Produced by David WidgerTHE PARISIANSBy Edward BulwerLyttonPREFATORY NOTE BY THE AUTHORS SONThe Parisians and Kenelm Chillingly were begun about the same timeand had their common origin in the same central idea That idea firstfound fantastic expression in The Coming Race and the three bookstaken together constitute a special group distinctly apart from allthe other works of their authorThe satire of his earlier novels is a protest against false socialrespectabilities the humour of his later ones is a protest against thedisrespect of social realities By the first he sought to promote socialsincerity and the free play of personal character by the last toencourage mutual charity and sympathy amongst all classes on whoseinterrelation depends the character of society itself But in thesethree books his latest fictions the moral purpose is more definite andexclusive Each of them is an expostulation against what seemed to himthe perilous popularity of certain social and political theories or awarning against the influence of certain intellectual tendencies uponindividual character and national life This purpose however thoughcommon to the three fictions is worked out in each of them by adifferent method The Coming Race is a work of pure fancy and thesatire of it is vague and sportive The outlines of a definite purposeare more distinctly drawn in Chillinglya romance which has thesource of its effect in a highly wrought imagination The humour andpathos of Chillingly are of a kind incompatible with the design ofThe Parisians which is a work of dramatized observation Chillinglyis a romance The Parisians is a novel The subject of Chillingly ispsychological that of The Parisians is social The authors object inChillingly being to illustrate the effects of modern ideas upon anindividual character he has confined his narrative to the biographyof that one character hence the simplicity of plot and small number ofdramatis personae whereby the work gains in height and depth whatit loses in breadth of surface The Parisians on the contraryis designed to illustrate the effect of modern ideas upon a wholecommunity This novel is therefore panoramic in the profusion andvariety of figures presented by it to the readers imagination Noexclusive prominence is vouchsafed to any of these figures All of themare drawn and coloured with an equal care but by means of the boldbroad touches necessary for their effective presentation on a canvasso large and so crowded Such figures are indeed but the componentfeatures of one great form and their actions only so many modes ofone collective impersonal characterthat of the Parisian Society ofImperial and Democratic France a character everywhere present and busythroughout the story of which it is the real hero or heroine Thissociety was doubtless selected for characteristic illustration asbeing the most advanced in the progress of modern ideas Thus for acomplete perception of its writers fundamental purpose The Parisiansshould be read in connection with Chillingly and these two booksin connection with The Coming Race It will then be perceived thatthrough the medium of alternate fancy sentiment and observationassisted by humour and passion these three books in all other respectsso different from each other complete the presentation of the samepurpose under different aspects and thereby constitute a group offictions which claims a separate place of its own in any thoughtfulclassification of their authors worksOne last word to those who will miss from these pages the connectingand completing touches of the masters hand It may be hoped that such adisadvantage though irreparable is somewhat mitigated by the essentialcharacter of the work itself The aesthetic merit of this kind of novelis in the vivacity of a general effect produced by large swift strokesof character and in such strokes if they be by a great artist forceand freedom of style must still be apparent even when they are leftrough and unfinished Nor can any lack of final verbal correctionmuch diminish the intellectual value which many of the more thoughtfulpassages of the present work derive from a long keen and practicalstudy of political phenomena guided by personal experience of publiclife and enlightened by a large instinctive knowledge of the humanheartSuch a belief is at least encouraged by the private communicationsspontaneously made to him who expresses it by persons of politicalexperience and social position in France who have acknowledgedthe general accuracy of the authors descriptions and noticed thesuggestive sagacity and penetration of his occasional comments on thecircumstances and sentiments he describesINTRODUCTORY CHAPTERThey who chance to have read the Coming Race may perhaps remember thatI the adventurous discoverer of the land without a sun concluded thesketch of my adventures by a brief reference to the malady which thoughgiving no perceptible notice of its encroachments might in the opinionof my medical attendant prove suddenly fatalI had brought my little book to this somewhat melancholy close a fewyears before the date of its publication and in the meanwhile I wasinduced to transfer my residence to Paris in order to place myselfunder the care of an English physician renowned for his successfultreatment of complaints analogous to my ownI was the more readily persuaded to undertake this journeypartlybecause I enjoyed a familiar acquaintance with the eminent physicianreferred to who had commenced his career and founded his reputation inthe United States partly because I had become a solitary man the tiesof home broken and dear friends of mine were domiciled in Paris withwhom I should be sure of tender sympathy and cheerful companionship Ihad reason to be thankful for this change of residence the skill ofDr C______ soon restored me to health Brought much into contactwith various circles of Parisian society I became acquainted with thepersons and a witness of the events that form the substance of the taleI am about to submit to the public which has treated my former bookwith so generous an indulgence Sensitively tenacious of that characterfor strict and unalloyed veracity which I flatter myself my accountof the abodes and manners of the Vrilya has established I could havewished to preserve the following narrative no less jealously guardedthan its predecessor from the vagaries of fancy But Truth undisguisednever welcome in any civilized community above ground is exposed