Pierrette and the Abbé Birotteau, Vol. 1

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Pierrette and the Abbe Birotteau, Vol. 1: Le Cure De Tours Les Celibataires, the longest number of the original Comedie under a single title, next to Illusions perdues is not, like that book, connected by any unity of story. Indeed, the general bond of union is pretty weak; and though it is quite true that bachelors and old maids are the heroes and heroines of all three, it would be rather hard to establish any other bond of connection, and it is rather unlikely that any one unprompted would fix on this as a suiffcient ground of partnership. Two at least of the component parts, however, are of very high excellence. I do not myself think that Pierrette which opens the series, is quite the equal of its companions. Written, as it was, for Countess Anna de Hanska, Balzac's step-daughter of the future, while she was still very young, it partakes necessarily of the rather elaborate artificiality of all attempts to suit the young person, of French attempts in particular, and it may perhaps be said of Balzac's attempts most of all. It belongs, in a way, to the Arcis series - the series which also includes the fine Tenebreuse Affaire and the unfinished Depute d' Arcis - but is not very closely connected therewith. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."