Produced by John Bickers and DagnyPARISIANS IN THE COUNTRYTHE ILLUSTRIOUS GAUDISSARTAND THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENTBy Honore De BalzacINTRODUCTIONI have sometimes wondered whether it was accident or intention whichmade Balzac so frequently combine early and late work in the samevolume The question is certainly insoluble and perhaps not worthsolving but it presents itself once more in the present instance_LIllustre Gaudissart_ is a story of 1832 the very heyday of Balzacscreative period when even his pen could hardly keep up withthe abundance of his fancy and the gathered stores of his minuteobservation _La Muse du Departement_ dates ten years and more laterwhen though there was plenty of both left both sacks had been deeplydipped into_LIllustre Gaudissart_ is of course slight not merely in bulk butin conception Balzacs Tourangeau patriotism may have amused itself bythe idea of the villagers rolling the great Gaudissart but the endingof the tale can hardly be thought to be quite so good as the beginningStill that beginning is altogether excellent The sketch of the_commisvoyageur_ generally smacks of that _physiologie_ style of whichBalzac was so fond but it is good and Gaudissart himself as well asthe whole scene with his _epouse libre_ is delightful The IllustriousOne was evidently a favorite character with his creator He nowhereplays a very great part but it is everywhere a rather favorableand except in this little mishap with Margaritis which it mustbe observed does not turn entirely to his discomfiture a rathersuccessful part We have him in _Cesar Birotteau_ superintending theearly efforts of Popinot to launch the Huile Cephalique He was presentat the great ball He served as intermediary to M de Bauvan in themerciful scheme of buying at fancy prices the handiwork of the Countsfaithful spouse and so providing her with a livelihood and later asa theatrical manager a little spoilt by his profession we find himin _Le Cousin Pons_ But he is always what the French called a gooddevil and here he is a very good devil indeedAlthough _La Muse du Departement_ is an important work it cannot bespoken of in quite unhesitating terms It contains indeed in thepersonage of Lousteau one of the very most elaborate of Balzacsportraits of a particular type of men of letters The original is saidto have been Jules Janin who is somewhat disadvantageously contrastedhere and elsewhere with Claude Vignon said on the same rather vagueauthority to be Gustave Planche Both Janin and Planche are now too muchforgotten but in both more or less and in Lousteau very much moreBalzac cannot be said to have dealt mildly with his _bete noire_the critical temperament Lousteau indeed though not precisely ascoundrel is both a rascal and a cad Even Balzac seems a littleshocked at his _lettre de faire part_ in reference to his mistresschild and it is seldom possible to discern in any of his proceedingsthe most remote approximation to the conduct of a gentleman But thenas we have seen and shall see Balzacs standard for the conduct ofhis actual gentlemen was by no means fantastically exquisiteor discouragingly high and in the case of his Bohemians it wasaccommodating to the utmost degree He seems to despise Lousteau butrather for his insouciance and neglect of his opportunities of makinghimself a position than for anything elseI have often felt disposed to ask those who would assert Balzacsabsolute infallibility as a gynaecologist to give me a reasonedcriticism of the heroine of this novel I do not entirely figure tomyself Dinah de la Baudraye It is perfectly possible that she shouldhave loved a sweep like Lousteau there is certainly nothing extremelyunusual in a woman loving worse sweeps even than he But would she havedone it and having done it have also done what she did afterwardsThese questions may be answered differently I do not answer them in thenegative myself but I cannot give them an affirmative answer with theconviction which I should like to showAmong the minor characters the _substitut_ de Clagny has a touch ofnobility which contrasts happily enough with Lousteaus unworthinessBianchon is as good as usual Balzac always gives Bianchon a favorablepart Madame Piedefer is one of the numerous instances in which theunfortunate class of mothersinlaw atones for what are supposed tobe its crimes against the human race and old La Baudraye not sohopelessly repulsive in a French as he would be in an English novel isa shrewd old rascal enoughBut I cannot think the scene of the Parisians _blaguing_ the Sancerroisis a very happy one That it is in exceedingly bad taste might notmatter so very much Balzac would reply and justly that he had notintended to represent it as anything else That the fun is not veryfunny may be a matter of definition and appreciation But what scarcelyadmits of denial or discussion is that it is tyrannously too long Thecitations of _Olympia_ are pushed beyond measure beyond what is comicalmost beyond the license of farce and the comments which remind onerather of the heavy jesting on critics in _Un Prince de la Boheme_ andthe shortlived _Revue Parisienne_ are labored to the last degree Thepart of Nathan too is difficult to appreciate exactly and altogetherthe book does not seem to me a _reussite_The history of _LIllustre Gaudissart_ is for a story of Balzacsalmost null It was inserted without any previous newspaper appearancein the first edition of _Scenes de la Vie de Province_ in 1833 andentered with the rest of them into the first edition also of the_Comedie_ when the joint title which it has kept since and shared with_La Muse du Departement_ of _Les Parisiens en Province_ was given toit_La Muse du Departement_ has a rather more complicated record than itscompanion piece in _Les Parisiens en Province_ _LIllustre Gaudissart_It appeared at first not quite complete and under the title of _DinahPiedefer_ in _Le Messager_ during March and April 1843 and was almostimmediately published as a book with works of other writers under thegeneral title of _Les Mysteres de Province_ and accompanied by someother work of its own authors It had four parts and fiftytwo chaptersin _Le Messager_ an arrangement