Droll Stories

by Honore de Balzac

Overview

This unabridged edition of these famous tales, marvelous for their graceful impudence and sly artistry, has been re-edited and revised by Ernest Boyd so as to bring it as close as possible to the original. "In his preface," wrote Professor George Saintsbury, "Balzac acknowledged his indebtedness to his master Rabelais; and, to be sure, the points of likeness between those two great Frenchmen are striking. They both put on a mask of comedy and rakishness in order to write with more freedom about manners, customs, politics and religion."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871401861
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	01/01/1944
Pages:	576
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) was born in Tours. By the time of his death, he had written over one hundred novels, novellas, and plays, all the while working as a journalist. Colonel Chabert is one of the "Scenes from Private Life," which is a part of Balzac's well-known life-long project, La Comedie Humaine.

Editorial Reviews

"One is nearer to understanding the great writers of the ancient world if one understands them as Balzac did." —Marcel Proust

"[Balzac] is himself a figure more extraordinary than any he drew." —Henry James

“One of the first among the greatest, one of the highest among the best…He ransacked vice, he dissected passion.”
—Victor Hugo

"One is nearer to understanding the great writers of the ancient world if one understands them as Balzac did." —Marcel Proust

"[Balzac] is himself a figure more extraordinary than any he drew." —Henry James

“One of the first among the greatest, one of the highest among the best…He ransacked vice, he dissected passion.”
—Victor Hugo

From the Publisher