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Women in the Life of Balzac

by Juanita Helm Floyd · English · Gutenberg #3164 · 503,660 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Women in the Life of Balzac

Author: Juanita Helm Floyd


        
Release date: April 1, 2002 [eBook #3164]
                Most recently updated: January 8, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3164

Credits: Etext prepared by Dagny and John Bickers


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF BALZAC ***
Ver.12.12.00*END*




Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com
and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz





WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF BALZAC

By Juanita Helm Floyd




                                  TO

                           MY SISTER NANNIE



         " . . . for no one knows the secret of my life,
            and I do not wish to disclose it to any one."
             /Lettres a l'Etrangere/, V. I, p. 418, July 19, 1837.



                           PREPARER'S NOTE

  This text was originally published in 1921 by Henry Holt and
  Company.



                               PREFACE

In presenting this study of Balzac's intimate relations with various
women, the author regrets her inability, owing to war conditions, to
consult a few books which are out of print and certain documents which
have not appeared at all in print, notably the collection of the late
Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul.

The author gladly takes this opportunity of acknowledging her deep
gratitude to various scholars, and wishes to express, even if
inadequately, her appreciation of their inspiring contact; especially
to Professor Chester Murray and Professor J. Warshaw for first
interesting her in the great possibilities of a study of Balzac. To
Professor Henry Alfred Todd she is grateful for his sympathetic
scholarship, valuable suggestions as to matter and style, and for his
careful revision of the manuscript; to Professor Gustave Lanson, for
his erudition and versatile mind, which have had a great influence; to
Professor F. M. Warren, for reading a part of the text and for many
general ideas; to Professor Fernand Baldensperger, for reading the
text and for encouragement; to Professor Gilbert Chinard, Professor
Earle B. Babcock and Professor LeBraz for re-reading the text and for
valuable suggestions; and to Professor John L. Gerig for his
sympathetic interest, broad information, and inspiring encouragement.

To still another would she express her thanks. The Princess Radziwill
has taken a great interest in this work, which deals so minutely with
the life history of her aunt, and she has been most gracious in giving
the author much information not to be found in books. She has made
many valuable suggestions, read the entire manuscript, and approved of
its presentation of the facts involved.

                                                 JUANITA H. FLOYD.
Evansville, Indiana.



                             INTRODUCTION

A quantity of books have been written about Balzac, some of which are
very instructive, while others are nothing but compilations of gossip
which give a totally wrong impression of the life, works and
personality of the great French novelist. Having the honor of being
the niece of his wife, the wonderful /Etrangere/, whom he married
after seventeen years of an affection which contained episodes far
more romantic than any of those which he has described in his many
books, and having been brought up in the little house of the rue
Fortunee, afterwards the rue Balzac, where they lived during their
short married life, I can perhaps better appreciate than most people
the value of these different books, none of which gives us an exact
appreciation of the man or of the difficulties through which he had to
struggle before he won at last the fame he deserved. And the
conclusion to which I came, after having read them most attentively
and conscientiously, was that it is often a great misfortune to
possess that divine spark of genius which now and then touches the
brow of a few human creatures and marks them for eternity with its
fiery seal. Had Balzac been one of those everyday writers whose names,
after having been for a brief space of time on everyone's lips, are
later on almost immediately forgotten, he would not have been
subjected to the calumnies which embittered so much of his declining
days, and which even after he was no longer in this world continued
their subterranean and disgusting work, trying to sully not only
Balzac's own colossal personality, but also that of the devoted wife,
whom he had cherished for such a long number of years, who had all
through their course shared his joys and his sorrows, and who, after
he died, had spent the rest of her own life absorbed in the
remembrance of her love for him, a love which was stronger than death
itself.

Having spent all my childhood and youth under the protection and the
roof of Madame de Balzac, it was quite natural that every time I saw
another inaccuracy or falsehood concerning her or her great husband
find its way into the press, I should be deeply affected. At last I
began to look with suspicion at all the books dealing with Balzac or
with his works, and when Miss Floyd asked me to look over her
manuscript, it was with a certain amount of distrust and prejudice
that I set myself to the task. It seemed to me impossible that a
foreigner could write anything worth reading about Balzac, or
understand his psychology. What was therefore my surprise when I
discovered in this most remarkable volume the best description that
has ever been given to us of this particular phase of Balzac's life
which hitherto has hardly been touched upon by his numerous
biographers, his friendships with the many distinguished women who at
one time or another played a part in his busy existence, a description
which not only confirmed down to the smallest details all that my aunt
had related to me about her distinguished husband, but which also gave
an appreciation of the latter's character that entirely agreed with
what I had heard about its peculiarities from the few people who had
known him well, Theophile Gautier among others, who were still alive
when I became old enough to be intensely interested in their different
judgments about my uncle. After such a length of years it seemed
almost uncanny to find a person who through sheer intuition and hard
study could have reconstituted with this unerring accuracy the figure
of one who had remained a riddle in certain things even to his best
friends, and who in the pages of this extraordinary book suddenly
appeared before my astonished eyes with all the splendor of that
genius of his which as years go by, becomes more and more admired and
appreciated.

One must be a scholar to understand Balzac; his style and manner of
writing is often so heavy and so difficult to follow, reminding one
more of that of a professor than of a novelist. And indeed he would
have been very angry to be considered only as a novelist, he who
aspired and believed himself to be, as he expressed it one day in the
course of a conversation with Madame Hanska, before she became his
wife, "a great painter of humanity," in which appreciation of his work
he was not mistaken, because some of the characters he evoked out of
his wonderful brain remind one of those pictures of Rembrandt where
every stroke of the master's brush reveals and brings into evidence
some particular trait or feature, which until he had discovered it,
and brought it to notice, no one had seen or remarked on the human
faces which he reproduced upon the canvas. Michelet, who once called
St. Simon the "Rembrandt of literature," could very well have applied
the same remark to Balzac, whose heroes will live as long as men and
women exist, for whom these other men and women whom he described,
will relive because he did not conjure their different characters out
of his imagination only, but condensed all his observations into the
creation of types which are so entirely human and real that we shall
continually meet with them so long as the world lasts.

One of Balzac's peculiarities consisted in perpetually studying
humanity, which study explains the almost unerring accuracy of his
judgments and of the descriptions which he gives us of things and
facts as well as of human beings. In his impulsiveness, he frequented
all kinds of places, saw all kinds of people, and tried to apply the
dissecting knife of his spirit of observation to every heart and every
conscience. He set himself especially to discover and fathom the
mystery of the "eternal feminine" about which he always thought, and
it was partly due to this eager quest for knowledge of women's souls
that he allowed himself to become entangled in love affairs and love
intrigues which sometimes came to a sad end, and that he spent his
time in perpetual search of feminine friendships, which were later on
to brighten, or to mar his life.

Miss Floyd in the curious volume which she has written has caught in a
surprising manner this particular feature in Balzac's complex
character. She has applied herself to study not only the man such as
he was, with all his qualities, genius and undoubted mistakes, but
such as he appeared to be in the eyes of the different women whom he
had loved or admired, and at whose hands he had sought encouragement
and sympathy amid the cruel disappointments and difficulties of an
existence from which black care was never banished and never absent.
With quite wonderful tact, and a lightness of touch one can not
sufficiently admire, she has made the necessary distinctions which
separated friendship from love in the many romantic attachments which
played such an important part in Balzac's life, and she has in
consequence presented to us simultaneously the writer, whose name will
remain an immortal one, and the man whose memory was treasured, long
after he had himself disappeared, by so many who, though they had
perhaps never understood him entirely, yet had realized that in the
marks of affection and attachment which he had given to them, he had
laid at their feet something which was infinitely precious, infinitely
real, something which could never be forgotten.

Her book will remain a most valuable, I was going to say the most
valuable, contribution to the history of Balzac, and those for whom he
was something more than a great writer and scholar, can never feel
sufficiently grateful to her for having given it to the world, and
helped to dissipate, thanks to its wonderful arguments, so many false
legends and wild stories which were believed until now, and indeed are
still believed by an ignorant crowd of so-called admirers of his, who,
nine times out of ten, are only detractors of his colossal genius, and
remarkable, though perhaps sometimes too exuberant, individuality.

At the same time, Miss Floyd, in the lines which she devotes to my
aunt and to the long attachment that had united the latter and Balzac,
has in many points re-established the truth in regard to the character
of a woman who in many instances has been cruelly calumniated and
slandered, in others absolutely misunderstood, to whom Balzac once
wrote that she was "one of those great minds, which solitude had
preserved from the petty meannesses of the world," words which
describe her better than volumes could have done. She had truly led a
silent, solitary, lonely life that had known but one love, the man
whom she was to marry after so many vicissitudes, and in spite of so
many impediments, and but one tenderness, her daughter, a daughter who
unfortunately was entirely her inferior, and in whom she could never
find consolation or comfort, who could neither share her joys, nor
soothe her sorrows.

In her convictions, Madame de Balzac was a curious mixture of atheism
and profound faith in a Divinity before whom mankind was accountable
for all its good or bad deeds. All through her long life she had been
under the influence of her father, one of the remarkable men of his
generation, who had enjoyed the friendship of most of the great French
writers of the period immediately preceding the Revolution, including
Voltaire; he had brought her up in an atmosphere of the eighteenth
century with its touch of skepticism, and the Encyclopedia had always
remained for her a kind of gospel, in spite of the fact that she had
been reared in one of the most haughty, aristocratic circles in
Europe, in a country where the very mention of the words /liberty/ and
/freedom of opinion/ was tabooed, and that her mother had been one of
those devout Roman Catholics who think it necessary to consult their
confessor, even in regard to the most trivial details of their daily
existence. Placed as she had been between her parents' incredulity and
bigotry, my aunt had formed opinions of her own, of which a profound
tolerance and a deep respect for the beliefs and convictions of others
was the principal feature. She never condemned even when she did not
approve, and she hated hypocrisy, no matter in what shape or aspect it
presented itself before her eyes. This explains the courage she
displayed when against the advice and the wishes of her family, she
persisted in marrying Balzac, though it hardly helps us to understand
from what we know of the latter's character, how he came to fall so
deeply in love with a woman who in almost everything thought so
differently from what he thought, especially in regard to those two
subjects which absorbed and engrossed him until the last days of his
life, religion and politics.

That he loved her, and that she loved him, in spite of these
differences in their points of view, is to their mutual honor, but it
adds to the mystery and to the enigmatical side of a romance that has
hardly been equalled in modern times; and it accounts for the fact
that some friction occurred between them later on, when my aunt found
herself trying to restrain certain exuberances on the part of her
husband regarding her own high lineage, about which she never thought
much herself, though she had always tried to live up to the duties
which it imposed upon her. I am mentioning this circumstance to
explain certain exaggerations which we constantly find in Balzac's
letters in regard to his marriage. His imagination was extremely
vivid, and its fertility sometimes carried him far away into regions
where it was nearly impossible to follow him, and where he really came
to believe quite sincerely in things which had never existed. For
instance in his correspondence with his mother and friends, he is
always speaking of the necessity for Madame Hanska to obtain the
permission of the Czar to marry him. This is absolutely untrue. My
aunt did not require in the very least the consent of the Emperor to
become Madame de Balzac. The difficulties connected with her marriage
consisted in the fact that having been left sole heiress of her first
husband's immense wealth, she did not think herself justified in
keeping it after she had contracted another union, and with a
foreigner. She therefore transferred her whole fortune to her
daughter, reserving for herself only an annuity which was by no means
considerable, and it was this arrangement that had to be sanctioned,
not by the sovereign who had nothing to do with it, but by the Supreme
Court of Russia, which at that time was located in St. Petersburg.
Balzac, however, wishing to impress his French relatives with the
grandeur of the marriage he was about to make, imagined this tale of
the Czar's opposition, in order to add to his own importance and to
that of his future wife, an invention which revolted my aunt so much
that in that part of her husband's correspondence which was published
by her a year or two before her death, she carefully suppressed all
the passages which contained this assertion which had so thoroughly
annoyed as well as angered her. I have sometimes wondered what she
would have said had she seen appear in print the curious letter which
Balzac wrote immediately after their wedding to Dr. Nacquart in which
he described with such pomp the different high qualities, merits, and
last but not least, brilliant positions occupied by his wife's
relatives, beginning with Queen Marie Leszczinska, the consort of
Louis XV, and ending with the husband of my father's stepdaughter,
Count Orloff, whom the widest stretch of imagination could not have
connected with my aunt.

I cannot refrain from mentioning here an anecdote which is very
typical of Balzac. He was about to return to Paris from Russia after
his marriage. My aunt coming into his room one morning found him
absorbed in writing a letter. Asking him for whom it was intended she
was petrified with astonishment when he replied that it was for the
Duke de Bordeaux, as the Comte de Chambord was still called at the
time, to present his respects to him upon his entrance into his
family! My aunt at first could not understand what it was he meant,
and when at last she had grasped the fact that it was in virtue of her
distant, very distant, relationship with Queen Marie Leszczinska that
he claimed the privilege of cousinship with the then Head of the Royal
House of France, it was with the greatest difficulty and with any
amount of trouble that she prevailed upon him at last to give up this
remarkable idea, and to be content with the knowledge that some
Rzewuski blood flowed in the veins of the last remaining member of the
elder line of the Bourbons, without intruding upon the privacy of the
Comte de Chambord, who probably would have been somewhat surprised to
receive this extraordinary communication from the great, but also
snobbish Balzac.

It was on account of this snobbishness, which had something childish
about it, that he sometimes became involved in discussions, not only
with my aunt, but also with several of his friends, Victor Hugo among
others, who could not bring themselves to forgive him for thinking
more of the great and illustrious families with which his marriage had
connected him than of his own genius and marvelous talents. Hugo most
unjustly accused my aunt of encouraging this "aberration," as he
called it, of Balzac's mind; in which judgment of her he was vastly
mistaken, because she was the person who suffered the most through it,
and by it. But this unwarranted suspicion made him antagonistic to
her, and probably inspired the famous description he left us of
Balzac's last hours in the little volume called /Choses vues/. This
was partly the cause why people afterwards said that my aunt's married
life with the great writer had been far from happy, and had resolved
itself into a great disappointment for both of them. The reality was
very different, because during the few months they lived together,
they had known and enjoyed complete and absolute happiness, and Madame
de Balzac's heart was forever broken when she closed with pious hands
the eyes of the man who had occupied such an immense place in her
heart as well as in her life. Many years later, talking with me about
those last sad hours when she watched with such tender devotion by his
bedside, she told me with accents that are still ringing in my ears
with their wail of agony: I lived through a hell of suffering on that
day.

Nevertheless she bore up bravely under the load of the unmerited
misfortunes which had fallen upon her. Her first care, after she had
become for the second time a widow, was to pay Balzac's debts, which
she proceeded to do with the thoroughness she always brought to bear
in everything she undertook. She remained upon the most affectionate
terms with his family, and it was due to her that Balzac's mother was
able to spend her last years in comfort. These facts speak for
themselves, and, to my mind at least, dispose better than volumes on
the subject could do of the conscious or unconscious calumny cast by
Victor Hugo on my aunt's memory. It must here be explained that the
real reason why he did not see her, when he called for the last time
on his dying friend, and concluded so hastily that she preferred
remaining in her own apartments than at her husband's side, consisted
in the fact that she did not like the poet, who she instinctively
felt, also did not care for her, so she preferred not to encounter a
man whom she knew as antagonistic to herself at an hour when she was
about to undergo the greatest trial of her life, and she retired to
her room when he was announced. But Hugo, who had often reproached
Balzac for being vain, had in his own character a dose of vanity
sufficient to make him refuse to admit that there could exist in the
whole of the wide world a human being who would not have jumped at the
chance of seeing him, even under the most distressing of
circumstances.

I have said already that my aunt's opinions consisted of a curious
mixture of atheism and a profound belief in the Divinity. Her mind was
far too vigorous and too deep to accept without discussion the dogmas
of the Roman Catholic Church to which she belonged officially, and she
formed her own ideas as to religion and the part it ought to play in
human existence. She held the firm conviction that we must always try,
at least, to do what is right, regardless of the sorrow this might
entail upon us. In one of her letters to my mother, she says:

 "You will know one day, my dear little sister, that what one cares
  the most to read over again in the book of life are those
  difficult pages of the past when, after a hard struggle, duty has
  remained the master of the battle field. It has buried its dead,
  and brushed aside all the reminders that were left of them, and
  God in his infinite mercy allows flowers and grasses to grow again
  on this bloody ground. Don't think that by these flowers, I mean
  to say that one forgets. No, on the contrary, I am thinking of
  remembrance, the remembrance of the victory that has been won
  after so many sacrifices; I am thinking of all those voices of the
  conscience which come to soothe us, and to tell us that our Father
  in Heaven is satisfied with what we have done."

A person who had intimately known both Balzac and my aunt said one day
that they completed each other by the wide difference which existed in
their opinions in regard to the two important subjects of religion and
politics. The remark was profoundly true, because it was this very
difference which allowed them to bring into their judgments an
impartiality which we seldom meet with in our modern society. They
mutually respected and admired each other, and even when they were not
in perfect accord, or just because they were not in perfect accord as
to this or that thing, they nevertheless tried, thanks to the respect
which they entertained for each other, to look upon mankind, its
actions, follies and mistakes, with kindness and indulgence. The
curious thing in regard to their situation was that my aunt who had
been born and reared in one of the most select and prejudiced of
aristocratic circles, never knew what prejudice was, and remained
until the last day of her life a staunch liberal, who could never
bring herself to ostracize her neighbor, because he happened to think
or to believe otherwise than she did herself. She was perfectly
indifferent to advantages of birth, fortune or high rank, and she was
rather inclined to criticize than to admire the particular society and
world amidst which she moved. Balzac on the contrary, though a
/bourgeois/ by origin, cared only for those high spheres for which he
had always longed since his early youth, and of which a sudden freak
of fortune so unexpectedly had opened him the doors. In that sense he
was the /parvenu/ his enemies have accused him of being, and he often
showed himself narrow minded, until at last his wife's influence made
him consider, without the disdain he had affected for them before,
people who were not of noble birth or of exalted rank. On the other
hand, Madame de Balzac, thanks to her husband's Catholic and
Legitimistic tendencies and sympathies, became less sarcastic than had
been the case when she had, perhaps more than she ought, noticed the
smallnesses and meannesses of the particular set of people who at that
period constituted the cream of European society. They both came to
acquire a wider view of the world in general, thanks to their
different ways of looking at it, and this of course turned to their
great mutual advantage.

I will not extend myself here on the help my aunt was to Balzac all
through the years which preceded their marriage, when there seemed no
possibility of the marriage ever taking place. She encouraged him in
his work, interested herself in all his actions, praised him for all
his efforts, tried to be for him the guide and the star to which he
could look in his moments of dark discouragement, as well as in his
hours of triumph. Without her affection to console him, he would most
probably have broken down under the load of immense difficulties which
constantly burdened him, and he never would have been able to leave
behind him as a legacy to a world that had never property appreciated
or understood him, those volumes of the /Comedie humaine/ which have
made his name immortal. Madame Hanska was his good genius all through
those long and dreadful years during which he struggled with such
indomitable courage against an adverse fate, and her devotion to him
certainly deserved the words which he wrote to her one day, "I love
you as I love God, as I love happiness!"

All this has taken me very far from Miss Floyd's book, though what I
have just written about my uncle and aunt completes in a certain sense
the details she has given us concerning the wonderful romance which
after seventeen years of arduous waiting, made Madame Hanska the wife
of one of the greatest literary glories of France. Her work is
magnificent and she has handled it superbly, and reconstituted two
remarkable figures who were beginning to be, not forgotten, which is
impossible, but not so much talked about by the general public, who a
few years ago, had shown itself so interested in their life history as
it was first disclosed to us in the famous /Lettres a l'Etrangere/,
published by the Vicomte Spoelberch de Lovenjoul. She has also cleared
some of the clouds which had been darkening the horizon in regard to
both Balzac and his wife, and restored to these two their proper
places in the history of French literature in the nineteenth century.
She has moreover shown us a hitherto unknown Balzac, and a still more
unknown /Etrangere/, and this labor of love, because it was that all
through, can only be viewed with feelings of the deepest gratitude by
the few members still left alive of Madame de Balzac's family, my
three brothers and myself. I feel very happy to be given this
opportunity of thanking Miss Floyd, in my brothers' name as well as in
my own, for the splendid work which she has done, and which I am quite
certain will ensure for her a foremost place among the historians of
Balzac.

                                    CATHERINE, PRINCESS RADZIWILL.



                            AUTHOR'S NOTE

The steady rise of Balzac's reputation during the last few decades has
been such that almost each year new studies have appeared about him.
While the women portrayed in the /Comedie humaine/ are often commented
upon, no recent work dealing in detail with the novelist's intimate
association with women and which might lead to identifying the
possible sources of his feminine characters in real life has been
published.

The present study does not undertake to establish the origin of all
the characters found in the /Comedie humaine/, but is an attempt to
trace the life of the novelist on the side of his relations with
various women,--a story which is even more thrilling than those
presented in many of his novels,--in the hope that it will help
explain some of the interesting enigmas presented by his work. So far
as the writer could find the necessary evidence, many of the women in
Balzac's novels have been here identified with women he knew in the
course of his life; and while giving due weight to the suggestions of
various writers, and indicating some of the most striking
resemblances, she has tried to avoid a mere promiscuous identification
of characters.

In the case of many novelists such an investigation would not be worth
while, but Balzac's place in literature is so transcendent and his
life and writings are so closely and fascinatingly interblended, that
it is hoped that the following study, in which the writer has striven
to maintain correctness of detail, may not be unwelcome, and that it
will throw light on Balzac's complex character, and help his readers
better to understand and appreciate some of his most noted women
characters. It is believed that this study will show that the
influence of women on Balzac was much wider and his acquaintance with
them much broader than has previously been supposed.

Apropos of remarks made by Sainte-Beuve and Brunetiere regarding
Balzac's admission to the higher circles of society, Emile Faguet has
this to say:

 "I would point out that the duchesses and viscountesses at the end
  of the Restoration were known neither to Sainte-Beuve nor to
  Balzac, the former only having begun to frequent aristocratic
  drawing-rooms in 1840, and Balzac, in spite of his very short
  /liaison/ with Madame de Castries, having become a regular
  attendant only a few months before that date. Sainte-Beuve himself
  has told us that the Faubourg Saint-Germain /was closed to men of
  letters before 1830/, and since it had to spend a few years
  becoming accustomed to their admittance, Sainte-Beuve's testimony
  is not at all valid as regards the great ladies of the
  Restoration, even at the end."

Perhaps it is due partly to the above statement and partly to the fact
that Balzac tried to give the impression that he led a sort of
monastic life, that it is generally believed the novelist never had
access to the aristocratic society of his time, and never had an
opportunity of observing the great ladies or of frequenting the
marvelous balls and receptions that fill so large a place in his
writings. Whether he made a success of such descriptions is not the
question here, but the following pages will at least furnish proof
that he not only had many social opportunities, but that his presence
was sought by many women belonging to high life and the nobility.

In presenting in the following pages a somewhat imposing list of
duchesses, countesses and women of varying degrees of nobility, it is
not intended to picture Balzac as a /preux chevalier/, for he was far
from being one. Even in the most refined of /salons/, he displayed his
Rabelaisian manners and costume, and remained the typical author of
the /Contes drolatiques/; but to maintain that he never knew women of
the upper class or never even entered their society, involves a
misapprehension of the facts. Neither would the present writer give
the impression that this was the only class of women he knew or
associated with, for he certainly was acquainted with many of the
/bourgeoisie/ and of the peasant class; but here it is difficult to
make out a case, since his letters to or about women of these classes
are rare, and literary men of his day have not given many details of
his association with them.

From Balzac's youth, his most intense longings were to be famous and
to be loved. At times it might almost be thought that the second
desire took precedence over the first, but it was not the ordinary
woman that this future /Napoleon litteraire/ was seeking. His desire
was to win the affection of some lady of high standing, and when urged
by his family to consider marriage with a certain rich widow of the
/bourgeoisie/, it can be imagined with what a sense of relief he wrote
his mother that the bird had flown. An abnormal longing to mingle with
the aristocracy remained with him throughout his life; and during his
stay at Wierzchownia, after having all but made the conquest of a very
rich lady belonging to one of the most noted families of Russia, he
flattered himself by exaggerating her greatness.

Not being crowned from the first with the success he desired, Balzac
needed encouragement in his work. For this he naturally turned to
women who would give him of their time and sympathy. In his early
years, he received this encouragement and assistance from his sister
Laure, from Madame de Berny, Madame d'Abrantes, Madame Carraud and
others, and in his later life he was similarly indebted to Madame
Hanska. They gave him ideas, corrected his style, conceived plots,
furnished him with historical background, and criticized his work in
general. Is it surprising then that, having received so much from
women, he should have accorded them so great a place in his writings
as well as in his personal life?

While Balzac did not, as is often stated, /create/ the "woman of
thirty," this characteristic type having already appeared in Madame de
Stael's /Delphine/, in Benjamin Constant's /Adolphe/, and in
Stendhal's /Le Rouge et le Noir/, he must be credited with having
magnified her charms and presented her advantages and superiority to a
much higher degree than had been done before. Women indeed play in
general an important role in his work, many of his novels bear their
names; about one-third of the stories of /La Comedie humaine/ are
dedicated to women; and while not quite so large a proportion of the
characters created are women, they are numbered among the most
important personages of his prolific fancy.

If we are to believe his own testimony, his popularity among women was
by no means limited to his Paris environment, for he writes: "Fame is
conveyed to me through the post office by means of letters, and I
daily receive three or four from women. They come from the depths of
Russia, of Germany, etc.; I have not had one from England. Then there
are many letters from young people. It has become fatiguing. . . ."

It was only a matter of justice that women should show their
appreciation thus, for Balzac rendered them a gracious service in
prolonging, by his enormous literary influence, the period of their
eligibility for being loved. This he successfully extended to thirty
years, even to forty years; with rare skill he portrayed the charm of
a declining beauty--as one might delight in the glory of a brilliant
autumn or of a setting sun. At the same time, and on the one hand, he
depicted the young girl of various types, and women of the working and
servant class. And since his own life is so reflected throughout his
work, it is of interest to become acquainted with the inner and
intimate side of his genius, which has left us some of the greatest
documents we possess concerning human nature.

Balzac knew many women, and to understand him fully one should study
his relations with them. If he has portrayed them well, it is because
he loved them tenderly, and was loved by many in return. These
feminine affections formed one of the consolations of his life; they
not only gave him courage but helped to soften the bitterness of his
trials and disappointments.

While an effort has been made in the following work to solve the
questions as to the identity of the /Sarah, Maria, Sofka, Constance-
Victoire, Louise, Caroline,/ and the /Helene/ of Balzac's dedications,
and to show the role each played, no attempt has here been made to
lift the tightly drawn veil which has so long enveloped one side of
Balzac's private life. Whoever wishes to do this may now consult the
recent publication of the late Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, or
the /Mariage de Balzac/ by the late Count Stanislas Rzewuski. It is
far more pleasant--even if the charges be untrue--to think as did the
late Miss K. P. Wormeley, that no supporting testimony has been
offered to prove anything detrimental to the great author's character.
Though doubtless much overdrawn, one prefers the delightful picture of
him traced by his old friend, George Sand.





                     WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF BALZAC



                              CHAPTER I

                    BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF BALZAC

In the delightful city of Tours, the childhood of Honore de Balzac was
spent in the midst of his family. This consisted of an original and
most congenial old father, a nervous, business-like mother, two
younger sisters, Laure and Laurentia, and a younger brother, Henri.
His maternal grandmother, Madame Sallambier, joined the family after
the death of her husband.

At about the age of eight, Honore was sent to a semi-military
/college/. Here, after six years of confinement, he lost his health,
not on account of any work assigned to him by his teachers, for he was
regarded as being far from a brilliant student, but because of the
abnormal amount of reading which he did on the outside. When he was
brought home for recuperation, his old grandmother alternately
irritated him with her "nervous attacks" and delighted him with her
numerous ways of showing her affection. At this time he wandered about
in the fresh air of the province of Touraine, and learned to love its
beautiful scenery, which he has immortalized in various novels.

After he had spent a year of this rustic life, his family moved to
Paris in the fall of 1814. There he continued his studies with M.
Lepitre, whose Royalist principles doubtless influenced him. He
attended lectures at the Sorbonne also, strolling meanwhile about the
Latin Quarter, and in 1816 was placed in the law office of M. de
Guillonnet-Merville, a friend of the family, and an ardent Royalist.
After eighteen months in this office, he spent more than a year in the
office of a notary, M. Passez, who was also a family friend.

It was probably during this period of residence in Paris that he first
met Madame de Berny, she who was later to wield so great an influence
over him and who held first place in his heart until their separation
in 1832. Probably at this same period, too, he met Zulma Tourangin, a
schoolmate of his sister Laure, and who, as Madame Carraud, was to
become his life-long friend. Of all the friendships that Balzac was
destined to form with women, this with Madame Carraud was one of the
purest, longest and most beautiful.

Having attained his majority and finished his legal studies, Balzac
was requested by his father to enter the office of M. Passez and
become a business man, but the life was so distasteful to him that he
objected and asked permission to spend his time as best he might in
developing his literary ability, a request which, in spite of the
opposition of the family, was finally granted for a term of two years.
He was accordingly allowed to establish himself in a small attic at
No. 9 rue Lesdiguieres, while his family moved to Villeparisis.

His father's weakness in thus giving in to his son was most irritating
to Balzac's mother, who was endowed with the business faculties so
frequently met with among French women. She was convinced that a
little experience would soon cause her son to change his mind. But he,
on his part, ignored his hardships. He began to dream of a life of
fame. In his garret, too, he began to develop that longing for luxury
which was to increase with the years, and which was to cost him so
much. At this time, he took frequent walks through the cemetery of
Pere-Lachaise around the graves of Moliere, La Fontaine and Racine. He
would occasionally visit a friend with whom he could converse, but he
usually preferred a sympathetic listener, to whom he could pour out
his plans and his innermost longings. Otherwise his life was as
solitary as it was cloistered. He confined himself to his room for
days at a time, working fiercely at the manuscript of the play,
/Cromwell/, which he felt to be a masterpiece.

This work he finished and took to his home for approval in April,
1820. What must have been his disappointment when, certain of success,
he not only found his play disapproved but was advised to devote his
time and talents to anything except literature! But his courage was
not daunted thus. Remarking that /tragedies/ appeared not to be in his
line, he was ready to return to his garret to attempt another kind of
literature, and would have done so, had not his mother, seeing that he
would certainly injure his health, interposed; and although only
fifteen months of the allotted two years had expired, insisted that he
remain at home, and later sent him to Touraine for a much needed rest.

During his stay at home, he was to suffer another disappointment. His
sister Laure, to whom he had confided all his secrets and longings,
was married to M. Surville in May, 1830, and moved to Bayeux. He was
thus deprived of her congenial companionship. The separation is
fortunate for posterity, however, since the letters he wrote to her
reveal much of the family life, both pleasant and otherwise, together
with a great deal concerning his own desires and struggles. Thus early
in life, he realized that his was a very "original" family, and
regretted not being able to put the whole group into novels. His
correspondence gives a very good description of their various
eccentricities, and he has later immortalized some of these by
portraying them in certain of his characters.

Continually worried by his irritable mother, feeling himself forced to
make money by writing lest he be compelled to enter a lawyer's office,
he produced in five years, with different collaborators, a vast number
of works written under various pseudonyms. He tutored his younger and
much petted brother Henri, but found his pleasures outside of the
family circle. It was arranged that he should give lessons to one of
the sons of M. and Mme. de Berny, and thus he had an opportunity of
seeing much of Madame de Berny, whose patience under suffering and
sympathetic nature deeply impressed him. On her side, she took an
interest in him and devoted much time in helping and indeed "creating"
him. Unhappy in her married life, she must have found the
companionship of Balzac most interesting, and realizing that the young
man had a great future, she acted as a severe critic in correcting his
manuscripts, and cheered him in his hours of depression. Her mother
having been one of the Queen's ladies in waiting, the Royalist
principles previously instilled in the mind of the young author were
reinforced by this charming woman, as well as by her mother, who could
entertain him indefinitely with her exciting stories of imprisonment
and hairbreadth escapes.

After a few years of life at Villeparisis, Balzac removed to Paris. He
had met an old friend, M. d'Assonvillez, whom he told of the conflict
between his family and himself over his occupation, and this gentleman
advised him to seek a business that would make him independent, even
offering to provide the necessary funds. Balzac took the advice, and
with visions of becoming extremely rich, launched into a publishing
career, proposing to bring out one-volume editions of various authors'
complete works, commencing with La Fontaine and Moliere. As he did not
have the necessary capital for advertising, however, his venture
resulted in a loss. His friend then persuaded him to invest in a
printing-press, and in August, 1826, he made another beginning. He did
not lack courage; but though he later manipulated such wonderful
business schemes in his novels he proved to be utterly incapable
himself in practical life.

A second time he was doomed to failure, but with his indomitable will
he resolved that inasmuch as he had met with such financial disasters
through the press, he would recover his fortunes in the same way, and
set himself to writing with even greater determination than ever. Now
it was that Madame de Berny showed her true devotion by coming to his
aid in his financial troubles as well as in his literary ones; she
loaned him 45,000 francs, saw to it that the recently purchased type-
foundry became the property of her family, and, with the help of
Madame Surville, persuaded Madame de Balzac to save her son from the
disgrace of bankruptcy by lending him 37,000 francs. Thus, after less
than two years of experience, he found himself burdened with a debt
which like a black cloud was to hang over him during his entire life.
Other friends also came to his rescue. But if Balzac did not have
business capacity, his experience in dealing with the financial world,
of which he had become a victim, furnished him with material of which
he made abundant use later in his works.

In September, 1828, after this business was temporarily out of the
way, Balzac went to Brittany to spend a few weeks with some old family
friends, the Pommereuls. There he roved over the beautiful country and
collected material for /Les Chouans/, the first novel which he signed
with his own name. Notwithstanding the fact that before he had reached
his thirtieth year, he was staggering under a debt amounting to about
100,000 francs, Balzac with his never-failing hope in the future and
his ever-increasing belief in his destiny, cast aside his depression,
and fought continually to attain the greatness which was never fully
recognized until long after his death.

He had entered on what was indeed a period of struggle. Establishing
himself in Paris in the rue de Tournon, and later in the rue de
Cassini, he battled with poverty, lacking both food and clothing; but
his courage never wavered. Drinking black coffee to keep himself
awake, he wrote eighteen hours a day, and when exhausted would run
away to the country to relax and visit with his friends. The Baron de
Pommereul was only one of a rather numerous group. He frequently
visited Madame Carraud at her hospitable home at Frapesle, and M. de
Margonne in his chateau at Sache on the Indre. Often he would spend
many weeks at a time with the latter, where he made himself perfectly
at home, was treated as one of the family, and worked or rested just
as he wished. Leading the hermit's life by preference, he needed the
quietude of the country atmosphere in order to recover from the great
strain to which he subjected himself when the fit of authorship was
upon him. Thus it happened that several of his works were written in
the homes of various friends.

/Les Chouans/ and other novels met with success. Balzac's reputation
now gradually rose, so that by 1831 he was attracting much favorable
attention. Among the younger literary set who sought his acquaintance
was George Sand with whom he formed a true friendship which lasted
throughout his life. Now, too, though he was not betrayed into
neglecting his work for society, he accepted invitations, won by his
growing reputation, to some of the most noted salons of the day, among
them the Empire salon of Madame Sophie Gay, where he met many of the
literary and artistic people of his time, including Delphine, the
daughter of Madame Gay, who, as Madame de Girardin, was to become one
of his intimate friends. Here he met Madame Hamelin and the Duchess
d'Abrantes, who was destined to play an important role in his life,
and also the tender and impassioned poetess, Madame Desbordes-Valmore.
The beautiful Madame Recamier invited him to her salon, too, and had
him read to her guests, and he was also a frequent visitor in the
salon of the Russian Princess Bagration, where he was fond of telling
stories. Besides the salons, he was invited to numerous houses, dining
particularly often with the Baron de Trumilly, who took a great
interest in his work.

As his fame increased, letters arrived from various part of Europe.
Some of these were anonymous, and many were from women. Several of the
latter were answered, and early in 1832 Balzac learned that one of his
unknown correspondents was the beautiful Marquise de Castries (later
the Duchess de Castries). Throwing aside her incognito, she invited
him to call, and he, anxious to mingle with the exclusive society of
the Faubourg Saint-Germain, gladly accepted and promptly became
enraptured with her alluring charm. It was doubtless owing to the
influence of her relative, the Duc de Fitz-James, that he became
active in politics at this time.

In the course of this same year (1832) there came to him an anonymous
letter of great significance, dated from the distant Ukraine, and
signed /l'Etrangere/. Though not at that time giving him the slightest
presentiment of the outcome, this letter was destined eventually to
change the entire life of the novelist. A notice in the /Quotidienne/
acknowledging the receipt of it brought about a correspondence which
in the course of events revealed to the author that the stranger's
real name was Madame Hanska.

Love affairs, however, were far from being the only things that
occupied Balzac. He was continually besieged by creditors; the clouds
of his indebtedness were ever ready to burst over his head. Meanwhile,
his mother became more and more displeased with him, and impatient at
his constant calls upon her for the performance of all manner of
services. She now urged him to make a rich marriage and thus put an
end to his troubles and hers. But such was not Balzac's inclination,
and he rightly considered himself the most deeply concerned in the
matter.

All the while he was prodigiously productive, but the profits from his
works were exceedingly small. This fact was due to his method of
composition, according to which some of his works were revised a dozen
times or more, and also to the Belgian piracies, from which all
popular French authors suffered. In addition to this, his extravagant
tastes developed from year to year, and thus prevented him from
materially reducing his debts.

Unlike most Frenchmen, Balzac was particularly fond of travel in
foreign countries, and when allured by the charms of a beautiful
woman, he forgot his financial obligations and allowed nothing to
prevent his responding to the call of the siren. Thus he was enticed
by the Marquise de Castries to go to Aix and from there to Geneva in
1832, and one year later he rushed to Neufchatel to meet Madame
Hanska, with whom he became so enamored that a few months afterwards
he spent several weeks with her at this same fatal city of Geneva
where the Marquise had all but broken his heart. In the spring of 1835
he followed a similar desire, this time going as far as the beautiful
city of the blue Danube.

The charms of his sirens were not enough, however, to keep so
indefatigable a writer from his work. He permitted himself to enjoy
social diversions for only a few hours daily and some of his most
delightful novels were written during these visits, where it seemed
that the very shadow of feminine presence gave him inspiration. It
should be added, too, that in the limited time given to society during
these journeys, he not only worshipped at the shrine of his particular
enchantress of the moment, but managed to meet many other women of
social prominence.

As his fame spread, his extravagance increased; with his famous cane,
he was seen frequently at the opera, at one time sharing a box with
the beautiful Olympe. But his business relations with his publisher,
Madame Bechet, which seemed to be promising at first, ended unhappily,
and the rapidly declining health of his /Dilecta/, Madame de Berny,
not to mention the failure of another publisher Werdet, which there is
not space here to recount, cast a gloom from time to time over his
optimistic spirit. He now became the proprietor of the /Chronique de
Paris/, but aside from the literary friendships involved, notably that
of Theophile Gautier, he derived nothing but additional worries from
an undertaking he was unfitted to carry out. An even greater anxiety
was the famous lawsuit with Buloz, which was finally decided in his
favor, but which proved a costly victory, since it left him physically
exhausted.

In order to recuperate, he sought refuge in the home of M. de
Margonne, and travelled afterwards with Madame Marbouty to Italy,
where he spent several pleasant weeks looking after some legal
business for his friends, M. and Mme. Visconti. It was on his return
from this journey that he learned of the death of Madame de Berny.

During this period of general depression, Balzac devoted a certain
amount of attention to another correspondent, Louise, whom he never
met but whose letters cheered him, especially during his imprisonment
for refusing to serve in the Garde Nationale. In the same year (1836),
he was drawn by the charming Madame de Valette to Guerande, where he
secured his descriptive material for /Beatrix/.

In the spring of 1837, he went to Italy for the second time, hoping to
recuperate, and wishing to see the bust of Madame Hanska which had
been made by Bartolini. He visited several cities, and in Milan he was
received in the salon of Madame Maffei, where he met some of the best
known people of the day. He had now thought of another scheme by means
of which he might become very rich,--always a favorite dream of his.
He believed that much silver might be extracted from lead turned out
of the mines as refuse, and was indiscreet enough to confide his ideas
to a crafty merchant whom he met at Genoa. A year later, when Balzac
went to Sardinia to investigate the possibility of the development of
his plans, he found that his ideas had been appropriated by this
acquaintance. On his return from this trip to Corsica and Sardinia, on
which he had endured much physical suffering, and had spent much money
to no financial avail, he stopped again at Milan to look after the
interests of the Viscontis. In the Salon of the same year (1837), the
famous portrait by Boulanger was displayed. About the same time,
together with Theophile Gautier, Leon Gozlan, Jules Sandeau and
others, he organized an association called the /Cheval Rouge/ for
mutual advertisement.

Balzac now bought a piece of land at Ville d'Avray (Sevres), and had a
house built, /Les Jardies/, which afforded much amusement to the
Parisians. He went there to reside in 1838 while the walls were still
damp. Here he formed another scheme for becoming rich, this time in
the belief that he would be successful in raising pineapples at his
new home. /Les Jardies/ was a three-story house. The principal
stairway was on the outside, because an exterior staircase would not
interfere with the symmetrical arrangement of the interior. The garden
walls, not long after completion, fell down as they had no
foundations, and Balzac sadly exclaimed over their giving way! After a
brief residence here of about two years, he fled from his creditors
and concealed his identity under the name of his housekeeper, Madame
de Brugnolle, in a mysterious little house, No. 19, rue Basse, Passy.

Aside from his novels, which were appearing at a most rapid rate,
Balzac wrote many plays, but they all met with failure for various
reasons. Other literary activities, such as his brief directorship of
the /Revue Parisienne/, numerous articles and short stories, and his
cooperation in the /Societe des Gens-de-Lettres/, which was organized
to protect the rights of authors and publishers, occupied much of his
precious time; in addition, he had his unremitting financial
struggles.

This "child-man," however, with his imagination, optimism, belief in
magnetism and clairvoyance, and great steadfastness of character, kept
on hoping. Not discouraged by his ever unsuccessful schemes for
becoming a millionaire, he conceived the project of digging for hidden
treasures, and later thought of making a fortune by transporting to
France oaks grown in distant Russia.

In the spring of 1842 Balzac's novels were collected for the first
time under the name of the /Comedie humaine/. This was shortly after
one of the most important events of his life had occurred, when on
January 5 he received a letter from Madame Hanska telling of the death
of her husband the previous November. Balzac wished to leave for
Russia immediately, but Madame Hanska's permission was not
forthcoming, and it was not until July of 1843 that Balzac arrived at
St. Petersburg to visit his "Polar Star."

On his return home he became very ill, and from this time onward his
robust constitution, which he had so abused by overwork and by the use
of strong coffee, began to break under the continual strain and his
illnesses became more and more frequent. His visit to his
/Chatelaine/, however, had increased his longing to be constantly in
her society, and he was ever planning to visit her. During her
prolonged stay in Dresden in the winter and spring of 1845, he became
so desperate that he could not longer do his accustomed work, and when
the invitation to visit her eventually came, he forgot all in his
haste to be at her side.

With Madame Hanska, her daughter Anna, and the Count George Mniszech,
Anna's fiance, Balzac now traveled extensively in Europe. In July,
after some preliminary journeys, Madame Hanska and Anna secretly
accompanied him to Paris where they enjoyed the opportunity of
visiting Anna's former governess, Lirette, who had entered a convent.
In August, after visiting many cities with the two ladies, Balzac
escorted them as far as Brussels. In September he left Paris again to
join them at Baden, and in October, went to meet them at Chalons
whence all four--Count Mniszech being now of the party--journeyed to
Marseilles and by sea to Naples. After a few days at Naples, Balzac
returned to Paris, ill, having spent much money and done little work.

Ever planning a home for his future bride, and buying objects of art
with which to adorn it, Balzac with his numerous worries was
physically and mentally in poor condition. In March, 1846, he left
Paris to join Madame Hanska and her party at Rome for a month. He
traveled with them to some extent during the summer, and a definite
engagement of marriage was entered into at Strasbourg. In October he
attended the marriage of Anna and the Count Mniszech at Wiesbaden, and
Madame Hanska visited him secretly in Paris during the winter.

He was now in better spirits, and his health was somewhat improved,
enabling him to do some of his best work, but he was being pressed to
fulfil his literary obligations, and, as usual, harassed over his
debts. In September he left for Wierzchownia, where he remained until
the following February, continually hoping that his marriage would
soon take place. But Mme. Hanska hesitated, and the failure of the
Chemin de Fer du Nord added more financial embarrassments to his
already large load. The Revolution of 1848 brought him into more
trouble still, and his health was obviously becoming impaired. Yet he
continued hopeful.

After spending the summer in his house of treasure in the rue
Fortunee, he again left, in September, 1848, for Wierzchownia, this
time determined to return with his shield or upon it. During his
prolonged stay of eighteen months, while his distraught mother was
looking after affairs in his new home, his health became so bad that
he could not finish the work outlined during the summer. No sooner had
he recovered from one malady than he was overtaken by another. Unable
to work, distracted by bad news from his family, and being the witness
of several financial failures incurred by Madame Hanska, Balzac
naturally was supremely depressed. At this time, a touch of what may
not uncharitably be termed snobbishness is seen in his letters to his
family when he extols the unlimited virtues of his /Predilecta/ and
the Countess Anna.

After seventeen long years of waiting, with hope constantly deferred,
Balzac at last attained his goal when, on March 14, 1850, Madame
Hanska became Madame Honore de Balzac. His joy over this great triumph
was beyond all adequate description, but he was unable to depart for
Paris with his bride until April. After a difficult journey, the
couple arrived at Paris in May, but the condition of Balzac's health
was hopeless and only a few more months were accorded him. With his
usual optimism, he always thought that he would be spared to finish
his great work, and when informed by his physician on August 17 that
he would live but a few hours, he refused to believe it.

Unless he had been self-centered, Balzac could never have left behind
him his enormous and prodigious work. In spite of certain unlovely
phases of his private character and failure to fulfil his literary and
financial obligations, he was a man of great personal charm. Though at
various times he was under consideration for election to the French
Academy, his name is not found numbered among the "forty immortals."
But he was the greatest of French novelists, a great creator of
characters, who by some competent critics has been ranked with
Shakespeare, and he has left to posterity the incomparable, though
unfinished /Comedie humaine/, which is in itself sufficient for his
"immortality."



                              CHAPTER II

                     RELATIVES AND FAMILY FRIENDS


                           BALZAC'S MOTHER

 "Farewell, my dearly beloved mother! I embrace you with all my
  heart. Oh! if you knew how I need just now to cast myself upon
  your breast as a refuge of complete affection, you would insert a
  little word of tenderness in your letters, and this one which I am
  answering has not even a poor kiss. There is nothing but . . . Ah!
  Mother, Mother, this is very bad! . . . You have misconstrued what
  I said to you, and you do not understand my heart and affection.
  This grieves me most of all! . . ."

The above extract is sadly typical of a relationship of thirty years,
1820-1850, between a mother, on the one hand, who never understood or
appreciated her son--and a son, on the other, whose longings for
maternal affection were never fully gratified. To his mother Balzac
dedicated /Le Medicin de Campagne/, one of his finest sociological
studies.

Madame Surville has described Balzac's mother, and her own, as being
rich, beautiful, and much younger than her husband, and as having a
rare vivacity of mind and of imagination, an untiring activity, a
great firmness of decision, and an unbounded devotion to her family;
but as expressing herself in actions rather than in words. She devoted
herself exclusively to the education of her children, and felt it
necessary to use severity towards them in order to offset the effects
of indulgence on the part of their father and their grandmother.
Balzac inherited from his mother imagination and activity, and from
both of his parents energy and kindness.

Madame de Balzac has been charged with not having been a tender mother
towards her children in their infancy. She had lost her first child
through her inability to nurse it properly. An excellent nurse,
however, was found for Honore, and he became so healthy that later his
sister Laure was placed with the same nurse. But she never seemed
fully to understand her son nor even to suspect his promise. She
attributed the sagacious remarks and reflections of his youth to
accident, and on such occasions she would tell him that he did not
understand what he was saying. His only reply would be a sweet,
submissive smile which irritated her, and which she called arrogant
and presumptuous. With her cold, calculating temperament, she had no
patience with his staking his life and fortune on uncertain financial
undertakings, and blamed him for his business failures. She suffered
on account of his love of luxury and his belief in his own greatness,
no evidence of which seemed sufficient to her matter-of-fact mind. She
continued to misjudge him, unaware of his genius, but in spite of her
grumbling and harassing disposition, she often came to his aid in his
financial troubles.

Contrary to the wishes of his parents, who had destined him to become
a notary, Balzac was ever dreaming of literary fame. His mother not
unnaturally thought that a little poverty and difficulty would bring
him to submission; so, before leaving Paris for Villeparisis in 1819
she installed him in a poorly furnished /mansard/, No. 9, rue
Lesdiguieres, leaving an old woman, Madame Comin, who had been in the
service of the family for more than twenty years, to watch over him.
Balzac has doubtless depicted this woman in /Facino Cane/ as Madame
Vaillant, who in 1819-1820 was charged with the care of a young
writer, lodged in a /mansard/, rue Lesdiguieres.

After fifteen months of this life, his health became so much impaired
that his mother insisted on keeping him at home, where she cared for
him faithfully. On a former occasion Madame de Balzac had had her son
brought home to recuperate, for when he was sent away to /college/ at
an early age, his health became so impaired that he was hurriedly
returned to his home. Balzac probably refers to this event in his life
when he writes, in /Louis Lambert/, that the mother, alarmed by the
continuous fever of her son and his symptoms of /coma/, took him from
school at four or five hours' notice.

During the five years (1820-1825) that Balzac remained at home in
Villeparisis, he longed for the quiet freedom of his garret; he could
not adapt himself to the bustling family circle, nor reconcile himself
to the noise of the domestic machinery kept in motion by his vigilant
and indefatigable mother. She was of a nervous, excitable nature,
which she probably inherited from her mother, Madame Sallambier. She
imagined that he was ill, and of course there was no one to convince
her to the contrary. Had she known that while she thought she was
contributing everything to the happiness of those around her, she was
only doing the opposite, we may be sure that she of all women would
have been the most wretched.

Balzac having failed in his speculations as publisher and printer, was
aided by his mother financially, and she figured as one of his
principal creditors during the remainder of his life. (E. Faguet in
/Balzac/, is exaggerating in stating that Madame de Balzac sacrificed
her whole fortune for Honore, for much of her means was spent on her
favorite son, Henri.)

M. Auguste Fessart was a contemporary of the family, an observer of a
great part of the life of Honore, and his confidant on more than one
occasion. In his /Commentaires/ on the work entitled /Balzac, sa Vie
et ses Oeuvres/, by Madame Surville, he states that the portrait of
Madame de Balzac is flattering--a daughter's portrait of a mother--and
declares that Madame de Balzac was very severe with her children,
especially with Honore, adding that Balzac used to say that he never
heard his mother speak without experiencing a certain trembling which
deprived him of his faculties. Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, in reviewing
the /Commentaires/ of M. Fessart, notes the recurring instances in
which pity is expressed for the moral and material sufferings almost
constantly endured by Balzac in his family circle. These sufferings
seem to have impressed him more than anything else in the career of
the novelist. In speaking of Balzac's financial appeal to his family,
M. Fessart notes: "And his mother did not respond to him. She let him
die of hunger! . . . I repeat that they let him die of hunger; he told
me so several times!" When Madame Surville speaks of their keeping
Balzac's presence in Paris a secret, saying that it was moreover a
means of keeping him from all worldly temptations, M. Fessart replies:
"And of giving him nothing, and of allowing him to be in need of
everything!" Finally, when Madame Surville speaks of her parents' not
giving Balzac the fifteen hundred francs he desired, M. Fessart
confirms this, saying that his family always refused him money.

A letter from Balzac to Madame Hanska testifies to this attitude of
his family towards him: "In 1828 I was cast into this poor rue
Cassini, in consequence of a liquidation to which I had been
compelled, owing one hundred thousand francs and being without a
penny, when my family would not even give me bread."

MM. Hanotaux et Vicaire, to whose admirable work we shall have
occasion to refer often, state that Madame de Balzac advanced thirty-
seven thousand six hundred francs for Balzac on August 16, 1822, and
that his parents paid a total of forty-five thousand francs for him.

Having read M. Fessart's description of Madame de Balzac, one can
agree with Madame Ruxton in saying that Balzac has portrayed his own
youth in his account of the early life of Raphael in /La Peau de
Chagrin/, Balzac's mother, instead of Raphael's father, being
recognized in the following passage:

 "Seen from afar, my life appears to contract by some mental
  process. That long, slow agony of ten years' duration can be
  brought to memory to-day in some few phrases, in which pain is
  resolved into a mere idea, and pleasure becomes a philosophical
  reflection . . . When I left school, my father submitted me to a
  strict discipline; he installed me in a room near his own study,
  and I had to rise at five in the morning and retire at nine at
  night. He intended me to take my law studies seriously. I attended
  school, and read with an advocate as well; but my lectures and
  work were so narrowly circumscribed by the laws of time and space,
  and my father required of me such a strict account, at dinner,
  that . . . In this manner I cowered under as strict a despotism as
  a monarch's until I became of age."

In confirmation of this idea, Madame Ruxton[*] quotes Madame Barnier,
granddaughter of the Duchesse d'Abrantes, who knew both Balzac and his
mother, and who describes her as a cold, severe, superior, but hard-
hearted woman, just the opposite of her son. Balzac himself states:
"Never shall I cease to resemble Raphael in his garret."

[*] In /La Dilecta de Balzac/, Balzac states that he has described his
    own life in /La Peau de Chagrin/. For a picture of Balzac's
    unhappy childhood drawn by himself, see /Revue des deux Mondes/,
    March 15, 1920.

After the death (June 1829) of her husband, Madame de Balzac lived
with her son at different intervals, and during his extended tour of
six months in 1832 she attended to the details of his business. With
her usual energy and extreme activity, she displayed her ability in
various lines, for she had to have dealings with his publisher, do
copying, consult the library,--sending him some books and buying
others,--have the servant exercise the horses, sell the horses and
carriage and dismiss the servant, arrange to have certain payments
deferred, send him money and consult the physician for him, not to
mention various other duties.

While Madame de Balzac was certainly requested to do far more than a
son usually expects of his mother, her tantalizing letters were a
source of great annoyance to him, as is seen in the following:

 "What you say about my silence is one of those things which, to use
  your expression, makes me grasp my heart with both hands; for it
  is incredible I should be able to produce all I do. (I am obeying
  the most rigorous necessity); so if I am to write, I ought to have
  more time, and when I rest, I wish to lay down and not take up my
  pen again. Really, my poor dear mother, this ought to be
  understood between us once for all; otherwise, I shall have to
  renounce all epistolary intercourse. . . . And this morning I was
  about to make the first dash at my work, when your letter came and
  completely upset me. Do you think it possible to have artistic
  inspirations after being brought suddenly face to face with such a
  picture of my miseries as you have traced? Do you think that if I
  did not feel them, I should work as I do? . . . Farewell, my good
  mother. Try and achieve impossibilities, which is what I am doing
  on my side. My life is one perpetual miracle. . . . You ask me to
  write you in full detail; but, my dear mother, have you yet to be
  told what my existence is? When I am able to write, I work at my
  manuscripts; when I am not working at my manuscripts, I am
  thinking of them; I never have any rest. How is it my friends are
  not aware of this? . . . I beg of you, my dear mother, in the name
  of my heavy work, never to write me that such a work is good, and
  such another bad: you upset me for a fortnight."

Balzac appreciated what his mother did for him, and while he never
fully repaid her the money she had so often requested of him, she
might have felt herself partially compensated by these kind words of
affection:

 "My kind and excellent mother,--After writing to you in such haste,
  I felt my inmost heart melt as I read your letter again, and I
  worshipped you. How shall I return to you, when shall I return to
  you, and can I ever return to you, by my love and endeavors for
  your happiness, all that you have done for me? I can at present
  only express my deep thankfulness. . . . How deep is my gratitude
  towards the kind hearts who pluck some of the thorns from my life
  and smooth my path by their affection. But constrained to an
  unceasing warfare against destiny, I have not always leisure to
  give utterance to what I feel. I would not, however, allow a day
  to pass without letting you know the tenderness your late proofs
  of devotion excite in me. A mother suffers the pangs of labor more
  than once with her children, does she not, my mother? Poor
  mothers, are you ever enough beloved! . . . I hope, my much
  beloved mother, you will not let yourself grow dejected. I work as
  hard as it is possible for a man to work; a day is only twelve
  hours long, I can do no more. . . . Farewell, my darling mother; I
  am very tired! Coffee burns my stomach. For the last twenty days I
  have taken no rest; and yet I must still work on, that I may
  remove your anxieties. . . . Keep your house; I had already sent
  an answer to Laura, I will not let either you or Surville bear the
  burden of my affairs. However, until the arrival of my proxy, it
  is understood that Laura, who is my cash keeper, will remit you a
  hundred and fifty francs a month. You may reckon on this as a
  regular payment; nothing in the world will take precedence of it.
  Then, at the end of November to December 10, you will have the
  surplus of thirty-six thousand francs to reimburse you for the
  excess of the expenditure over the receipts during the time of
  your stewardship; during which, thanks to your devotion, you gave
  me all the tranquility that was possible. . . . I entreat you to
  take care of yourself! Nothing is so dear to me as your health! I
  would give half of myself to keep you well, and I would keep the
  other half, to do you service. My mother, the day when we shall be
  happy through me is coming quickly; I am beginning to gather the
  fruits of the sacrifices I have made this year for a more certain
  future. Still, a few months more and I shall be able to give you
  that happy life--that life without cares or anxiety--which you so
  much need. You will have all you desire; our little vanities will
  be satisfied no less than the great ambitions of our hearts. Oh
  do, I pray you, nurse yourself! . . . Your comfort in material
  things and your happiness are my riches. Oh! my dear mother, do
  live to see my bright future realized!"[*]

[*] In speaking of Balzac's relations to his mother, Mr. F. Lawton
    (/Balzac/) states: "Madame Balzac was sacrificed to his
    improvidence and stupendous egotism; nor can the tenderness of the
    language--more frequently than not called forth by some fresh
    immolation of her comfort to his interests--disguise this
    unpleasing side of his character and action. . . . And his
    epistolary good-byes were odd mixtures of business with
    sentiment."

Thus did the poor mother alternately receive letters full of scoldings
and of terms of endearment from her son whose genius she never
understood. She was faithful in her duties, and her ambitious son
probably did not realize how much he was asking of her. But she may
have had a motive in keeping him on the prolonged visit during which
this last letter was written, for she was interested in his
prospective marriage. Although her full name is never mentioned, the
women in question, Madame D----, was evidently a widow with a fortune,
and in view of this prospect was most pleasing to Madame de Balzac.
However, this matrimonial plan fell through, and Balzac himself was
never enthusiastic over it. He felt that his attentions to Madame
D---- would consume his very precious time, and that the affair could
not come off in time to serve his interests. Could it be that Balzac
was alluding to this same Madame D---- when he wrote some time later:
"My beloved mother,--the affair has come to nothing, the bird was
frightened away, and I am very glad of it. I had no time to run after
it, and it was imperative it should be either yes or no."

This marriage project, like many others planned either for or by
Balzac, came to naught, and his mother evidently became displeased
with him, for she left him on his return, when he was in great need of
consolation and sympathy. As frequently happened under such
circumstances, Balzac expressed his deep regrets at his mother's
conduct to one of his best friends, Madame Carraud, and confided to
her his loneliness and longings.

Madame de Balzac was much occupied with religious ideas, and had made
a collection of the writings of the mystics. Balzac plunged into the
study of clairvoyance and mesmerism, and his mother, interested in the
marvelous, helped him in his studies, as she knew many of the
celebrated clairvoyants and mesmerists of the time.

At various times, Balzac's relations with his mother were much
estranged; at one time he did not even know where she was. When she
was disappointed in her favorite child, Henri, she seemed to recognize
the great wrong involved in her lack of affection for Honore and his
sister Laure. But she never gave him the attentions that he longed
for. In May, 1840, he wrote to Madame Hanska that he was especially
sad on the day of his /fete catholique/ (May 16) as, since the death
of Madame de Berny, there was no one to observe this occasion, though
during her life every day was a /fete/ day; he was too busy to join
with his sister Laure in the mutual observance of their birthdays, and
his mother cared little for him; once the Duchesse de Castries had
sent him a most beautiful bouquet,--but now there was no one.

The same year (1840) he took his mother to live with him /Aux
jardies/. This he regarded as an additional burden. Her continual
harassing him for the money he still owed her, her nervous and
discordant disposition, her constant intrigues to force him to marry,
and her numerous little acts that placed him in positions beneath the
dignity of an author's standing were an incessant source of annoyance
to him.

She did not remain with him long, but he tried to perform his filial
duties and make her comfortable, as various letters show. One of these
reads as follows:

 "My dear Mother,--It is very difficult for me to enter into the
  engagement you ask of me, and to do so without reflection would
  entail consequences most serious both for you and for myself. The
  money necessary for my existence is, as it were, wrung from what
  should go to pay my debts, and hard work it is to get it. The sort
  of life I lead is suitable for no one; it wears out relations and
  friends; all fly from my dreary house. My affairs will become more
  and more difficult to manage, not to say impossible. The failure
  of my play, as regards money, still further complicates my
  situation. I find it impossible to work in the midst of all the
  little storms raised up in a household where the members do not
  live in harmony. My work has become feeble during the last year,
  as any one can see. I am in doubt what to do. But I must come to
  some determination within a few days. When my furniture has been
  sold, and when I have disposed of 'Les Jardies,' I shall not have
  much left. And I shall find myself alone in the world with nothing
  but my pen, and an attic. In such a situation shall I be able to
  do more for you than I am doing at this moment? I shall have to
  live from hand to mouth by writing articles which I can no longer
  write with the agility of youth which is no more. The world, and
  even relations, mistake me; I am engrossed by my work, and they
  think I am absorbed in myself. I am not blind to the fact, that up
  to the present moment, working as I work, I have not succeeded in
  paying my debts, nor in supporting myself. No future will save me.
  I must do something else, look out for some other position. And it
  is at a time like this that you ask me to enter into an
  engagement! Two years ago I should have done so, and have deceived
  myself. Now all I can say is, come to me and share my crust. You
  were in a tolerable position; I had a domestic whose devotion
  spared you all the worry of housekeeping; you were not called on
  to enter into every detail, you were quiet and peaceful. You
  wished me to count for something in your life, when it was
  imperative for you to forget my existence and allow me the entire
  liberty without which I can do nothing. It is not a fault in you,
  it is the nature of women. Now everything is changed. If you wish
  to come back, you will have to bear a little of the burden which
  is about to weigh me down, and which hitherto has only pressed
  upon you because you chose to take it to yourself. All this is
  business, and in no way involves my affection for you, which is
  always the same; so believe in the tenderness of your devoted
  son."

Later, when Balzac purchased his home in the rue Fortunee, his mother
had the care of it while he was in Russia. He asked her to visit the
house weekly and to keep the servants on the alert by enquiring as
though she expected him; yet Balzac wrote his nieces to have their
grandmother visit them often, lest she carry too far the duties she
imposed on herself in looking after his little home. He cautioned her
to allow no one to enter the house, to insist that his old servant
Francois be discreet, and especially that she be prudent in not
talking about his plans; and that by all means she should take a
carriage while attending to his affairs; this request was not only
from him but also from Madame Hanska.

She was most faithful in looking after his home and watching the
workmen to see that his instructions were carried out. In fact, she
never left the house except when, on one occasion, owing to the
excessive odors of the paint, she spent two nights in Laure's home.

Balzac's stay at Wierzchownia, however, was far from tranquil, for his
mother was discontented with the general aspect of his affairs and
increased his vexations by writing a letter in which she addressed him
as /vous/, declaring that her affection was conditional on his
behavior, a thing he naturally resented. "To think," he writes, "of a
mother reserving the right to love a son like me, seventy-two years on
the one side, and fifty on the other!"

This letter caused a serious complication in his affairs in Russia,
but the mother evidently became reconciled for a few months later she
wrote to him expressing her joy at the news of his recovery, and
asking him to extend to his friends her most sincere thanks for their
care of him in his serious illness. Aside from knowing of his illness
and her inability to see him, she was most happy in feeling that he
was with such good friends.

She complained of his not writing oftener, but he replied that he had
written to her seven times during his absence, that the letters were
posted by his hostess and that he did not wish to abuse the
hospitality with which he was so royally and magnificently
entertained. He resented his mother's dictating to him, a man of fifty
years of age, as to how often he should write to his nieces, for while
he enjoyed receiving their letters, he thought they should feel
honored in receiving letters from him whenever he had time to write to
them.

When the poor mother attempted to be gracious to her son by sending
him a box of bonbons, she only brought him trouble, for she packed it
in newspapers, and in passing the custom-house, it was taken out and
the candy crushed. Instead of thanking her for her good intentions, he
rebuked her for her stupidity in regard to sending printed matter into
Russia, as it endangered his stay there.

Balzac was always striving to pay his mother his long-standing
indebtedness, but the Revolution of 1848, in connection with his
continued illness, made this impossible. This burden of debt was also,
at this time, preventing his obtaining a successful termination of his
mission to Russia, for, as he explained to his mother, the lady
concerned did not care to marry him while he was still encumbered with
debt. Being a woman past forty, she desired that nothing should
disturb the tranquillity in which she wished to live.

Owing to this critical situation and to his poor health, Balzac had
repeatedly requested his mother never to write depressing news to him,
but she paid little attention to this request and sent him a letter
hinting at trouble in so vague a manner and with such disquieting
expressions that, in his extremely nervous condition, it might have
proved fatal to him. Yet it did not affect him so seriously as it did
Madame Hanska, who read the letter to him, for owing to his terrible
illness and the method of treatment, his eyes had become so weak that
he could no longer see in the evening. Madame Hanska was so deeply
interested in everything that concerned Balzac that this news made her
very ill. For them to live in suspense for forty days without knowing
anything definite was far worse than it would have been had his mother
enumerated in detail the various misfortunes. From the preceding
revelations of the disposition of Madame de Balzac, one can easily
understand how it happened that her son has immortalized some of her
traits in the character of /Cousine Bette/.

During the remainder of Balzac's stay in the Ukraine, he was
preoccupied with the thought of his mother having every possible
comfort, with his becoming acclimatized in Russia,--impossible though
it was for him in his condition,--and above all with the realization
of his long-cherished hope. But he cautioned his mother to observe the
greatest discretion in regard to this hope, "for such things are never
certain until one leaves the church after the ceremony."

What must have been his feeling of triumph when he was able to write:

 "My very dear Mother,--Yesterday, at seven in the morning, thanks
  be to God, my marriage was blessed and celebrated in the church of
  Saint Barbara, at Berditchef, by the deputy of the Bishop of
  Jitomir. Monseigneur wished to have married me himself, but being
  unable, he sent a holy priest, the Count Abbe Czarouski, the
  eldest of the glories of the Polish Roman Catholic Church, as his
  representative. Madame Eve de Balzac, your daughter-in-law, in
  order to make an end of all obstacles, has taken an heroic and
  sublimely maternal resolution, viz., to give up all her fortune to
  her children, only reserving an annuity to herself. . . . There
  are now two of us to thank you for all the good care you have
  taken of our house, as well as to testify to you our respectful
  /tendresses/."

Balzac was not only anxious that his bride should be properly
received, but also that his mother should preserve her dignity. On
their way home he writes her from Dresden to have the house ready for
their arrival (May 19, 20, 21), urging that she go either to her own
home or to Laure's, for it would not be proper for her to receive her
daughter-in-law in the rue Fortunee, and that she should not call
until his wife had called on her. After reminding her again not to
forget to procure flowers, he suggests that owing to his extremely
feeble health he meet her at Laure's, for there he would have one less
flight of stairs to climb. These suggestions, however, were
unnecessary, as his mother had been ill in bed for several weeks in
Laure's house.

After the novelist's return to Paris with his bride, his physical
condition was such that in spite of the efforts of his beloved
physician, Dr. Nacquart, little could be done for him, and he was
destined to pass away within a short time. Balzac's mother, she with
whom he had had so many misunderstandings, she who had doubtless never
fully appreciated his greatness but who had sacrificed her physical
strength and worldly goods for his sake, an old woman of almost
seventy-two years, showed her true maternal love by remaining with her
glorious and immortal son in his last moments.


            MADAME SURVILLE--MADAME MALLET--MADAME DUHAMEL

 "To the Casket containing all things delightful; to the Elixir of
  Virtue, of Grace, and of Beauty; to the Gem, to the Prodigy of all
  Normandy; to the Pearl of the Bayeux; to the Fairy of St.
  Laurence; to the Madonna of the Rue Teinture; to the Guardian
  Angel of Caen, to the Goddess of Enchanting Spells; to the
  Treasury of all Friendship--to Laura!"

Two years younger than Balzac, his sister Laure, not only played an
important part in his life, but after his death rendered valuable
service by writing his life and publishing a part of his
correspondence.[*] Being reared by the same nurse as he, and having
had the same home environment, she was the first of his intimate
companions, and throughout a large part of his life remained one of
the most sympathetic of all his confidantes. As children they loved
each other tenderly, and his chivalrous protection of her led to his
being punished more than once without betraying her childish guilt.
Once when she arrived in time to confess, he asked her to avow nothing
the next time, as he liked to be scolded for her.

[*] MM. Hanotaux et Vicaire, /Le Jeunesse de Balzac/, have correctly
    observed that Balzac's sister, Madame Surville, has written a most
    delicate and interesting book, but that she had not correctly
    portrayed her brother because she was blinded by her devotion to
    him.

He it was who accompanied her to dances, but having had the misfortune
to slip and fall on one such occasion he was so sensitive to the
amused smiles of the ladies that he gave up dancing, and decided to
dominate society otherwise than by the graces and talents of the
drawing-room. Thus it was that he became merely a spectator of these
festivities, the memory of which he utilized later.

It was to Laure that, in the strictest confidence, he sent the plan of
his first work, the tragedy /Cromwell/, writing it to be a surprise to
the rest of the family when finished. To her he looked for moral
support, asking her to have faith in him, for he needed some one to
believe in him. To her also he confided his ambitions early in his
career, saying that his two greatest desires were to be famous and to
be loved.

Laure was married in May, 1820, to M. Midi de la Greneraye Surville,
and moved from her home in Villeparisis to Bayeux. When she became
homesick Balzac wrote her cheerful letters, suggesting various means
of employing her time. His admiration of her was such that he even
asked her to select for him a wife of her own type. He explained to
her that his affection was not diminished an atom by distance or by
silence, for there are torrents which make a terrible to-do and yet
their beds are dry in a few days, and there are waters which flow
quietly, but flow forever.

Madame Surville seems to have been the impersonation of discretion and
appreciation; she was intimately acquainted with all the characters in
his work and made valuable suggestions; he was most happy when
discussing plans with her. He longed to have his glory reflect on his
family and make the name of Balzac illustrious. When carried away with
some beautiful idea, he seemed to hear her tender voice encouraging
him. he felt that were it not for her devotion to the duties of her
home, their intimacy might have become even more precious and that
stimulated by a literary atmosphere she might herself have become a
writer.

He consulted her frequently with regard to literary help, once asking
her to use all her cleverness in writing out fully her ideas on the
subject of the /Deux Rencontres/, about which she had told him, for he
wished to insert them in the /Femme de trente Ans/. As early as 1822
she received a similar request asking her to prepare for him a
manuscript of the /Vicaire des Ardennes/; she was to prepare the first
volume and he would finish it. And many years later (1842), Balzac
asked his sister to furnish him with ideas for a story for young
people. After the name of this story had been changed a few times, it
was published under the title of /Un Debut dans la Vie/. This explains
why Balzac used the following words in dedicating it to her: "To
Laure. May the brilliant and modest intellect that gave me the subject
of this scene have the honor of it!" This, however, was not the first
time he had honored her by dedicating one of his works to her, for in
1835 he inscribed to "Almae Sorori" a short story, /Les Proscrits/.

Balzac was often depressed, and felt that even his own family was not
in sympathy with his efforts; he told his sister that the universe
would be startled at his works before his relations or friends would
believe in their existence. Yet he knew that they did appreciate him
to a certain extent, for his sister wrote him that in reading the
/Recherche de l'Absolu/, and thinking that her own brother was the
author of it, she wept for joy.

In his youth, at all events, Balzac seems to have had no secrets from
his sister, and it is to her that the much disputed letter of
Saturday, October 12, 1833, was addressed. Their friendship was
sincere and devoted; and yet there were coolnesses, caused largely by
the influence of their mother,--and of M. Surville, whose jealous and
tyrannical disposition prevented their seeing each other as frequently
as they would have liked. She once celebrated her birthday by visiting
her brother, but she held her watch in her hand as she had only twenty
minutes for the meeting. For awhile, he could not visit her; later,
this estrangement was overcome, and after the first presentation of
his play /Vautrin/ (1840), his sister cared for him in her home during
his illness.

Madame Surville performed many duties for her brother but was not
always skilful in allaying the demands of his creditors. On Balzac's
return from a visit to Madame Hanska in Vienna, he found that his
affairs were in great disorder, and that his sister, frightened at the
conditions, had pawned his silverware. In planning at a later date to
leave France, however, he did not hesitate to entrust his treasures to
his sister, saying that she would be a most faithful "dragon." He was
also wisely thoughtful of her; on one occasion when she had gone to a
masked ball contrary to her husband's wishes, Balzac went after her
and took her home without giving her time to go round the room.

She evidently had more influence over their mother than had he, for he
asked her when on the verge of taking Madame de Balzac into his home
again, to assist him in making her reasonable:

 "If she likes, she can be very happy, but tell her that she must
  encourage happiness and not frighten it away. She will have near
  her a confidential attendant and a servant, and that she will be
  taken care of in the way she likes. Her room is as elegant as I
  can make it. . . . Make her promise not to object to what I wish
  her to do as regards her dress: I do not wish her to be dressed
  otherwise than as she /ought to be/, it would give me great
  pain . . ."

During his prolonged stay in Russia, he requested his sister to
conceal from their mother the true condition of his illness and the
uncertainty of his marriage, and to entreat her to avoid anything in
her letters which might cause him pain. Feeling that she would never
have allowed such a thing had she known of it, he informed her in
detail concerning their mother's letter which had caused him endless
trouble.

While Madame Surville was a great stimulus to Balzac early in his
literary career, she in turn received the deepest sympathy from him in
her financial struggle, and, while he was so happy and was living in
such luxury in Russia, he only regretted that he could not assist her,
for he had enjoyed hospitality in her home.

Madame Surville had at least one of her mother's traits--that of
continually harassing Balzac by trying to marry him to some rich
woman; once she had even chosen for him the goddaughter of Louis-
Philippe. But the most serious breach of relations between the two
resulted from her failure to approve of Balzac's adoration of Madame
Hanska. While admitting the extreme beauty of the celebrated Daffinger
portrait, she was jealous of his /Predilecta/. When she saw the bound
proofs of /La Femme superieure/ which he had intended for Madame
Hanska, she felt that she was being neglected. In the end, he robbed
his /Chatelaine/ to the profit of his /cara sorella/. But when she
became impatient at Balzac's prolonged stay at Wierzchownia, he
resented it, explaining that marriage is like cream--a change of
atmosphere would spoil it,--that bad marriages could be made with the
utmost ease, but good ones required infinite precautions and
scrupulous attention. He tried to make her see the advantage of this
marriage, writing her:

 "Consider, dear Laura, none of us are as yet, so to speak,
  /arrived/; if, instead of being obliged to work in order to live,
  I had become the husband of one of the cleverest, the best-born,
  and best-connected of women, who is also possessed of a solid
  though circumscribed fortune, in spite of the wish of the lady to
  live retired, to have no intercourse even with the family, I
  should still be in a position to be much better able to be of use
  to you all. I have the certainty of the warm kindness and lively
  interest which Madame Hanska takes in the dear children. Thus it
  is more than a duty in my mother, and all belonging to me, to do
  nothing to hinder me from the happy accomplishment of a union
  which /before all is my happiness/. Again, it must not be
  forgotten that this lady is illustrious, not only on account of
  her high descent, but for her great reputation for wit, beauty,
  and fortune (for she is credited with all the millions of her
  daughter); she is constantly receiving proposals of marriage from
  men of the highest rank and position. But she is something far
  better than rich and noble; she is exquisitely good, with the
  sweetness of an angel, and of an easy compatibility in daily life
  which every day surprises me more and more; she is, moreover,
  thoroughly pious. Seeing all these great advantages, the world
  treats my hopes with something of mocking incredulity, and my
  prospects of success are denied and derided on all sides. If we
  were all to live . . . under the same roof, I could conceive the
  difficulties raised by my mother about her dignity; but to keep on
  the terms which are due to a lady who brings with her (fortune
  apart) most precious social advantages, I think you need only
  confine yourself to giving her the impression that my relations
  are kind and affectionate amongst themselves, and kindly
  affectionate towards the man she loves. It is the only way to
  excite her interest and to preserve her influence, which will be
  enormous. You may all of you, in a great fit of independence, say
  you have no need of any one, that you intend to succeed by your
  own exertions. But, between ourselves, the events of the last few
  years must have proved to you that nothing can be done without the
  help of others; and the social forces that we can least afford to
  dispense with are those of our own family. Come, Laura, it is
  something to be able, in Paris, to open one's /salon/ and to
  assemble all the /elite/ of society, presided over by a woman who
  is refined, polished, imposing as a queen, of illustrious descent,
  allied to the noblest families, witty, well-informed, and
  beautiful; there is a power of social domination. To enter into
  any struggle whatever with a woman in whom so much influence
  centers is--I tell you this in confidence--an act of insanity. Let
  there be neither servility, nor sullen pride, nor susceptibility,
  nor too much compliance; nothing but good natural affection. This
  is the line of conduct prescribed by good sense towards such a
  woman."

One can see how Madame Surville would resent such a letter, especially
when she might have arranged another marriage, advantageous and
sensible, for him. But poor Balzac, knowing her interest in his
happiness, writes to her a joyful letter the day after his marriage:
"As to Madame de Balzac, what more can I say about her? I may be
envied for having won her: with the exception of her daughter, there
is no woman in this land who can compare with her. She is indeed the
diamond of Poland, the gem of this illustrious house of Rzewuski."
After explaining to her that this was a marriage of pure affection, as
his wife had given her fortune to her children and wished to live only
for them and for him, Balzac tells his sister that he hoped to present
Madame Honore de Balzac to her soon, signing the letter, "Your brother
Honore at the summit of happiness."


A great attraction for Balzac in the home of Madame Surville were his
two nieces, Sophie and Valentine, to whom he was devoted, and with
whom he frequently spent his evenings. The story is told that one
evening on entering his sister's home, he asked for paper and pencil,
which were given him. After spending about an hour, not in making
notes, as one might imagine, but in writing columns of figures and
adding them, he discovered that he owed fifty-nine thousand francs,
and exclaimed that his only recourse was to blow his brains out, or
throw himself into the Seine! When questioned by his niece Sophie in
tears as to whether he would not finish the novel he had begun for
her, he declared that he was wrong in becoming so discouraged, to work
for her would be a pleasure; he would no longer be depressed, but
would finish her book, which would be a masterpiece, sell it for three
thousand /ecus/, pay all his creditors within two years, amass a dowry
for her and become a peer of France!

Balzac had forbidden his nieces to read his books, promising to write
one especially for them. The book referred to here is /Ursule Mirouet/
which he dedicated to Sophie as follows:

 "To Mademoiselle Sophie Surville.

 "It is a real pleasure, my dear niece, to dedicate to you a book of
  which the subject and the details have gained the approbation--so
  difficult to secure--of a young girl to whom the world is yet
  unknown, and who will make no compromise with the high principles
  derived from a pious education. You young girls are a public to be
  dreaded; you ought never to be permitted to read any books less
  pure than your own pure souls, and you are forbidden certain
  books, just as you are not allowed to see society as it really is.
  Is it not enough, then, to make a writer proud, to know that he
  has satisfied you? Heaven grant that affection may not have misled
  you! Who can say? The future only, which you, I hope, will see,
  though he may not, who is your uncle
                                                       "BALZAC."

To Valentine Surville he dedicated /La Paix du Menage/.

The novelist was interested in helping his sister find suitable
husbands for her daughters. He and Sophie had a wager as to which--she
or he--would marry first; so when Balzac finally reached his own long-
sought goal, he did not forget to remind his niece that she owed him a
wedding gift.

Sophie became an accomplished musician, having for her master Ambroise
Thomas. Balzac spoke very lovingly of Valentine during her early
childhood; but she was so attractive that he feared she would be
spoiled. And spoiled she was, or perhaps naturally inclined to
indolence, for he wrote her a few years later:

 "I should be very glad to learn that Valentine studies as much as
  the young Countess, who, besides all her other studies, practices
  daily at her piano. The success of this education is owing to hard
  work, which Miss Valentine shuns a little too much. Now, I say to
  my dear niece that to do nothing except what we feel inclined to
  do is the origin of all deterioration, especially in women. Rules
  obeyed and duties fulfilled have been the law of the young
  Countess from childhood, although she is an only child and a rich
  heiress. . . . Thus I beg Valentine not to exhibit a Creole
  /nonchalance/; but to listen to the advice of her sister, to
  impose tasks on herself, and to do work of various sorts, without
  neglecting the ordinary and daily cares of the household, and,
  above all, constantly to withstand the inclination we all have,
  more or less, to give ourselves up to what we find pleasant; it is
  by this yielding to inclination that we deteriorate and fall into
  misfortune."

While Balzac was living in Wierzchownia, he urged his nieces to write
to him oftener, as the young Countess Anna took the greatest interest
in their chatter; they were like two nightingales coming by post to
enchant the Ukrainian solitude. He had portrayed them so well that all
took an interest in them, and their letters were called for first
whenever he received a package from Paris. He requested them to send
him certain favorite recipes, and planned to have Sophie play with the
young countess.

Sophie seemed to have some of the traits of her grandmother; for the
novelist wrote his sister:

 "Sophie has traced out a catechism of what she considers /my
  duties/ towards you, just as last year my mother wrote me a
  catechism of my duties towards my nieces; it is a sort of cholera
  peculiar to our family, to lecture uncles both at home and abroad.
  I make fun if it, but all these little things are remarked upon,
  which I do not like; then these blank pages make me furious. I
  forgive Sophie on account of the /motif/, which is you, and for
  all she and Valentine have done for your /fete/. Ah! if my wishes
  are ever realized, how I shall enjoy introducing my dear nieces,
  both so unspoiled by the devil! I have sung their praises here. I
  have said Sophie is a great musician: I add, Valentine is a /man
  of letters/, and she is tired with writing three pages."


If certain letters received by Balzac from his family irritated him,
he perhaps unconsciously was making his sister jealous by continually
extolling the young Countess Mniszech:

 "She has a genius, as well as a love, for music; if she had not
  been an heiress, she would have been a great artiste. If she comes
  to Paris in eighteen months or two years, she will take lessons in
  thorough bass and composition. It is all she needs as regards
  music. She has (without exaggeration) hands the size of a child of
  eight years old. These minute, supple, white hands, three of which
  I could hold in mine, have an iron power of finger, in the
  proportion, like that of Liszt. The keys, not the fingers, bend;
  she can compass ten keys by the span and elasticity of her
  fingers; this phenomenon must be seen to be believed. Music, her
  mother, and her husband: these three words sum up her character.
  She is the Fenella of the fireside; the will-o'-wisp of our souls;
  our gaiety; the life of the house. When she is not here, the very
  walls are conscious of her absence--so much does she brighten them
  by her presence. She had never known misfortune; she knows nothing
  of annoyance; she is the idol of all who surround her, and she had
  the sensibility and goodness of an angel: in one word, she unites
  qualities which moralists consider incompatible; it is, however,
  only a self-evident fact to all who know her. She is evidently
  well informed, without pedantry; she has a delightful /naivete/;
  and though long since married, she has still the gaiety of a
  child, loving laughter like a little girl, which does not prevent
  her from possessing a religious enthusiasm for great objects.
  Physically, she has a grace even more beautiful than beauty, which
  triumphs over a complexion still somewhat brown (she is hardly
  sixteen);[*] a nose well formed, but not striking, except in the
  profile; a charming figure, supple and /svelte/; feet and hands
  exquisitely formed, and wonderfully small, as I have just
  mentioned. All these advantages are, moreover, thrown into relief
  by a proud bearing, full of race, by an air of distinction and
  ease which all queens have not, and which is now quite lost in
  France, where everybody wishes to be equal. This exterior--this
  air of distinction--this look of a /grande dame/, is one of the
  most precious gifts which God--the God of women can bestow. The
  Countess Georges speaks four languages as if she were a native of
  each of the countries whose tongue she knows so thoroughly. She
  has a keenness of observation which astonishes me; nothing escapes
  her. She is besides extremely prudent; and entirely to be relied
  on in daily intercourse. There are no words to describe her, but
  /perle fine/. Her husband adores her; I adore her; two cousins on
  the point of /old-maidism/ adore her--she will always be adored,
  as fresh reasons for loving her continually arise."

[*] For the incorrectness of this statement, see the chapter on the
    Countess Mniszech.

Such adoration of Madame Hanska's daughter was enough to make Madame
Surville jealous, especially when she was so despondent over her
financial situation, but Balzac tried to cheer her thus: "You should
be proud of your two children, they have written two charming letters,
which have been much admired here. Two such daughters are the reward
of your life; you can afford to accept many misfortunes."[*]

[*] Sophie Surville, the older daughter, whose matrimonial
    possibilities were so much discussed, was finally unhappily
    married to M. Mallet. She was a good harpist, and taught the harp.
    She died without issue. Valentine was married, 1859, to M. Louis
    Duhamel, a lawyer. She had a good voice for singing and literary
    talent; she took charge of having Balzac's correspondence
    published. She had two children; a daughter who became Mme. Pierre
    Carrier-Belleuse, wife of an artist, and a son, /publiciste
    distingue/. Laurence de Balzac had two sons; the older Alfred de
    Montzaigle, dissipated, a friend of Musset, died in 1852 without
    issue. The younger son, Alfonse, married Mlle. Caroline Jung; he
    died in 1868 at Strasbourg. Of their three children, only one,
    Paul de Montzaigle, lived. M. Surville-Duhamel, Mme. Pierre
    Carrier-Belleuse, and M. de Montzaigle are the only living
    relatives of Balzac. Mme. Belleuse and M. de Montzaigle have each
    a little daughter.


    MADAME SALLAMBIER--MADAME DE MONTZAIGLE--MADAME DE BRUGNOLLE--
       MADAME DELANNOY--MADAME DE POMMEREUL--MADAME DE MARGONNE

 "Ah we are fine specimens in this blessed family of ours! What a
  pity we can't put ourselves into novels."

Another member of Balzac's family circle was his affectionate and
amiable grandmother, whom he loved from childhood. After her husband's
death, Madame Sallambier lived with her daughter, Madame de Balzac.
She seems to have had a kind disposition, and having the requisite
means, she could indulge Honore in various ways. When he was brought
back from /college/ in wretched health, she condemned the schools for
their neglect.

While studying at home, Balzac frequently spent his evenings playing
whist or Boston with her. Through voluntary inattention or foolish
plays, she allowed him to win money which he used to buy books.
Throughout his life he loved these games in memory of her. she
encouraged him in his writings, and when /L'Heritiere de Birague/ was
sold for eight hundred francs, he was sure of the sale of the /first/
copy, for she had promised to buy it. He was devoted to her, and when
he had neglected writing to her for some time, he atoned by sending to
her a most affectionate letter.

After the marriage of his sister Laure, Balzac kept her informed in
detail concerning the family life. Of his grandmother, we find the
following:

 "Grandmamma begs me to say all the pretty things she would write if
  that unfortunate malady did not rob her of all her facilities!
  Nevertheless she begins to think her head is better, and if the
  spring comes there is every reason to hope she will recover her
  wonted gaiety. . . . Grandmamma is suffering from a nervous
  attack; . . . Papa says that grandmamma is a clever actress who
  knows the value of a walk, of a glance, and how to fall gracefully
  into an easy chair."

If Madame Sallambier with her nervous attacks annoyed Balzac in his
youth, he spoke beautifully of her after her death, and referred to
her as his "grandmother who loved him," or his "most excellent
grandmother." In speaking of his grief over the death of Madame de
Berny, he said that never, since the death of his grandmother, had he
so deeply sounded the gulf of separation. One of his characteristics
he inherited from his grandmother, that of keeping trivial things
which had belonged to those he loved.


Not a great deal is said of Balzac's younger sister, Laurentia, but he
has left this pen picture of her:

 "On the whole you know that Laurentia is as beautiful as a picture
  --that she has the prettiest of arms and hands, that her
  complexion is pale and lovely. In conversation people give her
  credit for plenty of sense, and find that it is all a natural
  sense, which is not yet developed. She has beautiful eyes, and
  though pale many men admire that. . . . You are not aware that
  Laurentia has taken a violent fancy to Augustus de L----- . Say
  nothing that might lead her to suspect I have betrayed the secret,
  but I have all the trouble in the world to get it into her head
  that authors are the most villainous of matches (in respect of
  fortune, be it understood). Really Laurentia is quite romantic.
  How she would hate me if she knew with what irreverence I allude
  to her tender attachment."

This attachment was evidently not very serious, for not long afterward
Laurentia was married to Monsieur de Montzaigle. His family had a
title and stood well in the town, so Laurentia's parents were pleased
with the marriage. This was a great event in the family, and Balzac
describes to his married sister, Laure, the accompanying excitement in
the home:

 "Grandmamma is in a great state of delight; papa is quite
  satisfied,--so am I,--so are you. As to mamma, recall the last
  days of your own /demoisellerie/, and you will have some idea of
  what Laurentia and I have to endure. Nature surrounds all roses
  with thorns: mamma follows nature."[*]

[*] It was from the father of Laurentia's husband that M. and Madame
    de Berny bought their home in Villeparisis.

The happiness of poor Laurentia was of short duration. She died five
years after her marriage, having two children. Her husband did not
prove to be what the Balzac family had expected, and her children were
left destitute for Madame de Balzac to care for. Balzac always spoke
tenderly of her, and once in despair he exclaimed that at times he
envied his poor sister Laurentia, who had been lying for many years in
her coffin.


After Balzac's return from St. Petersburg, his letters were filled
with allusions to Madame de Brugnolle, his housekeeper and financial
counselor. He brought presents to various friends, and her he
presented with a muff. Besides being very practical, economical and
kind, she was a good manager for Balzac financially and strict with
him regarding his diet; the /bonne montagnarde/ did almost everything
possible, from running his errands to making his home happy. He sent
business letters under her name, and her fidelity and devotion are
seen in her denying herself clothes in order to buy household
necessities for him.

She served the novelist as a spy when he and Gavault disagreed. When
Lirette visited Paris, she treated her very kindly and gave up her own
room in order to arrange comfortable quarters for her. She had some
relatives who had entered a convent, and she talked of ending her days
in one, but Balzac begged her to keep house for him. He felt that she
was born for that! Madame de Brugnolle was of much help to him in
looking after Lirette's financial affairs, visiting her in the
convent, and carrying messages to her from him. Many times she
comforted him by promising to look out for his family, even consenting
to go to Wierzchownia, if necessary, as Lirette's visit had helped her
to realize as never before the angelic sweetness of his /Loup/.

In return for this devotion, he took her with him to Frankfort and to
Bury to visit Madame de Bocarme. He celebrated the birthday of the
/montagnarde/ in 1844, giving her some very attractive presents. Her
economy and devotion seemed to increase with time, and enabled him to
travel without any worry about his home. What must not have been the
trial to him when this happy household came to be broken up later by
her marriage!


Madame Delannoy was an old family friend of the Balzacs. She aided
Balzac in his financial troubles as early in his career as 1826, and
though he remained indebted to her for more than twenty years, he
tried to repay her and was ever grateful to her, calling her his
second mother. The following, written late in his career, reveals his
general attitude towards her:

 "I have just written a long letter to Madame Delannoy, with whom I
  have settled my business; but this still leaves me with
  obligations of conscientiousness towards her, which my first book
  will acquit. No one could have behaved more like a mother, or been
  more adorable than she has been throughout all this business. She
  has been a mother, I will be a son."

But if she remained one of his principal creditors, she received many
literary proofs of his appreciation. As early as 1831 he dedicated to
her a volume of his /Romans et Contes philosophiques/, but later
changed the title to /Etudes philosophiques/, and dedicated to her /La
Recherche de L'Absolu/:

 "To Madame Josephine Delannoy, nee Doumerg.

 "Madame, may God grant that this book have a longer life than mine!
  The gratitude which I have vowed to you, and which I hope will
  equal your almost maternal affection for me, would last beyond the
  limits prescribed for human feeling. This sublime privilege of
  prolonging the life in our hearts by the life of our works would
  be, if there were ever a certainty in this respect, a recompense
  for all the labor it costs those whose ambition is such. Yet again
  I say: May God grant it!

                                                    "DE BALZAC."

Balzac once thought of buying from Madame Delannoy a house that was
left her by her friend, M. Ferraud, but which she could not keep. He
felt that this would be advantageous to them both, but the plan was
never carried out. Besides their financial and literary relations,
their social relations were most cordial. He speaks of accompanying
her and her daughter to the Italian opera twice during the absence of
Madame Visconti.

In 1842, Balzac dedicated /La Maison-du-Chat-qui-pelote/ to
Mademoiselle Marie de Montbeau, the daughter of Camille Delannoy, a
friend of his sister, and the granddaughter of Madame Delannoy.


Another friend of Balzac's family was Madame de Pommereul. In the fall
of 1828 after his serious financial loss, Balzac went to visit Baron
and Madame de Pommereul in Brittany, where he obtained the material
for /Les Chouans/, and became familiar with the chateau de Fougere. To
please Madame de Pommereul, Balzac changed the name of his book from
/Le Gars/ to /Les Chouans/, after temporarily calling it /Le Dernier
Chouan/.

She has given a beautiful pen portrait of the youthful Balzac in which
she describes minutely his appearance, noting his beautiful hands, his
intelligent forehead and his expressive golden brown eyes. There was
something in his manner of speaking, in his gestures, in his general
appearance, so much goodness, confidence, naivete and frankness that
it was impossible to know him without loving him, and his exuberant
good nature was infectious. In spite of his misfortunes, he had not
been in their company a quarter of an hour, and they had not even
shown him to his room, before he had brought the general and herself
to tears with laughter.

 "On some evenings he remained in the drawing-room in company with
  his hosts, and entered into controversies with Madame de
  Pommereul, who, being very pious herself, tried to persuade him to
  make a practice of religion; while Balzac, in return, when the
  discussion was exhausted, endeavored to teach her the rules of
  backgammon. But the one remained unconverted and the other never
  mastered the course of the noble game. Occasionally he helped to
  pass the time by inventing stories, which he told with all the
  vividness of which he was master."

A few months after this prolonged visit, Balzac wrote to General de
Pommereul, expressing his deep appreciation of their hospitality, and
in speaking of the book which he had just written, hoped that Madame
de Pommereul would laugh at some details about the butter, the
weddings, the stiles, and the difficulties of going to the ball, etc.,
which he had inserted in his work,--if she could read it without
falling asleep.

Balzac made perhaps his most prolonged visits in the home of another
old family friend, M. de Margonne, who was living with his wife at
Sache. He describes his life there thus:

 "Sache is the remains of a castle on the Indre, in one of the most
  delicious valleys of Touraine. The proprietor, a man of fifty-
  five, used to dandle me on his knee. He has a pious and intolerant
  wife, rather deformed and not clever. I go there for him; and
  besides, I am free there. They accept me throughout the region as
  a child; I have no value whatever, and I am happy to be there,
  like a monk in a monastery. I always go there to meditate serious
  works. The sky there is so blue, the oaks so beautiful, the calm
  so vast! . . . Sache is six leagues from Tours. But not a woman,
  not a conversation possible!"

Not only did Balzac visit them when he wished to compose a serious
work, but he often went there to recuperate from overwork. He probably
did not enjoy their company, as he spoke of "having" to dine with them
and he is perhaps even chargeable with ingratitude when he speaks of
their parsimony.

Like his own family, these old people were interested in seeing him
married to a rich lady, but to no avail. In spite of his unkind
remarks about them, Balzac appreciated their hospitality, and
expressed it by dedicating to M. de Margonne /Une Tenebreuse Affaire/.


                     MADAME CARRAUD--MADAME NIVET

 "You are my public, you and a few other chosen souls, whom I wish
  to please; but yourself especially, whom I am proud to know, you
  whom I have never seen or listened to without gaining some
  benefit, you who have the courage to aid me in tearing up the evil
  weeds from my field, you who encourage me to perfect myself, you
  who resemble so much that angel to whom I owe everything; in
  short, you who are so good towards my ill-doings. I alone know how
  quickly I turn to you. I have recourse to your encouragements,
  when some arrow has wounded me; it is the wood-pigeon regaining
  its nest. I bear you an affection which resembles no other, and
  which can have no rival, because it is alone of its kind. It is so
  bright and pleasant near you! From afar, I can tell you, without
  fear of being put to silence, all I think about your mind, about
  your life. No one can wish more earnestly that the road be smooth
  for you. I should like to send you all the flowers you love, as I
  often send above your head the most ardent prayers for your
  happiness."

Balzac's friendship with Madame Zulma Carraud was not only of the
purest and most beautiful nature, but it lasted longer than his
friendship with any other woman, terminating only with his death. It
was even more constant than that with his sister Laure, which was
broken at times. Though Madame Surville states that it began in 1826,
the following passage shows an earlier date: "I embrace you, and press
you to a heart devoted to you. A friendship as true and tender now in
1838 as in 1819. Nineteen years!" The first letter to her in either
edition of his correspondence, however, is dated 1826.

Madame Carraud, as Zulma Tourangin, attended the same convent as
Balzac's sister Laure. Her husband was a distinguished officer in the
artillery and a man of learning, but absolutely lacking in ambition,
preferring to direct the instruction of Saint-Cyr rather than to risk
the chances of advancement presented in active service. He became
inspector of the gunpowder manufactory at Angouleme, and later retired
to his home at Frapesle, near Issoudun. Though an excellent husband,
his inactivity was a great annoyance to his wife. According to several
Balzacian writers, Madame Carraud became the type of the /femme
incomprise/ for Balzac, but the present writer is inclined to agree
with M. Serval when he calls this judgment astonishing, since she was
a woman who adored her husband and sons, was an author of some moral
books for children, and nothing in her suggested either vagueness of
soul or melancholy. Madame Carraud herself gives a glimpse of her
married life in saying to Balzac that she and her husband are not
sympathetic in everything, that being of different temperaments things
appear differently to them, but that she knows happiness, and her life
is not empty.

Often when sick, discouraged, overworked or pursued by his creditors,
Balzac sought refuge in her home, and with a pure and disinterested
maternal affection, she calmed him and inspired him with courage to
continue the battle of life. It was indeed the maternal element that
he needed and longed for, and Madame Carraud seems to have been a rare
mother who really understood her child. He confided in her not only
his financial worries, but also his love affairs, his aspirations in
life, and his ideas of woman:

 "I care more for the esteem of a few persons, amongst whom you are
  one of the first, both in friendship and in high intellect--one of
  the noblest souls I have ever known,--than I care for the esteem
  of the masses, for whom I have, in truth, a profound contempt.
  There are some vocations that must be obeyed, and something drags
  me irresistibly towards glory and power. It is not a happy life.
  There is in me a worship of woman, and a need of loving, which has
  never been completely satisfied. Despairing of ever being loved
  and understood as I desire, by the woman I have dreamt of (never
  having met her, except under one form--that of the heart), I have
  thrown myself into the tempestuous region of political passions
  and into the stormy and parching atmosphere of literary glory.
  . . . If ever I should find a wife and a fortune, I could resign
  myself very easily to domestic happiness; but where are these
  things to be found? Where is the family which would have faith in
  a literary fortune? It would drive me mad to owe my fortune to a
  woman, unless I loved her, or to owe it to flatteries; I am
  obliged, therefore, to remain isolated. In the midst of this
  desert, be assured that friendships such as yours, and the
  assurance of finding a shelter in a loving heart, are the best
  consolations I can have. . . . To dedicate myself to the happiness
  of a woman is my constant dream, but I do not believe marriage and
  love can exist in poverty. . . . I work too hard and I am too much
  worried with other things to be able to pay attention to those
  sorrows which sleep and make their nest in the heart. It may be
  that I shall come to the end of my life, without having realized
  the hopes I entertained from them. . . . As regards my soul, I am
  profoundly sad. My work alone keeps me alive. Will there never be
  a woman for me in this world? My fits of despondency and bodily
  weariness come upon me more frequently, and weigh upon me more
  heavily; to sink under this crushing load of fruitless labor,
  without having near me the gentle caressing presence of woman, for
  whom I have worked so much!"

Though Balzac and his mother were never congenial, he became very
lonely after she left him in 1832. In the autumn of that year he had a
break with the Duchesse de Castries, so he began the new year by
summing up his trials and pouring forth his longings to Madame Carraud
as he could do to no other woman, not even to his /Dilecta/. In
response to this despondent epistle, she showed her broad sympathetic
friendship by writing him a beautiful and comforting letter, in which
she regretted not being able to live in Paris with him, so as to see
him daily and give him the desired affection.

Not only through the hospitality of her home, but by sending various
gifts, she ministered to Balzac's needs or caprices. To make his study
more attractive, she indulged his craving for elegance and grace by
surprising him with the present of a carpet and a lovely tea service.
In thanking her for her thoughtfulness, he informed her that she had
inspired some of the pages in the /Medicin de Campagne/.

Besides being so intimate a friend of Madame Carraud, the novelist was
also a friend of M. Carraud, whom he called "Commandant Piston," and
discussed his business plans with him before going to Corsica and
Sardinia to investigate the silver mines. M. Carraud had a fine
scientific mind; he approved of Balzac's scheme, and thought of going
with him; his wife was astonished on hearing this, since he never left
the house even to look after his own estate. However, his natural
habit asserted itself and he gave up the project.

Madame Carraud was much interested in politics, and many of Balzac's
political ideas are set forth in his letters to her when he was a
candidate for the post of deputy. She reproached him for a mobility of
ideas, an inconstancy of resolution, and feared that the influence of
the Duchesse de Castries had not been good for him. To this last
accusation, he replied that she was unjust, and that he would never be
sold to a party for a woman.

Another tie which united Balzac to Madame Carraud was her sympathy for
his devotion to Madame de Berny, of whom she was not jealous. Both
women were devoted to him, and were friendly towards each other, so
much so that in December, 1833, she invited Balzac to bring Madame de
Berny with him to spend several days in her home at Frapesle. This he
especially appreciated, since neither his mother nor his sister
approved of his relations with his /Dilecta/.

Madame Carraud occupied in Balzac's life a position rather between
that of Madame de Berny and that of a sister. Indeed, he often
referred to her as a sister, and she was generous minded enough to ask
him not to write to her when she learned how unpleasant his mother and
sister were in regard to his writing to his friends.

Seeing his devotion to her, one can understand why he begged her to
spare him neither counsels, scoldings nor reproaches, for all were
received kindly from her. One can perceive also the sincerity of the
following expressions of friendship:

 "You are right, friendship is not found ready made. Thus every day
  mine for you increases; it has its root both in the past and in
  the present. . . . Though I do not write often, believe that my
  friendship does not sleep; the farther we advance in life,
  precious ties like our friendship only grow the closer. . . . I
  shall never let a year pass without coming to inhabit my room at
  Frapesle. I am sorry for all your annoyances; I should like to
  know you are already at home, and believe me, I am not averse to
  an agricultural life, and even if you were in any sort of hell, I
  would go there to join you. . . . Dear friend, let me at least
  tell you now, in the fulness of my heart, that during this long
  and painful road four noble beings have faithfully held out their
  hands to me, encouraged me, loved me, and had compassion on me;
  and you are one of them, who have in my heart an inalienable
  privilege and priority over all other affections; every hour of my
  life upon which I look back is filled with precious memories of
  you. . . . You will always have the right to command me, and all
  that is in me is yours. When I have dreams of happiness, you
  always take part in them; and to be considered worthy of your
  esteem is to me a far higher prize than all the vanities the world
  can bestow. No, you can give me no amount of affection which I do
  not desire to return to you a thousand-fold. . . . There are a few
  persons whose approval I desire, and yours is one of those I hold
  most dear."

Among those to whom Balzac could look for criticism, Madame Carraud
had the high intelligence necessary for such a role; he felt that
never was so wonderful an intellect as hers so entirely stifled, and
that she would die in her corner unknown. (Perhaps this estimate of
her caused various writers to think that Madame Carraud was Balzac's
model for the /femme incomprise/.) Balzac not only had her serve him
as a critic, but in 1836 he requested her to send him at once the
names of various streets in Angouleme, and wished the "Commandant" to
make him a rough plan of the place. This data he wanted for /Les deux
Poetes/, the first part of /Les Illusions perdues/.

Like his family and some of his most intimate friends, she too
interested herself in his future happiness, but when she wrote to him
about marriage, he was furious for a long time. Concerning this
question, Balzac informs her that a woman of thirty, possessing three
or four hundred thousand francs, who would take a fancy to him, would
find him willing to marry her, provided she were gentle, sweet-
tempered and good-looking, although enormous sacrifices would be
imposed on him by this course. Several months later, he writes her
that if she can find a young girl twenty-two years of age, worth two
hundred thousand francs or even one hundred thousand, she must think
of him, provided the dowry can be applied to his business.

If the Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul is correct in his statement,
Balzac showed Madame Carraud the first letter from /l'Etrangere/, in
spite of his usual extreme prudence and absolute silence in such
matters. She answered it, so another explanation of Balzac's various
handwritings might be given. At least, Madame Carraud's seal was used.

In later years, Madame Carraud met with financial reverses. The
following letter, which is the last to her on record, shows not only
what she had been to Balzac in his life struggle, but his deep
appreciation and gratitude:

 "We are such old friends, you must not hear from any one else the
  news of the happy ending of this grand and beautiful soul-drama
  which has been going on for sixteen years. Three days ago I
  married the only woman I have ever loved, whom I love more than
  ever, and whom I shall love to my life's end. I believe this is
  the reward God has kept in store for me through so many years of
  neither a happy youth nor a blooming spring; I shall have the most
  brilliant summer and the sweetest of all autumns. Perhaps, from
  this point of view, my most happy marriage will seem to you like a
  personal consolation, showing as it does that Providence keeps
  treasures in store to bestow on those who endure to the end. . . .
  Your letter has gained for you the sincerest of friends in the
  person of my wife, from whom I have had no secrets for a long time
  past, and she has known you by all the instances of your greatness
  of soul, which I have told her, also by my gratitude for your
  treasures of hospitality toward me. I have described you so well,
  and your letter has so completed your portrait, that now you are
  felt to be a very old friend. Also, with the same impulse, with
  one voice, and with one and the same feeling in our hearts, we
  offer you a pleasant little room in our house in Paris, in order
  that you may come there absolutely as if it were your own house.
  And what shall I say to you? You are the only creature to whom we
  could make this offer, and you must accept it or you would deserve
  to be unfortunate, for you must remember that I used to go to your
  house, with the sacred unscrupulousness of friendship, when you
  were in prosperity, and when I was struggling against all the
  winds of heaven, and overtaken by the high tides of the equinox,
  drowned in debts. I have it now in my power to make the sweet and
  tender reprisals of gratitude . . . You will have some days'
  happiness every three months: come more frequently if you will;
  but you are to come, that is settled. I did this in the old times.
  At St. Cyr, at Angouleme, at Frapesle, I renewed my life for the
  struggle; there I drew fresh strength, there I learned to see all
  that was wanting in myself; there I obtained that for which I was
  thirsty. You will learn for yourself all that you have
  unconsciously been to me, to me a toiler who was misunderstood,
  overwhelmed for so long under misery, both physical and moral. Ah!
  I do not forget your motherly goodness, your divine sympathy for
  those who suffer. . . . Well, then as soon as you wish to come to
  Paris, you will come without even letting us know. You will come
  to the Rue Fortunee exactly as to your own house, absolutely as I
  used to go to Frapesle. I claim this as my right. I recall to your
  mind what you said to me at Angouleme, when broken down after
  writing /Louis Lambert/, ill, and as you know, fearing lest I
  should go mad. I spoke of the neglect to which these unhappy ones
  are abandoned. 'If you were to go mad, I would take care of you.'
  Those words, your look, and your expression have never been
  forgotten. All this is still living in me now, as in the month of
  July 1832. It is in virtue of that word that I claim your promise
  to-day, for I have almost gone mad with happiness. . . . When I
  have been questioned here about my friendships you have been
  named the first. I have described that fireside always burning,
  which is called Zulma, and you have two sincere woman-friends
  (which is an achievement), the Countess Mniszech and my wife."[*]

[*] Balzac is not exaggerating about the free use he made of her home,
    for besides going there for rest, he worked there, and two of his
    works, /La Grenadiere/ and /La Femme abandonnee/, were signed at
    Angouleme.

His devotion is again seen in the beautiful words with which he
dedicates to her in 1838 /La Maison Nucingen/:

 "To Madame Zulma Carraud.

 "To whom, madame, but to you should I inscribe this work, to you
  whose lofty and candid intellect is a treasury to your friends, to
  you who are to me not only an entire public, but the most
  indulgent of sisters? Will you deign to accept it as a token of a
  friendship of which I am proud? You, and some few souls as noble
  as your own, will grasp my thought in reading /la Maison Nucingen/
  appended to /Cesar Birotteau/. Is there not a whole social
  contrast between the two stories?

                                                    "DE BALZAC."

While hiding from his creditors, Balzac took refuge with Madame
Carraud at Issoudun, where he assumed the name of Madame Dubois to
receive his mail. Here he met some people whose names he made immortal
by describing them in his /Menage de Garcon/, called later /La
Rabouilleuse/. The priest Badinot introduced him to /La Cognette/, the
landlady to whom the vineyard peasant sold his wine. La Cognette, some
of whose relatives are still living, plays a minor role in the
/Comedie humaine/. Her real name was Madame Houssard; her husband,
whom Balzac incorrectly called "Pere Cognet," kept a little cabaret in
the rue du Bouriau. "Mere Cognette," who lost her husband about 1835,
opened a little café at Issoudun during the first years of her
widowhood. Balzac was an intermittent and impecunious client of hers;
he would enter her shop, quaff a cup of coffee, execrable to the
palate of a connoisseur like him, and "chat a bit" with the good old
woman who probably unconsciously furnished him with curious material.

The coffee drunk, the chat over, Balzac would strike his pockets, and
declaring they were empty, would exclaim: "Upon my word, Mere
Cognette, I have forgotten my purse, but the next time I'll pay for
this with the rest!" This habit gave "Mere Cognette" an extremely
mediocre estimate of the novelist, and she retained a very bad
impression of him. Upon learning that he had, as she expressed it,
"put me in one of his books," she conceived a violent resentment which
ended only with her death (1855). "The brigand," she exclaimed, "he
would have done better to pay me what he owes me!"

Another poor old woman, playing a far more important role in Balzac's
work, lived at Issoudun and was called "La Rabouilleuse." For a long
time, she had been the servant and mistress of a physician in the
town. This wretched creature had an end different to the one Balzac
gave his Rabouilleuse, but just as miserable, for having grown old,
sick, despoiled and without means, she did not have the patience to
wait until death sought her, but ended her miserable existence by
throwing herself into a well.

The doctor, it seems, at his death had left her a little home and some
money, but his heirs had succeeded in robbing her of it entirely.--
Perhaps this story is the origin of the contest of Dr. Rouget's heirs
with his mistress.

This Rabouilleuse had a daughter who inherited her name, there being
nothing else to inherit; she was a dish washer at the Hotel de la
Cloche, where Balzac often dined while at Issoudun. Can it be that he
saw her there and learned from her the story of her mother?


Balzac was acquainted also with Madame Carraud's sister, Madame
Philippe Nivet. M. Nivet was an important merchant of Limoges, living
in a pretty, historical home there. It was in this home that Balzac
visited early in his literary career, going there partly in order to
visit these friends, partly to see Limoges, and partly to examine the
scene in which he was going to place one of his most beautiful novels,
/Le Cure de Village/. While crossing a square under the conduct of the
young M. Nivet, Balzac perceived at the corner of the rue de la
Vieille-Poste and the rue de la Cite an old house, on the ground-floor
of which was the shop of a dealer in old iron. With the clearness of
vision peculiar to him, he decided that this would be a suitable
setting for the work of fiction he had already outlined in his mind.
It is here that are unfolded the first scenes of /Le Cure de Village/,
while on one of the banks of the Vienne is committed the crime which
forms the basis of the story.



                             CHAPTER III

                           LITERARY FRIENDS


        MADAME GAY--MADAME HAMELIN--MADAME DE GIRARDIN--MADAME
                   DESBORDES-VALMORE--MADAME DORVAL

 "O matre pulchra filia pulchrior!"

Though Balzac did not go out in "society" a great deal, he was
fortunate in associating with the best literary women of his time, and
in knowing the charming Madame Sophie Gay, whose salon he frequented,
and her three daughters. Elisa, the eldest of these, was married to
Count O'Donnel. Delphine was married June 1, 1831, to Emile de
Girardin, and Isaure, to Theodore Garre, son of Madame Sophie Gail, an
intimate friend of Madame Gay. These two women were known as "Sophie
la belle" and "Sophie la laide" or "Sophie de la parole" and "Sophie
de la musique." Together they composed an /opera-comique/ which had
some success. In 1814, Madame Gay wrote /Anatole/, an interesting
novel which Napoleon is said to have read the last night he passed at
Fontainebleau before taking pathetic farewell of his guard. A few
years before this, she wrote another novel which met with much
success, /Leonine de Monbreuse/, a study of the society and customs of
the /Directoire/ and of the Empire.

Madame Gay had made a literary center of her drawing-room in the rue
Gaillon where she had grouped around her twice a week not only many of
the literary and artistic celebrities of the epoch, but also her
acquaintances who had occupied political situations under the Empire.
Madame Gay, who had made her debut under the /Directoire/, had been
rather prominent under the Empire, and under the Restoration took
delight in condemning the government of the Bourbons. Introduced into
this company, though yet unknown to fame, Balzac forcibly impressed
all those who met him, and while his physique was far from charming,
the intelligence of his eyes reveled his superiority. Familiar and
even hilarious, he enjoyed Madame Gay's salon especially, for here he
experienced entire liberty, feeling no restraint whatever. At her
receptions as in other salons of Paris, his toilet, neglected at times
to the point of slovenliness, yet always displayed some distinguishing
peculiarity.

Having acquired some reputation, the young novelist started to carry
about with him the enormous and now celebrated cane, the first of a
series of magnificent eccentricities. A quaint carriage, a groom whom
he called Anchise, marvelous dinners, thirty-one waistcoats bought in
one month, with the intention of bringing this number to three hundred
and sixty-five, were only a few of the number of bizarre things, which
astonished for a moment his feminine friends, and which he laughingly
called /reclame/. Like many writers of this epoch, Balzac was not
polished in the art of conversing. His conversation was but little
more than an amusing monologue, bright and at times noisy, but
uniquely filled with himself, and that which concerned him personally.
The good, like the evil, was so grossly exaggerated that both lost all
appearance of truth. As time went on, his financial embarrassments
continually growing and his hopes of relieving them increasing in the
same proportion, his future millions and his present debts were the
subject of all his discourses.

Madame Gay was by no means universally beloved. In her sharp and
disagreeable voice she said much good of herself and much evil of
others. She had a mania for titles and was ever ready to mention some
count, baron or marquis. In her drawing-room, Balzac found a direct
contrast to the Royalist salon of the beautiful Duchesse de Castries
which he frequented. In both salons, he met a society entirely
unfamiliar to him, and acquainted himself sufficiently with the
conventions of these two spheres to make use of them in his novels.

The /Physiologie du Mariage/, published anonymously in December, 1829,
gave rise to a great deal of discussion. According to Spoelberch de
Lovenjoul, two women well advanced in years, Madame Sophie Gay and
Madame Hamelin, are supposed to have inspired the work, and even to
have dictated some of its anecdotes least flattering to their sex.
This Madame Hamelin, born in Guadeloupe about 1776, was the marvel of
the /Directoire/, and several times was sent on secret missions by
Napoleon. The role she played under the /Directoire/, the /Consulat/
and the Empire is not clear, but she was a confidential friend of
Chateaubriand, lived in the noted house called the /Madeleine/, near
the forest of Fontainebleau, and wrote about it as did Madame de
Sevigne about /Les Rochers/. While living there, she received her
Bonapartist friends as well as her Legitimist friends. Having lived in
a society where life means enjoyment, she had many anecdotes to
relate. She was a fine equestrienne, a most beautiful dancer,
apparently naturally graceful, and bore the sobriquet of /la jolie
laide/. Her marriage to the banker, M. Hamelin, together with her
accomplishments, secured her a place in the society of the
/Directoire/. Balzac, in a letter to Madame Hanska, refers to her as
/une vieille celebrite/, and states that she wept over the letter of
Madame de Mortsauf to Felix in /Le Lys dans la Vallee/. It is
interesting to note that he later built his famous house and breathed
his last in the rue Fortunee to which Madame Hamelin gave her
Christian name, since it was cut through her husband's property, the
former Beaujon Park, and that it became in 1851 the rue Balzac.


Delphine Gay, the beautiful and charming daughter of Madame Sophie
Gay, was called "the tenth muse" by her friends, who admired the
sonorous original verses which she recited as a young girl in her
mother's salon. She became, in June, 1831, the wife of Emile de
Girardin, the founder of the /Presse/. Possessing in her youth, a
/bellezza folgorante/, Madame de Girardin was then in all the splendor
of her beauty; her magnificent features, which might have been too
pronounced for a young girl, were admirably suited to the woman and
harmonized beautifully with her tall and statuesque figure. Sometimes,
in the poems of her youth, she spoke as an authority on the subject of
"the happiness of being beautiful." It was not coquetry with her, it
was the sentiment of harmony; her beautiful soul was happy in dwelling
in a beautiful body.

She held receptions for her friends after the opera, and Balzac was
one of the frequenters of her attractive salon. Of her literary
friends she was especially proud. According to Theophile Gautier, this
was her coquetry, her luxury. If in some salon, some one--as was not
unusual at that time--attacked one of her friends, with what eloquent
anger did she defend them! What keen repartees, what incisive sarcasm!
On these occasions, her beauty glowed and became illuminated with a
divine radiance; she was magnificent; one might have thought Apollo
was preparing to flay Marsyas!

 "Madame de Girardin professed for Balzac a lively admiration to
  which he was sensible, and for which he showed his gratitude by
  frequent visits; a costly return for him who was, with good right,
  so avaricious of his time and of his working hours. Never did
  woman possess to so high a degree as Delphine,--we were allowed to
  call her by this familiar name among ourselves--the gift of
  drawing out the wit of her guests. With her, we always found
  ourselves in poetical raptures, and each left her salon amazed at
  himself. There was no flint so rough that she could not cause it
  to emit one spark; and with Balzac, as you may well believe, there
  was no need of trying to strike fire; he flashed and kindled at
  once." (Theophile Gautier, /Life Portraits, Balzac/.)

Balzac was interested in the occult sciences--in chiromancy and
cartomancy. He had been told of a sibyl even more astonishing than
Mademoiselle Lenormand, and he resolved that Madame de Girardin, Mery
and Theophile Gautier should drive with him to the abode of the
pythoness at Auteuil. The address given them was incorrect, only a
family of honest citizens living there, and the old mother became
angry at being taken for a sorceress. They had to make an ignominious
retreat, but Balzac insisted that this really was the place and
muttered maledictions on the old woman. Madame de Girardin pretended
that Balzac had invented all this for the sake of a carriage drive to
Auteuil, and to procure agreeable traveling companions. But if
disappointed on this occasion, Balzac was more successful at another
time, when with Madame de Girardin he visited the "magnetizer," M.
Dupotet, rue du Bac.

Besides enjoying for a long time the "happiness of being beautiful,"
Delphine also enjoyed almost exclusively, in her set, that of being
good. In this respect, she was superior to her mother who for the sake
of a witticism, never hesitated to offend another. She had but few
enemies, and, wishing to have none, tried to win over those who were
inimical towards her. For twenty-five years she played the diplomat
among all the rivals in talent and in glory who frequented her salon
in the rue Laffitte or in the Champs-Elysees. She prevented Victor
Hugo from breaking with Lamartine; she remained the friend of Balzac
when he quarreled with her autocratic husband. She encouraged Gautier,
she consoled George Sand; she had a charming word for every one; and
always and everywhere prevailed her merry laughter--even when she
longed to weep. But her cheery laugh was not her highest endowment;
her greatest gift was in making others laugh.

Balzac had a sincere affection for Delphine Gay and enjoyed her salon.
In his letters to her he often addressed her as /Cara/ and /Ma chere
ecoliere/. Her poetry having been converted into prose by her prosaic
husband, she submitted her writings to Balzac as to an enlightened
master. He asked /Delphine Divine/ to write a preface for his /Etudes
de Femmes/, but she declined, saying that an habitue of the opera who
could so transform himself so as to paint the admirable Abbe
Birotteau, could certainly surpass her in writing /une preface de
femme/. She did, however, write the sonnet on the /Marguerite/ which
Lucien de Rubempre displayed as one of the samples of his volume of
verses to the publisher Dauriat; also /Le Chardon/. Balzac made use of
this poem, however, only in the original edition of his work; it was
replaced in the /Comedie humaine/ by another sonnet, written probably
by Lassailly. Madame de Girardin brings her master before the public
by mentioning his name in her /Marguerite, ou deux Amours/, where a
personage in the book tells about Balzac's return from Austria and his
inability to speak German when paying the coachman.

It was at the home of Madame de Girardin that Lamartine met Balzac for
the first time, June, 1839. He asked her to invite Balzac to dinner
with him that he might thank him, as he was just recovering from an
illness during which he had "simply lived" on the novels of the
/Comedie humaine/. The invitation she wrote Balzac runs as follows:
"M. de Lamartine is to dine with me Sunday, and wishes absolutely to
dine with you. Nothing would give him greater pleasure. Come then and
be obliging. He has a sore leg, you have a sore foot, we will take
care of both of you, we will give you some cushions and footstools.
Come, come! A thousand affectionate greetings." And Lamartine has left
this appreciation of her and her friendship for Balzac:

 "Madame Emile de Girardin, daughter of Madame Gay who had reared
  her to succeed on her two thrones, the one of beauty, the other of
  wit, had inherited, moreover, that kindness which inspires love
  with admiration. These three gifts, beauty, wit, kindness, had
  made her the queen of the century. One could admire her more or
  less as a poetess, but, if one knew her thoroughly, it was
  impossible not to love her as a woman. She had some passion, but
  no hatred. Her thunderbolts were only electricity; her
  imprecations against the enemies of her husband were only anger;
  that passed with the storm. It was always beautiful in her soul,
  her days of hatred had no morrow. . . . She knew my desire to know
  Balzac. She loved him, as I was disposed to love him myself. . . .
  She felt herself in unison with him, whether through gaiety with
  his joviality, through seriousness with his sadness, or through
  imagination with his talent. He regarded her also as a rare
  creature, near whom he could forget all the discomforts of his
  miserable existence."

A few years after their meeting, Lamartine inquired Balzac's address
of Madame de Girardin, as she was one of the few people who knew where
he was hiding on account of his debts. Balzac was appreciative of the
many courtesies extended to him by Madame de Girardin and was
delighted to have her received by his friends, among whom was the
Duchesse de Castries.

Madame de Girardin made constant effort to keep the peace between
Balzac and her husband, the potentate of the /Presse/. Balzac had
known Emile de Girardin since 1829, having been introduced to him by
Levavasseur, who had just published his /Physiologie du Mariage/.
Later Balzac took his Verdugo to M. de Girardin which appeared in /La
Mode/ in which Madame de Girardin and her mother were collaborating;
but these two men were too domineering and too violent to have
amicable business dealings with each other for any length of time.
Balzac, while being /un bourreau d'argent/, would have thought himself
dishonored in subordinating his art to questions of commercialism; M.
de Girardin only esteemed literature in so far as it was a profitable
business. They quarreled often, and each time Madame de Girardin
defended Balzac.

Their first serious controversy was in 1834. Balzac was no longer
writing for /La Mode/; he took the liberty of reproducing elsewhere
some of his articles which he had given to this paper; M. de Girardin
insisted that they were his property and that his consent should have
been asked. Madame de Girardin naturally knew of the quarrel and had a
difficult role to play. If she condemned Balzac, she would be lacking
in friendship; if she agreed with him, she would be both disrespectful
to her husband and unjust. Like the clever woman that she was, she
said both were wrong, and when she thought their anger had passed, she
wrote a charming letter to Balzac urging him to come dine with her,
since he owed her this much because he had refused her a short time
before. She begged that they might become good friends again and enjoy
the beautiful days laughing together. He must come to dinner the next
Sunday, Easter Sunday, for she was expecting two guests from Normandy
who had most thrilling adventures to relate, and they would be
delighted to meet him. Again, her sister, Madame O'Donnel, was ill,
but would get up to see him, for she felt that the mere sight of him
would cure her.

Anybody but Balzac would have accepted this invitation of Madame de
Girardin's, were it only to show his gratitude for what she had done
for him; but Balzac was so fiery and so mortified by the letter of M.
de Girardin that, without taking time to reflect, he wrote to Madame
Hanska:

 "I have said adieu to that mole-hill of Gay, Emile de Girardin and
  Company. I seized the first opportunity, and it was so favorable
  that I broke off, point-blank. A disagreeable affair came near
  following; but my susceptibility as man of the pen was calmed by
  one of my college friends, ex-captain in the ex-Royal Guard, who
  advised me. It all ended with a piquant speech replying to a
  jest."

However, in answering the invitation of Madame de Girardin, Balzac
wrote most courteously expressing his regrets at Madame O'Donnel's
illness and pleading work as his excuse for not accepting. This did
not prevent the ardent peacemaker from making another attempt. Taking
advantage of her husband's absence a few weeks later, she invited
Balzac to lunch with Madame O'Donnel and herself. But time had not yet
done its work, so Balzac declined, saying it would be illogical for
him to accept when M. de Girardin was not at home, since he did not go
there when he was present. The following excerpts from his letters,
declining her various invitations, show that Balzac regarded her as
his friend:

 "The regret I experience is caused quite as much by the blue eyes
  and blond hair of a lady who I believe to be my friend--and whom I
  would gladly have for mine--as by those black eyes which you
  recall to my remembrance, and which had made an impression on me.
  But indeed I can not come. . . . Your /salon/ was almost the only
  one where I found myself on a footing of friendship. You will
  hardly perceive my absence; and I remain alone. I thank you with
  sincere and affectionate feeling, for your kind persistence. I
  believe you to be actuated by a good motive; and you will always
  find in me something of devotion towards you in all that
  personally concerns yourself."

Her attempts to restore the friendship were futile, owing to the
obstinacy of the quarrel, but she eventually succeeded by means of her
novel, /La Canne de Monsieur de Balzac/. In describing this cane as a
sort of club made of turquoises, gold and marvelous chasings, Madame
de Girardin incidentally compliments Balzac by making Tancrede observe
that Balzac's large, black eyes are more brilliatn than these gems,
and wonder how so intellectual a man can carry so ugly a cane.

This famous cane belongs to-day to Madame la Baronne de Fontenay,
daughter of Doctor Nacquart. In October, 1850, Madame Honore de Balzac
wrote a letter to Doctor Nacquart, Balzac's much loved physician,
asking him to accept, as a souvenir of his illustrious friend, this
cane which had created such a sensation,--the entire mystery of which
consisted in a small chain which she had worn as a young girl, and
which had been used in making the knob. There has been much discussion
as to its actual appearance. He describes it to Madame Hanska (March
30, 1835), as bubbling with turquoise on a chased gold knob. The
description of M. Werdet can not be relied on, for he states that
Gosselin brought him the cane in October, 1836, and that Balzac
conceived the idea of it while at a banquet in prison, but, as has
been shown, the cane was in existence as early as March, 1835, and
Madame de Girardin's book appeared in May, 1836. As to the description
of the cane given by Paul Lacroix, the Princess Radziwill states that
the cane owned by him is the one that Madame Hanska gave Balzac, and
which he afterwards discarded for the gaudier one he had ordered for
himself. This first cane was left by him to his nephew, Edouard
Lacroix. Several years later (1845), Balzac had Froment Meurice make a
cane /aux singes/ for the Count George de Mniszech, future son-in-law
of Madame Hanska, so the various canes existing in connection with
Balzac may help to explain the varying descriptions.

Balzac could not remain indifferent after Madame de Girardin had thus
brought his celebrated cane into prominence. He was absent from Paris
when the novel appeared, and scarcely had he returned when he wrote
her (May 27, 1836), cordially thanking her as an old friend. He also
after this made peace with M. de Girardin. But one difficulty was
scarcely settled before another began, and the ever faithful Delphine
was continually occupied in trying to establish peace. Her numerous
letters to Balzac are filled with such expressions as: "Come
to-morrow, come to dinner. Come, we can not get along without you!
Come, Paris is an awful bore. We need you to laugh. Come dine with us,
come! Come!!! Now come have dinner with us to-morrow or day after
to-morrow, to-day, or even yesterday, every day!! A thousand greetings
from Emile." Thus with her hospitality and merry disposition, she
bridged many a break between her husband and Balzac.

Finally, not knowing what to do, she decided not to let Balzac mention
the latest quarrel. When he referred to it, she replied: "Oh, no, I
beg you, speak to Theophile Gautier. If is not for nothing that I have
given him charge of the /feuilleton/ of the /Presse/. That no longer
concerns me, make arrangements with him." Then she counseled her
husband to have Theophile Gautier direct this part of the /Presse/ in
order not to contend with Balzac, but the novelist was so unreasonable
that M. de Girardin had to intervene. "My beautiful Queen," once wrote
Theophile to Delphine, "if this continues, rather than be caught
between the anvil Emile and the hammer Balzac, I shall return my apron
to you. I prefer planting cabbage or raking the walls of your garden."
To this, Madame de Girardin replied: "I have a gardener with whom I am
very well satisfied, thank you; continue to maintain order /du
palais/."

The relations between M. de Girardin and the novelist became so
strained that Balzac visited Madame de Girardin only when he knew he
would not encounter her husband. M. de Girardin retired early in the
evening; his wife received her literary friends after the theater or
opera. At this hour, Balzac was sure not to meet her husband, whose
non-appearance permitted the intimate friends to discuss literature at
their ease.

Although Madame de Girardin was married to a publicist, she did not
like journalists, so she conceived the fancy of writing a satirical
comedy, /L'Ecole des Journalistes/, in which she painted the
journalists in rather unflattering colors. The work was received by
the committee of the Theatre-Francais, but the censors stopped the
performance. Balzac was angry at this interdiction, for he too
disliked journalists, but Madame de Girardin took the censorship
philosophically. In her salon she read /L'Ecole des Journalistes/ to
her literary friends; there Balzac figured prominently, dressed for
this occasion in his blue suit with engraved gold buttons, making his
coarse Rabelaisian laughter heard throughout the evening.

Balzac's fame increased with the years, but he still regarded the
friendship of Madame de Girardin among those he most prized, and in
1842 he dedicated to her /Albert Savarus/. When she moved into the
little Greek temple in the Champs-Elysees, she was nearer Balzac, who
was living at that time in the rue Basse at Passy, so their relations
became more intimate. Yet when, after his return from St. Petersburg
where he had visited Madame Hanska in 1843, the /Presse/ published the
scandalous story about his connection with the Italian forger, he
vowed he would never see again the scorpions Gay and Girardin.

Madame de Girardin regretted Balzac's not being a member of the
Academy. In 1845, a chair being vacant, she tried to secure it for
him. Although her salon was not an "academic" one, she had several
friends who were members of the Academy and she exerted her influence
with them in his behalf; when, after all her solicitude, he failed to
gain a place among the "forty immortals," she had bitter words for
their poor judgment, Balzac at that time being at the zenith of his
reputation. Some time before this, too, she promised to write a
/feuilleton/ on the great conversationalists of the day, maintaining
that Balzac was one of the most brilliant; and she was thoughtful in
inserting in her /feuilleton/ a few gracious words about his recent
illness and recovery.

Balzac confided to Madame de Girardin his all absorbing passion for
Madame Hanska. She knew of the secret visit of the "Countess" to Paris
and of his four days' visit with her in Wiesbaden. She knew all the
noble qualities and countless charms of the adored "Countess," but
never having seen her, she felt that Madame Hanska did not fully
reciprocate the passionate love of her /moujik/. Becoming ironical,
she called Balzac a /Vetturino per amore/, and told him she had heard
that Madame Hanska was, to be sure, exceedingly flattered by his
homage and made him follow wherever she went--but only through vanity
and pride,--that she was indeed very happy in having for /patito/ a
man of genius, but that her social position was too high to permit his
aspiring to any other title.

When the /Avant-Propos/ of the /Comedie humaine/ was reprinted in the
/Presse/, October 25, 1846, it was preceded by a very flattering
introduction written by Madame de Girardin. She continued to entertain
the novelist, sending him many amusing invitations. In spite of the
"Potentate of the /Presse/," her friendship with Balzac lasted until
1847, when she had to give him up.

The ever faithful Delphine knew of Balzac's financial embarrassment
and persuaded her husband to postpone pressing him for the debts which
he had partially paid before setting out for the Ukraine. The
Revolution of February seriously affected Balzac's financial matters.
After the death of Madame O'Donnel, in 1841, Madame de Girardin's
friendship lost a part of its charm for Balzac and the rest of it
vanished in these troubles. Since the greater part of the last few
years of Balzac's life was spent in the Ukraine, she saw but little of
him, but she hoped for his return with his long sought bride to the
home he had so lovingly prepared for her in the rue Fortunee.

Whether Balzac was fickle in his nature, or whether he was trying to
convince Madame Hanska that she was the only woman for whom he cared,
one finds, throughout his letters to her, various comments on Madame
de Girardin, some favorable, some otherwise. He admired her beauty
very much, and was saddened when, at the height of her splendor, she
was stricken with smallpox. He was grateful to her for the service she
rendered him in arranging for the first presentation of his play
/Vautrin/, throughout the misfortune attending this production she
proved to be a true friend. Although he accepted her hospitality
frequently, at times being invited to meet foreigners, among them the
German Mlle. De Hahn, enjoying himself immensely, he regretted the
time he sacrificed in this manner, and when he quarreled with her
husband, he expressed his happiness in severing his relations with
them. While a charming hostess at a small dinner party, she became,
Balzac felt, a less agreeable one at a large reception, her talents
not being sufficient to conceal her /bourgeois/ origin.

Madame de Girardin was in the country near Paris when she heard the
sad news of the death of the author of the /Comedie humaine/. The
shock was so great that she fainted, and, on regaining consciousness,
wept bitterly over the premature death of her fried. A few years
before her own death, in 1855, Madame de Girardin was greatly
depressed by painful disappointments. The death of Balzac may be
numbered as one of the sad events which discouraged, in the decline of
life, the heart and the hope of this noble woman.


Madame Desbordes-Valmore was another literary woman whom Balzac met in
the salon of Madame Sophie Gay, where she and Delphine recited poetry.
Losing her mother at an early age under especially sad circumstances
and finding her family destitute, after long hesitation, she resigned
herself to the stage. Though very delicate, by dint of studious
nights, close economy and many privations, she prepared herself for
this work. At this time she contracted a /habit/ of suffering which
passed into her life. She played at the /Opera Comique/ and recited
well, but did not sing. At the age of twenty her private griefs
compelled her to give up singing, for the sound of her own voice made
her weep. So from music she turned to poetry, and her first volume of
poems appeared in 1818. She began her theatrical career in Lille,
played at the Odeon, Paris, and in Brussels, where she was married in
1817 to M. Valmore, who was playing in the same theater. Though she
went to Lyons, to Italy, and to the Antilles, she made her home in
Paris, wandering from quarter to quarter.

Of her three children, Hippolyte, Undine (whose real name was
Hyacinthe) and Ines, the two daughters passed away before her. Her
husband was honor and probity itself, and suffered only as a man can,
from compulsory inaction. He asked but for honest employment and the
privilege to work. She was so sensitive and felt so unworthy that she
did not call for her pension after it was secured for her by her
friends, Madame Recamier and M. de Latouche. A letter written by her
to Antoine de Latour (October 15, 1836) gives a general idea of her
life: "I do not know how I have slipped through so many shocks,--and
yet I live. My fragile existence slipped sorrowfully into this world
amid the pealing bells of a revolution, into whose whirlpool I was
soon to be involved. I was born at the churchyard gate, in the shadow
of a church whose saints were soon to be desecrated."

She was indeed a "tender and impassioned poetess, . . . one who united
an exquisite moral sensibility to a thrilling gift of song. . . . Her
verses were doubtless the expression of her life; in them she is
reflected in hues both warm and bright; they ring with her cries of
love and grief. . . . Hers was the most courageous, tender and
compassionate of souls."

A letter written to Madame Duchambye (December 7, 1841), shows what
part she played in Balzac's literary career:

 "You know, my other self, that even ants are of some use. And so it
  was I who suggested, not M. de Balzac's piece, but the notion of
  writing it and the distribution of the parts, and then the idea of
  Mme. Dorval, whom I love for her talent, but especially for her
  misfortunes, and because she is dear to me. I have made such a
  moan, that I have obtained the sympathy and assistance of--whom do
  you guess?--poor Thisbe, who spends her life in the service of the
  /litterrateur/. She talked and insinuated and insisted, until at
  last he came up to me and said, 'So it shall be! My mind is made
  up! Mme. Dorval shall have a superb part!' And how he laughed!
  . . . Keep this a profound secret. Never betray either me or poor
  Thisbe, particularly our influence on behalf of Mme. Dorval."

His friendship for her is seen in a letter written to her in 1840:

 "Dear Nightingale,--Two letters have arrived, too brief by two
  whole pages, but perfumed with poetry, breathing the heaven whence
  they come, so that (a thing which rarely happens with me) I
  remained in a reverie with the letters in my hand, making a poem
  all alone to myself, saying, 'She has then retained a recollection
  of the heart in which she awoke an echo, she and all her poetry of
  every kind.' We are natives of the same country, madame, the
  country of tears and poverty. We are as much neighbors and fellow-
  citizens as prose and poetry can be in France; but I draw near to
  you by the feeling with which I admire you, and which made me
  stand for an hour and ten minutes before your picture in the
  Salon. Adieu! My letter will not tell you all my thoughts; but
  find by intuition all the friendship which I have entrusted to it,
  and all the treasures which I would send you if I had them at my
  disposal."

Soon after Balzac met Madame Hanska, he reserved for her the original
of an epistle from Madame Desbordes-Valmore which he regarded as a
masterpiece. Balzac's friendship for the poetess, which began so early
in his literary life, was a permanent one. Just before leaving for his
prolonged visit in Russia, he wrote her a most complimentary letter in
which he expressed his hopes of being of service to M. Valmore at the
Comedie Francaise, and bade her good-bye, wishing her and her family
much happiness.

Madame Desbordes-Valmore was one of the three women whom Balzac used
as a model in portraying some of the traits of his noted character,
Cousin Bette. He made Douai, her native place, the setting of /La
Recherche de l'Absolu/, and dedicated to her in 1845 one of his early
stories, /Jesus-Christ en Flandres/:

 "To Marceline Desbordes-Valmore,

 "To you, daughter of Flanders, who are one of its modern glories, I
  dedicate this naïve tradition of old Flanders.

                                                    "DE BALZAC."


Though Balzac's first play, and first attempt in literature,
/Cromwell/, was a complete failure, this did not deter him from
longing to become a successful playwright. After having established
himself as a novelist, he turned again to this field of literature.
Having written several plays, he was acquainted, naturally, with the
leading actresses of his day; among these was Madame Dorval, whom he
liked. He purposed giving her the main role in /Les Ressources de
Quinola/, but when he assembled the artists to hear his play, he had
not finished it, and improvised the fifth act so badly that Madame
Dorval left the room, refusing to accept her part.

Again, he wished her to take the leading role in /La Maratre/ (as the
play was called after she had objected to the name, /Gertrude,
Tragedie bourgeoise/). To their disappointment, however, the theater
director, Hostein, gave the heroine's part to Madame Lacressoniere;
the tragedy was produced in 1848. The following year, while in Russia,
Balzac sketched another play in which Madame Dorval was to have the
leading role, but she died a few weeks later.

Mademoiselle Georges was asked to take the role of Brancadori in /Les
Ressources de Quinola/, presented for the first time on March 19,
1842, at the Odeon.

Balzac was acquainted with Mademoiselle Mars also, and was careful to
preserve her autograph in order to send it to his "Polar Star," when
the actress wrote to him about her role in /La grande Mademoiselle/.


                        LA DUCHESSE D'ABRANTES

 "She has ended like the Empire."

Another of Balzac's literary friends was Madame Laure Junot, the
Duchesse d'Abrantes. She was an intimate friend of Madame de Girardin
and it was in the salon of the latter's mother, Madame Sophie Gay,
that Balzac met her.

The Duchesse d'Abrantes, widow of Marechal Junot, had enjoyed under
the Empire all the splendors of official life. Her salon had been one
of the most attractive of her epoch. Being in reduced circumstances
after the downfall of the Empire and having four children (Josephine,
Constance, Napoleon and Alfred) to support, her life was a constant
struggle to obtain a fortune and a position for her children. But as
she had no financial ability, and had acquired very extravagant
habits, the money she was constantly seeking no sooner entered her
hands than it vanished. Wishing to renounce none of her former
luxuries, she insisted upon keeping her salon as in former days,
trying to conceal her poverty by her gaiety; but it was a sorrowful
case of /la misere doree/.

Feeling that luxury was as indispensable to her as bread, and finding
her financial embarrassment on the increase, she decided to support
herself by means of her pen. She might well have recalled the wise
words of Madame de Tencin when she warned Marmontel to beware of
depending on the pen, since nothing is more casual. The man who makes
shoes is sure of his pay; the man who writes a book or a play is never
sure of anything.

Though the Generale Junot belonged to a society far different from
Balzac's they had many things in common which brought him frequently
to her salon. Balzac realized the necessity of frequenting the salon,
saying that the first requisite of a novelist is to be well-bred; he
must move in society as much as possible and converse with the
aristocratic /monde/. The kitchen, the green-room, can be imagined,
but not the salon; it is necessary to go there in order to know how to
speak and act there.

Though Balzac visited various salons, he presented a different
appearance in the drawing-room of Madame d'Abrantes. The glories of
the Empire overexcited him to the point of giving to his relations
with the Duchesse a vivacity akin to passion. The first evening, he
exclaimed: "This woman has seen Napoleon as a child, she has seen him
occupied with the ordinary things of life, then she has seen him
develop, rise and cover the world with his name! She is for me a saint
come to sit beside me, after having lived in heaven with God!: This
love of Balzac for Napoleon underwent more than one variation, but at
this time he had erected in his home in the rue de Cassini a little
altar surmounted by a statue of Napoleon, with this inscription: "What
he began with the sword, I shall achieve with the pen."

When Balzac first met the Duchesse d'Abrantes, she was about forty
years of age. It is probably she whom he describes thus, under the
name of Madame d'Aiglemont, in /La Femme de trente Ans/:

 "Madame d'Aiglemont's dress harmonized with the thought that
  dominated her person. Her hair was gathered up into a tall coronet
  of broad plaits, without ornament of any kind, for she seemed to
  have bidden farewell forever to elaborate toilets. Nor were any of
  the small arts of coquetry which spoil so many women to be
  detected in her. Only her bodice, modest though it was, did not
  altogether conceal the dainty grace of her figure. Then, too, the
  luxury of her long gown consisted in an extremely distinguished
  cut; and if it is permissible to look for expression in the
  arrangement of materials, surely the numerous straight folds of
  her dress invested her with a great dignity. Moreover, there may
  have been some lingering trace of the indelible feminine foible in
  the minute care bestowed upon her hand and foot; yet, if she
  allowed them to be seen with some pleasure, it would have tasked
  the utmost malice of a rival to discover any affectation in her
  gestures, so natural did they seem, so much a part of old childish
  habit, that her careless grace absolves this vestige of vanity.
  All these little characteristics, the nameless trifles which
  combine to make up the sum of a woman's beauty or ugliness, her
  charm or lack of charm, can not be indicated, especially when the
  soul is the bond of all the details and imprints on them a
  delightful unity. Her manner was in perfect accord with her figure
  and her dress. Only in certain women at a certain age is it given
  to put language into their attitude. Is it sorrow, is it happiness
  that gives to the woman of thirty, to the happy or unhappy woman,
  the secret of this eloquence of carriage? This will always be an
  enigma which each interprets by the aid of his hopes, desires, or
  theories. The way in which she leaned both elbows on the arm of
  her chair, the toying of her inter-clasped fingers, the curve of
  her throat, the freedom of her languid but lithesome body which
  reclined in graceful exhaustion, the unconstraint of her limbs,
  the carelessness of her pose, the utter lassitude of her
  movements, all revealed a woman without interest in life. . . ."

Balzac's parents having moved from Villeparisis to Versailles, he had
an excellent opportunity of seeing the Duchess while visiting them, as
she was living at that time in the Grand-Rue de Montreuil No. 65, in a
pavilion which she called her /ermitage/. In /La Femme de trente Ans/,
Balzac has described her retreat as a country house between the church
and the barrier of Montreuil, on the road which leads to the Avenue de
Saint-Cloud. This house, built originally for the short-lived loves of
some great lord, was situated so that the owner could enjoy all the
pleasures of solitude with the city almost at his gates.

Soon after their meeting, a sympathetic friendship was formed between
the two writers; they had the same literary aspirations, the same love
for work, the same love of luxury and extravagant tastes, the same
struggles with poverty and the same trials and disappointments.

Since Balzac was attracted to beautiful names as well as to beautiful
women, that of the Duchesse d'Abrantes appealed to him, independently
of the wealth of history it recalled. He was happy to make the
acquaintance of one who could give him precise information of the
details of the /Directoire/ and of the Empire, an instruction begun by
the /commere Gay/. Thus the Duchesse d'Abrantes was to exercise over
him, though in a less degree, the same influence for the comprehension
of the Imperial world that Madame de Berry did for the Royalist world,
just as the Duchesse de Castries later was to initiate him into the
society of the Faubourg Saint-Germain.

Madame d'Abrantes, pleased as she was to meet literary people,
welcomed most cordially the young author who came to her seeking
stories of the Corsican. Owing to financial difficulties she was
leading a rather retired and melancholy life, and the brilliant and
colorful language of Balzac, fifteen years her junior, aroused her
heart from its torpor, and her friendship for him took a peculiar
tinge of sentiment which she allowed to increase. It had been many
years since she had been thus moved, and this new feeling, which came
to her as she saw the twilight of her days approaching, was for her a
love that meant youth and life itself.

Hence her words pierced the very soul of Balzac and kindled an
enthusiasm which made her appear to him greater than she really was;
she literally dazzled and subjugated him. Her gaiety and animation in
relating incidents of the Imperial court, and her autumnal sunshine,
its rays still glowing with warmth as well as brightness, compelled
Balzac to perceive for the second time in his life the insatiability
of the woman who has passed her first youth--the woman of thirty, or
the tender woman of forty. The fact is, however, not that Balzac
created /la femme sensible de guarante ans/, as is stated by Philarete
Chasles, so much as that two women of forty, Madame de Berny and
Madame d'Abrantes, created him.

This affection savored of vanity in both; she was proud that at her
years she could inspire love in a man so much younger than herself,
while Balzac, whose affection was more of the head than of the heart,
was flattered--it must be confessed--in having made the conquest of a
duchess. Concealing her wrinkles and troubles under an adorable smile,
no woman was better adapted than she to understand "the man who bathed
in a marble tub, had no chairs on which to sit or to seat his friends,
and who built at Meudon a very beautiful house without a flight of
stairs."[*]

[*] This house, /Les Jardies/, was at Ville-d'Avray and not at Meudon.

But the love on Balzac's side must have been rather fleeting, for many
years later, on March 17, 1850, he wrote to his old friend, Madame
Carraud, announcing his marriage with Madame Hanska: "Three days ago I
married the only woman I have ever loved." Evidently he had forgotten,
among others, the poor Duchess, who had passed away twelve years
before.

But how could Balzac remain long her ardent lover, when Madame de
Berny, of whom Madame d'Abrantes was jealous, felt that he was leaving
her for a duchess? And how could he remain more than a friend to
Madame Junot, when the beautiful Duchesse de Castries was for a short
time complete mistress of his heart,[*] and was in her turn to be
replaced by Madame Hanska? The Duchess could probably understand his
inconstancy, for she not only knew of his attachment to Madame de
Castries but he wrote her on his return from his first visit to Madame
Hanska at Neufchatel, describing the journey and saying that the Val
de Travers seemed made for two lovers.

[*] It is an interesting coincidence that the Duchess whose star was
    waning had been in love with the fascinating Austrian ambassador,
    Comte de Metternich, and the Duchess who was to take her place,
    was just recovering from an amorous disappointment in connection
    with his son when she met Balzac.

Knowing Balzac's complicated life, one can understand how, having gone
to Corsica in quest of his Eldorado just before the poor Duchess
breathed her last, he could write to Madame Hanska on his return to
Paris: "The newspapers have told you of the deplorable end of the poor
Duchesse d'Abrantes. She has ended like the Empire. Some day I will
explain her to you,--some good evening at Wierzschownia."

Balzac wished to keep his visits to Madame d'Abrantes a secret from
his sister, Madame Surville, and some obscurity and a "mysterious
pavilion" is connected with their manner of communication. For a while
she visited him frequently in his den. He enjoyed her society, and
though oppressed by work, was quite ready to fix upon an evening when
they could be alone.

It was not without pain that she saw his affection for her becoming
less ardent while hers remained fervent. She wrote him tender letters
inviting him to dine with her, or to meet some of her friends,
assuring him that in her /ermitage/ he might feel perfectly at home,
and that she regarded him as one of the most excellent friends Heaven
had preserved for her.

 "Heaven grant that you are telling me the truth, and that indeed I
  may always be for you a good and sincere friend. . . . My dear
  Honore, every one tells me that you no longer care for me. . . . I
  say that they lie. . . . You are not only my friend, but my
  sincere and good friend. I have kept for you a profound affection,
  and this affection is of a nature that does not change. . . . Here
  is /Catherine/, here is my first work. I am sending it to you, and
  it is the heart of a friend that offers it to you. May it be the
  heart of a friend that receives it! . . . My soul is oppressed on
  account of this, but it is false, I hope."

Balzac continued to visit her occasionally, and there exists a curious
specimen of his handwriting written (October, 1835) in the album of
her daughter, Madame Aubert. He sympathized with the unfortunate
Duchess who, raised to so high a rank, had fallen so low, and tried to
cheer her in his letters:

 "You say you are ill and suffering, and without any hope that finer
  weather will do you any good. Remember that for the soul there
  arises every day a fresh springtime and a beautiful fresh morning.
  Your past life has no words to express it in any language, but it
  is scarcely a recollection, and you cannot judge what your future
  life will be by that which is past. How many have begun to lead a
  fresh, lovely, and peaceful life at a much more advanced age than
  yours! We exist only in our souls. You cannot be sure that your
  soul has come to its highest development, nor whether you receive
  the breath of life through all your pores, nor whether as yet you
  see with all your eyes."

Being quite a linguist, Madame d'Abrantes began her literary career by
translations from the Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, and by writing
novels, in the construction of which, Balzac advised her. As she had
no business ability, he was of great assistance to her also in
arranging for the publication of her work:

 "In the name of yourself, I entreat you, do not enter into any
  engagement with anybody whatsoever; do not make any promise, and
  say that you have entrusted your business to me on account of my
  knowledge of business matters of this kind, and of my unalterable
  attachment to yourself personally. I believe I have found what I
  may call /living money/, seventy thousand healthy francs, and some
  people, who will jump out of themselves, to dispose in a short
  time of 'three thousand d'Abrantes,' as they say in their slang.
  Besides, I see daylight for a third and larger edition. If
  Mamifere (Mame) does not behave well, say to him, 'My dear sir, M.
  de Balzac has my business in his charge still as he had on the day
  he presented you to me; you must feel he has the priority over the
  preference you ask for.' This done, wait for me. I shall make you
  laugh when I tell you what I have concocted. If Everat appears
  again, tell him that I have been your attorney for a long time
  past in these affairs, when they are worth the trouble; one or two
  volumes are nothing. But twelve or thirteen thsousand francs, oh!
  oh! ah! ah! things must not be endangered. Only manoeuver
  cleverly, and, with that /finesse/ which distinguishes Madame the
  Ambassadress, endeavor to find out from Mame how many volumes he
  still has on hand, and see if he will be able to oppose the new
  edition by slackness of sale or excessive price.

                                        "Your entirely devoted."
                                                 (H. DE BALZAC.)

Such assistance was naturally much appreciated by a woman so utterly
ignorant of business matters. But if Balzac aided the Duchess, he
caused her publishers much annoyance, and more than once he received a
sharp letter rebuking him for interfering with the affairs of Madame
d'Abrantes.

It was doubtless due to the suggestion of Balzac that Madame
d'Abrantes wrote her /Memoires/. He was so thrilled by her vivid
accounts of recent history, that he was seized with the idea that she
had it in her power to do for a brilliant epoch what Madame Roland
attempted to do for one of grief and glory. He felt that she had
witnessed such an extraordinary multiplicity of scenes, had known a
remarkable number of heroic figures and great characters, and that
nature had endowed her with unusual gifts.

A few years before her death, /La Femme abandonnee/ was dedicated:

 "To her Grace the Duchesse d'Abrantes,

 "from her devoted servant,

                     "HONORE DE BALZAC."

If such was the role played by Balzac in the life of Madame
d'Abrantes, how is she reflected in the /Comedie humaine/?

It is a well known fact that Balzac not only borrowed names from
living people, but that he portrayed the features, incidents and
peculiarities of those with whom he was closely associated. In the
/Avant-propos de la Comedie humaine/, he writes: "In composing types
by putting together traits of homogeneous natures, I might perhaps
attain to the writing of that history forgotten by so many
historians,--the history of manners."

In fact, he too might have said: "I take my property wherever I find
it;" accordingly one would naturally look for characteristics of
Madame d'Abrantes in his earlier works.

According to M. Joseph Turquain, Mademoiselle des Touches, in
/Beatrix/, generally understood to be George Sand, has also some of
the characteristics of Madame d'Abrantes. Balzac describes
Mademoiselle des Touches as being past forty and /un peu homme/, which
reminds one that the Countess Dash describes Madame d'Abrantes as
being rather masculine, with an /organe de rogome/, and a virago when
past forty. Calyste became enamored of Beatrix after having loved
Mademoiselle des Touches, while Balzac became infatuated with Madame
de Castries after having been in love with Madame d'Abrantes, in each
case, the blonde after the brunette.

Mademoiselle Josephine, the elder and beloved daughter of Madame
d'Abrantes, entered the Convent of the Sisters of Charity of Saint-
Vincent de Paul, contrary to the desires of her mother. In writing to
the Duchess (1831), Balzac asks that Sister Josephine may not forget
him in her prayers, for he is remembering her in his books. Balzac may
have had her in mind a few years later when he said of Mademoiselle de
Mortsauf in /Le Lys dans la Vallee/: "The girl's clear sight had,
though only of late, seen to the bottom of her mother's heart. . . ."
for Mademoiselle Josephine entered the convent for various reasons,
one being in order to relieve the financial strain and make marriage
possible for her younger sister, another perhaps being to atone for
the secret she probably suspected in the heart of her mother, and
which she felt was not complimentary to the memory of her father. And
also, in /La Recherche de l'Absolu/: "There comes a moment, in the
inner life of families, when the children become, either voluntarily
or involuntarily, the judges of their parents."

In writing the introduction to the /Physiologie du Mariage/, Balzac
states that here he is merely the humble secretary of two women. He is
doubtless referring to Madame d'Abrantes as one of the two when he
says:

 "Some days later the author found himself in the company of two
  ladies. The first had been one of the most humane and most
  intellectual women of the court of Napoleon. Having attained a
  high social position, the Restoration surprised her and caused her
  downfall; she had become a hermit. The other, young, beautiful,
  was playing at that time, in Paris, the role of a fashionable
  woman. They were friends, for the one being forty years of age,
  and the other twenty-two, their aspirations rarely caused their
  vanity to appear on the same scene. 'Have you noticed, my dear,
  that in general women love only fools?'--'/What are you saying,
  Duchess?/' "[*]

[*] M. Turquain states that Madame Hamelin is one of these women and
    that the Duchesse d'Abrantes in incontestably the other. For a
    different opinion, see the chapter on Madame Gay. The italics are
    the present writer's.

In /La Femme abandonnee/, Madame de Beauseant resembles the Duchess as
portrayed in this description:

 "All the courage of her house seemed to gleam from the great lady's
  brilliant eyes, such courage as women use to repel audacity or
  scorn, for they were full of tenderness and gentleness. The
  outline of that little head, . . . the delicate, fine features,
  the subtle curve of the lips, the mobile face itself, wore an
  expression of delicate discretion, a faint semblance of irony
  suggestive of craft and insolence. It would have been difficult to
  refuse forgiveness to those two feminine failings in her in
  thinking of her misfortunes, of the passion that had almost cost
  her her life. Was it not an imposing spectacle (still further
  magnified by reflection) to see in that vast, silent salon this
  woman, separated from the entire world, who for three years had
  lived in the depths of a little valley, far from the city, alone
  with her memories of a brilliant, happy, ardent youth, once so
  filled with fetes and constant homage, now given over to the
  horrors of nothingness? The smile of this woman proclaimed a high
  sense of her own value."

In the postscript to the /Physiologie du Mariage/, Balzac mentions a
gesture of one of these "intellectual" women, who interrupts herself
to touch one of her nostrils with the forefinger of her right hand in
a coquettish manner. In /La Femme abandonnee/, Madame de Beauseant has
the same gesture. Another gesture of Madame de Beauseant in /La Femme
abandonnee/ indicates that Balzac had in mind the Duchesse d'Abrantes:
". . . Then, with her other hand, she made a gesture as if to pull the
bell-rope. The charming gesture, the gracious threat, no doubt, called
up some sad thought, some memory of her happy life, of the time when
she could be wholly charming and graceful, when the gladness of her
heart justified every caprice, and gave one more charm to her
slightest movement. The lines of her forehead gathered between her
brows, and the expression of her face grew dark in the soft candle-
light. . . ." The Duchesse d'Abrantes had on two occasions rung to
dismiss her lovers, M. de Montrond and General Sebastiani. Balzac had
doubtless heard her relate these incidents, and they are contained in
the /Journal intime/, which she gave him.[*]

[*] Madame d'Abrantes presented several objects of a literary nature
    to Balzac, among others, a book of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a few
    leaves of which he presented to Madame Hanska for her collection
    of autographs.

In /La Femme abandonnee/, Balzac describes Madame de Beauseant as
having taken refuge in Normandy, "after a notoriety which women for
the most part envy and condemn, especially when youth and beauty in
some way excuse the transgression." Can it be that the novelist thus
condones the fault of this noted character because he wishes to pardon
the /liaison/ of Madame d'Abrantes with the Comte de Metternich?

Is it then because so many traces of Madame d'Abrantes are found in
/La Femme abandonnee/, and allusions are made to minute episodes known
to them alone, that he dedicated it to her?

Was Balzac thinking of the Duchesse d'Abrantes when, in /Un Grand
Homme de Province a Paris/, speaking of Lucien Chardon, who had just
arrived in Paris at the beginning of the Restoration, he writes: "He
met several of those women who will be spoken of in the history of the
nineteenth century, whose wit, beauty and loves will be none the less
celebrated than those of queens in times past."

In depicting Maxime de Trailles, the novelist perhaps had in mind M.
de Montrond, about whom the Duchess had told him. Again, many
characteristics of her son, Napoleon

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