritanism 
 rested more heavily than it rests on the public of 
 To-day — Dickens would scarcely have ventured to be 
 what Balzac has been : the historian alike of Madame 
 Topinard's indiscretions and Madame Topinard's good- 
 ness. 
 
 Furthermore, I know of no story in which there are 
 displayed a greater number of Balzac's characteristics 
 than are shown in "Le Cousin Pons." There is the 
 faultlessness of observation which notes to a nicety every 
 accent of repulsive pride in the newly and the wrongly 
 rich ; every line in the heavy figure of the femme de 
 menage; every transient show of feeling in the expres- 
 sions of a friend. There is Balzac's delighted dealing 
 
 _3 
 
BALZAC. 101 
 
 with accumulations of statistics : the budget of a nation 
 does not interest him more than the income and ex- 
 penditure of a concierge and his wife, and the cost at 
 which a shabby musician may reasonably hope to exist in 
 Paris. Again — and in a proportion which no other story 
 presents — there is opportunity offered, and opportunity 
 seized, for revelling in the description of the precious 
 objects on which Balzac himself set such store. Cousin 
 Pons was a collector. So was Balzac. It is said that 
 many a picture — they were not always authentic pictures 
 — in Balzac's home, took up abode for a while, in his 
 imagination, in the humble apartment of Cousin Pons. 
 Cousin Pons collected laboriously. He collected with 
 economy. A small musician could not compete with a 
 Rothschild. And — sad, yet invigorating necessity, for 
 the impecunious tasteful, for the cultivated poor ! — he 
 " admitted no acquisition that cost more than a hundred 
 francs." Yet the true qualifications for a collector, as 
 Balzac has defined them — " a stag's unwearied legs, an 
 idler's leisure, a Jew's patience," to say nothing of appre- 
 ciation and knowledge — had enabled him to bring to- 
 gether such curiosities and things of beauty as made his 
 rooms a smaller Cluny. And Balzac was never happier 
 than when, in page after page of this novel, he dilated 
 upon the canvasses of Ruysdael and of Hobbema, the 
 furniture of Boule and Gouthiere and Reisener and 
 Jacob, the porcelain of Sevres and of Saxony, Thouvenin's 
 bookbinding. 
 
 Nor, finally, can it be left quite out of the account 
 that even a student of Humanity so impartial as Balzac 
 had here a definite pleasure, a definite quickening of the 
 
102 LIFE OF 
 
 pulse, when the sensations and the temperament of a 
 lover and practitioner of Music had to be described. In 
 another story, in a shorter one — it was in " Gambara " — 
 the dreams of a musician, who was mad and a genius, 
 had been treated sympathetically. A wide range of 
 musical knowledge had been made evident. And all 
 that was then fresh — acclaimed or disputed — in the 
 method of Meyerbeer, had been elaborately analyzed. 
 " Robert le Diable," at all events, received no pro- 
 founder criticism. The gentls Pons— whose heart, 
 after all, was set upon the accumulation of bric-a- 
 brac, more than on a musician's triumphs — may lack 
 the fascination of Paolo Gambara, with his crazy fire. 
 Still, in " Le Cousin Pons," as in the shorter story, 
 every musical allusion is made with sensibility and 
 knowledge; so that in this, as in so many other 
 matters, Balzac is visibly akin to the writer of "Abt 
 Vogler " and of " Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha," and of 
 the parleying with Charles Avison — " whilome of New- 
 castle, organist." In his appreciation of this particular 
 art, Balzac has nothing in common with Theophile 
 Gautier — a lover, like himself, of beautiful colour and 
 line, but one who is said to have considered that a 
 concert of music was exhaustively described when he had 
 succeeded in defining it as " the most expensive noise 
 he knew." * 
 
 But who precisely was this " old musician," this " poor 
 
 1 Again, in "Massimilla Doni," Balzac had occupied himself with 
 Music. Rossini had been in part the theme. "Dans cinq ans 
 ' Massimilla Doni ' sera comprise comtne une belle explication des 
 fins intimes procidcs de Tart" 
 
BALZAC. 103 
 
 relation," and what were his fortunes ? Who was this 
 Cousin Pons, whose story shows pre-eminently the pene- 
 tration of Balzac and his tolerance, his large capacity to 
 forgive the weakest and to sympathize with the best ? The 
 fust description of the man is a masterpiece. Dressed, in 
 i'l), in the costume of more than thirty years earlier, 
 this " glorious debris of the Empire," in a greenish coat, 
 with white metal buttons, and a nut-coloured spencer, was 
 something of an entertainment, was half a laughing- 
 stock, to the idlers of the boulevard, who saw him daily 
 pass. Though sixty years old, and looking more than 
 his years, he walked along habitually with his nose high 
 in the air : very ugly, but sometimes very happy-look- 
 ing — as content with himself, Balzac reminds us — 
 wishing that there shall be no mistake as to the 
 extent of Pons's self-satisfaction — as content with him- 
 self "as a trader who has done a capital stroke of 
 business, or a lover who has this moment left a boudoir." 
 Alas ! this expression was pretty much confined to the 
 hours when Pons had made an acquisition. All the 
 laws of anatomy, we are further told, were set at defiance 
 in his visage. There was a protuberance where there 
 ought to have been a hollow ; and where you expected 
 a bone, you came only upon flesh. Yet somehow the 
 shallowest of the idlers who scoffed, was arrested in his 
 laugh : — "The excessive melancholy that overflowed from 
 the pale eyes, reached the mocker himself, and froze the 
 jest upon his lips. The thought arose — Here was a poor 
 devil to whom Nature had forbidden any expression of 
 affection or Love : since such expression could but make 
 the woman who caused it either laugh or be hurt. A 
 
104 LIFE OF 
 
 Frenchman is silent in the presence of such a misfor- 
 tune. It seems the worst of all fates to him — to be 
 unable to be pleasing ! " The person so smiled 
 at, and so pitied, was, nevertheless, a "grand prix " : 
 the writer of the first cantata the Institute "crowned," 
 after the re-establishment of the French Academy in 
 Rome. It was Monsieur Sylvain Pons — " the author 
 of some famous songs of sentiment our mothers warbled; 
 and of two or three operas, played about 1816 ; and of 
 some later compositions, unheard and unpublished." 
 For, like the fashion of his spencer, Pons's day was past. 
 Pons was out of vogue through no vice of his own, 
 through no especial negligence, at the epoch at which 
 Balzac took up his history. But in the earlier years the 
 seeds of failure had been sown, or the seeds of ultimate 
 success forgotten to be planted. His gift of Melody had 
 been unsupported by a study of Counter-point ; and he 
 who, had he but mastered the more modern orchestra- 
 tion, might have become "not a Rossini," Balzac tells us, 
 " but a Herold," had drifted down, when middle-age was 
 upon him, into a musician whose compositions could 
 only gratify the behind-hand. Now that he was within 
 sight of old age, his name was unknown even at the 
 music-shops. He conducted the orchestra at a minor 
 theatre, of which the Count Popinot — the nephew 
 of the just judge — had been able to bestow the 
 management upon " the illustrious Gaudissard." We 
 are not, however, to withdraw our esteem from Pons 
 because we are obliged to bestow on him our pity. 
 Pons could yet weep, with rapture and a not ignoble 
 envy, when a virtuoso — combing out, like Paganini, 
 
BALZAC. 105 
 
 " the fierce electric sparks " — performed to perfection 
 a difficult thing. Pons is to be respected because 
 he possessed "that which is rare in Paris," "the 
 genius of admiration, of comprehension — the single 
 faculty by which an ordinary man becomes the brother 
 of a poet." Much of this " indefatigable admiration " 
 he bestowed on Music : still more he bestowed on 
 exquisite material things, on the beauty and the splendour 
 of that which the cunning hand had wrought. Again, Pons 
 — like Schmucke, his bosom friend — had his more purely 
 personal qualities. He was gentle; he was modest; he 
 respected himself, and every one with whom he had to 
 do. He was liked, then, at the theatre. " Besides," 
 says Balzac, " in every sphere, a limpid life, a faultless 
 honesty, compel, from even the worst hearts, some 
 measure of regard. In Paris, an unimpeachable virtue 
 has the success of a great diamond. It is such a 
 curiosity." 
 
 Technically, it is a triumph of Art to have placed a 
 character of the simplicity of Pons, not in contrast 
 to, but in recognizable harmony with, a character that 
 is simpler still. Schmucke, the bosom friend — who 
 was given to the leader of the orchestra at an age 
 when, except by genius, fresh friendship has almost 
 ceased to be hoped for — Schmucke is the final ex- 
 pression, in Fiction, of a German's most lovable 
 qualities: the capacity for deep affection; a thorough- 
 ness of devotion ; a philosophical, benevolent accept- 
 ance of Humanity's faults; a spirit of unworldliness; 
 a need of reverie ; the love of one luxury, one orgy, 
 only — an orgy of Music. Pons was attached very 
 
10G LIFE OF 
 
 thoroughly to Schmucke. Schmucke was doubtless 
 indispensable to him ; yet, in Pons's life, Schmucke 
 was not the beginning and the end. There was the 
 beloved collection, the assembled bric-a-brac ; and there 
 were the well-arranged dinners — Pons's one weakness — 
 the faultlessly-ordered dinners which, even when he was 
 by no means actively sought for, Pons partook of, in 
 great houses, whose doors, sometimes relationship, some- 
 times only ancient custom, opened to him. His German 
 friend was not the whole world to the French musician. 
 But, to Schmucke, Pons was all — absolutely. Music 
 itself — the sentiment, the religion of it — could hardly be 
 reckoned as a thing independent of their friendship. 
 Why, it was Music that had brought them together. 
 
 But if no small portion of the art of the story consists 
 in the ability which Balzac gives u> to realize the in- 
 dividuality of natures that are so much alike, sharp 
 contrast is not wanting between these ingenuous souls 
 and the people of the theatre ; between Pons and 
 Schmucke, on the one hand, and the concierge and his 
 world, on the other; between the elderly Bohemians 
 — if one may call them so — with their existence, 
 placid as that of the bourgeois, and people more or 
 less in Society, the Camusots de Marville, Pons's 
 kinsfolk, not even superficially polite to him, grasping 
 and vulgar and pushing, from whom Heaven has with- 
 held not only the grace of sensibility, but the gift of tact. 
 The interest of the story, in its later parts, hangs on the 
 conflict between these wily Camusots de Marville and 
 their agent Fraisier, with the unlessoned Schmucke, 
 over the possession of what the dying Pons had be- 
 
BALZAC. 107 
 
 queathed to his faithful companion — the priceless 
 treasures of Art and of artistic Handicraft, of which the 
 elderly collector, true connoisseur though he was, had 
 not fully understood the money value. 
 
 There is no fitter place than the chapter in which 
 "Le Cousin Pons" is eulogized, for making the 
 inquiry — or at the least for suggesting it — How far are 
 we to trust Balzac on matters of fact, when he talks 
 learnedly — or is it only lovingly and glibly ?— about the 
 things of Art : the different periods of painter or artistic 
 craftsman, the characteristics of a fabric of porcelain ? I 
 think the " realism " of Balzac, in some of these matters, 
 does not go very far. He loved the things genuinely. He 
 was full enough of knowledge about them to be able to 
 make of them — in all his writings on them — an opulent 
 background, as it were ; an atmosphere — like tapestry 
 itself, in a chamber — amongst which, or against which, 
 his breathing men and women move seemingly with 
 added vitality and added dignity. But I would rather 
 hear from Monsieur Edmond de Goncourt than from 
 Balzac, whether Watteau did ever paint a fan for Madame 
 de Pompadour. I do not believe for a moment that he 
 did — though le Cousin Pons possessed the thing. I do 
 not believe that for Boucher's patroness and pupil, 
 Watteau anticipated the discharge of Boucher's function. 
 
 Balzac and Cousin Pons were lovers of beautiful 
 clocks. Pons exchanged, seven times, a good clock for 
 a better one. At last he succeeded in getting a clock 
 " in Boule's first manner " ; for Boule, we are told, " had 
 two manners, as Raphael had three. In the first, he 
 combined copper with ebony j and, in the second — con- 
 
108 LIFE OF BALZAC. 
 
 trary to his own convictions — he acquiesced in tortoise- 
 shell. He accomplished wonders, to outstrip his rivals 
 — those who had been the inventors of the tortoiseshell 
 marquetry." 
 
 Pons talked to his young kinswoman, Cecile de 
 Marville, about Continental porcelains. In the great 
 " Histoire de la Porcelaine," by Jacquemart and Le 
 Plant, I find his appreciation of them discussed, and 
 to some extent condemned. Palzac made Cousin Pons 
 assure the stupid young lady, — -" Pefore fifty years have 
 passed, Frankenthal porcelain, which I have collected 
 for the last twenty years, will be worth twice as much as 
 the pate tendre of Sevres." Again, " Frankenthal is 
 older than our fabric of Sevres." And then, upon the 
 all-important question of "marks," Pons says — after 
 talking of Frankenthal with accuracy — " Vincennes 
 signait avec un cor" and " Berlin a deux barres." But 
 Jacquemart and Le Plant assure us that the " cor " is 
 the mark of Chantilly, and that the signature of Berlin 
 is a sceptre; and that Frankenthal is not so old as 
 Sevres, which dates from 1740, while Frankenthal began 
 only in 1755. They declare, further, that though this 
 fabric of the Palatinate is certainly amongst those which 
 should be represented in a collection, it must be spoken 
 of with less enthusiasm than Balzac imagined. "In 
 form and taste, what Frankenthal produced was— purely 
 German." 
 
 Is it possible for Frenchmen to be more crushing ? 
 Yet, in the prodigality of Cousin Pons's information, 
 even these mistakes may be condoned. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE LATER YEARS. 
 
 IN his later years Balzac sojourned less than he had 
 been accustomed to do in the French provinces. 
 We have seen already that just before he addressed 
 himself to the task of " Les Parents Pauvres " he 
 had been in Italy : not indeed for the first time, for 
 a few years earlier he had spent a spring in Milan. 
 Germany too was visited, or, of necessity, passed 
 through, as Balzac was on the way to pay a visit, that 
 became almost a residence, at Madame de Hanska's, 
 within the borders of Russia. But the greater por- 
 tion of his time was spent in Paris or its neighbour- 
 hood. " Les Jardies," at Ville-d'Avray, had been at no 
 disqualifying distance from the streets, the drawing- 
 rooms, and the theatres ; Passy was yet nearer ; and, 
 later still, Balzac looked down upon the capital from the 
 modest heights of the Rue Fortunee — now the Rue 
 Balzac — which lies between the Champs Elysees, and 
 the top of the Faubourg St. Honore : very near to the 
 Arc de Triomphe. It was in the last-named abode — 
 an altered and enlarged pavilion of the old Hotel 
 
110 LIFE OF 
 
 Beaujon, itself now destroyed : this detached part of it 
 suggesting, pleasantly, the Eighteenth Century, in a 
 modern quarter — that Balzac finally grouped round him 
 earlier possessions with latest acquisitions : the pictures 
 and the bric-a-brac he loved. 
 
 I suppose from the first moment that he occupied the 
 place, or busied himself with preparations to occupy it, he 
 looked forward to its occupation by Madame de Hanska 
 besides. He writes to her, when she is taking the waters 
 at Creuznach : " I have exchanged the little picture 
 that cost fifty francs, and that Chenavard protested 
 was not worth two sous ; getting, in place of it, a 
 delicious sketch of the birth of Louis the Fourteenth — 
 an ' Adoration of the Shepherds ' — the shepherds 
 with their hair dressed in the fashion of the time, 
 and being, in fact, Louis the Thirteenth and his Minis- 
 ters. Come now ! with lapse of years I shall obtain 
 your confidence — at least in matters of bric-a-brac. But 
 you don't realize how I torment myself about such 
 things, nor how seriously my mind takes it when I see 
 that I have here something that is below the mark. 
 Rest in peace, then ; I follow your good counsels — I 
 never buy on the first moment's fancy ; I consult, 
 examine, hesitate." 
 
 A little later, to Georges de Mniszech, who was to be 
 Madame de Hanska's son-in-law, he writes about a 
 portrait by Greuze; and I quote the passage that the 
 reader may do Balzac the justice of realizing how, in 
 critical appreciation of the great French School, he was 
 in advance of his day. " This good old fellow " — it was 
 a certain picture-restorer — "has let me have, for a very 
 
BALZAC. Ill 
 
 little money, and for the love he bears me, a magnifi- 
 cent ' find,' that he lately came upon : a portrait of 
 Greuze's wife, done by Greuze; you may see her in his 
 ' Accordee de Village.' Believe me, until you've ex- 
 amined this thing, you don't know what the French School 
 really is. In a certain direction Rubens, Rembrandt, 
 Raphael, and Titian are not stronger. Life pulses in this 
 flesh ! And there is no work in it — only inspiration." 
 
 Then, having talked about his pictures further, and 
 spoken of himself familiarly under the nickname of 
 "Bilboquet" — Dickens, it will be remembered, had a 
 nickname for himself: "the Inimitable," was it not? — 
 Balzac concentrates his thoughts on the three distant 
 ones who in spirit are always near him. They are 
 Madame de Hanska, and the young people who are 
 dearest to her. And Balzac says, " I pray to God but 
 seldom. Would that I prayed to Him oftener! — for you 
 two, and for that unparalleled mother whom we love." 
 
 I have said before, that Madame de Hanska's husband 
 died in 1S43, an d that the lady did not marry Balzac 
 until March, 1850. She had her children to consider; 
 her estate to guard. A great friendship had already 
 given her much of the best that marriage could afford. 
 On her side there was a certain amount of hesitation 
 to take the final, the irrevocable step. And Balzac — 
 willing at times to travel half across Europe, to have 
 four days in her company : so great a voyager on her 
 account, that Madame de Girardin called him a " vettu- 
 rino per amove " — Balzac himself had his pride in the 
 matter. He was, even now, but slowly emerging from 
 the latest of Ids difficulties. He would owe nothing to 
 
112 LIFE OF 
 
 Madame de Hanska. Yet he must live " splendidly." 
 Joubert-like, il s'i/iquietait de perfection — but, in his case, 
 it was " perfection " in material things as well as in the 
 things of the spirit. His place in the Rue Fortunee 
 must be worthy of its occupants, though no one could 
 have believed more thoroughly than Balzac did in the 
 truth of his own phrase, '•'■Nous ne sommes que par 
 Fame:' » 
 
 The wish for money was, I suspect, one of the reasons 
 why, in these later years, Balzac busied himself with the 
 theatre. A theatrical triumph, then, as now, was nothing 
 less than a fortune. And Balzac wanted a fortune, 
 though he would never have consciously sacrificed to 
 it any quality of his Art. But, as the requirements of 
 the theatre are generally judged, Balzac was by no means 
 specially fitted to satisfy them. The extraordinarily 
 ingenious mechanism of the most adroit of the pure 
 Philistines, Monsieur Scribe — in the " Verre d'Eau," for 
 instance — was not at his command : nor could he follow 
 that dexterous master of theatrical scaffolding in the 
 deliberate erection of a play of five acts, not one of 
 which, even by accident, should come near to literary 
 charm. 2 On the other hand, matter was so much with 
 Balzac — and manner, in comparison with that, so little — 
 
 1 u Notts lie sommes que par rdme," Balzac had written, years 
 before, to one who, somewhat needlessly, was losing courage for life. 
 " Savez-vons si la votre a recu tons ses developpements, si vous respirez 
 Pair par tons vos pores, si tous vos yeux voient ? " 
 
 2 Not near to literary charm : yet a character in Scribe's " Soldat- 
 Laboureur" — Chauvin — gave us the word Chauvinism; and some 
 force, one allows, for his own time at all events, must pertain to the 
 creator of a type. 
 
BALZAC. 113 
 
 ideas surged up in Balzac's mind so affluently— that he 
 was never likely to be able to furnish the mere dainties 
 of expression, the mere refinements of admirable melody 
 and sentimental emotion, which were so much of the 
 stock-in-trade of Alfred de Musset. The fairy lightness 
 of a De Musset provcrbe was beyond him. So, perhaps, 
 was the pure reverie and beauty of the " Nuit d'Octobre": 
 which became possible on the stage only through the art 
 of Favart and Delaunay. No : Balzac at the theatre 
 could be but the old Balzac ; and travelling, somewhat 
 awkwardly, it might be, an unfamiliar road. A writer, 
 whose effects are built up slowly ; a writer, one of whose 
 great weapons is that very opportunity for description 
 which is permitted only to the narrative fable; a profound 
 analyst ; an artist not so much nimble as inconceivably 
 subtle in perception and in method — what wonder that 
 Balzac died without producing a single piece which, as he 
 left it, might be reckoned on to hold the Stage ? He 
 had not fashioned himself for the theatre, as men of 
 genius, or of the highest talent— like Emile Augier, and 
 the younger Dumas — did, afterwards. 
 
 "Vautrin " was played for two nights, in the year 1S40 ; 
 and, owing to an audacious personal imitation by one of 
 its performers, it was then forbidden — it became necessary 
 to withdraw it. " Les Ressources de Quinola " had a 
 stormy reception, at the Odeon, in 1842. " La Maratre " 
 was brought out at the Theatre Historique in 1848. 
 And at the same time Balzac was expecting the pro- 
 duction — first at the Francais, but afterwards elsewhere — 
 of the only play of his which we know at all in England. 
 This was " Le Faiseur " — otherwise " Mercadet." But 
 
 8 
 
114 LIFE OF 
 
 the Frangais refused it. The Theatre Historiqne ac- 
 cepted it, and wanted to alter it— to turn into what 
 Balzac considered "a crude melodrama," that of which 
 the real interest depended on the presence of high 
 comedy. In a shortened and much changed form, it 
 was played, at the Gymnase, just after his death ; and 
 our own generation has seen, with great advantage, 
 Monsieur Got, in French, and Mr. Charles Mathews, in 
 English, in the leading part. 1 The Theatre, which he 
 counted upon as a source of profit, was really to Balzac 
 hardly anything but a source of worry. Yet he never 
 could quite contentedly let it alone. One of his latest 
 acts was to plan "Le Roi des Mendiants," with a part 
 for Frederick Lemaitre. 
 
 Two absences in Russia — only the second of which 
 was ended by his return with Madame de Hanska as 
 his wife — told a good deal against the execution of 
 his literary projects. He could have written there in 
 tranquillity — and, so far, things would have been well — 
 but, beyond the lady of whom he never tired, and 
 an extremely intelligent doctor, there was scarcely a 
 soul to talk to ; and, moreover, at least upon his 
 second very long visit, Balzac was out of spirits at the 
 obstacles that still presented themselves to delay his 
 marriage. Now the Czar refused permission. Now there 
 was the question of money. Now a certain amount of 
 jealousy had declared itself on the part of his venerable 
 mother, living in these days at Suresnes, chiefly on an 
 
 1 The English version called " A Game of Speculation," is by 
 George Henry Lewes. In it, as Mathews performed it, the dis- 
 secting knife certainly entertained, even while it probed. 
 
BALZAC. 115 
 
 allowance which he made her. She had, of late years, 
 administered his affairs, to some extent, in his absences. 
 She, who had been disposed to be very dictatorial in his 
 youth, was at present carrying out his behests with fidelity, 
 if not at all times with tact. And she did not like to be 
 interfered with ; and at Vierzschovnia her sentiment was 
 well understood. Again, Balzac was, in feeling, a sufferer 
 by the losses which, about the time of the upsetting of the 
 Government of Louis Philippe, his brother-in-law, Mon- 
 sieur Surville, sustained. The long-beloved " Laure " 
 and her children, now almost young women, were obliged 
 to retrench. "The strictly necessary," Balzac w r rites to 
 his sister, "is all we can allow ourselves in critical times." 
 And he maintains that though the alterations in the Rue 
 Fortunee must still be carried out, his personal expenses 
 are slight. 
 
 At last, however, these various difficulties in the way 
 of Balzac's marrying Madame de Hanska were overcome. 
 In France, things were going to be better, though they 
 would be better but slowly : — " Louis Napoleon is cer- 
 tainly a rope on which we hoist ourselves out of the 
 gutter of the Republic." And, on the 15th of March, 
 1S50, Balzac wrote to his mother : — "Thank God, yester- 
 day, at seven o'clock, my marriage was celebrated in the 
 church of Sainte-Barbe de Berditchef, and benediction 
 given by a priest deputed by the Bishop of Jitomir. Mon- 
 siegneur would have liked to perform the service himself, 
 but, as that was impossible, he sent the Abbe* Czarouski, 
 the oldest of the glories of the Polish Catholic Clergy. 
 . . . We are now two to thank you for the care you have 
 bestowed on our house — two to prove our affection for 
 
116 LIFE OF 
 
 you. ... I must repeat, never spare cab-hire when you 
 run about Paris upon our affairs. ... I hope your health 
 is excellent." 
 
 Balzac's own health, however, was far from excellent. 
 It was bad, and had been bad for a year or two. The 
 excessive labours which, for a whole generation, he had 
 undergone ; the strain of production, in which he had 
 been wont to be supported only by excitement and by 
 coffee ; the vigils ; the sedentary existence ; last of all, 
 it is conjectured, the particular effort which it had cost 
 him to write "La Cousine Bette " within narrow limits 
 of time — these things had at length broken down his 
 splendid strength. For "a simple hypertrophy of the 
 heart" he had been treated in Russia ; and, "had Frede- 
 ric Soulie had my doctor and my treatment he would 
 have been alive now." For the time, the evil seemed to 
 have been remedied. It was, nevertheless, the beginning 
 of the end. Yet Balzac was accustomed to be sanguine. 
 He often looked forward happily. "This marriage," he 
 wrote to Madame Zulma Carraud, "is, I think, the 
 recompense Heaven gives me for so much adversity 
 so many years of labour, so many difficulties encoun- 
 tered and overcome." Again, however, the thought is 
 forced upon us : In the very consciousness — so charac- 
 teristic of him — of all these difficulties, of all these 
 labours, of the price he had paid for becoming the 
 artist that he was, is there not to be discerned a fore- 
 warning of the end, a note of the imminent tragedy? 
 
 A few weeks after he was married — almost before 
 the passports had been prepared and the last trunks 
 packed — Balzac's health was again upset. "It is 
 
BALZAC. 117 
 
 some return of that affection of the heart : the chest, 
 too. We have been losing ground unquestionably. 
 The twelve days I am still to stay here the doctor 
 will employ in making me more fit to stand the 
 journey." A fortnight later he had not yet started. 
 " I can hardly write to you," he says to his mother, 
 " through an affection of the eyes. It comes in part 
 from the treatment I have had to follow. The doctor 
 is in no way alarmed." Before the middle of May they 
 had got as far as Dresden, from which city the editor 
 of the Constitution/id, Louis Veron, was invited to 
 " excuse this scrawl." " I have a nervous affection," 
 Balzac says, "which shows itself in the eyes and in the 
 heart." 
 
 About the end of the month, Balzac reached Paris ; 
 and the last letter preserved for us in his " Corre- 
 spondance " is one that he did not pen, but dictated : 
 Madame de Balzac being his secretary. It was written, 
 about the middle of June, to Theophile Gautier, who 
 had alwa}S been faithful to him : a praiser and still a 
 critic of his work, a friend interested in his health and 
 his concerns. "To-day I have shaken off a bronchial 
 cold : to-morrow they will be able to attack the malady 
 that is somewhat disquieting — though I hope to be cured 
 of it. The heart is really its seat." Then, scrawled by 
 his own hand, are six or seven words : — " I can neither 
 read nor write." His walking powers failed him. Arse 
 Houssaye — with whom he wanted to confer about a 
 possible revival of "Les Ressources de Quinola" at 
 the Theatre Fran^ais — has given a pitiable account of 
 his condition, and has furnished a highly-coloured, but 
 
118 LIFE OF 
 
 I do not say in the main an unveracious, narrative of 
 how Balzac extracted from his doctor a plain, unvar- 
 nished opinion of what were his prospects. Had he 
 six months — he put it to the doctor — in which to make 
 his preparations ? "A man such as myself owes a testa- 
 ment to the public." Whatever were the preparations, 
 whatever the testament, "To-day," Balzac was told, was 
 the day to begin them. 
 
 To Victor Hugo — before whose candidature for the 
 French Academy, Balzac, on one of the two occasions 
 on which he had presented himself, had had the 
 courtesy, the graciousness, the superfluous modesty, to 
 retire — to Victor Hugo, with whom his relations were 
 ever of the kind which should subsist between excep- 
 tional persons, great geniuses who fill no ordinary place, 
 but trail like comets across the literary sky — to Victor 
 Hugo did it fall to give, in his " Choses Vues," the 
 most vivid description of the circumstances of Balzac's 
 death. I must not be stinting of quotation : — 
 
 "On the 18th of August, 1S50," Hugo writes, "my wife, who 
 had been to see Madame de Balzac during the day, said to me, 
 ' Balzac is dying.' I made haste. . . . After the Revolution of 
 February, he had gone to Russia, and had married there. Some 
 days before his departure I had met him on the Boulevard. lie was 
 complaining at the time, and he seemed to breathe hurriedly. In 
 May, 1850, he came back to France, married, rich, and dying. His 
 legs were already swollen. Four doctors examined him. 1 One of 
 them, Monsieur Louis, said to me, on the 6th of July, ' He hasn't six 
 
 1 The reader will remember, in reading this, and will recall almost 
 as a prophecy, the account of the examination and consultation by 
 the various doctors in the " Peau de Chagrin." 
 
BALZAC. 119 
 
 weeks to live.' . . . Having left the table, then, I took a carriage to 
 the Rue Fortunee, No. 14. Of what remained of Monsieur de 
 Beaujon's hotel, Balzac had made a charming residence, furnished 
 magnificently. For all garden it had a long but narrow court, all 
 pathway and flower-borders." 
 
 It was a moonlight night, Victor Hugo says. The street 
 was deserted. There was no answer to his first ringing 
 of the house-bell. Then, at the second ring, a woman, 
 weeping — "Que veut Monsieur ?" Hugo was shown 
 into a salon on the ground-floor. Opposite the mantel- 
 piece was the colossal marble bust of Balzac, by David 
 d'Angers. "Another woman" presently appeared, and 
 with the words, "// se mcurt. Madame est reutree chez 
 elle." Then, being questioned, "The doctors gave him 
 up yesterday. He has a wound in the left leg. La 
 gangrene y esl. He passed a bad night, and this 
 morning, by nine o'clock, he was unable to speak." 
 Madame de Balzac had sent out for a priest. The priest 
 had arrived. He had administered the sacrament. 
 11 \nd Monsieur made a sign to let us know that he 
 had understood. An hour afterwards he took his 
 sister's hand." 
 
 "The woman left me. The candle scarcely illumined the magni- 
 ficent Pourbus, the magnificent Holbein, on the walls. The bust 
 of marble was like the ghost of the man who was to die. Une 
 odeur de cadavrt tmplissait la maison. Monsieur Surville entered, 
 and confirmed what the woman had said. I asked to see Monsieur 
 de Balzac. We crossed a corridor and mounted a staircase crowded 
 with vases, statues, and enamels. Another corridor — I saw a door 
 that was open. I heard a sinister noise — a rough and loud breath- 
 ing. I was in Balzac's bed-chamber. The bed was in the middle 
 of the room : Balza;, supported on it, as best he might be, by 
 
120 LIFE OF 
 
 pillows and by cushions taken from the sofa. I saw his profile, 
 which was like that of Napoleon. An old sick-nurse and a servant 
 of the house stood one on either side the bed. I lifted the counter- 
 pane, and took the hand of Balzac. The nurse said to me, * He 
 will die about dawn.' I came downstairs again: bearing away with 
 me the memory of that livid face." 
 
 When Hugo reached his home, several visitors were 
 waiting to pay their respects to him. He was full of what 
 he had just seen, and he says that he told his visitors, 
 " Europe is on the point of losing a great mind." 
 
 Balzac died in the night. 
 
 On the Wednesday — two days afterwards— they buried 
 him. The service was at St. Philippe du Roule, already 
 perhaps what it was in the Second Empire — the fashion- 
 able church of the Faubourg St. Honore. The Minister 
 of the Interior, Baroche, sat very near to Victor Hugo, 
 during the service. They spoke several times. "And 
 Baroche said to me, ' He was a distinguished man.' I 
 said to Baroche, ' He was a genius.' We went, all of us, 
 to Pere-la-Chaise, on foot. Alexandre Dumas was by 
 me. The grave was near Charles Nodier's, near Casimir 
 Delavigne's. The priest said the last prayer, and I 
 uttered a few words. The sun was sinking while I spoke. 
 All Paris appeared before my eyes in the distance— in 
 the splendid mist of the sunset." 
 
 The words he spoke — recorded elsewhere, and not in 
 the "Choses Vues" — were eloquent, of course, and gene- 
 rous ; admirable in intention, though at bottom some of 
 them were slight, and some with a parti-pris. Still, on 
 the whole, the orator fitted himself to the occasion. 
 Victor Hugo paid his tribute to the "splendid and 
 
BALZAC. 121 
 
 sovereign intelligence" — to the work by which "Tacitus 
 was recalled, and Suetonius, and Beaumarchais, and 
 Rabelais" — the work which, for all its realism, "discloses 
 suddenly, at times, the most sombre and tragic ideal." 
 Then, characteristically, he went on to claim that Balzac, 
 spite of himself, " was of the strong race of Revolutionary 
 writers. He tears something from every one — from one 
 an illusion, from another a hope; a cry from these, 
 and from those a mask." Again, "He digs into and 
 sounds the depths of the abyss which each man is ; and 
 from these alarming studies, which made Moliere melan- 
 choly, and Rousseau misanthropic, Balzac arises, able to 
 be serene and to smile." Finally : — 
 
 " His death has smitten Paris. Some months ago he came back 
 into France. Feeling that he was dying, he wished to see again 
 his native land — as, on the eve of a long journey, one goes to one's 
 mother, to kiss her. Sometimes, in the presence of the dead — when 
 the dead are illustrious — one feels, with especial distinctness, the 
 heavenly destiny of that Intelligence which is called Man. It 
 s over the Earth to suffer and be purified." 
 
 And so, at fifty-one years old, Balzac died; after a 
 working-life not so long as Shakespeare's, and only half as 
 long as Goethe's. It was an existence, as we have seen, 
 not empty of experience, and, as we have seen, too, 
 full, to the very brim, of labour. That happiness in 
 marriage came to him so late, will to some appear a 
 misfortune. Its extreme brevity must, in any case, be 
 pathetic. 
 
 But if Balzac had married young, it is evident that he 
 could not have married Madame de Hanska, with her 
 range of sympathies, or Madame de Berny, with her faculty 
 
122 LIFE OF 
 
 for admonition and restraint, or the Duchesse de Castries, 
 with what was to him her charm. He would in all likeli- 
 hood have married somebody who was at best a bourgeoise. 
 And would he, any more than Goethe — great souls, both 
 of them, of whom, in a certain sense and measure, 
 Emerson's saying is true : " To the progressive soul, 
 loves and friendships are momentary " — would he have 
 been happy with a bourgeoise? Consider Balzac, for a 
 moment, as husband and ratepayer ! \\ doubt if he 
 possessed sufficient capacity for those "responsibilities 
 of married life" which the English curate — and who 
 shall blame him for it ? — takes upon himself so cheer- 
 fully, and which, in the quite conventional acceptation 
 of the things in which they consist, the average haber- 
 dasher discharges very welTj Yet if, in married life, it 
 may be any advantage to have a generous comprehension 
 of a nature other than your own — if it may count for 
 anything to appreciate, even to idealization, the charm 
 of the woman or the freshness of the child — if, further, 
 there be any virtue in being, in companionship, a mental 
 nourishment, a stimulus to the spirit — then it is possible 
 that Balzac would not have lagged irretrievably behind 
 the tradesman of the provinces, or the divine of the 
 suburb. 
 
 A dubious passage, in a book distinguished on the 
 whole by enlightenment and frankness — Mr. Lewes's 
 " Life of Goethe " — blames, by implication, the one great 
 genius of German Literature, because he did not marry 
 Erederika. I have sometimes wondered whether those 
 phrases of propriety conveyed the true mind of Mr. 
 Lewes on the matter, or, whether they were especially 
 
BALZAC. 123 
 
 addressed to a public likely to appreciate them. In 
 neither case can I follow Mr. Lewes's example, and 
 moralize beneficially, because Honore de Balzac did not 
 marry whatever pleasant little bourgeois?, of the early 
 unrecorded days, represented Frederika to him. Had 
 he done so, would the " Comedie Humaine : ' ever have 
 been written? — would the world ever have been endowe 1 
 with the work which this profound and tolerant observer, 
 with his unremitting artistry, had it in him to give ? It 
 might have been. But that would have been a question 
 for the pleasant little bourgeoises decision. It would 
 have been taken — in some measure, at least — out of 
 Balzac's hands. 1 
 
 How deep was Balzac's enjoyment of the woman who 
 was his friend for years — from " Neuchatel, 1833 " — the 
 words he ordered to be engraved upon a piece of gold- 
 smith's work that he wanted to offer her — from "Neuchatel, 
 1833,'' to the last days in Paris — has been already set 
 forth. " She has," he wrote once, " the effect upon the 
 spirit, that Nice and Naples have upon the frame." 2 And 
 as time went on, he took her daughter easily within the 
 range of his sympathies. From Russia, about a year 
 before his marriage, he had written to his nieces — Madame 
 Surville's children — a delightful note, descriptive of this 
 girl. Some of it might have been put into a story : with 
 hardly a word altered. She was then a bride, "the 
 
 1 Hard, after ail — is it not ? — to make Frederika one's illustration ! 
 
 one feels so much the charm of her temperament — that in that 
 there might have been safety. 
 
 2 The simile was a faulty one, as Naples gives a fever, and Xice 
 excites, rather than calms. But it was well meant. 
 
124 LIFE OF 
 
 has a genius for Music, as she has an immense love of 
 it. Her hands are a child's hands : imperceptible, fluid, 
 white — three of them could be held within mine — yet 
 these hands, on the piano, have a touch of iron. They 
 remind one of Liszt. Music, her mother, her husband — 
 there, in three words, is. her character." And he added, 
 very appreciatively, that, as to her physique, she had 
 "grace," a nose "prettily drawn," a figure " supple and 
 slight," and that all these good things were made the 
 most of by a certain pride, " that has Race in it ; a certain 
 easy air of grandeur, lacking to some Queens." " That 
 eternal distinction — cet air grande dame — is one of the 
 most precious gifts that God — the God of women— can 
 by any possibility bestow." 
 
 It is well that Balzac, loving and admiring, each in her 
 own way, this mother and this girl, never lived to see 
 the misfortunes of their later days. The grievous tale 
 must be told, though briefly. For a quarter of a 
 century after Balzac's death, his widow and his step- 
 daughter and the younger woman's husband lived chiefly 
 in the Parisian house, whose interior the great writer 
 had to some extent fashioned, and which he had last 
 inhabited. Madame de Balzac fondly and piously pre- 
 served, in the condition they were in when he died, the 
 three rooms which had been her husband's. They were 
 for ever to remain untouched. Even the alterations and 
 enlargements which were planned and begun nearly 
 thirty years after his death — when the family were living 
 at the Chateau de Beauregard, at Villeneuve-Saint- 
 Georges — were in no wise to affect the chambers he 
 had frequented the most. But the son-in-law, the 
 
BALZAC. 125 
 
 Comtc Mniszech, died in i88r, after several years of 
 ill-health and of mental deterioration ; and all that 
 period seems to have been a time when both mother 
 and daughter were lacking not alone in wisdom, but 
 in average common-sense. They are believed to have 
 bought things lavishly — things that nobody wanted — and 
 to have sold them again, one after the other, for very 
 nearly nothing. Exactly how they managed to get 
 through the fortune which had certainly been theirs, 
 it is not easy to understand ; but, " in virtue of an 
 order of the President of the Civil Tribunal of Cor- 
 beil, dated February 9th, 1882," the country house — 
 the Chateau de Beauregard — with all its furniture and 
 pictures, was sold by auction. Other pxture-sales had 
 taken place, under the shelter of the anonymous, at 
 the Hotel des Ventes. 
 
 On the 10th of April, Madame de Balzac died. "By 
 order of justice," her remaining effects — amongst them, 
 Balzac's library, the Boule cabinets, some of his 
 manuscripts, the proofs which he had corrected so 
 continually that they had more than the interest of 
 the first drafts of his stories — were sold without delay. 
 The manuscript of "Eugenie Grandet" was amongst 
 these things. It had been given by its writer to 
 Evelina de Hanska, "the 24th December, 1833 "; three 
 months only after he had first seen her. 
 
 A worse thing happened than the actual sale. For 
 a day before the house in the Rue Balzac — the Rue 
 Fortunce of old — was handed over to its new possessor, 
 Madame Salamon de Rothschild, it had been exposed to 
 the curiosity and the greed of a swarm of neighbours. 
 
12G LIFE OF BALZAC. 
 
 Afterwards, from little tradespeople of the quarter, this 
 and that manuscript, which had been hurriedly "con- 
 veyed," were with difficulty recovered. But, to avoid 
 what seemed an inevitable scattering upon the fatal 
 day, there had already been a bonfire. The place was, 
 as it were, wrecked. And the Countess Mniszech, living 
 afterwards, lonely and poor— and, I fear, discredited 
 besides — in a Parisian lodging-house — was a wreck her- 
 self : a derelict indeed— stranded after storm that had 
 followed sunshine. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BALZAC. 
 
 A FEW days after the death of the author of the 
 " Human Comedy,'' Sainte-Beuve •wrote, in the 
 Co7istitutionnel) upon "Monsieur de Balzac," a "causerie" 
 not unworthy of its place in a series distinguished for 
 lucidity and breadth. The time had not come, Sainte- 
 Beuve properly said, for a final analysis of the novelist's 
 mind and talent. Such a dissection is not to be con- 
 ducted " on a newly made tomb," and least of all, as 
 the calm critic recognized, when death had touched one 
 who was yet " full of force and fertility," " full, seem- 
 ingly, of works and of days." Sainte-Beuve's estimate 
 of Balzac's condition was true enough in spirit, though 
 it lacked literal accuracy. Balzac was but in middle age 
 when the summons came to him ; and he had not put 
 forth a line which could suggest that the eye of the 
 mind was dim or the natural force abated. His latest 
 works, " Le Cousin Pons," " La Cousine Bette," are 
 colossal monuments of intellectual strength, of nervous 
 stability. But for nearly three years before his death, 
 
128 LIFE OF 
 
 Balzac had written what was for him almost nothing. 1 
 He had waited and planned, and he had lived, as 
 to material things, on the product of a surely in- 
 creasing fame, and, as to the things of the spirit, on 
 the hope of a happiness which was to be — well, we 
 have seen how short ! Meanwhile, he had suffered 
 in health. The climate of North-Eastern Europe was 
 cruel to an organization that could flourish in the 
 vivacious air of Paris and in the mellow sunshine 
 of Touraine. Furthermore, Balzac had crowded into 
 less than thirty working-years the achievements of a 
 quite uncountable number of ordinary lives. He was 
 old while he was young. Still, Sainte-Beuve did well 
 to recollect and to chronicle what seemed to him the 
 force and the abiding fertility. An inexhaustible genius 
 permitted Balzac still to be young, when he was physic- 
 ally old. 
 
 But Sainte-Beuve would never have used, of Balzac, 
 the phrase I have just allowed myself, and which, 
 however the matter may have stood in Balzac's life- 
 time, does not seem exaggerated to the judgment of 
 to-day — "inexhaustible genius." Sainte-Beuve, when 
 occupied no longer with a dead man's claims to 
 generosity — when guided no more by the nil nisi 
 bonum of the mourner, but again by the nil nisi 
 vcrum of the critic— Sainte-Beuve was satisfied with 
 a more limited eulogy. "The talent that has ceased 
 to be": "the vigorous talent." But it is "talent" 
 always — nothing more — and, accordingly, comparisons 
 
 1 " Le Depute d'Arcis," the second episode of " L'Envers de 
 1'IIistoire Contemporaine," and " La Maratre." 
 
BALZAC. 129 
 
 with contemporaries are made with ease and naturalness, 
 which would now appear to be absurd. Sometimes they 
 are in Balzac's favour : " Of these last three — of Dumas, 
 Eugene Sue, and Balzac — it was Balzac who dug the 
 deepest." But that the comparison should be gravely 
 made, that it should be instituted at all, carries us back 
 to the generation Balzac's had succeeded — to the days 
 when patriotic Germany was capable of thinking that 
 Schiller — because he expressed the people's aspiration, 
 and was in some sense its voice — was for all time 
 Goethe's equal. 1 
 
 Sainte-Beuve, notwithstanding his reasonable un- 
 willingness to ask of any nature more or different 
 fruit than that nature can give — Sainte-Beuve, for all 
 his resolution to accept from Balzac, without cavil, 
 " the rich and complicated legacy he has bequeathed " 
 — would never have been capable of seeing in Balzac 
 what Madame Sand saw plainly. Balzac, for Monsieur 
 de Sainte-Beuve, had observed, with accuracy, three 
 periods of French Society — he had painted the bel/es of 
 the Empire, the great ladies of the Restoration, the 
 bourgeois of the July Monarchy. And "Eugenie Grandet" 
 would live. And men would smile at the Birotteaus, 
 and laugh at Gaudissart, and recognize that in the 
 Marneffes and in Cousine Bette exhaustive analysis had 
 been made of the lees of Humanity's cup. But it was 
 charged against the creator of these people that he was 
 prone to exaggeration. To compete with his brother 
 
 1 Sainte-Beuve, of course, had had to make some effort, to be just 
 at all. To say the least, no love had ever been lost between the 
 novelist and the critic. 
 
130 LIFE OF 
 
 professors of a Literature that was "devouring and 
 inflammatory," he had put upon his palette colours 
 garish and unreal — he had adopted a diapason that 
 was unnaturally high. He was — I know that I am 
 casting Sainte-Beuve's suave thought into the harshest 
 form that can express it — he was a novelist to catch the 
 public. Madame George Sand saw, on the other hand, 
 that for Balzac "the novel was but the frame and the 
 pretext for an almost universal examination of ideas, 
 sentiments, trades, arts, localities." In those words 
 she stated that conclusion. Sainte-Beuve perceived 
 that at all events Balzac was studying Society. Madame 
 Sand knew that, by whatever means, it was Humanity 
 that he was studying — the Human Nature of every time. 
 And his grasp of that was as wide as it was firm. In 
 his work, which appeared to her as to its mere setting, 
 "un ensemble de r'ecits tres simples," a. "/adulation pen 
 compliquee" there was character without end. And she 
 was poet enough to perceive that he too had the " besoin 
 du poete," which is, to seek a something that is ideal in 
 every theme to be treated. 1 
 
 The ideal of many novelists— when they are poetically- 
 minded at all— is sought in the treatment of their 
 heroines. But in regard to the "juvenile heroine," the 
 Frenchman is at a great disadvantage— it is unlikely 
 that he has any acquaintance with her. Unless he 
 
 1 This, perhaps, is a place in which it may be fitting that I should 
 give a list of certain stories of Balzac's, which even the least 
 audacious can read without fear. And this list shall include 
 " La Maison du Chat-qui-pelote," " Eugenie Grandet," " Ursule 
 Mirouet," "Pierrette," " L'Interdiction," " Le Cure de Tours," 
 "Cesar Birotteau," and "La Messe de l'Athee." 
 
BALZAC. 131 
 
 belongs to a particular set, just now, in Paris — a small, 
 "advanced," rebellious one, which takes its tone from 
 England, or America, to-day — he is left to his imagina- 
 tion alone. The larger part of Balzac's work was done 
 while his young nieces were still children. I suppose 
 some of his friends had grown-up daughters ; but we hear 
 nothing about them. Never, we may be sure, was the 
 author of "Eugenie Grandet " more of a "i>oyant" than 
 when he was depicting the ingenue. An open door and 
 a few words heard in passing it — a glance upon the road, 
 or the French contralto voice, serene and consolatory, 
 breaking the silence of a garden — these were the chances, 
 this was the material, which Balzac had to use. In his 
 portraiture of girlhood then, he had the tact to be 
 reticent. Generally, his quite young woman, of regular 
 life and of discreet up-bringing, is more or less a back- 
 ground figure. But she is a creation, for all that ; and, 
 in every act that she performs, or word she speaks, you 
 feel it was a poet who made her. " To depict many 
 virgins," said Balzac himself, " what is wanted is —   
 Raphael." His own maidens, in their best maidenhood, 
 are Raphaels indeed ; and, very often, early ones. 
 There is Eve Chardon ; there is Pierrette Lorain. The 
 spirit of the Madonna del Gran' Duca shines somewhat out 
 of Eugenie Grandet ; and in the " Peau de Chagrin," 
 Pauline, not virgin to the end, glows with the Madonna 
 di San Sisto's warmth. 
 
 But, however exquisite may be Balzac's selection of 
 types, and however beautiful and significant his work, the 
 conditions of French life, and the obligation of remember- 
 ing them, limit him continually — as I have already implied 
 
132 LIFE OF 
 
 — in his portraiture of girlhood. Balzac had not Mr. 
 Hardy's chance : he was forbidden Mr. Hardy's achieve- 
 ment — the putting into motion, with a dexterity un- 
 paralleled in our time, of a whole procession of young 
 women who engage the imagination of the reader ; who 
 urge him to a terrible inconstancy — sc that when he has 
 thought himself devoted to Bathsheba, he "suffers love" 
 for Fancy Day, and just when it is clear to him that 
 Elfride is the choice of his maturest wisdom, he is claimed 
 and diverted by the magnetic presence of Eustacia Vye. 
 The true French ingenue has her qualities. Balzac 
 has made the most of them. She is capable of abnega- 
 tion. She has suavity and attractiveness. She is sound in 
 the depths. But, superficially at least, she is a little want- 
 ing in variety. Instead of a character with any likeness 
 to the being whom Lord Tennyson has prettily enough 
 described as " a rose-bud, set with little wilful thorns " 
 — the type, the cynic informs me, is fast going out — 
 what she offers for the literary artist's study is a graceful 
 young person whose conversation is practically confined 
 to a " Oui, madame; " "Je vous remercie, monsieur ;" " O / 
 madame, vous etes Men aif/iable ! " Voyant though he was, 
 Balzac felt the need of other models than this one. 
 Hence, there was the work-girl (even English novelists 
 of the Society of to-day "are perceiving that a young 
 woman who can earn a livelihood is presumably as 
 interesting as a young woman who needs must sit in 
 her father's drawing-room until somebody else invites 
 her to sit in his, instead). Hence, too, Esther Gobseck 
 and Coralie. Hence, the good-natured, but scarcely well- 
 behaved, young ladies, for whom Gambara's wife did 
 
BALZAC. 133 
 
 dress-making. Hence, most of all, the type of heroine 
 with whose invention Balzac is credited : the married 
 woman of the world ; " lafemme de trente ans." 
 
 Sainte-Beuve does not contest, for a moment, Balzac's 
 supremacy, or Balzac's sufficiency, here. "Who," he 
 asks, " rendered more deliciously than he, the duchesses 
 and viscountesses of the end of the Restoration — those 
 women of thirty, who, already on the stage, awaited 
 their painter with a vague anxiety, so that when he and 
 they stood face to face there was a certain electric 
 movement of recognition." The reference is, of course, 
 to the success, both personal and literary, which Balzac 
 had with these mature and experienced people. But 
 may I dare to say that the statement appears to be 
 exaggerated, or else that we are in danger of drawing 
 from the statement an inference which the truth of the 
 matter would hardly justify ? No doubt, with " the woman 
 of thirty," the portraiture was remarkable. No doubt too, 
 that while it was extremely recognizable, there was in it 
 the measured flattery, the artistic idealization, the " mix- 
 ture of a lie," in Bacon's phrase, " which doth ever add 
 pleasure." But for my own part I think that with his 
 woman of thirty, however effectively she may appear to 
 sum up within herself the characteristic grace of the 
 Parisienne of her day — with her tact, her social and 
 political influence, her importance in the salon, the 
 over-stimulated and slightly morbid imagination of her 
 private hours — Balzac is yet less splendidly true to 
 Humanity's broader lines than when he paints the quiet 
 self-sacrifice of Eugenie Grander, or PI- re Goriot's pas- 
 sion of fatherhood. 
 
134 LIFE OF 
 
 Mr. Henry James assures us, "Women are the key- 
 stone of the ' Comedie Humaine.' If the men were taken 
 out, there would be great gaps and fissures ; if the 
 women were taken out, the whole fabric would collapse." 
 Again, a strong way, an over-strong way, of putting the 
 fact ; for I have myself, in this brief study, had occasion 
 to discuss more than one story in which it is the 
 character of the man that is the absorbing interest — in 
 which, among the dramatis personce, a man is unques- 
 tionably the chief. But our quarrel with Mr. James has 
 no reason to go far. The matter is capable of easy ex- 
 planation. We shall be with him to this point : we shall 
 admit that while no idealization, no exaggeration, can 
 deprive Balzac's women of their reality and individuality, 
 his men are apt to be failures when they are not quite 
 successes. His important politicians are a little stilted ; 
 his men of blood and breeding are sometimes too 
 conscious of their place. His youths are rarely suffered 
 to charm us — egoists and dandies, " dudes " and " chap- 
 pies " of the period, and we are not perfectly sure that 
 their author is always aware of it. D'Arthez, the impor- 
 tant poet — said to have been drawn with a thought of 
 Balzac's self — and Bianchon, the young man of science, 
 whom we meet so often— who walks through the pages 
 of the " Human Comedy," as in life he must have walked, 
 upon professional rounds, through every street of Paris 
 — and David Sechard, at Angouleme, in the simplicity 
 of his work-a-day existence — these men are successes. 1 
 
 1 D'Arthez — an example, Balzac claims, " de V accord (Tun beau 
 talent et d'un beau caractere " — is at his best in " Illusions Perdues." 
 In " Les Secrets de la Princesse de Cadignan " his relations with 
 Diane de Maufrigneuse are a little inexplicable. 
 
BALZAC. 135 
 
 The other successes are apt to be with the arch-scoun- 
 drel, or with the man of advancing years, and poverty, 
 and trouble. Here, an intense ingenuity ; there, a 
 convincing pathos. 1 
 
 Next, perhaps, to the truth and to the variety bestowed 
 by Balzac on his characters, we are to note with what 
 extraordinary "closeness of web " his work was executed. 
 How marvellously small is the proportion of conversation 
 to description and narrative, in his novels ! Amongst 
 Balzac's contemporaries, Hugo and George Sand were 
 the most " literary " — amongst those, I mean, who had 
 an individual and an important vision of Life, and did not 
 busy themselves exclusively with the technical problems 
 of Expression. They were — amongst the great in France 
 — the most literary and the most lasting. That must be 
 allowed, even by those of us who do not wish to 
 underrate, for a moment, Th^ophile Gautier, Alfred 
 de Musset, and Charles Nodier. Well, in closeness 
 of web, Balzac surpassed Hugo, just as much as in 
 truth and variety of character -painting he surpassed 
 George Sand. George Sand's figures are, as portraits, 
 uncertain in outline, and in detail scanty. And, as 
 regards the general closeness of the literary structure, 
 a labour fruitful and serviceable — such as Victor Hugo 
 never wotted of — was Balzac's habitual task. The 
 
 1 Nor must we be very hard on Balzac for his comparative 
 failure to make the young men interesting — for the inadequacy 
 of his effort on the rare occasions on which he elects that they shall 
 occupy the prominent place. For — dare one whisper ? — the place 
 accorded to them in English Romance, through " the domestication 
 of the Novel," as Mr. George Moore calls it, is, after all, scarcely 
 the place that young men fill in Life, and the world's business. 
 
136 LIFE OF 
 
 labour would never have been undertaken, the results 
 of it would never have been achieved, had the Muse 
 that prompted Balzac been as affluent as Victor Hugo's 
 — a mountain river in the strength and impulse of its 
 stream. 
 
 Balzac's vision of life is, habitually, direct and veracious. 
 But his realism admits of Poetry — without it, could he be 
 veracious at all? And now the Poetry is in the general 
 conception, and now it is in the detached thought. But, 
 whether Balzac's mood — the essential mood for the 
 particular work — be prosaic or poetic, firmly realistic or 
 just as unerringly imaginative, we shall find him in the 
 centre of things. He sits in no corner of his own, with 
 pet theories. He is a great artist : not an earnest gos- 
 peller, sallying forth from Bergen with his mission of a 
 province and a day. I cannot fancy Ibsen recommending 
 himself hugely to the author of "The Human Comedy." 
 I cannot fancy him summoned, by that great and deep 
 intelligence, to quit, with his imperfect art, on a super- 
 fluous errand, his humble, comfortable place. Tolstoi, 
 no doubt, would have had a better chance. Balzac must 
 have recognized, in Tolstoi, a larger vision of the actual 
 world — a capacity that, even from the busy Criticism of 
 the West, asks serious attention. Are we, in an oblique 
 method, criticizing Balzac himself, by suggesting what 
 might be his opinion on some of our contemporaries ? Let 
 us be so bold, then, as to conjecture that he would have 
 taken an unaffected interest in Mr. Meredith's labour 
 — that he would have been a willing slave to Mr. Hardy's 
 heroines, and would have gleaned with eagerness philo- 
 sophy from Mr. Hardy's peasants — and that amidst 
 
BALZAC. 137 
 
 Monsieur Zola's roughness, mistakes, and probable mis- 
 chief, he would have recognized the music and the 
 deep poetry in the descriptions of the garden in " La 
 Faute de l'Abbe Mouret," and in the story of that 
 eventful night in Paris, on which the frail and nervous 
 child waited jealously for her mother, in the " Page 
 d'Amour." With the novel of Commerce — coming 
 perhaps to Englishmen just now as the unchecked record 
 of grotesque adventure over centuries and continents — 
 he, a student of " The Antiquary " and of " Clarissa," 
 could have had nothing to do. We know what he did 
 say to the novel of Commerce, when it was put forth in 
 his own time: — "Eugene Sue est un esprit borne et 
 bourgeois." And, in his admirations, Balzac was just as 
 outspoken. He was wild with envy, he tells De Stendhal, 
 when he read, in the " Chartreuse de Parme," " cette 
 superbe et vraie description de bataille que je revais pour 
 les Scenes de la Vie Militaire. Je vous le dis ndivemcnt. 
 C 'est fait comme Wouvermans." 
 
 I have said, how direct and veracious was Balzac's 
 vision of Life. So veracious was it, that it absolutely 
 forbad him, in his record, to lay on sexual Love 
 the whole of the stress which popular novelist and 
 fluent verse-writer are accustomed to place on it. 
 If he knew that in a certain order of romance, the 
 thrilling adventure and the hair-breadth escape occu- 
 pied a rank out of all proportion to that which was theirs 
 in the Life he witnessed, he knew also that the chase of 
 the desired person is not the single pleasure nor the 
 principle business that occupies men. To succeed in it, 
 may be to re-invigorate existence. To fail in it, may be 
 
138 LIFE OF 
 
 to travel henceforward under darkened skies. But there 
 is, in most cases, to be steadily reckoned with, the bitter 
 and the sweet of a hundred other relationships than that 
 of mistress and lover : the charm of kinship, or its dis- 
 appointments : the annoyance or the pleasure — it may be 
 the delicate flattery — of daily contact with the world. 
 Then, there is religious enthusiasm. And again, the joy 
 of a vocation followed. Or, failing these, the claim on 
 the attention of merely sordid tasks — of the effort to live 
 — and the increasing sense of money's capacity — the 
 prosaic side of things ; the house, and the investment, 
 and the acquired position. Could Balzac, looking at 
 existence firmly and widely, ignore these things? Is it 
 not his inclusion of them, in a sane and candid survey, 
 that ensures for what he produces, acceptance in so many 
 moods and at no special hour ? For all his philosophic 
 and mystic excursions — that gave us " Lambert " and 
 gave us " Seraphita " — his " over-mastering sense of this 
 present world," to use a phrase of Mr. James's, is his 
 real characteristic, and it is the foundation of the greater 
 portion of his work. 
 
 To deal largely with money, there is wanted, not a trades- 
 man's mind or the mind of a miser, but the mind of a 
 man of imagination. A Silas Marner, counting over his 
 accumulated guineas, does, at the most, a sum in com- 
 pound addition, and revels in the glitter of his gold. 
 But Balzac and the ideal Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 see further into things : they understand the bearing of a 
 remote cause upon a future result. In Finance, Balzac, 
 though he could not legislate very well for himself, legis- 
 lated for others to perfection. Into the ways of scraping 
 
BALZAC. 139 
 
 wealth together by industry or usury, he had a lifelong 
 insight. He could imagine, too, and he could describe, 
 the methods by which it came to men at a bound. His 
 characters' investments interested him nearly as much as 
 their persons ; and, as if to isolate his dramatis persona 
 from those beings of sentiment who were the vaporous 
 creations of his brother romance-writers, he built up 
 about them fortunes in Rentes, and the substantial 
 barriers of a " real estate." x And, if it is not enough 
 that they shall live for us by their riches, let them live for 
 us in their " embarrassments," which, like those of the 
 prodigal in the Eighteenth Century comedy, "increase 
 every hour," when it must be that they occur at all. 
 
 Sainte-Beuve has had to admit, a little unwillingly, 
 that of the French Society which was the subject of his 
 studies, Balzac succeeded in presenting the comprehen- 
 sive, almost the final, picture. If Balzac did so, it was 
 because of the perfection of his realization of the world 
 he beheld, and of all its interests. The thing he aimed 
 to accomplish, was accomplished by him. The immense 
 work of Art was for practical purposes completed, and, 
 in the greatness of the conception and the attainment, it 
 is not difficult to forget whatever may be missing, and 
 whatever may be the technical faults. How then is 
 Criticism, if it must disparage, while yet it is too intelli- 
 gent to disparage meanly — how is it to suggest some want 
 of satisfactoriness in the result of Balzac's insight and of 
 Balzac's labour ? To Sainte-Beuve there was vouchsafed 
 a way. The blame he was too generous or too politic 
 
 1 Observe Popinot's masterly dealing with the money position of 
 the D'Espards, in " L'Interdiction." 
 
140 LIFE OF 
 
 to cast directly on the chronicler, he cast in part upon 
 the subject of the chronicle and on the fashion of the 
 time. Before another novelist of Balzac's subtlety came 
 to be Society's analyst, Society, he suggested, might offer 
 a different material, and might demand a different service. 
 Meanwhile, for the artist assuredly — perhaps, too, for the 
 world he depicted — there was the need of abstinence, 
 the need of repose. Let the world be given breathing- 
 time, and let the artist force his note no longer. The 
 note of Balzac could not be sustained. " Souhaitons," 
 says Sainte-Beuve, " a Vavenir de noire societe des ta- 
 bleaux non moins vastes, mais plus apaises, plus consolants." 
 And, " Let us wish," he adds, " to those who shall paint 
 them, a calmer life, inspirations, not indeed more subtle, 
 but softer, healthier, and more serene." 
 
 " No man knoweth the things of a man but the spirit 
 of a man which is in him." It may be there are 
 glimpses of truth in the aspirations of Sainte-Beuve. 
 Yet George Sand, who saw in Balzac what Hugo saw —   
 an " hommede genie " — and a creature " essentially good," 
 held that neither Society nor Society's painter could be 
 reproached for Balzac's canvas. George Sand, at least, 
 would have looked forward with confidence to Balzac s 
 final labours. Prosperity, and the calm of a newly-found 
 happiness, would have given, she thought, to his intellect 
 " a gaiety less harsh," and, to the ends of his stories, " a 
 reality less appalling." We may thank the courageous 
 and large-hearted woman for the charity of the surmise. 
 Yet her hope, after all, was the hope of an idealist : and 
 of the possibility of its realization we cannot be sure. 
 
 But has the apologist of Balzac any imperative business 
 
BALZAC. 141 
 
 to be concerned with the question of what, under changed 
 conditions, Balzac might have become ? Is there any 
 need to speculate on what might have happened if 
 another domestic life, perhaps, or another temperament, 
 had made Moliere blandly self-contented or obstinately 
 cheerful ? Moliere would not have been Moliere. That 
 is all that we can know. And, similarly, to claim for 
 Balzac, in some impossible future, what cannot be his in 
 our actual experience of him — the pure idealist's charm, 
 the optimist's vision — is to run some chance at least of 
 missing the true value of his w r ork. " Ne forfons point 
 les natures.''' Was Balzac's gift exceptional ? Was his 
 survey wide ? His soundings into Humanity's ocean — 
 were they really profound ?>. His record — was it impar- 
 tial ? Was his revelation sincere ? 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Augier, £mile, 93 
 
 B. 
 
 Balzac, Honore de, his birth, 12 ; 
 
 his father, 13 ; schooldays, 16 ; 
 
 a youth at Tours, 17 ; at the 
 
 Sorbonne, 19 ; alone in Paris, 
 
 21 ; his friendships, 33-41 ; at 
 
 Aix and Geneva, 40 ; at Saint- 
 
 Firmin, 53 ; at Neuchatel, 77 ; 
 
 money difficulties, 78 ; Vienna, 
 
 80 ; feeling for Madame de 
 
 Hanska, 83 ; at Rome, 95 ; at 
 
 Tours, 95 ; Paris again, 96 ; in 
 
 the Rue Fortunee, 109 ; in 
 
 Russia, 114 ; marriage, 115 ; 
 
 Dresden, 117; at home, 117; 
 
 his mortal illness, 118 ; death, 
 
 120 ; the scene at his funeral, 
 
 120 
 
 Eernard, Charles de, 36 
 
 Berny, Madame de, 37, 38, 63, 78 
 
 Borget, Auguste, 62, 78 
 
 Boule, 107 
 
 Bourget, Paul, 70 
 
 Browning, ir, 28, 55, 102 
 
 Buffon, 89 
 
 Carraud, Madame Zulma, 38, 62, 
 
 64, 76 
 Castries, La Duchesse de, 39-41, 
 
 7 6 . n 
 Cerfberr, 69 
 
 "Cesar Birotteau," 19, 59 
 Chasles, Philarete, 41 
 " Chouans, Les," 25 
 Christophe, 69 
 " Com^die Humaine," Scheme of 
 
 the, 84-94 
 " Cousin Pons, Le," 95-108 
 " Cousine Bette, La," 96, 116 
 " Contes Drolatiques," 62 
 " Cromwell," 22 
 " Cur6 de Tours, Le," 53-60 
 
 D. 
 
 Dablin, Theodore, 21 
 
 D'Abrantes, La Duchesse, 39 
 
 Daudet, Alphonse, 18 
 
 Dickens, ir, 100 
 
 " Duchesse de Langeais, La," 77 
 
 Dumas, 129 
 
 Dumas, yf/j, 113 
 
141 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Emerson, 20, 122 
 " Eugenie Grandet," 27, 31, 66, 
 68 
 
 Ferry, Gabriel, 41, 77 
 
 " Fille aux Yeux d'Or, La," 25 
 
 "Gambara," 102 
 
 Gautier, Theophile, 36, 117 
 
 Gerard, Le Baron, 63 
 
 Girardin, Madame Emile de, 36, 
 
 in 
 Goethe, n, 28 
 " Grenadiere, La," 54, 59 
 Greuze, in 
 
 H. 
 
 Hanska, Madame de, 76, 77, 79, 
 
 80-83, 97, no, 115, 125 
 Hardy, Thomas, 132, 136 
 Heine, 12 
 Herold, 104 
 Hicks, Power, 43 
 Houssaye, Arsene, 117 
 Hugo, Victor, 36, 118, 120 
 
 " Illusions Perdues," 31, 32 
 " Interdiction, L'," 71, 98, 139 
 
 Jacquemart, 108 
 
 James, Henry, 51, 53, 134, 138 
 
 "Jesus-Christ en Flandre," 26 
 
 L. 
 Lewes, G. H., 114, 122 
 " Lou's Lambert," 16, 61, 62 
 
 Lovenjoul, De, 69 
 " Lys dans la Vallee, Le," 38, 
 59 
 
 M. 
 
 " Maison du Chat-qui-pelote, 
 
 La, " 27-32 
 " Maratre, La," 113 
 " Massimilla Doni," 102 
 " Medecin de Campagne, Le," 
 
 49-53. 61, 62, 63 
 " Mercadet," 113 
 " Messe de l'Athee, La," 54, 62 
 Meyerbeer, 102 
 
 Mniszech, Georges de, no, 125 
 Mniszech, Comtesse de, 123, 126 
 Moliere, 68, 141 
 " Monographie de la Presse 
 
 Parisienne, La," 86 
 Moore, George, 135 
 Musset, Alfred de, 113 
 
 N. 
 Napoleon, 88 
 Napoleon, Louis, 115 
 Nodier, Charles, 36, 135 
 
 "Passion dans le Desert, Une,' 
 
 25 
 " Peau de Chagrin, La," 43-48 
 " Pere Goriot, Le," 69-75 
 " Physiologie du Manage," 33 
 "Pierrette," 68 
 " Proscrits, Les," 26 
 
 R. 
 
 " Ressources de Quinola, Les," 
 
 "3 
 Rossini, 102 
 
INDEX. 
 
 145 
 
 Sainte-Beuve, 52, 127, 129, 133, 
 
 139 
 Sand, George, 25, 37, 130, 140 
 
 Sandeau, Jules, 43, 78 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 26, 90, 91 
 
 Scribe, 112 
 
 " SeVaphita," 46 
 
 Shakespeare, 12, 28 
 
 " Splendeurs et Miseres," 99 
 
 Stendhal, De, 36, 137 
 
 Sue, Eugene, 137 
 
 " Sur Catherine de M^dicis," 26 
 
 Surville, Laure, 14 
 
 Taine, 45, 46, 51 
 Thackeray, 74, 93 
 Tolstoi, 136 
 Trollope, 93 
 Turner, 86 
 
 U. 
 " Ursule Mirouet," 43, 68 
 
 W. 
 
 Werdet, 78, 79 
 Wordsworth, 11, 65, 84 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zola, 12, 93, 137 
 
 10 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN P. ANDERSON 
 (British Museum). 
 
 I. Works. 
 
 II. Dramatic Works. 
 
 III. Single Works. 
 
 IV. Miscellaneous. 
 
 V. Appendix— 
 
 Biography, Criticism, etc. 
 
 Magazine Articles, etc. 
 
 VI. Chronological List of 
 
 Works. 
 
 I. WORKS. 
 
 CEuvres Completes d'Horace de 
 Saint-Aubiu [i.e. H. jie Balzac], 
 mises en ordre par Eniile Reg- 
 nault. 16 vols. Paris, 1836-40, 
 8vo. 
 
 Contains La Derniere Fie; Le 
 Sorcier (Le Centenaire) ; Le Vicaire 
 des Ardennes ; Arjrow (Annette et le 
 Oriminel); Jane la Pale (Wann- 
 Chlore); L'Israelite (ClothiUle de 
 Lusignan; Doia Gigadas; L'Excom- 
 munii). 
 
 (Euvres. 8 torn. Bruxelles, 1837- 
 43, 8vo. 
 
 CEuvres Completes. La Comeilie 
 Humaine. [Illustrated.] 17 
 vols. Paris, 1S42-48, 8vo. 
 
 The Comedy of Human Life. 
 [Translated from the French.] 
 Boston [U.S.], 1885, etc., 8vo. 
 
 CEuvres 
 
 Tony 
 
 etc. 
 
 4to. 
 CEuvres 
 
 outre 
 
 Illustrees. Dessins par 
 Johannot, Staal, Bertall, 
 10 torn. Paris, 1851-55, 
 
 Completes, comprenant, 
 la Comedie Humaine, les 
 Contes drolatiques et lo Theatre, 
 avec Notice sur l'auteur, par 
 George Sand. [Illustrated.] 20 
 vols. Paris, 1853-55, 8vo. 
 
 CEuvres Completes. Nouvelle edi- 
 tion. 45 vols. Paris, 1856-59, 
 16mo. 
 
 CEuvres de Jeunesse. 10 vols. 
 Paris, 1866-68. 
 
 Edition Illustree. 
 
 Paris, 1868, 4to. 
 CEuvres Completes, 
 iiuitive. 24 vols. 
 75, 8vo. 
 
 2 vols. 
 
 Edition di- 
 Paris, 1869- 
 
II 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Bal 
 
 alzac's Novels in English. Lon- 
 don, 1886, etc., 8vo. 
 
 II. DRAMATIC WORKS. 
 
 Theatre coinplet. Paris, 1853, 
 
 18mo. 
 Includes Vautrin, Les Ressources 
 
 de Quinola, Pamela Giraud and La 
 
 Maratre. 
 Le Faiseur, com^die en cinq actes 
 
 et en prose. Paris, 1853, 12mo. 
 Appeared originally in Le Pays, 
 
 August and September, 1851. 
 La Maratre, drame intime en cinq 
 
 actes et huit tableaux. Paris, 
 
 1848, 12mo. 
 Mercadet, comedie en trois actes et 
 
 en prose. Paris, 1851, 18mo. 
 Pamela Giraud, piece en cinq actes. 
 
 Paris, 1843, 8vo. 
 Les Ressources de Quinola, come- 
 die en cinq actes, en prose, et 
 
 precddee d'un prologue. Paris, 
 
 1842, 8vo. 
 Vautrin, drame en cinq actes, en 
 
 prose. Paris, 1840, 8vo. 
 Troisieme Edition augmentee. 
 
 Paris, 1840, 8vo. 
 
 III. SINGLE WORKS. 
 
 The Alkahest, or the House of 
 Claes. [Translated from the 
 French.] London, 1887, 8vo. 
 
 No. 8 of "Balzac's Novels in 
 English." 
 
 Annette et le Criminel, suite du 
 Vicaire des Ardennes, par Horace 
 de Saint-Aubin. 4 vols. Paris, 
 1824, 12mo. 
 Later called Argow le Pirate. 
 
 Balthazar ; or, Science and Love. 
 Translated [from "La Recherche 
 de l'Absolu"] by W. Robson. 
 London, 1859, 8vo. 
 
 Beatrix, ou les Amours Forces, 
 scenes de la vie priv^e. 2 torn. 
 Paris, 1840, 8vo. 
 
 Le Cabinet des Antiques, scene de 
 la vie de province. 2 vols. 
 Paris, 1839, 8vo. 
 
 The two parts of this work ap- 
 peared for the first time with the 
 titles respectively of "Le Cabinet 
 des Antiques "in the Chronique de 
 Paris, March 1836, and "LesRival- 
 ltes en Province " in the Constitu- 
 tionnel, September 1838. The second 
 volume includes Gambara. 
 
 Catherine de Medicis expliquee. 
 Le Martyr Calvaniste. 3 vols. 
 Paris, 1843, 8vo. 
 
 The Martyr Calvaniste appeared, 
 without introduction, in the Siecle, 
 March and April 1841, with the title 
 Les Lecamus. 
 
 Les Cent Contes drolatiques colli- 
 gez es abbaies de Touraine et 
 mis en lumiere par le sieur de 
 Balzac, pour l'esbattement des 
 Pantagruelistes et non aultres. 
 Premier dixain. Paris, 1832, 
 8vo. 
 
 Les Cent Contes drolatiques, 
 
 etc. Deuxieme dixain. Paris, 
 1833, 8vo. 
 
 Les Cent Contes drolatiques, 
 
 etc. Troisieme dixain. Paris, 
 1837, 8vo. 
 
 Balzac's Contes drolatiques. 
 
 Droll Stories collected from the 
 Abbeys of Touraine. Translated 
 into English, complete and un- 
 abridged. Illustrated by Gus- 
 tavo Dore. London, 1874, 8vo. 
 
 Le Centenaire, ou les Deux Ber- 
 ingheld, par Horace de Saint- 
 Aubin. 4 vols. Paris, 1822, 
 12mo. 
 Afterwards called Le Sorcier. 
 
 Clothilde de Lusignan, ou le Beau 
 Juif, manuscrit trouve dans les 
 Archives de Provence, et public" 
 par lord R'Hoone. 4 vols. 
 Paris, 1822, 12mo. 
 
 This romance was afterwards 
 called the Israelite. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 m 
 
 Code des Gens honnetes, ou Part 
 
 de ne pas etre dupe des Fripons. 
 
 Paris, 1825, 12mo. 
 The edition of 1854 bore Balzac's 
 
 name for the first time. 
 Le Comte de Sallenauve. 5 vols 
 
 Paris [1856], 8vo. 
 This work is the sequel to the 
 
 "Depute" d' Arc-is," of which it forms 
 
 the second part. 
 Contes Philosophiques. 2 torn. 
 
 Paris, 1832, 8vo. 
 This collection contains the twelve 
 
 tales which form the third volume 
 
 of the second and third edition of 
 
 the Peau de Chayrin. 
 
 Correspondance do H. de Balzac, 
 1819-1850. 2 torn. Paris, 
 1876, 18mo. 
 
 The Correspondence of H. de 
 
 Balzac. With a memoir by his 
 sister, Madame de Surville. 
 Translated by C. L. Kenney. 
 2 vols. London, 1878, 8vo. 
 
 Le Cure de Village, scenes de la 
 vie de campagne. 2 vols. Paris, 
 1841, 8vo. 
 
 Appeared originally in the Presse 
 in three parts, viz., "Le Cure" de 
 Village," Dec. 1838; " Veronique," 
 July 1839; "Ve'ronique au torn- 
 beau," July 1839. 
 
 David Sechard. 2 vols. Paris, 
 1843, 8vo. 
 
 This work is the sequel to Illusions 
 Perdues and to Un Grand Homme 
 de Province d Paris. 
 
 Un Debut dans la Vie. 2 vols. 
 Paris, 1844, 8vo. 
 
 This romance was printed for the 
 first time in t lie Legislature, July- 
 Sept. 184-2, with the title "Le Danger 
 des Mystifications." 
 
 Le Dernier Chouan, ou La Bretagne 
 en 1800, par Honore de Balzac. 
 4 vols. Paris, 1829, 12mo. 
 
 This is the first work signed by 
 Balzac. An edition appeared in 
 ls;>4 with the title, Les Chouans, ou 
 La Bretayne en 1799. 
 
 La Derniere Fee, ou la Nouvelle 
 Lampe Merveilleuse, par Horace 
 
 deSaint-Aubin, 2 vols. Paris, 
 
 1823, 12mo 
 
 A second edition, in 3 vols., con- 
 siderably enlarged, was published 
 the following year. 
 
 La Derniere Incarnation de 
 Vautrin. 3 vols. Paris, 1848, 
 8vo. 
 
 This work is the fourth part of 
 "Splendeurs et Miseres des Cour- 
 tisanes," and appeared for the first 
 time in the Presse, April-May, 1S48. 
 
 Les Deux Freres. 2 vols. Paris, 
 1842, 8vo. 
 
 The Two Brothers. [Trans- 
 lated from the French.] Lon- 
 don, 1887, 8vo. 
 
 No. 7 of "Balzac's Novels in 
 English." 
 
 Un Drame dans les Prisons. 2 
 torn. Paris, 1847, 8vo. 
 
 Forms the third part of " Splen- 
 deurs et Miseres des Courtisanes," 
 and appeared originally in the 
 Epoque of July 1846, with the title, 
 " Une Instruction Criminelle." 
 
 Du Droit d'Ainesse, par M. D. 
 (M. de Balzac). Paris, 1824, 
 8vo. 
 
 Enquete sur la politique des deux 
 ministeres. Paris, 1831, 8vo. 
 
 Etudes de Mceurs au xix e Siecle. 
 3 ser. Paris, 1834-37, 8vo. 
 
 Premiere serie : Scenes de la vie 
 yrivie, 4 vols. Deuxieme se"rie : 
 Seines de la vie de province, 4 vols. 
 Troisieme serie : Seines de la vie 
 parisienne, 4 vols. 
 
 Eugenie Grandet. [Trans- 
 lated from the "Scenes de la 
 Vie de Province."] London, 
 1859, 8vo. 
 
 Eugenie Grandet. [Trans- 
 lated from the French.] Lon- 
 don, 18S6, 8vo. 
 
 No. 4 of "Balzac's Novels in 
 English." 
 
 Mother and Daughter; or, La 
 
 Marana. [From the first series 
 of "Scenes de la Vie Paris- 
 ienne."] (The Jiomancist and 
 Novelist's Library, vol. 5.) 
 London [1842], 8vo. 
 
IV 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Etudes Philosophiques. 20 vols. 
 Paris, 1835-40, 12mo. 
 
 This collection is composed princi- 
 pally of works which have appeared 
 elsewhere, and thirty volumes were 
 promised, but only twenty were 
 published. Livraison I., torn. 1-5, 
 contains La Peau de Chagrin (4th 
 edition) — Adieu— U Elixir de Longue 
 Vie — El Verdugo — Un Draine au 
 Bord de la Mer. Livraison II., torn. 
 xi., xxii.,xxiii., xxiv.,xxv., contains 
 Maitre Cornelius — Jisus Christ en 
 Flandre — Melmoth recondite' a 
 I'E'/lise — Histoire Intellectuale de 
 Louis Lambert (4th edition) — 
 L' Interdiction. Livraison III., torn, 
 xii., xiii., xv., xvi., xvii., contains 
 La Messe de VAthie — Les Deux Rives 
 — Facino Cane — Les Martyrs Ignores 
 — Le Secret de Ruggieri — V Enfant 
 Maudit — line Passion dans le D6- 
 sert — L'Auberge Rouge — Le Chef- 
 d'oeuvre Inconnu. Livraison IV., 
 torn, vi., vii., viii., ix., and x., with 
 the collective title of " Le Livre des 
 Douleurs," contains Gambara — 
 Massimilla Doni, Seraphita. 
 
 L'Excommunie, roman posthurue. 
 
 2 torn. Paris, 1837, 8vo. 
 La Farnille Beauvisage. 4 vols. 
 
 Paris [1855], 8vo. 
 Sequel to " Le Comte de Salle- 
 
 nauve," and the third part of the 
 
 "Depute d'Arcis." 
 
 Les Fantaisies de Claudino. Paris, 
 
 1853, 16mo. 
 This work appeared originally in 
 
 the Revue Parisienne, 25th Aug. 
 
 1840, and afterwards took the title 
 
 of " Un Prince de la Boheme." 
 La Femrne de soixante aus. 3 
 
 torn. Paris, 1847, 8vo. 
 La Femtne Superieure. La Maison 
 
 Nucingen. La Torpille. 2 vols. 
 
 Paris, 1838, 8vo. 
 Une Fille d'Eve, scene de la vie 
 
 privee. 2 vols. Paris, 1S39, 
 
 Svo. 
 Appeared originally in the Siecle, 
 
 Dec. 1838, and Jan. 1839. 
 Uu grand houiine de province a 
 
 Paris, scenes de la vie de pro- 
 vince. 2 torn. Paris, 1839, 
 
 8vo. 
 
 L'Heritiere de Birague, histoire 
 tiree des manusciits de doni 
 Rago, ex-prieur des Benddictins, 
 mise a jour par ses deux neveux, 
 A. de Villergle et lord R'Hoone. 
 4 vols. Paris, 1822, 12mo. 
 
 Histoire de la Grandeur et de la 
 Decadence de Cesar Birotteau, 
 parfumeur, Chevalier de la 
 Legion d'honneur, adjoint au 
 maire du deuxieme arrondisse- 
 ment de la ville de Paris. 
 Nouvelle scene de la vie 
 parisienne. 2 torn. Paris, 
 1838, 8vo. 
 
 History of the grandeur and 
 
 downfall of Cesar Birotteau. 
 Translated by J. H. Simpson. 
 London, 1860, 12mo. 
 Vol. 1 of "The Balzac Series." 
 
 Cesar Birotteau. London, 
 
 1886, 8vo. 
 
 No. 3 of "Balzac's Novels in 
 English." 
 
 Histoire de l'Empereur, racontfe 
 dans une grange par un vieux 
 soldat et recueillie par M. de 
 Balzac, vignettes par Lorentz, 
 gravures par MM. Breviere et 
 Novion. Paris, 1842, 16mo. 
 
 Histoire des Parents Pauvres. La 
 Cousine Bette et les Deux 
 Musiciens. Paris [1846-47], 
 4to. 
 
 The original edition, and very 
 rare. 
 
 Les Parents Pauvres. 12 
 
 vols. Paris, 1847-48, 8vo. 
 
 The first part, " La Cousine 
 Bette," with the dedication, 
 appeared originally in the Con- 
 stUutionnel, Oct. -Dec, 1S46. _ The 
 second part, "Les Deux Musiciens," 
 afterwards "Le Cousin Pons," 
 appeared in the same journal, 
 March-May, 1847. 
 
 Poor Relations. Cousin 
 
 Pons. Translated by P. Kent. 
 London, 1880, 8vo. 
 Part of the ' ' Balzac Library." 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Histoire des Parents Pauvres. 
 Another edition. London, 18S6, 
 8vo. 
 
 No. 6 of "Balzac's Novels in 
 English." 
 
 Histoire impartiale des J6suites. j 
 Paris, 1824, 18mo. 
 
 Histoire intellectuelle de Louis 
 Lambert. Fragment extrait 
 des Romans et Contes philoso- 
 phiques. Paris, 1833, 12mo. 
 
 Considerably enlarged from the 
 work which originally appeared in 
 the Nouveaux Contes Pniloso- 
 vhiques, lz:;->, with the title " Notice 
 biographique sur Louis Lambert." 
 
 Honorine. 2 torn. Paris, 1845, 
 Svo. 
 
 Appeared originally in the Presse, 
 March, 1843. 
 
 Jean Louis, ou la Fille Trouvee, 
 par A. de Villergle et lord 
 R'Hoone. 4 vols. Paris, 1822, 
 12mo. 
 
 Le Livre des Douleurs. 5 torn. 
 Paris, 1840, 12mo. 
 Contains Gambara, originally pub- 
 lished in the Revue et Gazette 
 MveicaJe <ie Paris, July-Aug., 1837, 
 and which appeared in 1S3'J, in book 
 form, as a sequel to the " Cabinet 
 des Antiques;" Massimilla Doni, 
 and Seraphita. 
 
 Le Livre mystique. 2 torn. 
 Paris, 1835, 8vo. 
 
 Tom. i. contains "Les Proscrits," 
 and the " Histoire intellectuelle de 
 Louis Lambert ;" torn, ii., Seraphita. 
 
 La Lune de Miel. 2 torn. Paris, 
 1845, 8vo. 
 
 Appeared originally in Dec. 1844, 
 and Jan. 1845, in the Messa;ier, with 
 the title, " Les Petits Maneges 
 d'une Femme Vertueuse." This 
 novel is the sequel to " Beatrix, ou 
 les Amours force's," of which it 
 forms the third and last part. 
 
 Le Lvs dans la Yallee. 2 vols. 
 Paris, 1836, 8vo. 
 
 Appeared originally in the Revue 
 de Paris. 
 
 Lo Mddecin de Campagne. 2 
 vols. Paris, 1833, 8vo. 
 
 Le Medecin do Campagne. — The 
 Country Doctor. London, 1887, 
 8vo. 
 
 No 6 of "Balzac's Novels in 
 English." 
 
 Menioires de deux jeunes marines. 
 2 vols. Paris, 1842, 8vo. 
 
 Appeared originally in the Presse, 
 Nov. 1841, Jan. 1842. 
 
 Modeste Mignon, ou les Trois 
 Amoureux. 4 vols. Paris, 
 1844, 8vo. 
 
 Includes also "Un Episode sous 
 la Terreur," published for the first 
 time in 1830 in the introduction to 
 the Me'rnoires de Sanson sur la 
 Revolution Francaise, and " Une 
 Passion dans le Desert," which had 
 appeared in the Revue de Paris, 
 Dec. 1830. 
 
 Modeste Mignon. London, 
 
 1888, 8vo. 
 
 No. 9 of "Balzac's Novels in 
 English." 
 
 Monographic de la Presse Paris- 
 ienne, illustr^e de scenes, 
 croquis, charges, caricatui'es, 
 portraits et grandes vignettes 
 hors texte, etc. Paris, 1842, 8vo. 
 
 La Muse du departement, ou 
 Dinah et Rosalie. 4 vols. 
 Paris, 1843, 8vo. 
 
 Notes remises a MM. les Ddput^s 
 cornposant la commission de la 
 loi sur la propriety litteVaire. 
 Paris, 1841, 8vo. . 
 
 Nouveaux Contes Philosophiques. 
 Maitre Cornelius, Madame 
 Firmiani, L'Auberge Rouge, 
 Louis Lambert. Paris, 1!>32, 
 
 8vo. 
 
 "Maitre Cornelius" appeared 
 originally in the Revue de Paris for 
 Dec. 1S31; " Madame Firmiani" 
 in the same magazine, Feb. 1882, as 
 also the Auberce Rouge for Aug. 
 1831. This volume became torn. v. 
 of the edition of 1888 of the Romans 
 et Contes philosophiques. 
 Paris marie, philosophic de la vie 
 conjugate. Paris, 1846, Svo. 
 
 Sequel to the Pctites Miseres de 
 la vie conjugate. 
 
VI 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 La Peau de Chagrin, roman 
 philosophique. 2 vols. Paris, 
 1831, 8vo. 
 
 Fragments of this work appeared, 
 originally in the Caricature, Dec. 
 
 1830, R-vue des Deux Mondes, May 
 
 1831, and in the Revue de Paris, May 
 1831. 
 
 The Magic Skin. London, 
 
 188S, 8v . 
 
 No. 10 of "Balzac's Novels in 
 English." 
 
 Peines de cceur d'une Chatte 
 Anglaise, par H. de Balzac, 
 suivies des Peines de cceur d'une 
 Chatte Francaise, par J. Stahl. 
 Paris, 1853, 32mo. 
 
 Le Pere Goriot, histoire parisienne. 
 2 vols. Paris, 1835, 8vo. 
 
 Appeared originally in the Revue 
 de Paris, Dec. 14-28, 1834, Jan. 25 
 and Feb. 11, 1835. 
 
 Daddy Goriot ; or, Unrequited 
 
 Affection. London [1860], 8vo. 
 
 Pere Goriot. [Translated 
 
 from the French.] Boston, 
 1885, 8vo. 
 
 Pere Goriot. London, 1886, 
 
 8vo. 
 
 No. 1 of "Balzac's Novels in 
 English." 
 
 Petit Dictionnaire Critique et 
 Anecdotique des Enseignes de 
 Paris, par un Batteur de Pave\ 
 Paris, 1826, 32mo. 
 
 Petites Miseres de la vie conjugale, 
 illustrees par Bertall. Paris 
 [1845], 8vo. 
 
 Physiol ogie de l'Employe. Vig- 
 nettes par Trimolet. Paris, 
 1840, 32ino. 
 
 Physiologie du Mariage, ou 
 Meditations de Philosophic 
 E"electique sur le Bonheur et le 
 Malheur Conjugal, pubises par 
 un jeune celibataire. 2 tom. 
 Paris, 1830, 8vo. 
 
 Physiologie du Rentier de Paris et 
 de Province, par MM. de Balzac 
 et Arnould Fremy. [Illustra- 
 
 tions by Gavarni, H. Monnier, 
 Daumier, Meissonier.] Paris, 
 1841, 32mo. 
 Balzac wrote the Rentier de Paris. 
 
 Pierrette, scene de la vie de 
 province. 2 torn. Paris, 1840, 
 8vo. 
 
 In this the first edition Pierre 
 Grasson is included. Pierrette 
 forms the first part of the lUiba- 
 taires, the second part of which, 
 Le Curi de '1 ours, appeared origin- 
 ally in 1832, under the title Les 
 Cilibataires, in tom. iii. of the second 
 edition of "Scenes de la vie prive'e," 
 1832. 
 
 Tine Princesse Parisienne. Paris, 
 1841, 8vo. 
 
 This romance appeared in 1839 in 
 the Presse. 
 
 Le Provincial h, Paris. 2 vols. 
 Paris, 1847, 8vo. 
 
 This work appeared originally in 
 the Courrier Frangais, April 1846, 
 with the title "Les Come'diens sans 
 le savoir." 
 
 Romans et Contes philosophiques. 
 3 vols. Paris, 1831, 8vo. 
 
 Contains La Peau de Chagrin; 
 Sarrasine; La Comidie du Diable; 
 El Verdugo ; L' Enfant Maudit ; 
 L 'Elixir de Longue Vie; Les Pros- 
 crits ; Le Chef-d'oeuvre Inconnu; 
 Le Rtquisitionnaire ; Etude de 
 Femme; Les Deux Rives; J4sus- 
 Christ en Flandre ; L'Eglise. 
 "Sarrasine" appeared originally in 
 the Revue de Paris, Nov. 28, 
 1830; " El Verdugo " in the Mode; ; 
 "L'Enfant Maudit" in the Revue 
 des Deux Mondes, Jan. 1831 ; 
 "L' Elixir de Longue Vie" in the 
 Revue de Paris, Oct. 1830, as also 
 "Les Proscrits," May 1831; "Le 
 Chef-d'oeuvre Inconnu " in the 
 Artiste, July and Aug. 1831; "Le 
 Rtiquisitioiinaire" in thejlevue de 
 Paris, Feb. 23, 1831; "Etude de 
 Femme" in the Mode, March 12, 
 1830; "Les Deux Reves" in the 
 Mode, May 8, 1830. 
 
 Scenes de la Vie de Campagne. 
 
 Les Paysans. 5 vols. Paris 
 
 [1855], 8vo. 
 Scenes de la Vie Parisienne. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 VII 
 
 2 series in 8 torn. Paris 
 [1856-57], 8vo. 
 
 Ser. i., "Les Petits Bourgeois;" 
 Ser. ii., " Les Parvenus.'' 
 
 The Duehesse de Langeais. 
 
 [From Scenes de la Vie Paris- 
 ienne.] London, 1886, 8vo. 
 
 No. 2 of " Balzac's Novels in 
 English." 
 
 Scenes de la Vie Politique. Le 
 Depute d'Arcis. 4 torn. Paris 
 [1854], 8vo. 
 
 Scenes de la Vie Politique. Une 
 Tenebreuse Affaire. 3 torn. 
 Paris, 1843, 8vo. 
 
 Appeared originally in the Com- 
 merce, Jan. and Feb. 1841. 
 
 Scenes de la Vie Privee, publiees 
 par Balzac. 2 torn. Paris, 
 1830, 8vo. 
 
 Contains :— La Vendetta ; Les 
 Bangers de V Inconduite ; Le Bal de 
 Sceaux ; Gloire et Malheur; La 
 Femme Vertueuse; La Paix du 
 Manage. Gloire et Malheur took the 
 title of La Maison du Chat-qui-pelote 
 in the " Come'die Humaine," in the 
 collected edition of 1842 ; Les Dan- 
 gers de V Inconduite was afterwards 
 called Gobseck. 
 
 Deuxieme edition. 4 torn. 
 
 Paris, 1832, 8vo. 
 
 Vols. i. and ii. contain the 
 same subjects as the first edition. 
 Tom. iii. contains Le Conseil; La 
 Bourse; Le Devoir d'une Femme; 
 Les Ctlibataires. Tom. iv., Le 
 Rendez-vous ; La Femme de Trente 
 ans ; Le Doigt de D>eu; Les Deux 
 Rencontres ; U Expiation. "LeCon- 
 seil " appeared originally in the 
 Remit des Deux Mondes, Feb. 1832 ; 
 " Le Devoir d'une Femme " in the 
 M ode, May, June 1830 ; "Le Rendez- 
 vous " in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 
 Sept., Oct. 1831; "La Femme de 
 Trente ans " in the Revue de Paris, 
 April 1832, as also " Le Doigt de 
 Dieu," April 1832; and "Les Deux 
 Rencontres," Jan. 1831. 
 
 Stories of Civil Wars. The 
 
 Vendetta [one of the " Scenes 
 de la Vie Privee "], by H. de 
 Balzac ; aud the Blacksmith of 
 
 Tennessee. 
 8vo. 
 
 Boston [1864], 
 
 The Cat and Battledore [La 
 
 Maison du Chat qui pelote], 
 and other tales. Translated 
 into English by P. Kent. 3 
 vol9. London, 1879, 8vo. 
 
 Splendeurs et Miseres des Courti- 
 sanes. 3 vols. Paris, 1845, 8vo. 
 
 Theorie de la Demarche. Paris, 
 1853, 16mo. 
 
 Traite de la Vie elegante; Paris, 
 1853, 18mo. 
 
 Printed in La Mode, Aug. and 
 Sept. 1830. 
 
 Ursule Mirouet. 2 torn. Paris, 
 1842, 8vo. 
 
 Appeared for the first time in the 
 Messager, Aug. and Sept. 184L 
 
 Le Vicaire des Ardennes, par 
 
 Horace de Saint-Aubin. 4 vols. 
 
 Paris, 1822, 12mo. 
 Wann-Chlore, par Horace de 
 
 Saint-Aubin. 4 vols. Paris, 
 
 1825, 12mo. 
 Afterwards called Jane la Pale. 
 
 IV. MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Balzac Moraliste. Pens^es de 
 Balzac, extraites de la Com&lie 
 Humaine, mises en regard de9 
 maximes de Pascal, La Bruyere, 
 etc. Paris, 1866, 12mo. 
 
 The Com^die Humaine and its 
 Author, with translations from 
 the French of Balzac. By H. 
 H. Walker. London, 1879, 
 8vo. 
 
 Contes bruns par une tete k 
 l'envers (H. de Balzac, Rabou, 
 Pli. Chasles). Paris, 1832, 8vo. 
 
 Lo Diable a Paris. Paris et les 
 Parisiens, etc. Texte par 
 
via 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 George Sand, P. J. Stahl . . . 
 De Balzac, etc. 2 torn. Paris, 
 1845, 8vo. 
 
 Half Hours with Foreign Authors. 
 Translated by G. L. London, 
 1861, 8vo. 
 
 Contains : — " An Adventure in 
 
 Madrid;" " The Tragedy of La 
 
 Breteche;" "The Beginning of 
 a Career." 
 
 Honore do Balzac. Edited, with 
 English notes, by H. van Laun. 
 (Selections from Modern French 
 Authors.) London, 1869, 8vo. 
 
 New edition. London, 1880, 
 
 8vo. 
 -New edition. London, 1884, 
 
 8vo. 
 
 Un Million de Curiosites Napo- 
 l^oniennes, histoires drolatiques 
 de Napoleon ler ? par Balzac, A. 
 Tousez, F. Soulie\ J. B. Peres, 
 etc. Paris [1863], 16mo. 
 
 Pictures of the French. By Jules 
 Janin, Balzac, etc. London, 
 
 1840, 8vo. 
 
 The Grocer, pp. 9-16; TheGrisette, 
 pp. 17-24. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1841, 8vo. 
 
 The Notary, pp. 81-88. 
 Revue Parisienne, dirigee par 
 M. de Balzac. Paris, 1840, 
 18mo. 
 
 Only three numbers appeared — 
 25th July, 25th August, and 25th 
 September, 1840. 
 
 Scenes de la Vie Privde et Pub- 
 lique des Aniraanx, vignettes 
 par Grand ville. Publics sous la 
 direction de P. J. Stahl avec la 
 collaboration de Balzac, etc. 
 2 parts. Paris, 1842, 8vo. 
 
 Public and Private Life of 
 
 Animals. Adapted from the 
 French of Balzac, Droz, Jules 
 Janin, etc., by J. Thomson. 
 London, 1877, 8vo. 
 
 V. APPENDIX. 
 
 Biography, Criticism, etc. 
 
 Albert, Paul. — La Litterature 
 Francaiseau dix-neuviemesiecle. 
 2 torn. Paris, 1882, 8vo. 
 Balzac, torn, ii., pp. 245-273. 
 
 Babou, Hippolyte. — Lettres Satir- 
 iques et Critiques. Paris, 1860, 
 8vo. 
 
 Le Noviciat de Balzac, pp. 55-74 ; 
 Opinions d'une Femme du Monde, 
 d'un Diplomate et d'un P&lant sur 
 le Genie de Balzac, pp. 75-117. 
 
 Barriere, T., andBeauplan, A. de. 
 — Le Lys dans la Vallee, drame 
 en cinq actes, en prose d'apres 
 H. de Balzac. (Theatre Con- 
 temporain Illustre\ Liv. 108, 
 109.) Paris [1863], fol. 
 
 Baschet, Armand. — Honore de 
 Balzac, essai sur l'homme et sur 
 l'ceuvre. Paris, 1852, 8vo. 
 
 B^rard-Varagnac. — Portraits Lit- 
 teVaires. Paris, 1887, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 65-76. 
 
 Carreras, Luis. — Retratos a la 
 Pluma. Paris, 1S84, 8vo. 
 Honore" de Balzac, pp. 39-57. 
 
 Cayla, J. M. — Les Celebris Euro- 
 pc-nes. Paris, 1854-55, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 49-64. 
 
 Cerf berr, A. , and Christophe, Jules. 
 — Repertoire de la Com^die Hu- 
 maine de H. de Balzac. Paris, 
 1887, 8vo. 
 
 Champfleury, pseud, [i.e., Jules 
 Fleury]. — Grandes Figures 
 d'hier et d'aujourd'hui. Paris, 
 1861, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 11-108. 
 
 Balzac Propri^taire. Paris, 
 
 1875, 24mo. 
 
 Balzac au College. Paris, 
 
 1878, 12mo. 
 -Balzac, sa me'thode de travail, 
 
 <$tude d'apres ses Manuscrits. 
 Paris, 1879, 12mo. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 IX 
 
 I'haudes-Aigues, J. — Les Ecrivains 
 Modernea de la Frauce. Paris, 
 1841, Svo. 
 Balzac, pp. 199-232. 
 
 Curweu, Henry. — Sorrow and 
 
 Song : Studies of Literary 
 
 Struggle. 2 vols. London, 
 
 1875, 8vo. 
 
 Honore" de Balzac, vol. ii., pp. 3-90. 
 
 Dugue\ F., and Peaucellier, G. — 
 Les Treize, drameen cinq actes, 
 tire" du roman de H. de Balzac. 
 Paris, 186S, 12mo. 
 
 Eyina, X., and Lucy, A. de.— 
 Ecrivains et Artistes vivauts, 
 Franfais et etrangers. Paris, 
 1840, 24mo. 
 Livraison 8, M. de Balzac. 
 
 Faguet, Emile.— Etudes Litter - 
 aires sur le dix-neuvieme siecle. 
 Paris, 1887, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 413-453. 
 
 Ferry, Gabriel, pseud. [Le., Louis 
 de Bellemare.] — Balzac et ses 
 amies. Paris, 1888, 12mo. 
 
 French Authors. — French Authors 
 at Home. Episodes iu the lives 
 and works of Balzac, Madame 
 de Girardin, etc. 2 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1864, 8vo. 
 Balzac, vol. i., pp. 3-191. 
 
 Galerie. — Galerie des Contem- 
 porains Illustres. 8 torn. Paris, 
 1840-44, 12mo. 
 Balzac, with portrait, torn. iii. 
 
 Gautier, Thdophile. — Honore de 
 Balzac. Paris, 1859, 8vo. 
 
 Portraits Contemporains. 
 
 Paris, 1874, 8vo. 
 Honors' de Balzac, pp. 45-131. 
 Girardin, Mdme. Emile de. — La 
 
 Canne de M. de Balzac. Paris, 
 
 1836, 8vo. 
 Gozlan, L^on. — Balzac en pan- 
 
 toufles. Paris, 1856, 24 mo. 
 Another edition appeared in 1865. 
 Balzac chez-lui, souvenirs des 
 
 Jardies. Paris, 1862, 8vo. 
 
 Houssaye, Arsene. — Histoire du 
 41me Fauteuil de l'Acad^mie 
 Frau9aise. Paris, 1856, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 316-320. 
 
 Hugo, Victor. — Choses Vues. 
 Paris, 1887, Svo. 
 Mort de Balzac, pp. 285-291. 
 
 Things Seen. 2 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1887, 8vo. 
 
 The Death of Balzac, vol. ii., pp. 
 107-113. 
 
 James, Henry, Jr. — French Poets 
 and Novelists. London, 1878, 
 8vo. 
 
 Honore" de Balzac, pp. 84-150; 
 Balzac's Letters, pp. 151-189. 
 
 La«roix, Paul. — Catalogue de la 
 vente Dutacq, redig4 par lo 
 bibliophile Jacob [i.e. Paul 
 Lacroix]. Paris, 1857, 8vo. 
 
 Contains important information 
 relative to the works of Balzac. 
 
 Lamartiue, A. de. — Cours Familier 
 de Litterature. Paris, 1864, 8vo. 
 Balzac et ses ceuvres, torn, xviii., 
 pp. 273-527. 
 
 Balzac et ses ceuvres. Paris, 
 
 1866, 12mo. , 
 
 Laporte, A. — H. de Balzac. Etude 
 bibliographique de ses editions 
 originales, etc. Paris, 1884, 
 8vo. 
 
 Laun, Henri Van. — History of 
 French Literature. 3 vols. 
 London, 1876-77, 8vo. 
 Balzac, Vol. iii., pp. 3S9-414. 
 
 Lawrence, Slingsby, 2 jse ud. [i.e., 
 George Henry Lewes.] — The 
 Game of Speculation. A comedy 
 in three acts and in prose [an 
 adaptation of Balzac's comedy 
 Mercadet]. London [1852], 
 12mo. 
 
 In volume v. of Lacy's Acting Edi- 
 tion of Plays, etc. 
 
 Le Biisoys Desnoiresterres, G. — 
 M. de Balzac. Paris, 1851, 
 12mo. 
 
 Lissoni, Antonio. — Difesa dell' on- 
 oro delP arnii Italiane oltraggiato 
 dal Signor di Balzac nelle sue 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Scene della Vita Parigiana. 
 
 Milano, 1837, 8vo. 
 Lovenjoul, Charles de. — Histoire 
 
 des cEuvres de H. de Balzac. 
 
 Paris, 1879, 8vo. 
 Un dernier chapitre de l'his- 
 
 toire des ceuvres de H. de Balzac. 
 
 Paris, 1880, 8vo. 
 Mirecourt, Eugene de [i.e., C. J. B. 
 
 Jacquot]. — Balzac. Paris, 1856, 
 
 12mo. 
 No. 17 of "Les Contemporains." 
 
 Balzac. Paris, 1867, 12mo. 
 
 No. 6 of the " Histoire Conternpo- 
 
 raine." , 
 
 Parran, A. — Romantiques. Edi- 
 tions originales, etc. Honore de 
 
 Balzac. Paris, 1881, 8vo. 
 Poitou, Eugene. — Portraits Lit- 
 teraires et Philosophiques. Paris, 
 
 1868, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 91-169. 
 Pontmartiu, A. de. — Causeries 
 
 Litteraires. Paris, 1862, 8vo. 
 Balzac, a propos de MM. Clement 
 
 de Bis et Armand Baschet. 
 Causeries du Samedi. Paris, 
 
 1874, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 32-103. 
 Romanticism. — Les Gloires de 
 
 Romantisme. 2 torn. Paris, 
 
 1859, 8vo. 
 Balzac, torn, ii., pp. 97-133. 
 Sainte-Beuve, C. A. — Critiques 
 
 et Portraits Litteraires. Paris, 
 
 1836, 8vo. 
 Balzac, torn, iii., pp. 56-89. 
 Causeries du Lundi. Paris, 
 
 1852, 8vo. 
 Balzac, torn, ii., pp. 346-362. 
 Portraits Contemporains. 
 
 Nouvelle Edition. Paris, 1869, 
 
 8vo. 
 M. de Balzac, torn, ii., pp. 327-357. 
 Saltus, Edgar E. — Balzac. [A 
 
 literary critique.] Boston, 1884, 
 
 8vo. 
 Sand, George. — Autour de la 
 
 Table. Paris, 1876, 8vo. 
 Honor6 de Balzac, pp. 197-213. 
 Sandeau, Jules. — La Derniere Fee, 
 
 accompagnee de Vie et Malheurs 
 de Horace de Saint - Aubin. 
 2 torn. Paris, 1836, 8vo. 
 
 Scherer, Edmond. — Etudes sur la 
 Literature Contemporaine. 7 
 vols. Paris, 1863-1882, 8vo. 
 Balzac, vol. iv., pp. 63-73. 
 
 Stephen, Leslie. — Hours in a 
 Library. London, 1874, 8vo. 
 Balzac's Novels, pp. 299-348. 
 
 Surville, Madame de. — Les Feni- 
 mes de H. de Balzac ; types, 
 caracteres et portraits, precedes 
 d'une notice biographique par le 
 Bibliophile Jacob, etc. Paris 
 [1851], 8vo. 
 
 Balzac, sa vie et ses ceuvres 
 
 d'apressacorrespondance. Paris, 
 1858, 8vo. 
 
 Taine, H. A. — Nouveaux Essais 
 de Critique et d'Histoire. Paris, 
 1865, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 63-170. 
 
 Topin, Marius. — Romanciers Con- 
 temporains. Paris, 1876, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 37-49. 
 
 Werdet, Edmond. — Portrait intime 
 de Balzac, sa vie, son humeur 
 et son caractere. Paris, 1859, 
 18mo. 
 
 Zimmern, Helen and Alice. — 
 Stories from Foreign Novelists. 
 London, 1884, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 242-254. 
 
 Zola, Emile. — Les Romanciers 
 Naturalistes. Deuxieme edi- 
 tion. Paris, 1881, 8vo. 
 Balzac, pp. 3-73. 
 
 Magazine Articles, Etc. 
 
 Balzac, Honore de. — Revue des 
 Deux Mondes, by Paul de 
 Molenes, Noy. 1, 1842.— La 
 Semaine, by C. H. Castille, 
 Oct. 4, 1846.— Revue des Deux 
 Mondes, by Lerminier, April 
 15, 1847. — Journal des Debats, 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 xi 
 
 Balzac, Honore" de. 
 
 by Philarete Chasles, Aug. 24, 
 1850. — Democratic Review, 
 vol. 1, 1853, pp. 325-329.— Le 
 Diogene, by Charles Bataille, 
 Aug. 4, 1856. — Revue Franchise, 
 June 10 and 20, 1856.— Irish 
 Quarterly Review, vol. 8, 1858, 
 pp. 389-436.— Eclectic Review, 
 vol. 3 N.S., 1858, pp. 522-534. 
 — Bentley's Miscellany, vol. 46, 
 1859, pp. 148-156.— Hours at 
 Home, by V. W. Johnson, vol. 
 5, 1867, pp. 249-253.— London 
 Society, vol. 21, 1872, pp. 308- 
 317 ; same article, Eclectic 
 Magazine, vol. 15 N.S., pp. 
 738-745.— Penn Monthly, by 
 R. S. Hunter, vol. 5, 1874, pp. 
 595-612.— Galaxy, by H. James, 
 jun., vol. 20, 1875, pp. 814-836. 
 — Scribner's Monthly, by A. 
 Rhodes, vol. 11, 1875, pp. 636- 
 647. — Blackwood's Edinburgh 
 Magazine, vol. 121, 1877, pp. 
 300-323. — North American 
 Review, by T. S. Perry, vol. 
 124, 1877, pp. 314-318. — 
 Gentleman's Magazine, by H. 
 B. Baker, vol. 243, 1878, pp. 
 617-631.— Temple Bar, vol. 54, 
 1878, pp. 535-552.— Edinburgh 
 Review, vol. 148, 1878, pp. 528- 
 558. — Atlantic Monthly, vol. 
 56, 1885, pp. 854-859.— Atlantic 
 Monthly, by G. F. Parsons, vol. 
 57, 1886, pp. 834-850.— Specta- 
 tor, Sept. 4, 1886, pp. 1180,1181. 
 — Cornhill Magazine, vol. 6 
 N.S., 1886, pp. 470-489.— New 
 Princeton Review, by J. S. 
 Fiske, vol. 5 N.S., 1888, pp. 
 289-305. 
 
 Age of. Contemporary Re- 
 view, by W. S. Lilly, vol. 37, 
 18S0, pp. 1004-1044. 
 
 and American Imitators. 
 
 Balzac, Honore" de. 
 
 Atlantic Monthly, vol. 54, 1884, 
 
 pp. 717-719. 
 and Chaucer. Nation, by G. 
 
 Morton, vol. 40, 1885, pp. 417, 
 
 418. 
 ■and Dumas. All the Year 
 
 Round, vol. 29 N.S., 1882, pp. 
 153-157. 
 
 — and Georye Sand. Foreign 
 Quarterly Review, vol. 33, 1844, 
 pp. 265-298. 
 -and his Publisher. All the 
 
 Year Round, vol. 1, 1859, pp. 
 184-189, 205-210 ; same article, 
 Littell's Living Age, vol. 62, 
 pp. 553-566. 
 
 and his Writings. Westmin- 
 ster Review, vol. 60, 1853, pp. 
 199-214 ; same article, Eclectic 
 Magazine, vol. 30, pp. 29-37. 
 
 and Sainte-Bcuve. Le Nain 
 
 Jaune, by A. J. Pons, Dec. 10, 
 1876. 
 
 and Thackeray, Style of. 
 
 Dublin University Magazine, 
 vol. 64, 1864, pp. 620-627 ; 
 same article, Eclectic Magazine, 
 vol. 1 N.S., pp. 229-236, and 
 Littell's Living Age, vol. 84, 
 pp. 51-58. 
 
 Anecdotes of. Temple Bar, 
 
 vol. 52, 1878, pp. 381-385. 
 -as a Journalist. Gazette de 
 
 Paris, by Philibert Audebrand, 
 Nov. 8 and 15, 1857. 
 — as Artist and Moralist. Lip- 
 pincott's Magazine, by K. Hil- 
 lard, vol. 8, 1871, pp. 592-596 ; 
 same article, Broadway, vol 4, 
 3rd ser., 1872, pp. 268-272. 
 -at Home. St. Paul's, vol. 2, 
 
 1868, pp. 418-431. 
 at the Odion. Longman's 
 
 Magazine, by C. Hervey, vol. 6, 
 
 1885, pp. 532-539. 
 aux lanternes. La Presse, by 
 
 Eusebe de Salles, Oct. 4, 1862. 
 
xu 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Balzac, Honore" de. 
 
 Cane of. Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine, by J. W. Sherer, vol. 256, 
 1,884, pp. 600-607. 
 
 La Centieme Representation de 
 
 Mercadet. Le Constitutionnel, 
 by Alberic Second, June 18, 
 1852. 
 — Cesar Birotteau. Literary 
 
 World (Boston), vol. 17, 1886, 
 
 pp. 144, 145. 
 — Characteristics of. Dublin 
 
 University Magazine, vol. 67, 
 
 1866, pp. 603-617. 
 — La Comidie Humaine. La 
 
 Presse, by Eugene Pelletan, 
 
 Nov. 30, 1846. 
 -Correspondence of. Nation, 
 
 by A. Laugel, vol. 23, 1876, 
 
 pp. 339, 340, 366, 367, and vol. 
 
 24, pp. 7, 8. 
 — Costumes of the Comtdie 
 
 Humaine. Nation, vol. 40, 
 
 1885, pp. 114, 115. 
 — Death of. Le Figaro, Aug. 
 
 24, 1878. 
 — Details on. La Loire Illustree, 
 
 by Benjamin Gastineau, Aug. 
 
 1863. 
 — Dreams of. Belgravia, by 
 
 J. W. Sherer, vol. 34, 3rd 
 
 series, 1884, pp. 439-451; same 
 
 article, Eclectic Magazine, vol. 
 
 40 N.S., pp. 800-807. 
 — Dumas, Soulie, etc. London 
 
 and Westminster Review, vol. 
 
 29, 1838, pp. 73-98. 
 -en Pantoufles, Gozlan's. Na- 
 
 tional Review, vol. 4, 1857, pp. 
 63-84. 
 
 robe de chambre. Le 
 
 -en 
 
 Figaro, by Paul Siraudin, May 
 
 2, 1878. 
 — et sa queue. Le Correspond- 
 
 ant, by Jules Levallois, Aug. 
 
 10, 1877. 
 — Un Grand Homme de Pro- 
 
 Balzac, Honore" de. 
 vince & Paris. Revue de Paris, 
 by Jules Janin, July 1S39. 
 
 How ' ' La Mardtre" came to be 
 
 written. Theatre, by P. Kent 
 vol. 7, 4th series, 1866, pp. 233 
 244. 
 -Hugo's Funeral Oration on 
 
 International Magazine, vol. 1 
 1850, pp. 316, 317. 
 
 Life and Writings of. Dub 
 
 lin University Magazine, vol 
 70, 1867, pp. 363-376, 510-529 
 
 Malheurs et Aventures de Cisar 
 
 Birotteau avarit sa naissance, 
 Figaro, by Edouard Ourliac 
 Dec. 15, 1837. 
 
 Un Minage de Garcon en Pro 
 
 vince. Foreign Quarterly Re 
 view, vol. 30, 1843, pp 369 
 380. 
 
 Monographic de la Presse. 
 
 Journal des Debats, by Jules 
 Janin, Feb. 20, 1843. 
 
 Novels of. North American 
 
 Review, by J. L. Motley, vol. 65, 
 1847, pp. 85-108.— Fortnightly 
 Review, by Leslie Stephen, 
 vol. 9 N.S., 1871, pp. 17-39 ; 
 same article, Littell's Living 
 Age, vol. 108, pp. 515-528.— 
 Temple Bar, vol. 78, 1886, pp. 
 197-212, 384-399, 495-509. 
 
 La Peau de Chagrin. Gazette 
 
 de Frauche-Comt^, Aug. 13, 
 1831. 
 
 Pensees. 
 
 Journal des Debats, 
 by Paul de Molenes, April 15, 
 1852. 
 -Pere Goriot. Literary World 
 
 (Boston), vol. 16, 1885, p. 384. 
 
 Romans et Contes Philoso- 
 
 phiques. Gazette de Franche- 
 Comte, Dec. 21, 1831. 
 
 Saltus Study of. Atlantic 
 
 Monthly, vol. 53, 1884, pp. 
 850-853.— Literary World (Bos- 
 ton), vol. 15, 1884, pp. 89, 90. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 xm 
 
 Balzac, Honore de. 
 
 Sketches of Country Life. 
 
 Monthly Review, vol. 3 N.S., 
 1840, pp. 110-116. 
 
 Struggles of. Tinsley's Maga- 
 zine, by J. Fitzgerald Molloy, 
 vol. 29, 1881, pp. 395-400. 
 
 Balzac, Honore* de. 
 
 Study on. La Semaine, by 
 
 Louis Lurine, May 4, 1856. 
 
 Works of. Le Mousquetaire, 
 
 by Arinand Baschet, March 
 17, 1854 ; also on July 10, 
 by Philibert Audebrand. 
 
 VI. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WORKS. 
 
 I/IIeritiere de Birague . 1822 
 Jean Louis, ou la Fille 
 
 Trouvee ... 1822 
 
 Clothilde de Lusignan . 1822 
 Le Centenaire, ou le Deux 
 
 Beringheld (Le Sorcier) . 1822 
 
 Le Vicaire des Ardennes . 1822 
 La Derniere Fee . .1822 
 Annette et le Criminel 
 
 (Argow le Pirat) . . 1S24 
 Histoire impartialo des 
 
 Jesuites . . . 1824 
 
 Du Droit d'Ainesse . 1824 
 
 Wann-Chlore (Jane la Paie) 1825 
 
 Code des Gens Honnetes . 1825 
 Petit Dictionnaire des En- 
 
 seignes de Paris . . 1826 
 
 Le Dernier Chouan . . 1829 
 
 Physiologie du Mariage . 1830 
 
 Scenes de la Vie Privee . 1830 
 
 La Vendetta. 
 
 Les Dangers de V Inconduite. 
 Le Bal de Sceaux. 
 Gloire et Malheur. 
 La Femme Yertueuse. 
 La Paix du Minage. 
 
 Deuxieme Edition, 1832. 
 
 Contains in addition to 
 the above : — 
 
 Le Conseil. 
 
 La Bourse. 
 
 Le Devoir d 'tine Femme. 
 
 Leg CHibataires. 
 
 Le Rendez-vo>i*. 
 
 La Femme de trente ans. 
 
 Le Doigt de Dieu. 
 
 Les Deux Rencontres. 
 
 L Expiation. 
 Enquete sur la politique 
 
 des deux ministeres . 1831 
 Romans et Contes Puiloso- 
 
 phiques . . . 1831 
 
 La Peau de Chagrin. 
 
 Sarrasine. 
 
 La Cumedie du Diable. 
 
 El Verdugo. 
 
 L' Enfant Maudit. 
 
 L' Elixir de Longue Vie. 
 
 Les Proscrits. 
 
 Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu. 
 
 Le Requisitionnaire. 
 
 Etude de Femme. 
 
 Les Deux RCves. 
 
 Jims-Christ en Flandre. 
 
 L'Eglise. 
 Nouveaux Contes philoso- 
 phises . . . 1832 
 
 Maitre Cornilius. 
 
 Madame Firmiani. 
 
 L'Aubsrge Rouge. 
 
 LouU Lambert. 
 Les Cent Contes Drola- 
 
 tiques. Dixain 1-3 1832-37 
 Le Medecin de Campagne . 1833 
 Etudes de Moeurs au xix e 
 
 Siecle . . 1831-37 
 
 Serie i. — Scenes de la Vie 
 Privee : — 
 
 Le Bal de Sceaux. 
 
 Oloire et Malheur. 
 
 La Vendetta. 
 
 La Fleur des Pois. 
 
XIV 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 La Paix du Minage. 
 La Recherche de I'Absohi. 
 Mime histoire (La Femme 
 
 de trente ans). 
 Souffrances inconnues. 
 Le Doigt de Lieu (2nd Part). 
 La ValUe du Torrent. 
 Seiie ii. — Scenes de la Vie 
 de Province : — 
 Eugenie Grandet. 
 Le Message. 
 Les Celibataires. 
 La Femme Abandonnie. 
 La Grenadiere. 
 L'lllustre Gaudissart. 
 Les Trois Vengeances (La 
 
 Grande Breteche). 
 La Vieille Fille. 
 Illusions perdues. 
 Serie iii. — Scenes de la Vie 
 Parisienne : — 
 
 La Femme Yertueuse(Une 
 
 Double Famille). 
 La Bourse. 
 Papa Gobseck (Les Dangers 
 
 de V Inconduite). 
 Les Marana. 
 Histoire des Treize. 
 Ferragus, chef des D&vo- 
 
 rants. 
 Ne touchez pas a la hache 
 
 (La Duchesse de Langeais). 
 La Fille aux yeux d'or. 
 Profit de Marquise. 
 Sarrasine. 
 La Comtesse & deux maris 
 
 (Le Colonel Chabert). 
 Madame Firmiani. 
 
 1835-40 
 
 Etudes Philosophiques 
 La Peau de Chagrin. 
 Adieu. 
 
 L' Elixir de Longue Vie. 
 El Verdugo. 
 TJn Drame au Bord de la 
 
 Mer. 
 Maltre Cornilius. 
 Jisus-Christ en Flandre. 
 Melmoth reconcile A VEglise. 
 Histoire Tntellectuale de Louis 
 
 Lambert. 
 L' Interdiction. 
 La Messe de VAthie. 
 Les Deux Rives. 
 Facino Cane. 
 Les Martyrs Iqnoris. 
 Le Secret de Bugiiieri. 
 L'Enfant Maxulit. 
 Une Passion dans le Dtsert. 
 L'Auberge Rouge. 
 Le Chef-d'oeuvre Inconnu. 
 
 Gambara. 
 Massimilla Doni. 
 Seraphita. 
 
 Le Pere Goriot . . . 1835 
 Le Livre Mystique . . 1835 
 Le Lys dans la Vallee . 1836 
 L'Excominunie . . 1837 
 
 Histoire de la Grandeur et 
 de la Decadence de Cesar 
 Birotteau . . . 1838 
 La Femme Superieure . 1838 
 Le Cabinet des Antiques . 1839 
 Une Fille d'Eve . . 1839 
 
 Un Grand Homme de Pro- 
 vince a Paris . . . 1839 
 Beatrix .... 1840 
 Vautrin, drama . . 1840 
 Physiologie de l'Employe . 1840 
 Pierrette .... 1840 
 Le Livre des Douleurs . 1840 
 Gambara. 
 Massimilla Doni. 
 Seraphita. 
 Une Princesse Parisienne . 1841 
 Le Cure' de Village . . 1841 
 Ursule Mirouet . . 1842 
 
 Monographic de la Presse 
 
 Parisienne . . . 1842 
 Histoire de l'Ernpe>eur . 1842 
 Les Ressources de Quinola, 
 
 comedy . . . 1842 
 
 Mdmoires de deux jeunes 
 
 marines .... 1842 
 Les Deux Freres . . 1842 
 ffiuvres Completes. La 
 
 Comedie Humaine . 1842-48 
 Scenes de la Vie Politique. 
 
 Une Tenebreuse Affaire . 1843 
 Catherine de Medicis 
 expliqu^e . . . 1843 
 
 [Includes also Le Martyr 
 Caivaniste, Le Secret des 
 Ruggieri, and Les Deux 
 Rives.] 
 La Muse du Departement . 1843 
 Pamela Giraud, drama . 1843 
 David Secbard . . . 1843 
 Un Debut dans la Vie . 1844 
 Modeste Mignon . . 1844 
 Honorine .... 1845 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 xv 
 
 La Lune de Miel . . 1845 
 Petites Miseres de la Vie 
 
 Conjugale 
 Splendeurs et Miseres des 
 
 Courtisanes . 
 Paris marie, philosophie de 
 
 la Vie Conjugale . 
 Histoire des Parents 
 
 Pauvres _ . . 1846-47 
 Le Provincial a Paris . 1847 
 
 Un Draine dans les Prisons 1847 
 La Fennue de soixante ans 
 La Maratre, drama . 
 La derniere Incarnation de 
 
 Vautrin 
 Mercadet, comedy 
 Le Faiseur, do. . . . 
 
 1845 
 1845 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1848 
 1851 
 1853 
 
 Theatre Complet 
 Les Fantaisies de Claudine 
 Traite - de la Vie dlegante . 
 Theorie de la Demarche 
 Peines de ceeur d'une 
 
 Chatte Anglaise 
 Le Depute" d'Arcis 
 Scenes de la Vie de Cam- 
 
 pagne. Les Paysans 
 Le Comte de Sallenauve 
 La Famille Beauvisage 
 Scenes de la Vie Paris- 
 
 ienne 
 
 Les Petits Bourgeois. 
 Les Parvenu*. 
 
 1853 
 1853 
 
 ]-:,:; 
 1853 
 
 1853 
 
 1854 
 
 . 1855 
 . 1855 
 . 1855 
 
 1856-57 
 
 Correspondance de Honore* 
 de Balzac, 1819-50 
 
 1876 
 
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UNTIE-W IBOOIKIILilETS- 
 
 Crown 8vo, in White Embossed Boards, Gilt Lettering, 
 One Shilling each. 
 
 By COUNT LEO TOLSTOI. 
 
 WHERE LOVE IS, THERE GOD 
 
 IS ALSO. 
 
 THE TWO PILGRIMS. 
 
 WHAT MEN LIVE BY. 
 
 Published originally in Russia, as tracts for the people, 
 these little stories, which Mr. Walter Scott will issue 
 separately early in February, in "booklet" form, possess all 
 the grace, naivete, and power which characterise the work of 
 Count Tolstoi, and while inculcating in the most penetrating 
 way the Christian ideas of love, humility, and charity, are 
 perfect in their art form as stories pure and simple. 
 
 ADAPTED FOR PRESENTATION AT EASTER. 
 London : Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane. 
 
THE OXFORD LIBRARY. 
 
 Handsomely Bound in Blue Cloth, Gilt Top, Uncut Edges, 
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 Comprises the most popular Novels of Scott, Dickens, Lytton, 
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 BARNABY RUDGE. 
 
 OLD CURIOSITY SHOP. 
 
 PICKWICK PAPERS. 
 
 NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. 
 
 OLIVER TWIST. 
 
 MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. 
 
 SKETCHES BY BOZ. 
 
 RODERICK RANDOM. 
 
 PEREGRINE PICKLE. 
 
 IVANHOE. 
 
 KENILWORTH. 
 
 JACOB FAITHFUL. 
 
 PETER SIMPLE. 
 
 PAUL CLIFFORD. 
 
 EUGENE ARAM. 
 
 ERNEST MALTRAVERS. 
 
 ALICE ; or, the Mysteries. 
 
 EIENZI. 
 
 PELHAM. 
 
 LAST DAYS OF POMPEII. 
 
 THE SCOTTISH CHIEFS. 
 
 WILSON'S TALES. 
 
 THE INHERITANCE. 
 
 ETHEL LINTON. 
 
 A MOUNTAIN DAISY. 
 
 HAZEL; or, Perilpoint Lighthouse. 
 
 VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. 
 
 PRINCE of the HOUSE of DAVID 
 
 WIDE, WIDE WORLD. 
 
 VILLAGE TALES. 
 
 BEN-HUR. 
 
 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 
 
 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 
 
 THE WHITE SLAVE. 
 
 CHARLES O'MALLEY. 
 
 MIDSHIPMAN EASY. 
 
 BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR. 
 
 HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN. 
 
 LAST OF THE BARONS. 
 
 OLD MORTALITY. 
 
 TOM CRINGLE'S LOG. 
 
 CRUISE OF THE MIDGE. 
 
 COLLEEN BAWN. 
 
 VALENTINE VOX. 
 
 NIGHT AND MORNING. 
 
 BUNYAN. 
 
 FOXE'S BOOK OF MARTYRS. 
 
 MANSFIELD PARK. 
 
 LAST OF THE MOHICANS. 
 
 POOR JACK. 
 
 THE LAMPLIGHTER. 
 
 The above may also be had in Half Morocco, Uncut Edges, Price 3s. 6d. 
 
 London : Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row. 
 
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 The Devil's Whisper. By the Author of 
 
 "Police Sergeant C 21." 
 
 Mysteries and Adventures. By A. Conan 
 
 Doyle, Author of " Micah Clarke." 
 
 The Kara Yerta Tragedy. By J. E. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Cashel Byron's Profession. By G. Bernard 
 
 Shaw. 
 
 Police Sergeant C. 21 : The Story of a 
 
 Crime. By Reginald Barnett. 
 
 Jack Dudley's Wife. By E. M. Davy, 
 
 Author of "A Prince of Como," etc. 
 
 Oak-bough and Wattle-Blossom. Stories 
 
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 Vane's Invention : An Electrical Romance. 
 
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 The Policeman's Lantern. Strange Stories 
 
 of London Life. By James Greenwood, "The Amateur 
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 A Witness from the Dead. (A Special 
 
 Reporter's Story. ) By Florence Layard. 
 
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 Richard Pryce, Author of "An Evil Spirit," etc. 
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 SONNETS OF THIS CENTURY. 
 
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 IN FANCY DRESS. 
 "IT IS THYSELF." 
 
 By MARK ANDRE RAFFALOVICH. 
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 CAROLS FROM THE COAL-FIELDS: 
 
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 Cloth Gilt, Price 3s. 
 
 LAST YEAR'S LEAVES. 
 
 By JOHN JERVIS BERESFORD, M.A. 
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 BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS. 
 
 By GEORGE ROBERTS HEDLEY. 
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 TALES AND BALLADS OF WEARSIDR 
 
 By JOHN GREEN. 
 Second Edition. Price 3s. 
 
 ROMANTIC BALLADS AND POEMS 
 OF PHANTASY. 
 
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 Parchment Limp, 3s. 
 
 DEATH'S DISGUISES and Other Sonnets 
 
 By FRANK T. MARZIALS. 
 London: Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row. 
 
Windsor S eries of Poetical p ologles. 
 
 Printed on Antique Paper. Crown 8vo. Bound in Blue Cloth, 
 
 each with suitable Emblematic Design on Co7;er, Price js. 6d. 
 
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 Women's Voices. An Anthology of the 
 
 most Characteristic Poems by English, Scotch, and Irish Women. 
 Edited by Mrs. William Sharp. 
 
 Sonnets of this Century. With an 
 
 Exhaustive Essay on the Sonnet. Edited by Wm. Sharp. 
 
 The Children of the Poets. An Anthology 
 
 from English and American Writers of Three Centuries. Edited 
 by Professor Eric S. Robertson. 
 
 Sacred Song. A Volume of Religious 
 
 Verse. Selected and arranged by Samuel Waddington. 
 
 A Century of Australian Song, Selected 
 
 and Edited by Douglas B. W. Sladen, B.A., Oxon. 
 
 Jacobite Songs and Ballads. Selected 
 
 and Edited, with Notes, by G. S. Macquoid. 
 
 Irish Minstrelsy. Edited, with Notes and 
 
 Introduction, by H. Halliday Sparling. 
 
 The Sonnets of Europe. A Volume of 
 
 Translations. Selected and arranged by Samuel Waddington. 
 
 Early English and Scottish Poetry. 
 
 Selected and Edited by H. Macaulay Fitzgibbon. 
 
 Ballads of the North Countrie. Edited, 
 
 with Introduction, by Graham R. Tomson. 
 
 Songs and Poems of the Sea. An 
 
 Anthology of Poems Descriptive of the Sea. Edited by Mrs. 
 William Sharp. 
 
 Songs and Poems of Fairyland. An 
 
 Anthology of English Fairy Poetry, selected and arranged, with 
 an Introduction, by Arthur Edward Waite. 
 
 Songs and Poems of the Great Dominion. 
 
 Edited by W. D. Lighthall, of Montreal. 
 London : Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row. 
 
f^E-ISSUE IN MONTHLY VOLUMES, PRICE ONE SHILLING E/\CH, 
 
 STRONGLY BOUND IN CLOTH, 
 Uniform in size and style with the Camelot Series, 
 
 WILSON'S 
 
 TALES OF THE BORDERS 
 
 AND OF SCOTLAND: 
 HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, AND IMAGINATIVE. 
 
 REVISED BY ALEXANDER LEIGHTON. 
 
 No collection of tales published in a serial form ever enjoyed so 
 great a popularity as " The Tales of the Borders ; " and 
 the secret of their success lies in the fact that they are stories 
 in the truest sense of the word, illustrating in a graphic and 
 natural style the manners and customs, trials and sorrows, 
 sins and backslidings, of the men and women of whom they 
 treat. The heroes and heroines of these admirable stories belong 
 to every rank of life, from the king and noble to the humble 
 peasant. 
 
 "The Tales of the Borders" have always been immensely 
 popular with the young, and whether we view them in their 
 moral aspect, or as vehicles for instruction and amusement, the 
 collected series forms a repertory of healthy and interesting 
 literature unrivalled in the language. 
 
 The Scotsman says : — ' ' Those who have read the tales in the 
 unwieldy tomes in which they are to be found in the libraries will 
 welcome the publication of this neat, handy, and well-printed edition." 
 
 The Dundee Advertiser says : — "Considering how attractive are these 
 tales, whether regarded as illustrating Scottish life, or as entertaining 
 items of romance, there can be no doubt of their continued popularity. 
 We last read them in volumes the size of a family Bible, and we are 
 glad to have an opportunity to renew our acquaintance with them in a 
 form so much more handy and elegant." 
 
 EACH VOLUME WILL BE COMPLETE IN ITSELF. 
 London: Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane, Paturnoster Row. 
 
Crown Svo, Cloth, 
 PRICE ONE SHILLING. 
 
 ELOCUTION 
 
 BY 
 
 T. R. WALTON PEARSON, M.A. 
 
 Of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge^ 
 AND 
 
 FREDERIC WILLIAM WAITHMAN, 
 
 lecturer on Elocution in the Leeds and 
 Bradford Institutes. 
 
 London: WALTER SCOTT, '24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Bow. 
 
100th thousand. 
 
 CROWN 8vo, 440 PAGES, PRICE ONE SHILLING. 
 
 THE WORLD 
 
 OF CANT 
 
 " Daily Telegraph" — " Decidedly a book with a purpose." 
 
 "Scotsman." — "A vigorous, clever, and almost ferocious exposure, 
 in the form of a story, of the numerous shams and injustices." 
 
 "Newcastle Weekly Chronicle.'" — "Trenchant in sarcasm, warm in 
 commendation of high purpose. . . . A somewhat rema7kable book." 
 
 "London Figaro." — "It cannot be said that the author is partial; 
 clergymen and Nonconformist divines, Liberals and Conservatives, 
 lawyers and tradesmen, all come under his lash. . . . The sketches are 
 worth reading. Some of the characters are portrayed with considerable 
 skill." 
 
 " May the Lord deliver us from all Cant : may the Lord, whatever 
 else He do or forbear, teach us to look facts honestly in the face, and to 
 beware (with a kind of shudder) of smearing them over with our 
 despicable and damnable palaver into irrecognisability, and so falsifying 
 the Lord's own Gospels to His unhappy blockheads of Children, 
 all staggering down to Gehenna and the everlasting Swine's-trough, for 
 want of Gospels. 
 
 "O Heaven ! it is the most accursed sin of man: and done every- 
 where at present, on the streets and high places at noonday ! Verily, 
 seriously I say and pray as my chief orison, May the Lord deliver us 
 from it. " — Letter from Carlyle to Emerson. 
 
 London : Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row- 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 DEC 17 15J36 
 
 DEC 1' 
 
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