THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN

BY

HONORE DE BALZAC


Translated by
James Waring



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 that are to me not only a whole public, but the most
indulgent of sisters as well? Will you deign to accept a token of
the friendship of which I am proud? You, and some few souls as
noble, will grasp the whole of the thought underlying _The Firm of
Nucingen_, appended to _Cesar Birotteau_. Is there not a whole social
lesson in the contrast between the two stories?

DE BALZAC.



You know how slight the partitions are between the private rooms of
fashionable restaurants in Paris; Very's largest room, for instance,
is cut in two by a removable screen. This Scene is _not_ laid at Very's,