



Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Josephine Paolucci
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net.







THE WORKS OF HONORE De BALZAC

About Catherine de' Medici

Seraphita

AND OTHER STORIES

With Introductions by

GEORGE SAINTSBURY

UNIVERSITY EDITION

AVIL PUBLISHING COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA.

COPYRIGHTED 1901

BY

John D. Avil

_All Rights Reserved_




CONTENTS


PART I

                                                                 PAGE

_INTRODUCTION_                                                     ix

_ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI_:
              (_Sur Catherine de Medicis_)

PREFACE                                                             3

PART I. THE CALVINIST MARTYR                                       44

 "  II. THE RUGGIERI'S SECRET                                     233

 " III. THE TWO DREAMS                                            308

_GAMBARA_                                                         327

      (_Gambara_)


PART II

_INTRODUCTION_                                                     ix

_SERAPHITA_:

      (_Seraphita_)

I. SERAPHITUS                                                       2

II. SERAPHITA                                                      22

III. SERAPHITA--SERAPHITUS                                         40

IV. THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY                                    82

V. THE FAREWELL                                                   112

VI. THE ROAD TO HEAVEN                                            123

VII. THE ASSUMPTION                                               134

_LOUIS LAMBERT_                                                   145

      (_Louis Lambert_)

_THE EXILES_

      (_Les Proscrits_)

      ALMAE SORORI                                                259

_MAITRE CORNELIUS_                                                293

      (_Maitre Cornelius_)

_THE ELIXIR OF LIFE_                                              359

      (_L'Elixir de longue Vie_)

      (Translators, CLARA BELL AND JAMES WARING)




ILLUSTRATIONS


PART I

QUADRANGLE OF THE COLLEGE OF VENDOME WHERE
BALZAC WAS EDUCATED                                   _Frontispiece_

                                                                 PAGE

"I AM CHAUDIEU!"                                                   53

PLACED HIMSELF IN FRONT OF A LOOKING-GLASS                        328


PART II

TOWER IN WHICH BALZAC PASSED MOST OF HIS TIME
AT COLLEGE                                                        164

HE NOW SAW WITH A TERRIFIED SHUDDER THAT THERE
WAS A BRIGHT LIGHT ON THE STAIRS, AND PERCEIVED
CORNELIUS, IN HIS OLD DALMATIC, CARRYING
HIS LAMP                                                          324




ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI

AND

GAMBARA




INTRODUCTION


This book (as to which it is important to remember the _Sur_ if injustice
is not to be done to the intentions of the author) has plenty of interest
of more kinds than one; but it is perhaps more interesting because of the
place it holds in Balzac's work than for itself. He had always considerable
hankerings after the historical novel: his early and lifelong devotion to
Scott would sufficiently account for that. More than one of the _Oeuvres
de Jeunesse_ attempts the form in a more or less conscious way: the
_Chouans_, the first successful book, definitely attempts it; but by far
the most ambitious attempt is to be found in the book before us. It is most
probable that it was of this, if of anything of his own, that Balzac was
thinking when, in 1846, he wrote disdainfully to Madame Hanska about Dumas,
and expressed himself towards _Les Trois Mousquetaires_ (which had whiled
him through a day of cold and inability to work) nearly as ungratefully as
Carlyle did towards Captain Marryat. And though it is, let it be repeated,
a mistake, and a rather unfair mistake, to give such a title to the book as
might induce readers to regard it as a single and definite novel, of which
Catherine is the heroine, though it is made up of three parts written at
very different times, it has a unity which the introduction shows to some
extent, and which a rejected preface given by M. de Lovenjoul shows still
better.

To understand this, we must remember that Balzac, though not exactly an
historical scholar, was a considerable student of history; and that,
although rather an amateur politician, he was a constant thinker and writer
on political subjects. We must add to these remembrances the fact of his
intense interest in all such matters as Alchemy, the Elixir of Life, and so
forth, to which the sixteenth century in general, and Catherine de' Medici
in particular, were known to be devoted. All these interests of his met in
the present book, the parts of which appeared in inverse order, and the
genesis of which is important enough to make it desirable to incorporate
some of the usual bibliographical matter in the substance of this preface.
The third and shortest, _Les Deux Reves_, a piece partly suggestive of the
famous _Prophecy of Cazotte_ and other legends of the Revolution (but with
more retrospective than prospective view), is dated as early as 1828
(before the turning-point), and was actually published in a periodical in
1830. _La Confidence des Ruggieri_, written in 1836 (and, as I have noted
in the general introduction, according to its author, in a single night)
followed, and _Le Martyr Calviniste_, which had several titles, and was
advertised as in preparation for a long time, did not come till 1841.

It is unnecessary to say that all are interesting. The personages, both
imaginary and historical, appear at times in