In presenting in the following pages a somewhat imposing list of
duchesses, countesses and women of varying degrees of nobility, it is
not intended to picture Balzac as a _preux chevalier_, for he was far
from being one. Even in the most refined of _salons_, he displayed his
Rabelaisian manners and costume, and remained the typical author of
the _Contes drolatiques_; but to maintain that he never knew women of
the upper class or never even entered their society, involves a
misapprehension of the facts. Neither would the present writer give
the impression that this was the only class of women he knew or
associated with, for he certainly was acquainted with many of the
_bourgeoisie_ and of the peasant class; but here it is difficult to
make out a case, since his letters to or about women of these classes
are rare, and literary men of his day have not given many details of
his association with them.

From Balzac's youth, his most intense longings were to be famous and
to be loved. At times it might almost be thought that the second
desire took precedence over the first, but it was not the ordinary
woman that this future _Napoleon litteraire_ was seeking. His desire
was to win the affection of some lady of high standing, and when urged
by his family to consider marriage with a certain rich widow of the
_bourgeoisie_, it can be imagined with what a sense of relief he wrote
his mother that the bird had flown. An abnormal longing to mingle with
the aristocracy remained with him throughout his life; and during his
stay at Wierzchownia, after having all but made the conquest of a very
rich lady belonging to one of the most noted families of Russia, he
flattered himself by exaggerating her greatness.

Not being crowned from the first with the success he desired, Balzac