ABSTRACT
Those who admire the puissant genius of Balzac will finda certain keen pleasure in reading every page of his strange medley of criticisms (“ Honoré de Balzac, Critique Littéraire.” Introduction de Louis Lumet. Messein, 7 fr. 50) published in the series of unsuccessful newspapers produced by him between the years 1830 and 1840. The first of these ventures was the Feuilleton des Journaux Politiques, in which appeared by far the greater mass of his articles. This was followed by the Chronique de Paris (1835), La Caricature, and finally, when Balzac was at the height of his fame, by the Revue Parisienne ( 1840), in which appeared his best critical work, including his famous article upon Stendhal’s Chartreuse de Parme. The cumulative effect upon the reader of this collection of criticisms is in the main one of amazement at Balzac’s encyclopaedic interests. There is in this book the same tumultuous desire for universal knowledge that finds its expression, at a higher emotional level, in the Comedie Humaine. In the Feuilleton we find Balzac reviewing scientific treatises on the Laws of Light, military text-books upon cavalry exercises, and an exposition of the Pauline Epistles ; and in all cases we find his criticism competent and informed by a genuine enthusiasm for universality. But such reviews possess at the best an antiquarian interest for their curiosity’s sake. It is well to have them collected. They may always afford an afternoon’s enjoyment and an increase of our unceasing wonder that Balzac could have done the countless things he did.
