rd Dudley"). This book begins so
well that one expects it to go on better; but the inevitable defects
in craftsmanship show themselves before long. _Le Centenaire_ connects
itself with Balzac's almost lifelong hankering after the _recherche de
l'absolu_ in one form or another, for the hero is a wicked old person
who every now and then refreshes his hold on life by immolating a virgin
under a copper-bell. It is one of the most extravagant and "Monk-Lewisy"
of the whole. _L'Excommunie_, _L'Israelite_, and _L'Heritiere de
Birague_ are mediaeval or fifteenth century tales of the most
luxuriant kind, _L'Excommunie_ being the best, _L'Israelite_ the most
preposterous, and _L'Heritiere de Birague_ the dullest. But it is not
nearly so dull as _Dom Gigadus_ and _Jean Louis_, the former of which
deals with the end of the seventeenth century and the latter with the
end of the eighteenth. These are both as nearly unreadable as anything
can be. One interesting thing, however, should be noted in much of this
early work: the affectionate clinging of the author to the scenery of
Touraine, which sometimes inspires him with his least bad passages.

It is generally agreed that these singular _Oeuvres de Jeunesse_ were
of service to Balzac as exercise, and no doubt they were so; but I think
something may be said on the other side. They must have done a little,
if not much, to lead him into and confirm him in those defects of style
and form which distinguish him so remarkably from most writers of his
rank. It very seldom happens when a very young man writes very much, be
it book-writing or journalism, without censure and without "editing,"
that he does not at the same time get into loose and slipshod habits.
And I think we may set down to this peculiar form of apprenticeship of
Balzac's not merely his failure ever to attain, except in passages and
patches, a thoroughly great style, but also that extraordinary method
of composition which in after days cost him and his publishers so much
money.

However, if these ten years of probation taught him his trade, they
taught him also a most unfortunate avocation or by-trade, which he never
ceased to practise, or to try to practise, which never did him the least
good, and which not unfrequently lost him much of the not too abundant
gains which he earned with such enormous labor. This was the "game
of speculation." His sister puts the tempter's part on an unknown
"neighbor," who advised him to try t