CHAPTER I
PROLOGUE
In the year 1800, toward the close of October, a foreigner,
accompanied by a woman and a little girl, was standing
for a long time in front of the palace of the Tuileries,
near the ...
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The French novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was the first writer to use fiction to convey the total social scene prevailing within one country at a particular period in its history. Common...
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Had Balzac been a less masterful novelist, the disreputably profligate fraud in him might have overwhelmed his artistry. Still, the other Balzac, the artist, is tainted by his well-earned reputation f...
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