All this happened about 1840. The present year is 1887, and there
seems no prospect of the sorcery weakening. The work to which these
notes serve as an introduction may be taken as proof. Indeed, somebody
has said that the men of Balzac have appeared as much in literature as
in life, especially since the death of the novelist. Balzac seems to
have observed the society of his day less than he contributed to form
a new one. Such and such personages are truer to life in 1860 than in
1835. When one considers a phenomenon of such range and intensity, it
does not suffice to employ words like infatuation, fashion, mania. The
attraction of an author becomes a psychological fact of prime
importance and subject to analysis. I think I can see two reasons for
this particular strength of Balzac's genius. One dwells in the special
character of his vision, the other in the philosophical trend which he
succeeded in giving to all his writing.

As to the scope of his vision, this _Repertory_ alone will suffice to
show. Turn over the leaves at random and estimate the number of
fictitious deeds going to make up these two thousand biographies, each
individual, each distinct, and most of them complete--that is to say,
taking the character at his birth and leaving him only at his death.
Balzac not only knows the date of birth or of death, he knows as well
the local coloring of the time and the country and profession to which
the man belongs. He is thoroughly conversant with questions of
taxation and income and the agricultural conditions. He is not
ignorant of the fact that Grandet cannot make his fortune by the same
methods employed by Gobseck, his rival in avarice; nor Ferdinand du
Tillet, that jackal, with the same magnitude of operations worked out
by that elephant of a Nucingen. He has outlined and measured the exact
relation of each character to his environment in the same way he has
outlined and measured the bonds uniting the various characters; so