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EBOOK HUMAN COMEDY ***
Produced by Dagny, and John Bickers
THE HUMAN COMEDY:
INTRODUCTIONS AND APPENDIX
CONTENTS
Honore de Balzac
Introduction and brief biography by George Saintsbury.
Appendix
List of titles in French with English translations and grouped
in the various classifications.
Author's introduction
Balzac's 1842 introduction to The Human Comedy.
HONORE DE BALZAC
_"Sans genie, je suis flambe!"_
Volumes, almost libraries, have been written about Balzac; and perhaps
of very few writers, putting aside the three or four greatest of all,
is it so difficult to select one or a few short phrases which will in
any way denote them, much more sum them up. Yet the five words quoted
above, which come from an early letter to his sister when as yet he
had not "found his way," characterize him, I think, better than at
least some of the volumes I have read about him, and supply, when they
are properly understood, the most valuable of all keys and companions
for his comprehension.
"If I have not genius, it is all up with me!" A very matter-of-fact
person may say: "Why! there is nothing wonderful in this. Everybody
knows what genius is wanted to make a name in literature, and most
people think they have it.
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