While Balzac did not, as is often stated, create the “woman of thirty,” this characteristic type having already appeared in Madame de Stael’s Delphine, in Benjamin Constant’s Adolphe, and in Stendhal’s Le Rouge et le Noir, he must be credited with having magnified her charms and presented her advantages and superiority to a much higher degree than had been done before.  Women indeed play in general an important role in his work, many of his novels bear their names; about one-third of the stories of La Comedie humaine are dedicated to women; and while not quite so large a proportion of the characters created are women, they are numbered among the most important personages of his prolific fancy.

If we are to believe his own testimony, his popularity among women was by no means limited to his Paris environment, for he writes:  “Fame is conveyed to me through the post office by means of letters, and I daily receive three or four from women.  They come from the depths of Russia, of Germany, etc.; I have not had one from England.  Then there are many letters from young people.  It has become fatiguing. . . .”

It was only a matter of justice that women should show their appreciation thus, for Balzac rendered them a gracious service in prolonging, by his enormous literary influence, the period of their eligibility for being loved.  This he successfully extended to thirty years, even to forty years; with rare skill he portrayed the charm of a declining beauty—­as one might delight in the glory of a brilliant autumn or of a setting sun.  At the same time, and on the one hand, he depicted the young girl of various types, and women of the working and servant class.  And since his own life is so reflected throughout his work, it is of interest to become acquainted with the inner and intimate side of his genius, which has left us some of the greatest documents we possess concerning human nature.

Balzac knew many women, and to understand him fully one should study his relations with them.  If he has portrayed them well, it is because he loved them tenderly, and was loved by many in return.  These feminine affections formed one of the consolations of his life; they not only gave him courage but helped to soften the bitterness of his trials and disappointments.

While an effort has been made in the following work to solve the questions as to the identity of the Sarah, Maria, Sofka, Constance-Victoire, Louise, Caroline, and the Helene of Balzac’s dedications, and to show the role each played, no attempt has here been made to lift the tightly drawn veil which has so long enveloped one side of Balzac’s private life.  Whoever wishes to do this may now consult the recent publication of the late Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, or the Mariage de Balzac by the late Count Stanislas Rzewuski.  It is far more pleasant—­even if the charges be untrue—­to think as did the late Miss K. P. Wormeley, that no supporting testimony has been offered to prove anything detrimental to the great author’s character.  Though doubtless much overdrawn, one prefers the delightful picture of him traced by his old friend, George Sand.