In the preparation of this English text, great care has been exercised
to gain accuracy--a quality not found in other versions now extant. In
one or two instances, errors have been discovered in the original
French, notably in dates--probably typographical errors--which have
been corrected by means of foot-notes. A few unimportant elisions have
been made for the sake of brevity and coherence. Many difficulties
confront the translator in the preparation of material of this nature,
involving names, dates and titles. Opportunities are constantly
afforded for error, and the work must necessarily be painstaking in
order to be successful. We desire here to express appreciation for the
valuable assistance of Mr. Norman Hinsdale Pitman.

To Balzac, more than to any other author, a Repertory of characters
is applicable; for he it was who not only created an entire human
society, but placed therein a multitude of personages so real, so
distinct with vitality, that biographies of them seem no more than
simple justice. We can do no more, then, than follow the advice of
Balzac--to quote again from the original title-page--and "give a
parallel to the civil register."

J. WALKER McSPADDEN



INTRODUCTION

Are you a confirmed _Balzacian_?--to employ a former expression of
Gautier in _Jeune France_ on the morrow following the appearance of
that mystic Rabelaisian epic, _The Magic Skin_. Have you experienced,
while reading at school or clandestinely some stray volume of the