The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-10-22
LOVE LETTERS OF BALZAC.
Interesting Publication of the Missions of

a Great Genius.
From New York Commercial Advertiser.
They are soon to be published In this
country, and three-score years after
they were written, the passionate pages
in which the great Honore exhaled his
fiery soul, and they will be found as fresh
andvital as when he penned them in the
intervals of his tremendous toll. Never
was heart history more pathetic, poign-
ant, touching than that which we read
in these Letters to an Unknow nLady,"
the mysterious Eva, whom he was to
wed half a generation after her affec-
tionate homage had won his heart and
transfigured his intellect.
1t was while she was unknown-the
only mystery in the legion of adoring
feminine correspondents who assailed
him with their perfumed missives-that
he wrote to her with most tenderness,
and lavished upon her the miraculous
treasures of his rich nature, hungry
for sympathy and affection. One gets
clear idea of the way Balzac worked
from the frequent illusions in these
letters to his protracted toll. Many Of
the epistleS were dashed off after the
novelist had written for twelve, four
teen or even sixteen hours at q stretch.
brain and body which were fresh after
such astonishing literary feats, to
promenade unweariedly in the gardens
of love and romance, and to pour forth
the most tender and exalted passion!
Balzac created whole new voca-
bulary of affection for the Eva" Of
those letters. Untranslatable, vivid and
volcanic, the endearing diminutives and
delicious love names which he bestowed
upon her are alone sufficient to render
the letters fascinating to all women
This monk of literature, wearing out
his eXuberant and extraordinary vital
ity in portraying the Human Comedy, a
and filling his dazzling volumes with
the depraVed types taken from the cor
rupt society around him, was chaste in
thought and life in all these years
through which the correspondence runs
and gave to the lady who was so for
tunate as to win his confidence the
noblest proofs of sincerity and freshness
of the heart. Like the conSummate
artist that he was, around the declara-
tions of his flame he drew all kinds Of
delicious arabesqueS and garlands, fam
tastic and eccentric manages, and vari-
ations upon the one eternal and immor-
tai theme of Love, until he made the
Letters q lexicon for lovers, a per-
petual fountain of inspiration for all
who are proud to languish for their
Lauras.
But this is not all. The Letters to an
Unknown Lady" show us Balzac in
his robe de chambre as he has never
been shown before. They unveil for us
the somber and barren chamber of toll
in which the magician lived, ate and
slept, disdaining pleasure, comfort, or
even decent repose. What novelist of
our epoch has ever written steadily
sixteen hours per day, week in and
week out, dining at s. then going in
stantly to bed, and willing himself to
Sleep" to arise at midnight and with
no other refreshment than black coffee,
write "round the clock" to 8 again?
Balzac not only did this, but he wound
up each glorious day with letter full
of exquisite tenderness and host of
interesting personal details to his
Eva" And in this Inferno of work a
dozen of his chefs d'ouvre were born.
The Love Letters" are full of the re-
cital of Balzac's financial veXations
and harassments. Like Walter Scott,
associated in some degree with the
publishers who brought his novels to
light, he knew bitterly anxious hours,
even when at the height Of literary
success One letter to Eva contains an
amusing story of an expedition which
he had made for the renewal of some
notes that he could not pay. During
his desperate rounds in search of help
he met NJ. de Rothchild. That financial
magnate pressed him to take seat In
his carriage, congratulated him on the
growth of his reputation, and inquired
with solicitude what he could do for
him. II smiled" wrote Balzac, "as l
thought my mission to save my note
from going to protest but l was too
proud to make use of NJ de Rothchild.'
When Balzac was dying Victor Hugo
said: Europe is losing a great soul.
If any doubt Balzac's greatness Of soul
or feel desire to comprehend the COM
bination of child-like frankness and
complex creative power which clothed
his genius, let them read these Love
Letters" written to the darling of his
heart-to the woman destined to be the
consolation of his failing hours.