believed the novelist never had access to the aristocratic society of his time, and never had an opportunity of observing the great ladies or of frequenting the marvelous balls and receptions that fill so large a place in his writings.  Whether he made a success of such descriptions is not the question here, but the following pages will at least furnish proof that he not only had many social opportunities, but that his presence was sought by many women belonging to high life and the nobility.

In presenting in the following pages a somewhat imposing list of duchesses, countesses and women of varying degrees of nobility, it is not intended to picture Balzac as a preux chevalier, for he was far from being one.  Even in the most refined of salons, he displayed his Rabelaisian manners and costume, and remained the typical author of the Contes drolatiques; but to maintain that he never knew women of the upper class or never even entered their society, involves a misapprehension of the facts.  Neither would the present writer give the impression that this was the only class of women he knew or associated with, for he certainly was acquainted with many of the bourgeoisie and of the peasant class; but here it is difficult to make out a case, since his letters to or about women of these classes are rare, and literary men of his day have not given many details of his association with them.

From Balzac’s youth, his most intense longings were to be famous and to be loved.  At times it might almost be thought that the second desire took precedence over the first, but it was not the ordinary woman that this future Napoleon litteraire was seeking.  His desire was to win the affection of some lady of high standing, and when urged by his family to consider marriage with a certain rich widow of the bourgeoisie, it can be imagined with what a sense of relief he wrote his mother that the bird had flown.  An abnormal longing to mingle with the aristocracy remained with him throughout his life; and during his stay at Wierzchownia, after having all but made the conquest of a very rich lady belonging to one of the most noted families of Russia, he flattered himself by exaggerating her greatness.

Not being crowned from the first with the success he desired, Balzac needed encouragement in his work.  For this he naturally turned to women who would give him of their time and sympathy.  In his early years, he received this encouragement and assistance from his sister Laure, from Madame de Berny, Madame d’Abrantes, Madame Carraud and others, and in his later life he was similarly indebted to Madame Hanska.  They gave him ideas, corrected his style, conceived plots, furnished him with historical background, and criticized his work in general.  Is it surprising then that, having received so much from women, he should have accorded them so great a place in his writings as well as in his personal life?