Contents

[ INTRODUCTION ]

[ CHAPTER I. ] THE COUNTRYSIDE AND THE MAN
[ CHAPTER II. ] A DOCTOR’S ROUND
[ CHAPTER III. ] THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE
[ CHAPTER IV. ] THE COUNTRY DOCTOR’S CONFESSION
[ CHAPTER V. ] ELEGIES

[ ADDENDUM ]


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INTRODUCTION

In hardly any of his books, with the possible exception of Eugénie Grandet, does Balzac seem to have taken a greater interest than in Le Médecin de Campagne; and the fact of this interest, together with the merit and intensity of the book in each case, is, let it be repeated, a valid argument against those who would have it that there was something essentially sinister both in his genius and his character.