Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A - Z | Page 9

Restoration. Born in 1777. In September, 1819, he went hunting in the
edge of the forest of l'Isle-Adam with his friend Philippe de Sucy, who
suddenly fell senseless at the sight of a poor madwoman whom he
recognized as a former mistress, Stephanie de Vandieres. The Marquis
d'Albon, assisted by two passers by, M. and Mme. de Granville,
resuscitated M. de Sucy. Then the marquis returned, at his friend's
entreaty, to the home of Stephanie, where he learned from the uncle of
this unfortunate one the sad story of the love of his friend and Madame

de Vandieres. [Farewell.]
ALBRIZZI (Comtesse), a friend, in 1820, at Venice, of the celebrated
melomaniac, Capraja. [Massimilla Doni.]
ALDRIGGER (Jean-Baptiste, Baron d'), born in Alsace in 1764. In
1800 a banker at Strasbourg, where he was at the apogee of a fortune
made during the Revolution, he wedded, partly through ambition,
partly through inclination, the heiress of the Adolphuses of Manheim.
The young daughter was idolized by every one in her family and
naturally inherited all their fortune after some ten years. Aldrigger,
created baron by the Emperor, was passionately devoted to the great
man who had bestowed upon him his title, and he ruined himself,
between 1814 and 1815, by believing too deeply in "the sun of
Austerlitz." At the time of the invasion, the trustworthy Alsatian
continued to pay on demand and closed up his bank, thus meriting the
remark of Nucingen, his former head-clerk: "Honest, but stoobid." The
Baron d'Aldrigger went at once to Paris. There still remained to him an
income of forty-four thousand francs, reduced at his death, in 1823, by
more than half on account of the expenditures and carelessness of his
wife. The latter was left a widow with two daughters, Malvina and
Isaure. [The Firm of Nucingen.]
ALDRIGGER (Theodora-Marguerite-Wilhelmine, Baronne d'), nee
Adolphus. Daughter of the banker Adolphus of Manheim, greatly
spoiled by her parents. In 1800 she married the Strasbourg banker,
Aldrigger, who spoiled her as badly as they had done and as later did
the two daughters whom she had by her husband. She was superficial,
incapable, egotistic, coquettish and pretty. At forty years of age she still
preserved almost all her freshness and could be called "the little
Shepherdess of the Alps." In 1823, when the baron died, she came near
following him through her violent grief. The following morning at
breakfast she was served with small pease, of which she was very fond,
and these small pease averted the crisis. She resided in the rue Joubert,
Paris, where she held receptions until the marriage of her younger
daughter. [The Firm of Nucingen.]
ALDRIGGER (Malvina d'), elder daughter of the Baron and Baroness

d'Aldrigger, born at Strasbourg in 1801, at the time when the family
was most wealthy. Dignified, slender, swarthy, sensuous, she was a
good type of the woman "you have seen at Barcelona." Intelligent,
haughty, whole-souled, sentimental and sympathetic, she was
nevertheless smitten by the dry Ferdinand du Tillet, who sought her
hand in marriage at one time, but forsook her when he learned of the
bankruptcy of the Aldrigger family. The lawyer Desroches also
considered asking the hand of Malvina, but he too gave up the idea.
The young girl was counseled by Eugene de Rastignac, who took it
upon himself to see that she got married. Nevertheless, she ended by
being an old maid, withering day by day, giving piano lessons, living
rather meagrely with her mother in a modest flat on the third floor, in
the rue du Mont-Thabor. [The Firm of Nucingen.]
ALDRIGGER (Isaure d'), second daughter of the Baron and Baronne
d'Aldrigger, married to Godefroid de Beaudenord (See that name.) [The
Firm of Nucingen.]
ALINE, a young Auvergne chambermaid in the service of Madame
Veronique Graslin, to whom she was devoted body and soul. She was
probably the only one to whom was confided all the terrible secrets
pertaining to the life of Madame Graslin. [The Country Parson.]
ALLEGRAIN* (Christophe-Gabriel), French sculptor, born in 1710.
With Lauterbourg and Vien, at Rome, in 1758, he assisted his friend
Sarrasine to abduct Zambinella, then a famous singer. The prima-donna
was a eunuch. [Sarrasine.]
* To the sculptor Allegrain who died in 1795, the Louvre Museum is
indebted for a "Narcisse," a "Diana," and a "Venus entering the Bath."
ALPHONSE, a friend of the ruined orphan, Charles Grandet, tarrying
temporarily at Saumur. In 1819 he acquitted himself most creditably of
a mission entrusted to him by that young man. He wound up Charles'
business at Paris, paying all his debts by a single little sale. [Eugenie
Grandet.]
AL-SARTCHILD, name of a German banking-house, where Gedeon

Brunner was compelled to deposit the funds belonging to his son
Frederic and inherited from his mother. [Cousin Pons.]
ALTHOR (Jacob), a Hambourg banker, who opened up