Gambara

Massimilla Doni
Massimilla Doni

Les Marana
The Maranas
Juana

Adieu
Farewell

Le Requisitionnaire
The Conscript
The Recruit

El Verdugo
El Verdugo

Un Drame au bord de la mer
A Seaside Tragedy
A Drama on the Seashore

L'Auberge rouge
The Red Inn

L'Elixir de longue vie
The Elixir of Life

Maitre Cornelius
Maitre Cornelius

Sur Catherine de Medicis:
About Catherine de' Medici
Le Martyr calviniste
The Calvinist Martyr

La Confidence des Ruggieri
The Ruggieri's Secret

Les Deux Reves
The Two Dreams

Louis Lambert
Louis Lambert

Les Proscrits
The Exiles

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.

It is a mistake to suppose that the great dispute which has lately
made a stir, between Cuvier and Geoffroi Saint-Hilaire, arose from
a scientific innovation. Unity of structure, under other names, had
occupied the greatest minds during the two previous centuries. As we
read the extraordinary writings of the mystics who studied the sciences
in their relation to infinity, such as Swedenborg, Saint-Martin,
and others, and the works of the greatest authors on Natural
History--Leibnitz, Buffon, Charles Bonnet, etc., we detect in the