himself. He was a born ruler, whether he turned to literature or
politics, and he appointed himself "Marshal of Letters," just as he
might have aspired to be prime minister to the king.

After the publication of The Last Chouan, Balzac's literary activity
became prodigious. Shutting himself into his workroom and seated before
a little table covered with green cloth, under the light of a
four-branched candlestick, dressed in his monkish frock, a white robe
in which he felt at ease, with the cord tied slackly around his waist
and his shirt unbuttoned at the collar, he turned out, in a dizzy orgy
of production, The Physiology of Marriage, the short stories
constituting the Scenes of Private Life, At the Sign of the
Cat-and-Racket, The Ball at Sceaux, The Vendetta, A Double Family,
Peace in the Household, Gobseck and Sarrasine, besides studies,
criticisms and essays for newspapers and magazines.

The Physiology of Marriage appeared at the end of December, 1829, and
caused quite a little scandal. The public did not understand Balzac's
ideas, they recoiled from the boldness of his themes, which sounded
like sheer cynicism, and remembered only the crudity of certain
anecdotes, without trying to penetrate their philosophy. He was
attacked in the public press, and even his friends did not spare him
their reproaches. Balzac defended himself against the criticisms of
Mme. Zulma Carraud, whom he had met at Versailles at the home of his
sister Laure, and whose esteem and affection he was anxious to keep.
Mme. Carraud was a broad-minded and discerning woman, of delicate
sensibility and an upright nature. Her husband was Commander Carraud,
director of studies at the Military School of Saint-Cyr, and later
inspector of the powder works at Angouleme. Balzac loved her as a
confidential friend,--who, at the same time, did not spare him the