The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Illusions, by Honore De Balzac

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Title: Lost Illusions

Author: Honore De Balzac

Release Date: August 11, 2004 [EBook #13159]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST ILLUSIONS ***

Produced by Dagny

LOST ILLUSIONS

BY

HONORE DE BALZAC

PREPARER'S NOTE

The trilogy known as Lost Illusions consists of:
Two Poets
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Eve and David

In many references parts one and three are combined under
the title Lost Illusions and A Distinguished Provincial at
Paris is given its individual title. Following this trilogy
is a sequel, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, which is set
directly following the end of Eve and David.

LOST ILLUSIONS

INTRODUCTION

The longest, without exception, of Balzac's books, and one which
contains hardly any passage that is not very nearly of his best,
_Illusions Perdues_ suffers, I think, a little in point of composition
from the mixture of the Angouleme scenes of its first and third parts
with the purely Parisian interest of _Un Grand Homme de Province_. It
is hardly possible to exaggerate the gain in distinctness and lucidity
of arrangement derived from putting _Les Deux Poetes_ and _Eve et
David_ (a much better title than that which has been preferred in the
_Edition Definitive_) together in one volume, and reserving the
greatness and decadence of Lucien de Rubempre for another. It is
distinctly awkward that this should be divided, as it is itself an
enormous episode, a sort of Herodotean parenthesis, rather than an
integral part of the story. And, as a matter of fact, it joins on much
more to the _Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisanes_ than to its actual
companions. In fact, it is an instance of the somewhat haphazard and
arbitrary way in which the actual division of the _Comedie_ has
worked, that it should, dealing as it does wholly and solely with
Parisian life, be put in the _Scenes de la Vie de Province_, an