The Human Comedy: Introductions and Appendix - Honoré de Balzac (the snowy day read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Honoré de Balzac
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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
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