Honoré Balzac - The Best Works of Balzac

Honoré de Balzac

Father Goriot, Pierre Grassou, Cousin Pons, Cousin Betty, Colonel Chabert, Catherine de Medici…

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Novels NOVELS Table of Contents

The Chouans THE CHOUANS Table of Contents I. An Ambuscade II. One of Fouche’s Ideas III. A Day Without a Morrow

At the Sign of the Cat and Racket AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET Table of Contents

Vendetta VENDETTA Table of Contents Chapter I. Prologue Chapter II. The Studio Chapter III. Labedoyere’s Friend Chapter IV. Love Chapter V. Marriage Chapter VI. Retribution

The Magic Skin THE MAGIC SKIN Table of Contents I. The Talisman II. A Woman Without a Heart III. The Agony Epilogue

The Exiles

Louis Lambert

Eugenie Grandet

The Country Doctor

Ferragus

The Duchesse De Langeais

The Alkahest

Seraphita

Father Goriot

The Lily of the Valley

The Marriage Contract

An Old Maid

Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau

The Collection of Antiquities

A Daughter of Eve

Beatrix

The Village Rector

Ursule Mirouet

Letters of Two Brides

Paz

A Woman of Thirty

Albert Savarus

The Two Brothers

A Start in Life

Two Poets

Honorine

Modeste Mignon

Cousin Betty

Scenes From a Courtesan's Life

Cousin Pons

The Brotherhood of Consolation

Sons of the Soil

Catherine De' Medici

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

The Lesser Bourgeoisie

Novellas

The Ball at Sceaux

Sarrasine

A Second Home

Domestic Peace

Gobseck

El Verdugo

Colonel Chabert

The Vicar of Tours

The Girl With the Golden Eyes

Secrets of the Princesse De Cadignan

Z. Marcas

Pierrette

The Muse of the Department

Eve and David

Bureaucracy

Short Stories

Study of a Woman

Another Study of Woman

The Grand Breteche

Farewell

The Unknown Masterpiece

The Recruit

The Red Inn

The Purse

La Grenadiere

The Message

A Drama on the Seashore

The Atheist's Mass

Facino Cane

Gambara

Massimilla Doni

Pierre Grassou

An Episode Under the Terror

Madame Firmiani

The Deserted Woman

The Commission in Lunacy

The Illustrious Gaudissart

A Prince of Bohemia

A Man of Business

Gaudissart Ii

Unconscious Comedians

The Firm of Nucingen

A Passion in the Desert

Christ in Flanders

The Napoleon of the People

The Fair Imperia

The Venial Sin

The King’s Sweetheart

The Devil’s Heir

The Merrie Jests of King Louis the Eleventh

The High Constable’s Wife

The Maid of Thilouse

The Brothers-In-Arms

The Vicar of Azay-Le-Rideau

The Reproach

The Three Clerks of St. Nicholas

The Continence of King Francis the First

The Merry Tattle of the Nuns of Poissy

How the Chateau D’azay Came to Be Built

The False Courtesan

The Danger of Being Too Innocent

The Dear Night of Love

The Sermon of the Merry Vicar of Meudon

The Succubus

Despair in Love

Perseverance in Love

Concerning a Provost Who Did Not Recognise Things

About the Monk Amador, Who Was a Glorious Abbot of Turpenay

Bertha the Penitent

How the Pretty Maid of Portillon Convinced Her Judge

In Which It Is Demonstrated That Fortune Is Always Feminine

Concerning a Poor Man Who Was Called Le Vieux Par-Chemins

Odd Sayings of Three Pilgrims

Innocence

The Fair Imperia Married

A Street Of Paris And Its Inhabitant

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

I. An Ambuscade

II. One of Fouche’s Ideas

III. A Day Without a Morrow

To Monsieur Theodore Dablin, Merchant.

To my first friend, my first work.

De Balzac.

Table of Contents

Early in the year VIII., at the beginning of Vendemiaire, or, to conform to our own calendar, towards the close of September, 1799, a hundred or so of peasants and a large number of citizens, who had left Fougeres in the morning on their way to Mayenne, were going up the little mountain of La Pelerine, half-way between Fougeres and Ernee, a small town where travellers along that road are in the habit of resting. This company, divided into groups that were more or less numerous, presented a collection of such fantastic costumes and a mixture of individuals belonging to so many and diverse localities and professions that it will be well to describe their characteristic differences, in order to give to this history the vivid local coloring to which so much value is attached in these days,—though some critics do assert that it injures the representation of sentiments.

Many of the peasants, in fact the greater number, were barefooted, and wore no other garments than a large goatskin, which covered them from the neck to the knees, and trousers of white and very coarse linen, the ill-woven texture of which betrayed the slovenly industrial habits of the region. The straight locks of their long hair mingling with those of the goatskin hid their faces, which were bent on the ground, so completely that the garment might have been thought their own skin, and they themselves mistaken at first sight for a species of the animal which served them as clothing. But through this tangle of hair their eyes were presently seen to shine like dew-drops in a thicket, and their glances, full of human intelligence, caused fear rather than pleasure to those who met them. Their heads were covered with a dirty head-gear of red flannel, not unlike the Phrygian cap which the Republic had lately adopted as an emblem of liberty. Each man carried over his shoulder a heavy stick of knotted oak, at the end of which hung a linen bag with little in it. Some wore, over the red cap, a coarse felt hat, with a broad brim adorned by a sort of woollen chenille of many colors which was fastened round it. Others were clothed entirely in the coarse linen of which the trousers and wallets of all were made, and showed nothing that was distinctive of the new order of civilization. Their long hair fell upon the collar of a round jacket with square pockets, which reached to the hips only, a garment peculiar to the peasantry of western France. Beneath this jacket, which was worn open, a waistcoat of the same linen with large buttons was visible. Some of the company marched in wooden shoes; others, by way of economy, carried them in their hand. This costume, soiled by long usage, blackened with sweat and dust, and less original than that of the other men, had the historic merit of serving as a transition between the goatskins and the brilliant, almost sumptuous, dress of a few individuals dispersed here and there among the groups, where they shone like flowers. In fact, the blue linen trousers of these last, and their red or yellow waistcoats, adorned with two parallel rows of brass buttons and not unlike breast-plates, stood out as vividly among the white linen and shaggy skins of their companions as the corn-flowers and poppies in a wheat-field.