It seems curious that no one should yet have made use of this mine of
biographical detail. In English we have a Memoir by Miss Wormeley,
written at a time when little as known about the great novelist, and a
Life by Mr. Frederick Wedmore in the "Great Writers" Series; but this,
like Miss Wormeley's Memoir, appeared before the "Lettres a
l'Etrangere" were published. Moreover, it is a very small book, and
the space in it devoted to Balzac as a man is further curtailed by
several chapters devoted to criticism of his work. The introduction to
the excellent translation of Balzac's novels undertaken by Mr.
Saintsbury, contains a short account of his life, but this only fills
a few pages and does not enter into much detail. Besides these, an
admirable essay on Balzac has appeared in "Main Currents of
Nineteenth-century Literature," by Mr. George Brandes; the scope of
this, however, is mainly criticism of his merits as a writer, not
description of his personality and doings.

Even in the French language, there is no trustworthy or satisfactory
Life of Balzac--a fact on which numerous critical writers make many
comments, though they apparently hesitate to throw themselves into the
breach and to undertake one. Madame Surville's charming Memoir only
professes to treat of Balzac's early life, and even within these
limits she intentionally conceals as much as she reveals. M. Edmond
Bire, in his interesting book, presents Balzac in different aspects,
as Royalist, playwriter, admirer of Napoleon, and so on; but M. Bire
gives no connected account of his life, while MM. Hanotaux and Vicaire
deal solely with Balzac's two years as printer and publisher. The
Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul is the one man who could give a
detailed and minutely correct Life of Balzac, as he has proved by the
stores of biographical knowledge contained in his works the "Roman
d'Amour," "Autour de Honore de Balzac," "La Genese d'un Roman de