IV INTRODUCTION

Scènes of Prîvate Lîfe, of Parisian, Provincial, Polîtîcal, Military, and Country Life, and adds to thèse collections groups of Analytical and Philosophical Studies; but in the varions éditions of his Works thèse were often re-arranged, and there is little to be gained by insisting on any classification.

Without exception the stories contained in this collection were written between 1830 and 1832. Adieu appeared in the former year, as did An Episode in the Reign of Terror, though the latter was not acknowledged till 1845. ^ Legend of Christ in Flanders and The Red Inn belong to 1831, The Purse to 1832. But though the stories are thus to be placed in the earlier period of Balzac's maturity, they are as représentative of the best aspects of his many-sided genius as the limits of a volume like this will allow. In Adieu we hâve his power of vivid description and tragic pathos at its height. The Red Inn discloses the secret workings of conscience with the steady hand of a dissector of morals. The Purse carries us from thèse heights and depths of the human tragi-comedy to the serenely radiant air of an idyll of true love, charming in itself and remarkable in its contrast to ail the other pièces in our sélection. An Episode in the Reign of Terror shows his imagination reconstructing the psychology of the Révolution and suggests a deep religions undercurrent in his thought, which furnishes the key to Balzac's social and moral philosophy in the wonderful Legend of Christ in Flanders. So thèse five stories supplément one another, and together afford in my opinion a better and compléter view of Balzac's powers than any single novel of like length could possibly do.