reread in the _Scenes de la Vie privee_ the portraits of Louise de
Chaulieu, Renee de Maucombe, Modeste Mignon, Julie de
Chatillonest, Honorine de Beauvan, Mademoiselle Guillaume, Emilie
de Fontaine, Mademoiselle Evangelista, Adelaide du Rouvre,
Ginervra di Piombo, etc., without mentioning, in other _Scenes_,
Eugenie Grandet, Eve Sechard, Pierrette Lorrain, Ursule Mirouet,
Mesdemoiselles Birotteau, Hulot d'Ervy, de Cinq-Cygne, La
Fosseuse, Marguerite Claes, Juana de Mancini, Pauline Gaudin, and
I hope they will keep silence, otherwise they will cause us to
question their good sense of criticism."

Balzac said it would require a Raphael to create so many virgins;
accordingly, from time to time the type of woman of the other extreme
is also seen. She is portrayed in the _grande dame_ and in the
_courtisane_, that is, at the top and the bottom of the social ladder.
On the one side are the Princesse de Cadignan, the Comtesse de Seriby,
etc., while on the other are Esther Gobseck, Valerie Marneffe, and
others. Some of the novelist's most striking antitheses were attained
by placing these horrible creatures by the side of his noblest and
purest creations.

In his _Avant-propos_, he criticized Walter Scott for having portrayed
his women as Protestants, saying: "In Protestantism there is no
possible future for the woman who has sinned; while, in the Catholic
Church, the hope of forgiveness makes her sublime. Hence, for the
Protestant writer there is but one woman, while the Catholic writer
finds a new woman in each new situation." Naturally, most of the women
of the _Comedie humaine_ are Catholic, but among the exceptions is
Madame Jeanrenaud (_L'Interdiction_), who is a Protestant; Josepha
Mirah and Esther Gobseck are of Jewish origin. In portraying various
women as Catholics, convent life for the young girl is seen in
_Memoires de deux jeunes mariees_, and for the woman weary of society,
in _La Duchesse de Langeais_. Extreme piety is shown in Madame de
Granville (_Une double Famille_), and Madame Graslin devoted herself
to charity to atone for her crime.

Various pictures are given of woman in the home. Ideal happiness is
portrayed in the life of Madame Cesar Birotteau. Madame Grandet,
Madame Hulot (_La Cousine Bette_), and Madame Claes (_La Recherche de
l'Absolu_) were martyrs to their husbands, while Madame Serizy made a
martyr of hers. Beautiful motherhood is often seen, as in Madame
Sauviat (_Le Cur