THE THIRTEEN

BY

HONORE DE BALZAC



INTRODUCTION

The _Histoire des Treize_ consists--or rather is built up--of three
stories: _Ferragus_ or the _Rue Soly_, _La Duchesse de Langeais_ or
_Ne touchez-paz a la hache_, and _La Fille aux Yeux d'Or_.



To tell the truth, there is more power than taste throughout the
_Histoire des Treize_, and perhaps not very much less unreality than
power. Balzac is very much better than Eugene Sue, though Eugene Sue
also is better than it is the fashion to think him just now. But he is
here, to a certain extent competing with Sue on the latter's own
ground. The notion of the "Devorants"--of a secret society of men
devoted to each other's interests, entirely free from any moral or
legal scruple, possessed of considerable means in wealth, ability, and
position, all working together, by fair means or foul, for good ends
or bad--is, no doubt, rather seducing to the imagination at all times;
and it so happened that it was particularly seducing to the
imagination of that time. And its example has been powerful since; it
gave us Mr. Stevenson's _New Arabian Nights_ only, as it were, the
other day.