surroundings harmonious, is something which cannot be bought
(unfortunately for the rich); yet, after all, I care so little for any
of these things that, if one of my creditors wants to have me secretly
imprisoned at Sainte-Pelagie, I shall be far happier there; for my
living will cost me nothing and I shall be no closer prisoner than my
work now keeps me in my own home."

In spite of this apparent and wholly circumstantial disinterestedness,
Balzac loved artistic surroundings, rugs, tapestries and silver ware.
He detested mediocrity, and could enjoy nothing short either of
glorious poverty, nobly endured in a garret, or wealth and the
splendour of a palace. Balzac shared his apartment with Auguste Borget,
a painter and traveller, who was one of his most faithful friends. From
a window in their parlour they could look across some gardens and see
the dome of the Invalides. Ever since his childhood Balzac had made a
sort of worship of Napoleon. He was his model and his great ambition
was to equal Napoleon's exploits in the realm of the intellect. Mme.
Ancelot relates in the Salons of Paris that Balzac had erected a sort
of altar, surmounted by Napoleon's bust, on which he had inscribed:
"What he began with the sword I shall achieve with the pen." This
anecdote is confirmed by Philarete Chasle, who saw the statue in the
Rue Cassini apartment, a plaster statue representing the emperor clad
in his redingote and holding his celebrated lorgnette in his hand.

Napoleon's influence upon Balzac was profound, or rather there was a
sort of parallelism between their two ambitions, each of a different
order, but equally formidable. Balzac was essentially a conqueror and
legislator. But he wished to establish his empire in the intellectual
domain, for he believed that the time for territorial conquest was
past; yet he wished to prescribe laws for the people and govern them