has been offered to prove anything detrimental to the great author's
character. Though doubtless much overdrawn, one prefers the delightful
picture of him traced by his old friend, George Sand.





WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF BALZAC



CHAPTER I

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF BALZAC

In the delightful city of Tours, the childhood of Honore de Balzac was
spent in the midst of his family. This consisted of an original and
most congenial old father, a nervous, business-like mother, two
younger sisters, Laure and Laurentia, and a younger brother, Henri.
His maternal grandmother, Madame Sallambier, joined the family after
the death of her husband.

At about the age of eight, Honore was sent to a semi-military
_college_. Here, after six years of confinement, he lost his health,
not on account of any work assigned to him by his teachers, for he was
regarded as being far from a brilliant student, but because of the
abnormal amount of reading which he did on the outside. When he was
brought home for recuperation, his old grandmother alternately
irritated him with her "nervous attacks" and delighted him with her