Edgar Saltus - Balzac

Nothing but that which affects the individual proper has herein been treated, and the fragments of the “Scènes de la Vie Politique” express, in consequence, a wider range of thought. In these pages the actors represent the interest of the masses, and place themselves above those laws to which the types in the preceding series were subjected. The foregoing divisions described the constant antagonism of thought and sentiment, but in these scenes thought is an organizing force and sentiment is completely abolished. They are, however, incomplete, as are also the “Scènes de la Vie Militaire,” in which Balzac proposed to represent the action as taking place, not in an apartment, but on the battle-field; not in the struggle of man with man, but in the concussion of France and Europe, in the slaughter of the conquered and the pæans of the victors.

After these pages, whose completion was prevented by his sudden death, the calm and peaceful pictures of the “Scènes de la Vie de Campagne” follow in orderly sequence. They represent rest after exertion, landscapes after interiors, the hush of the country after the uproar of the city, the cicatrice after the wound. This last division contains the same interests and the same struggles, but weakened now by lack of contact, like passions grown dull in solitude. It is the twilight of a busy day, a summer evening solemn with sombre shadows. It contains the purest characters and the application of the great principles of order, morality, and religion, and its actors, worn with the fatigues of the world, mingle complacently with the innocence of childhood. 14 14 See Introduction by M. Felix Davin to the first edition of the Comédie Humaine .

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Balzac , by Madame de Surville. Calmann Lévy, Paris.

Correspondance de H. de Balzac. Calmann Lévy, Paris, 1877.

The present title is Jane la Pâle .

Les Rivalités. .

Le Médecin de Campagne.

Ursule Mirouët.

Gobseck.

Le Père Goriot.

Honoré de Balzac , par Théophile Gautier. Un volume in-18, chez Poulet-Malanis, 1859.

La Fille aux Yeux d’Or.

See La Canne de M. de Balzac , par Madame de Girardin. Dumont, 1838.

The cholera.

Stomachic disorders, caused by the abuse of coffee.

See Introduction by M. Felix Davin to the first edition of the Comédie Humaine .