|
[ The
Country Doctor] (Le Medecin de Campagne) [ The Village Rector, The Country Parson] (Le Cure de Village) [ Sons of the Soil, The Peasantry] (Les Paysans) |
ETUDES PHILOSOPHIQUES
PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES
|
[ The
Magic Skin] (La Peau de Chagrin) [ The Alkahest, The Quest of the Absolute] (La Recherche de l'Absolu) [ Christ in Flanders] (Jesus-Christ en Flandre) [ Melmoth Reconciled] (Melmoth reconcilie) [ The Unknown Masterpiece, The Hidden Masterpiece] (Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu) [ The Hated Son] (L'Enfant Maudit) [ Gambara] (Gambara) [ Massimilla Doni] (Massimilla Doni) [ Juana, The Maranas] (Les Marana) [ Farewell] (Adieu) [ The Recruit, The Conscript] (Le Requisitionnaire) [ El Verdugo] (El Verdugo) [ A Drama on the Seashore, A Seaside Tragedy] (Un Drame au bord de la mer) [ The Red Inn] (L'Auberge rouge) [ The Elixir of Life] (L'Elixir de longue vie) [ Maitre Cornelius] (Maitre Cornelius) [ Catherine de' Medici, The Calvinist Martyr] (Sur Catherine de Medicis, Le Martyr calviniste) The Ruggieri's Secret, (La Confidence des Ruggieri) The Two Dreams (Les Deux Reves) [ Louis Lambert] (Louis Lambert) [ The Exiles] (Les Proscrits) [ Seraphita] (Seraphita) |
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
In giving the general title of "The Human Comedy" to a work begun nearly thirteen years since, it is necessary to explain its motive, to relate its origin, and briefly sketch its plan, while endeavoring to speak of these matters as though I had no personal interest in them. This is not so difficult as the public might imagine. Few works conduce to much vanity; much labor conduces to great diffidence. This observation accounts for the study of their own works made by Corneille, Moliere, and other great writers; if it is impossible to equal them in their fine conceptions, we may try to imitate them in this feeling.
The idea of The Human Comedy was at first as a dream to me, one of those impossible projects which we caress and then let fly; a chimera that gives us a glimpse of its smiling woman's face, and forthwith spreads its wings and returns to a heavenly realm of phantasy. But this chimera, like many another, has become a reality; has its behests, its tyranny, which must be obeyed.
The idea originated in a comparison between Humanity and Animality.