L’Initie
  Initiated
  The Initiate

Z. Marcas
Z. Marcas

Le Depute d’Arcis
The Member for Arcis
The Deputy for Arcis

SCENES DE LA VIE MILITAIRE SCENES FROM MILITARY LIFE

Les Chouans
The Chouans

Une Passion dans le desert
A Passion in the Desert

SCENES DE LA VIE DE CAMPAGNE SCENES FROM COUNTRY LIFE

Le Medecin de Campagne
The Country Doctor

Le Cure de Village
The Country Parson
The Village Rector

Les Paysans
The Peasantry
Sons of the Soil

ETUDES PHILOSOPHIQUES PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES

La Peau de Chagrin
The Magic Skin

La Recherche de l’Absolu
The Quest of the Absolute
The Alkahest

Jesus-Christ en Flandre
Christ in Flanders

Melmoth reconcilie
Melmoth Reconciled

Le Chef-d’oeuvre inconnu
The Unknown Masterpiece
The Hidden Masterpiece

L’Enfant Maudit
The Hated Son

Gambara
Gambara

Massimilla Doni
Massimilla Doni

Les Marana
The Maranas
Juana

Adieu
Farewell

Le Requisitionnaire
The Conscript
The Recruit

El Verdugo
El Verdugo

Un Drame au bord de la mer
A Seaside Tragedy
A Drama on the Seashore

L’Auberge rouge
The Red Inn

L’Elixir de longue vie
The Elixir of Life

Maitre Cornelius
Maitre Cornelius

Sur Catherine de Medicis: 
About Catherine de’ Medici
  Le Martyr calviniste
  The Calvinist Martyr

  La Confidence des Ruggieri
  The Ruggieri’s Secret

  Les Deux Reves
  The Two Dreams

Louis Lambert
Louis Lambert

Les Proscrits
The Exiles

Seraphita
Seraphita

AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION

In giving the general title of “The Human Comedy” to a work begun nearly thirteen years since, it is necessary to explain its motive, to relate its origin, and briefly sketch its plan, while endeavoring to speak of these matters as though I had no personal interest in them.  This is not so difficult as the public might imagine.  Few works conduce to much vanity; much labor conduces to great diffidence.  This observation accounts for the study of their own works made by Corneille, Moliere, and other great writers; if it is impossible to equal them in their fine conceptions, we may try to imitate them in this feeling.

The idea of The Human Comedy was at first as a dream to me, one of those impossible projects which we caress and then let fly; a chimera that gives us a glimpse of its smiling woman’s face, and forthwith spreads its wings and returns to a heavenly realm of phantasy.  But this chimera, like many another, has become a reality; has its behests, its tyranny, which must be obeyed.