Repertory of the Comedie Humaine Part 1 | Page 4

presents a
separate Rubempre episode, is given as /A Distinguished Provincial at
Paris/. The three parts of /The Thirteen/--/Ferragus/, /The Duchess of
Langeais/, and /The Girl with the Golden Eyes/--are given under the
general title. The fourth part of /Scenes from a Courtesan's Life/,
/Vautrin's Last Avatar/, which until the Edition Definitive had been
published separately, is here merged into its final place. But the three
parts of /The Celibates/-- /Pierrette/, /The Vicar of Tours/ and /A
Bachelor's Establishment/, being detached, are given separately. Other
minor instances occur, but should be readily cleared up by reference to
the Indices, also to the General Introduction given elsewhere.

In the preparation of this English text, great care has been exercised to
gain accuracy--a quality not found in other versions now extant. In one
or two instances, errors have been discovered in the original French,
notably in dates--probably typographical errors--which have been
corrected by means of foot-notes. A few unimportant elisions have
been made for the sake of brevity and coherence. Many difficulties
confront the translator in the preparation of material of this nature,
involving names, dates and titles. Opportunities are constantly afforded
for error, and the work must necessarily be painstaking in order to be
successful. We desire here to express appreciation for the valuable
assistance of Mr. Norman Hinsdale Pitman.
To Balzac, more than to any other author, a Repertory of characters is
applicable; for he it was who not only created an entire human 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