The Human Comedy: Introductions and Appendix by Honoré de Balzac (read 50 shades of grey .txt) 📕

have actually lived more and more up to his painting of them.

And last of all, but also greatest, has to be considered the immensity of his imaginative achievement, the huge space that he has filled for us with vivid creation, the range of amusement, of instruction, of (after a fashion) edification which he has thrown open for us all to walk in. It is possible that he himself and others more or less well-meaningly, though more or less maladroitly, following his lead, may have exaggerated the coherence and the architectural design of the _Comedie_. But it has coherence and it has design; nor shall we find anything exactly to parallel it. In mere bulk the _Comedie_ probably, if not certainly, exceeds the production of any novelist of the first class in any kind of fiction except Dumas, and with Dumas, for various and well-known reasons, there is no possibility of comparing it. All others yield in bulk; all in a certain concentration and intensity; none even aims at anything like the same system and completeness. It must be remembered that owing to shortness of life, lateness of beginning, and the diversion of the author to other work, the _Comedie_ is the production, and not the sole production, of some seventeen or eighteen years at most. Not a volume of it, for all that failure to reach the completest perfection in form and style which has been acknowledged, can be accused of thinness, of scamped work, of mere repetition, of mere cobbling up. Every one bears the marks of steady and ferocious labor, as well as of the genius which had at last come where it had been so earnestly called and had never gone away again. It is possible to overpraise Balzac in parts or to mispraise him as a whole. But so long as inappropriate and superfluous comparisons are avoided and as his own excellence is recognized and appreciated, it is scarcely possible to overestimate that excellence in itself and for itself. He stands alone; even with Dickens, who is his nearest analogue, he shows far more points of difference than of likeness. His vastness of bulk is not more remarkable than his peculiarity of quality; and when these two things coincide in literature or elsewhere, then that in which they coincide may be called, and must be called, Great, without hesitation and without reserve.

GEORGE SAINTSBURY.



APPENDIX

THE BALZAC PLAN OF THE COMEDIE HUMAINE

The form in which the Comedie Humaine was left by its author, with the exceptions of _Le Depute d'Arcis_ (incomplete) and _Les Petits Bourgeois_, both of which were added, some years later, by the Edition Definitive.

The original French titles are followed by their English equivalents. Literal translations have been followed, excepting a few instances where preference is shown for a clearer or more comprehensive English title.


COMEDIE HUMAINE


SCENES DE LA VIE PRIVEE

SCENES FROM PRIVATE LIFE

La Maison du Chat-qui Pelote
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket

Le Bal de Sceaux
The Ball at Sceaux

La Bourse
The Purse

La Vendetta
The Vendetta

Mme. Firmiani
Madame Firmiani

Une Double Famille
A Second Home

La Paix du Menage
Domestic Peace

La Fausse Maitresse
The Imaginary Mistress
Paz

Etude de femme
A Study of Woman

Autre etude de femme
Another Study of Woman

La Grande Breteche
La Grand Breteche

Albert Savarus
Albert Savarus

Memoires de deux Jeunes Mariees
Letters of Two Brides

Une Fille d'Eve
A Daughter of Eve

La Femme de Trente Ans
A Woman of Thirty

La Femme abandonnee
The Deserted Woman

La Grenadiere
La Grenadiere

Le Message
The Message

Gobseck
Gobseck

Le Contrat de Mariage
A Marriage Settlement
A Marriage Contract

Un Debut dans la vie
A Start in Life

Modeste Mignon
Modeste Mignon

Beatrix
Beatrix

Honorine
Honorine

Le Colonel Chabert
Colonel Chabert

La Messe de l'Athee
The Atheist's Mass

L'Interdiction
The Commission in Lunacy

Pierre Grassou
Pierre Grassou

SCENES DE LA VIE PROVINCE

SCENES FROM PROVINCIAL LIFE

Ursule Mirouet
Ursule Mirouet

Eugenie Grandet
Eugenie Grandet

Les Celibataires:
The Celibates:
Pierrette
Pierrette

Le Cure de Tours
The Vicar of Tours

Un Menage de Garcon
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Two Brothers
The Black Sheep
La Rabouilleuse

Les Parisiens en Province:
Parisians in the Country:
L'illustre Gaudissart
Gaudissart the Great
The Illustrious Gaudissart

La Muse du departement
The Muse of the Department

Les Rivalites:
The Jealousies of a Country Town:
La Vieille Fille
The Old Maid

Le Cabinet des antiques
The Collection of Antiquities

Le Lys dans la Vallee
The Lily of the Valley

Illusions Perdues:--I.
Lost Illusions:--I.
Les Deux Poetes
The Two Poets

Un Grand homme de province a Paris, 1re partie
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Part 1

Illusions Perdues:--II.
Lost Illusions:--II.
Un Grand homme de province, 2e p.
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Part 2

Eve et David
Eve and David

SCENES DE LA VIE PARISIENNE

SCENES FROM PARISIAN LIFE

Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisanes:
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life:
Esther heureuse
Esther Happy

A combien l'amour revient aux vieillards
What Love Costs an Old Man

Ou menent les mauvais Chemins
The End of Evil Ways

La derniere Incarnation de Vautrin
Vautrin's Last Avatar

Un Prince de la Boheme
A Prince of Bohemia

Un Homme d'affaires
A Man of Business

Gaudissart II.
Gaudissart II.

Les Comediens sans le savoir
The Unconscious Humorists
The Unconscious Comedians

Histoire des Treize:
The Thirteen:
Ferragus
Ferragus

La Duchesse de Langeais
The Duchesse de Langeais

La Fille aux yeux d'or
The Girl with the Golden Eyes

Le Pere Goriot
Father Goriot
Old Goriot

Grandeur et Decadence de Cesar Birotteau
The Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau

La Maison Nucingen
The Firm of Nucingen

Les Secrets de la princesse de Cadignan
The Secrets of a Princess
The Secrets of the Princess Cadignan

Les Employes
The Government Clerks
Bureaucracy

Sarrasine
Sarrasine

Facino Cane
Facine Cane

Les Parents Pauvres:--I.
Poor Relations:--I.
La Cousine Bette
Cousin Betty

Les Parents Pauvres:--II.
Poor Relations:--II.
Le Cousin Pons
Cousin Pons

Les Petits Bourgeois
The Middle Classes
The Lesser Bourgeoise

SCENES DE LA VIE POLITIQUE

SCENES FROM POLITICAL LIFE

Une Tenebreuse Affaire
The Gondreville Mystery
An Historical Mystery

Un Episode sous la Terreur
An Episode Under the Terror

L'Envers de l'Histoire Contemporaine:
The Seamy Side of History:
The Brotherhood of Consolation:
Mme. de la Chanterie
Madame de la Chanterie

L'Initie
Initiated
The Initiate

Z. Marcas
Z. Marcas

Le Depute d'Arcis
The Member for Arcis
The Deputy for Arcis

SCENES DE LA VIE MILITAIRE

SCENES FROM MILITARY LIFE

Les Chouans
The Chouans

Une Passion dans le desert
A Passion in the Desert

SCENES DE LA VIE DE CAMPAGNE

SCENES FROM COUNTRY LIFE

Le Medecin de Campagne
The Country Doctor

Le Cure de Village
The Country Parson
The Village Rector

Les Paysans
The Peasantry
Sons of the Soil

ETUDES PHILOSOPHIQUES

PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES

La Peau de Chagrin