Book Description

Excerpt from Honore De Balzac, Vol. 8 of 25: The First Complete Translation Into English; Parisians in the Country; Gaudissart the Great; The Muse of the Department; The Lily of the Valley Although La Muse du Departement is a much more im portant work, it cannot perhaps be spoken of unhesitating terms. It contains indeed, in the Lo'usteau, one of the very most elaborate of traits of a particular type of men of letters. Is said to have been Jules Janin, who is vantageously contrasted here and elsewh Vignon, said on the same rather Gustave Planche. Both Janin and much forgotten, but in both more or less (and very much more) Balzac certainly cannot be dealt mildly with his bete moire, the critical t Lousteau, indeed, though not precisely a a rascal and' a cad. Even Balzac seems his lettre de faire part in reference to hi and it is seldom possible to discern in any of his ings the most remote approximation to the cond gentleman. But, then, as we have seen, and s Balzac's standard for the conduct of his actual gentlemen was by no means fantastically exquisite or disc high, and in the case of his Bohemians it was ac ing to the utmost degree. He seems to despise Lousteau, but rather for his insouciance and neglect of his Opportuni ties of making himself a position than for anything else. I have often felt disposed to ask those who would assertl Balzac's absolute infallibility as a gynecologist to give me a reasoned criticism of the heroine of this novel. I do not entirely figure to myself Dinah de La Baudraye. It is perfectly possible that she should have loved a sweep like Lousteau; there is certainly nothing extremely um. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."