Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Repertory of the Comedie Humaine
A slight confusion may arise in the use of the Repertory on account of the subdivision of titles. This is the fault neither of Messieurs Cerfberr and Christophe nor of the trans lator, but of Balzac himself, who was continually changing titles, dividing and subdividing stories, and revamping and working other changes in his books. Cousin Betty and Cousin Pons were placed together by him under the general title of Poor Relations. Being separate stories, we have retained the separate titles. Similarly, the three divisions of Lost Illusions were never published together until 1843 in the first complete edition of the Comedie; before assuming final shape its parts had received several different titles. In the present text the editor has deemed it best to retain two of the parts under Lost Illusions, while the third, which pre sents a separate Rubempre episode, is given as A Distin guished Provincial at Paris. The three parts of The T hir teen - Ferragus, The Duchesse de Langeais, and The Girl with the Golden Eyes - are given under the general title. The fourth part of Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Vautrin's Last Avatar, which until the Edition Definitive had been pub lished separately, is here merged into its final place. But the three parts of The Celibates - Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours and A Bachelor's Establishment, being detached, are given separate ly. Other minor instances occur, but should be readilv cleared Up by reference to the Indices, also to the General Introduc tion given elsewhere. 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.
