



Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers





                               VAUTRIN
                         A DRAMA IN FIVE ACTS

                                  BY

                           HONORE DE BALZAC



                Presented for the first time at the
                 Porte-Saint-Martin Theatre, Paris
                           March 14, 1840



                           AUTHOR'S PREFACE

It is difficult for the playwright to put himself, five days after the
first presentation of his piece, in the situation in which he felt
himself on the morning after the event; but it is still more difficult
to write a preface to _Vautrin_, to which every one has written his
own. The single utterance of the author will infallibly prove inferior
to so vast a number of divergent expressions. The report of a cannon
is never so effective as a display of