(1844), Balzac connects with childhood
and youth. The "Scenes de la Vie de Province," to which belong among
others "Eugenie Grandet" (1833), "Le Lys dans la Vallee" (1835),
"L'Illustre Gaudissart" (1833), "Pierrette" (1839), and "Le Cure de
Tours" (1832), typify a period of combat; while "Scenes de la Vie
Parisienne," which contain "La Duchesse de Langeais" (1834), "Cesar
Birotteau" (1837), "La Cousine Bette" (1846), "Le Cousin Pons" (1847),
"Facino Cane" (1836), "La Maison de Nucingen" (1837), and several
less-known novels, show the effect of Parisian life in forming or
modifying character.

Next Balzac turns to more exceptional existences, those which guard
the interests of others, and gives us "Scenes de la Vie Militaire,"
comprising "Une Passion dans la Desert" (1830), and "Les Chouans"
(1827); and "Scenes de la Vie Politique," which contain "Un Episode
sous la Terreur" (1831), "Une Tenebreuse Affaire" (1841), "Z. Marcas"
(1840), and "L'Envers de l'Histoire Contemporaine" (1847). He finishes
the "Etudes de Moeurs" with "Scenes de la Vie de Campagne," consisting
of "Le Medecin de Campagne" (1832), "Le Cure de Village" (1837 to
1841), and "Les Paysans" (1844); and these are to be, Balzac says,
"the evening of this long day. Here are my purest characters, my
application of the principles of order, politics, morality."

There are no subdivisions to the "Etudes Philosophiques," among which
we find "La Peau de Chagrin," written in 1830, and considered by
Balzac a link between the "Etudes de Moeurs" and the "Etudes
Philosophiques"; "Jesus-Christ en Flandre" (1831), "Massimilla Doni"
(1839), "La Recherche de l'Absolu" (1834), "Louis Lambert" (1832), and
"Seraphita" (1835). To the division entitled "Etudes Analytiques"
belong only two books, "La Physiologie du Mariage" (1829), and
"Petites Miseres de la Vie Conjugale" (1830 to 1845).

"The Comedie Humaine" was never finished, but, incomplete as it is, it
remains a noble memorial of Balzac's genius, as well as an astonishing
testimony of his extraordinary power of work. The last edition of it
which was published in Balzac's lifetime appeared in 1846, and formed
sixteen octavo volumes. It consists of eighty-eight novels and tales,
and by far the greater number of these appeared in the first edition
of 1842. A strong connection is kept up between the different stories
by the fact that the same characters appear over and over again, and
the reader finds himself in a world pe