The Jealousies of a Country Town

The Jealousies of a Country
Town

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Title: The Jealousies of a Country Town
Author: Honore de Balzac
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7950] [This file was first posted on

June 4, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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THE JEALOUSIES OF A COUNTRY TOWN
BY
HONORE DE BALZAC

INTRODUCTION
The two stories of Les Rivalites are more closely connected than it was
always Balzac's habit to connect the tales which he united under a
common heading. Not only are both devoted to the society of
Alencon--a town and neighborhood to which he had evidently strong,
though it is not clearly known what, attractions--not only is the
Chevalier de Valois a notable figure in each; but the community,
imparted by the elaborate study of the old noblesse in each case, is even
greater than either of these ties could give. Indeed, if instead of Les
Rivalites the author had chosen some label indicating the study of the
_noblesse qui s'en va_, it might almost have been preferable. He did not,
however; and though in a man who so constantly changed his titles and
his arrangements the actual ones are not excessively authoritative, they
have authority.

La Vieille Fille, despite a certain tone of levity--which, to do Balzac
justice, is not common with him, and which is rather hard upon the
poor heroine--is one of the best and liveliest things he ever did. The
opening picture of the Chevalier, though, like other things of its
author's, especially in his overtures, liable to the charge of being
elaborated a little too much, is one of the very best things of its kind,
and is a sort of locus classicus for its subject. The whole picture of
country town society is about as good as it can be; and the only blot
that I know is to be found in the sentimental Athanase, who is not quite
within Balzac's province, extensive as that province is. If we compare
Mr. Augustus Moddle, we shall see one of the not too numerous
instances in which Dickens has a clear advantage over Balzac; and if it
be retorted that Balzac's object was not to present a merely ridiculous
object, the rejoinder is not very far to seek. Such a character, with such
a fate as Balzac has assigned to him, must be either humorously
grotesque or unfeignedly pathetic, and Balzac has not quite made
Athanase either.
He is, however, if he is a failure, about the only failure in the book, and
he is atoned for by a whole bundle of successes. Of the Chevalier, little
more need be said. Balzac, it must be remembered, was the oldest
novelist of distinct genius who had the opportunity of delineating the
survivors of the ancien regime from the life, and directly. It is
certain--even if we hesitate at believing him quite so familiar with all
the classes of higher society from the Faubourg downwards, as he
would have us believe him--that he saw something of most of them,
and his genius was unquestionably of the kind to which a mere
thumbnail study, a mere passing view, suffices for the acquisition of a
thorough working knowledge of the object. In this case the Chevalier
has served, and not improperly served, as the original of a thousand
after-studies. His rival, less carefully projected, is also perhaps a little
less alive. Again, Balzac was old enough to have foregathered with
many men of the Revolution. But the most characteristic of them were
not long-lived, the "little