Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A - Z | Page 2

society,
but placed therein a multitude of personages so real, so distinct with
vitality, that biographies of them seem no more than simple justice. We
can do no more, then, than follow the advice of Balzac--to quote again
from the original title-page--and "give a parallel to the civil register."

J. WALKER McSPADDEN

INTRODUCTION
Are you a confirmed Balzacian?--to employ a former expression of
Gautier in Jeune France on the morrow following the appearance of
that mystic Rabelaisian epic, The Magic Skin. Have you experienced,
while reading at school or clandestinely some stray volume of the
Comedie Humaine, a sort of exaltation such as no other book had
aroused hitherto, and few have caused since? Have you dreamed at an
age when one plucks in advance all the fruit from the tree of life --yet
in blossom--I repeat, have you dreamed of being a Daniel d'Arthez, and
of covering yourself with glory by the force of your achievements, in
order to be requited, some day, for all the sufferings of your
poverty-stricken youth, by the sublime Diane, Duchesse de
Maufrigneuse, Princesse de Cadignan?
Or, perchance, being more ambitious and less literary, you have desired
to see--like a second Rastignac, the doors of high society opened to
your eager gaze by means of the golden key suspended from Delphine
de Nucingen's bracelet?
Romancist, have you sighed for the angelic tenderness of a Henriette de
Mortsauf, and realized in your dreams the innocent emotions excited by
culling nosegays, by listening to tales of grief, by furtive hand-clasps
on the banks of a narrow river, blue and placid, in a valley where your
friendship flourishes like a fair, delicate lily, the ideal, the chaste
flower?
Misanthrope, have you caressed the chimera, to ward off the dark hours
of advancing age, of a friendship equal to that with which the good
Schmucke enveloped even the whims of his poor Pons? Have you
appreciated the sovereign power of secret societies, and deliberated
with yourself as to which of your acquaintances would be most worthy
to enter The Thirteen? In your mind's eye has the map of France ever
appeared to be divided into as many provinces as the Comedie

Humaine has stories? Has Tours stood for Birotteau, La Gamard, for
the formidable Abbe Troubert; Douai, Claes; Limoges, Madame
Graslin; Besancon, Savarus and his misguided love; Angouleme,
Rubempre; Sancerre, Madame de la Baudraye; Alencon, that touching,
artless old maid to whom her uncle, the Abbe de Sponde, remarked
with gentle irony: "You have too much wit. You don't need so much to
be happy"?
Oh, sorcery of the most wonderful magician of letters the world has
seen since Shakespeare! If you have come under the spell of his
enchantments, be it only for an hour, here is a book that will delight
you, a book that would have pleased Balzac himself--Balzac, who was
more the victim of his work than his most fanatical readers, and whose
dream was to compete with the civil records. This volume of nearly six
hundred pages is really the civil record of all the characters in the
Comedie Humaine, by which you may locate, detail by detail, the
smallest adventures of the heroes who pass and repass through the
various novels, and by which you can recall at a moment's notice the
emotions once awakened by the perusal of such and such a masterpiece.
More modestly, it is a kind of table of contents, of a unique type; a
table of living contents!
Many Balzacians have dreamed of compiling such a civil record. I
myself have known of five or six who attempted this singular task. To
cite only two names out of the many, the idea of this unusual Vapereau
ran through the head of that keen and delicate critic, M. Henri Meilhac,
and of that detective in continued stories, Emile Gaboriau. I believe
that I also have among the papers of my eighteenth year some sheets
covered with notes taken with the same intention. But the labor was too
exhaustive. It demanded an infinite patience, combined with an
inextinguishable ardor and enthusiasm. The two faithful disciples of the
master who have conjoined their efforts to uprear this monument, could
not perhaps have overcome the difficulties of the undertaking if they
had not supported each other, bringing to the common work, M.
Christophe his painstaking method, M. Cerfberr his accurate memory,
his passionate faith in the genius of the great Honore, a faith that
carried unshakingly whole mountains of documents.

A pleasing chapter of literary gossip might be written about this
collaboration; a melancholy chapter, since it brings with it the memory
of a charming man, who first brought Messieurs Cerfberr and
Christophe together, and who has since died under mournful
circumstances. His name was Albert Allenet, and he was chief editor of