SOURCE: Pasco, Allan H. “The Allusive Complex of Balzac's Pierrette.” French Forum 26, no. 3 (fall 2001): 27-42.

In the following essay, Pasco explores the use of allusion in the neglected novel Pierrette, focusing on references in the work to the eighteenth-century novel Paul et Virginie and to the case of Beatrice Cenci, the young girl who was abused by her father, whom she later killed.

Despite its popularity, if one can consider successive paperback editions an indication of popularity, Balzac's Pierrette (1840) has had remarkably little attention from critics and scholars, no more than passing references and a very small handful of introductions and studies.¹ These professional readers have frequently mentioned Balzac's early plans for the work, indicated in a letter to Mme Hanska on 4 June 1839: “la première œuvre un peu jeune fille que je ferai, je la dédierai à votre chère Anna …” While everyone understands that the expectation...