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Title: A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Author: Honore de Balzac

Translator: Ellen Marriage

Release Date: December, 1998 [Etext #1559]
Posting Date: February 26, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DISTINGUISHED PROVINCIAL ***

Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny

A DISTINGUISHED PROVINCIAL AT PARIS

(Lost Illusions, Part II)

By Honore De Balzac

Translated By Ellen Marriage

PREPARER'S NOTE

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris is part two of a trilogy. Part one,
Two Poets, begins the story of Lucien, his sister Eve, and his friend
David in the provincial town of Angouleme. Part two is centered on
Lucien's Parisian life. Part three, Eve and David, reverts to the
setting of Angouleme. 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 Lucien's
story is continued in another book, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.

A DISTINGUISHED PROVINCIAL AT PARIS

PART I

Mme. de Bargeton and Lucien de Rubempre had left Angouleme behind, and
were traveling together upon the road to Paris. Not one of the party who
made that journey alluded to it afterwards; but it may be believed
that an infatuated youth who had looked forward to the delights of
an elopement, must have found the continual presence of Gentil, the
man-servant, and Albertine, the maid, not a little irksome on the way.
Lucien, traveling post for the first time in his life, was horrified to
see pretty nearly the whole sum on which he meant to live in Paris for
a twelvemonth dropped along the road. Like other men who combine great
intellectual powers with the charming simplicity of childhood, he openly
expressed his surprise at the new and wonderful things which he saw, and
thereby made a mistake. A man should study a woman very carefully before
he allows her to see his thoughts and emotions as they arise in him.
A woman, whose nature is large as her heart is tender, can smile upon
childishness, and m