RISE AND FALL OF CESAR BIROTTEAU

BY

HONORE DE BALZAC



Translated by

Katharine Prescott Wormeley





PART I

CESAR AT HIS APOGEE



I

During winter nights noise never ceases in the Rue Saint-Honore except
for a short interval. Kitchen-gardeners carrying their produce to
market continue the stir of carriages returning from theatres and
balls. Near the middle of this sustained pause in the grand symphony
of Parisian uproar, which occurs about one o'clock in the morning, the
wife of Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, a perfumer established near the