not till
the reunion of all in the _Edition definitive_ was completed, that full
study of man and work was possible. To this edition itself was attached a
sort of official critical introduction, _L'Oeuvre de Balzac_, by M. Marcel
Barriere (1890). But this is largely occupied by elaborate analyses of the
different books, and the purely critical part is small, and not of the
first value. Better are M. Paul Flat's _Essais sur Balzac_ (2 vols.,
1893-1894), which busy themselves especially with tracing types of
character. Important and new biographical details (including the proper
spelling of the name) were given in M. Edmond Bire's _Honore de Balzac_
(1897). The _Balzac ignore_ of A. Cabanes (1899) is chiefly remarkable for
its investigations of Balzac's fancy for occult studies, and the first part
(_Balzac imprimeur_) of MM. Hanotaux and Vicaire's _La Jeunesse de Balzac_
(1903) mentioned above, for its dealing with the printing business and the
intimacy with Madame de Berny. Two most important studies of Balzac in
French, are those of M. A. Le Breton, _Balzac, l'homme et l'oeuvre_ (1905),
a somewhat severe, but critical and very well-informed examination, and M.
Ferdinand Brunetiere's _Honore de Balzac_ (1906), a brilliant but rather
one-sided panegyric on the subject as the evolver of the modern novel
proper, and a realist and observer _par excellence_. In English,
translations of separate books are innumerable; of the whole, besides that
mentioned above, but containing a few things there omitted, an American
version by Miss Wormeley and others may be mentioned. The most elaborate
monograph in English, till recently, was F. Wedmore's _Balzac_ (1887), with
a useful bibliography up to the time. The recent additions to our knowledge
are utilized in Miss Mary F. Sandars' _Balzac_ (1904), a rather popular,
but full and readable summary, chiefly of the life, from all but the latest
documents, and W. H. Helm's _Aspects of Balzac_ (1905), which is critical
as well as anecdotic. The present writer, besides the critical and
biographical essays referred to above, prefixed a shorter one to a
translation of _Les Chouans_ executed by himself in 1890.

(G. SA.)

BALZAC, JEAN LOUIS GUEZ DE (1594-1654), French author, was born at
Angouleme in 1594. At the age of eighteen he travelled in Holland with
Theophile de Viaud, with whom he later exchanged bitter recriminations. He
was early befriended by the duc d'Epernon and his son Louis, Card